NAAFI (Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes) tea was first on sale to the servicemen and women of Britain’s military in 1921. NAAFI have been responsible for feeding and watering the armed forces for the past 100 years and their NAAFI tea has only been available to service people until now.
It recently went on sale in Spar shops (a UK convenience store) up and down the country. The NAAFI is a non-profit organisation and 50p of every box sold will go to the Help for Heroes charity for UK servicemen injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
facts, history, merchants, products
merchants, products, uk
Williamsons Assam (forgive the quality)
Williamson Tea is a UK tea merchant with a long history of tea wholesale and farming, especially in Kenya where they’re one of the biggest tea plantation owners in the country.
Today though I’ll be reviewing their Pure Assam broken leaf tea which you can purchase from their site for £2.60 for 125g.
The leaf is a broken orange pekoe which has a fresh, clean and crisp aroma. The initial taste is a basic and woody which is typical of its single origin status.
This Assam is slightly weaker in body than I’d expected and would make a good mid-morning tea. Although I initially tried this without sugar this tea actually responds well to just a pinch of demerara.
I attempted to get a bit more kick out of this tea by using 1+1/2 teaspoonfuls rather than the recommended single teaspoon. Unfortunately it fell very rapidly into being too tannin and bitter – even when taken with sugar. This Assam seems quick to release its tannin when pushed.
I’m happy overall with this tea and I’ll continue to use it as my standard mid morning beverage but it lacks a lot of the creamy, freshness of other Assams and indeed I prefer even the bagged Assam by Twinnings! In my attempts to boost the body of this tea it slipped into bitterness too easily.
I’ll give the tea a respectable:
3/5
review
merchants, products, review
Dodecahydron Tea Strainer
On perusing the internet earlier today I came across this incredible piece of workmanship by Arnold Patrick Martin – A US metal smith whose other works are well worth a gander.
I don’t think it can be bought as I think its a custom-built piece but I would absolutely love to own one of these. I can imagine Victorian England and Edgar Alan Poe all catapulted to a post apocalyptic world where tea is sold on the black market as a life enhancing herb. This is quite possibly one of the best pieces of tea-art I’ve seen since starting this blog.
art
art, method, products
Tea Bag Bin
If you’re a regular reader then you may have heard my recent rant regarding tea bags on the draining board of your kitchen sink. Well – in summary: It just isn’t on!
Golden Rule: Tea bags are not for being placed naked on a draining board regardless of other practical concerns.
The Bin
After an email from Nicey over at NCOTAASD.com he informed me of a fantastic new product called the Tea Bag Bin. It makes absolutely perfect sense and yet its something that until now hadn’t existed. Its a bin you keep by your kettle (or on your kitchen sink) so that you can bin your bags safely and cleanly without leaving them on the side.
Tea Bag Bin (UK)
While we’re on the subject of spent tea bags its worth mentioning that tea bags make excellent additions to the compost heap. Or even a wormery if you happen to have one. So you could skip the kitchen bin entirely and hop straight from the tea bag bin to the compost heap. Saving the tea bags dignity and the environment all in one day.
Great stuff!
products, review
news, products, tea
Nothing new really but I spotted this on Digg today: Monkey Picked Tea!
That’s right – in a remote Chinese village they train monkeys to pick tea leaves for the local and its then sold on as a delicacy. As much as I’d love the novelty of monkey picked tea I’m a bit skeptical as there’s a huge list of places selling it and I can’t see how a single remote village even packed with monkeys could manage such industrial levels of production!
products
products
I hate to sound like a tea Nazi but the kitchen sink is definitely not a place for spent tea bags. Now before you jump in and accuse me of facism let me put it this way: Would you place the Mona Lisa in the toilet? Would you place a Michaelangalo sculpture in your compost heap?
Of course not!
And that is my point – a tea bag is a work of art. The tea, the process, love, time and effort gone into bringing it to your life is miraculous and so to discard it so callously and in such an open fashion on the kitchen sink is utterly reprehensible! Alas I’ve found myself doing it at times and so I thought I’d post an image of my indiscretion. It was only for a miniute until I realised what I’d done and it was quickly whisked into the rubbish.
Okay?
No? Well okay – its in the rubbish I know. I know what you’re thinking – it’s art, etc how can you do that? Well I never said don’t bin it. I just meant give it some dignity because the magnificent tea bag doesn’t look entirely pleasant after its been spent so to keep its final time on this planet dignified and proud it is best kept away form sight in the bin. Not on the sink in all its soggy, limp glory so to speak.
[UPDATE: The solution is the tea bag bin]
methods
methods, products
After much anticipation I recieved my tin of Portsmouth tea all the way from the US. I was expecting great things and I wasn’t disappointed, in fact I was more than impressed!
You see from opening the box the quality and thought thats gone into the product. From the inset letter-head instructions on brewing the various varieties to the polished aluminium tin the tea leaves came in.
This was tea provided by tea lovers for tea lovers.
Now the tea I recieved was Kenya Black. I’m more of a black tea than green these days and this was a welcome addition to the collection as it provided a refreshing and smooth taste. Portsmouth tea provides tea in loose leaf form and I’ve always advocated the use of leaves over bags except for when convinience and speed are necessary. The leaves settled well in cup allowing you to drink without straining. It must be noted that I always leave my leaves in the cup to infuse throughout the whole drinking process rather than filtering it out. In this way I believe you get a more varied spectrum of intensity as you’re drinking the tea which adds to the whole experience.
Normally I use filtered water as the water in Stoke can sometimes be a little hard but I decided to give it the hard-water test and skipped the filter. Very nice! Even when challenged by high-lime levels in the water this tea still shines through.
I’ve had this tea 9 times so far and every time has been a pleasure. The taste is fantastic and I feel pampered everytime I reach for it because the quality is tangible from tin to cup.
Its for all these reasons I’m going to give them the maximum score:
5/5
You will love this tea!
review
black tea, merchants, products, review
Now I know that in the past I have been very vocal about green tea in the bag. However, I have come across a product by Clipper that seems to pull it off. How? It doesn’t rely on the green tea alone for its flavour! The name doesn’t give away its not-so-secret ingredient – Raspberry!
Thats right this tea has a good crisp raspberry flavour along with the green tea and ginseng.
When these three flavours combine they produce a very crisp fruity tea with a hint of the ginseng mustiness. Of course the ginseng is of the Siberian variety and so you benefit from its adaptogenic properties and its energy boosting effects. This is a morning wake up tea for those not into their caffeine and want something a little gentler.
As with all Clipper teas it is part of the Fair Trade campaign so you know Siberian ginseng farmers are happy with a good wage – BONUS!
I strongly recommend this tea – even to those who are not normally fans of fruity teas, because it really does suprise you and is highly refreshing.
5/5
review
merchants, products, review, tea
