Wonders of Tea

Brooke Bond Choicest

Its been quite some time since my last posting and indeed – my last review. In that time I’ve switched jobs, Christmas has been and gone and its a brand new year.

I’ve decided to hit the ground running though and start the year off with a tea review of Brooke Bond Choicest Blend. I found this quite difficult to get hold of after a friend recommended it some weeks back but during a trip to London I managed to pick some up in an old tea shop with some out of date merchandise!

Brooke Bond Choicest Blend is a well balanced blend of the traditional English breakfast tea. It has a full bodied flavour without being too bitter and with a little milk is the perfect start to a busy day.

The company that bought the Choicest Blend brand of tea from Brooke Bond had a major accident in 2005 making this tea very hard to get hold of. If you do manage to get hold of it though then you’re holding onto something quite valuable!

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I never used to be a fan of glass tea cups until I tried them for the first time. Being able to see the tea infuse and the rich colours and whisps through the wall of the cup is refreshing in itself! Here’s just 5 of my favourite glass tea cups and sets.

Frosted Blown Glass Tea Cup

These small glass tea cups are a fantastic addition to your favourite teapot. They were hand-crafted using a technique that adds small bubbles in the bottom of the glass cup. The bubble patterns are unique from cup to cup and makes each one an exceptional tea cup. This is art, but also a functional glass tea cup that you can enjoy for years.

You’d think something this delightful and delicate looking couldn’t cope without kid gloves but its fully dishwasher safe.

Only available at Teavana.

Bodum Insulated Glass Tea Cups

Glass is a poor conductor of heat anyway so glass tea cups often keep your tea warmer for longer. These insulated glass tea cups from Bodum have a double wall though which means your tea stays hot for much longer. They come with a stainless steel saucer too and being glass blown they look great and show off the tea brilliantly.

From Shop.com.

Petit Fleur Suspendu Glass Tea Cup Set

These wonderful cups have an almost fragile appearance, but the borosilicate glass they are made of is strong and durable. They have a pocket of air between the inner glass wall and outer glass wall to insulate the tea and keep it hot. These are similar in shape to the Bodum cups but they have a wonderfully light printed floral pattern on the outside. It is just enough to show flowers when tea is in the cup. They come as a set of 4 5oz cups.

From Teavana.

Japanese White Pebble Glass Tea Cup

These cups are all the way from Japan and hand-made by a famous artesian glass blowing workshop. These unique glass tea cups have a circle of white dots around the rim for a unique finishing touch. They are all mouth blown glass cups, so each is a completely unique tea cup that you will treasure for a lifetime. It is a great way to start your own tea set and I have some myself!

From Teavana.

Basic Glass Tea Cup and Saucer

This is a nice basic but stylish glass tea cup with matching saucer. Made of tempered glass, which is very sturdy and able to withstand high temperatures and dishwashers. These tea cups are great to have as your everyday cups with a low cost and simple design.

Adagio Teas.

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Gunpowder Tea is a variety of Chinese green tea which is produced in the Zhejiang province of the PRC.  The tea has a distinctive appearance due to the leaves being tightly rolled into small dark pellets after pan-frying them at high heat.  These pellets expand in the water as they steep releasing their flavour in stages.
The tea was first produced way back in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) when the rolling method was used to protect the tea leaf from damage and hold the flavour for longer.

Name

The origin of this tea’s name is open to debate but here’s some of the more plausible explanations:

• When rolled into pellets as is the custom then the tea resembles that of gunpowder pellets.
• The Mandarin Chinese for this tea is gang pao – which sounds similar to “gunpowder”.
• The steeped tea can have a smoky aroma.

In China the tea is more often referred to as zhu cha – literally translated as “Bead Tea”.

Checking for Quality

Gunpowder tea should always be rolled into small shiny pellets.  If they are dull, broken or unfurled then they are to be avoided. Quality brands will be hand rolled rather than mass-produced varieties which are machine rolled.

Brewing

When brewing Gunpowder tea its important to not use too much because with it being tightly rolled it will expand quite a lot and a teaspoonful can easily fill a cup!

Two teaspoons of Gunpowder will nicely fill a teapot and generally keeps for quite a while as the flavours slowly infuse.

Varieties

There are 3 main varieties of Gunpowder although only one has the status as the original.

• Pingshui Gunpowder – This is the original and (in my opinion) the best variety.
• Formosa Gunpowder – This variety is grown in Taiwan and is more often sold as an Oolong rather than a straight green tea.  It has its own distinctive taste.
• Ceylon Gunpowder – Gunpowder in name only this tea was inspired by the Chinese varieties but is grown in Sri Lanka at high altitude.  It has very little resemblence in taste or aroma.

What I Say

For what little my opinion counts I would like to say I love this tea! I bought a box of this called Temple of Heaven Gunpowder from a Chinese supermarket in Nottingham, UK.  It served some of the finest green tea I’ve ever tasted, but unfortunately I lost it during a house move last year.  Ever since I’ve been unable to find a replacement to my Temple of Heaven tea.  I will soon be trying one of the varieties from an online merchant and will then provide a review.

You can get Gunpowder Tea from: Teavana

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With tea being a source of caffeine its often asked whether its safe to drink tea in pregnancy.  Although the levels of caffeine in tea are much lower than in coffee (half in some cases) the delicate balance required for a babies safe development can all to easily be interrupted.  Never one to shy away from answering a question I decided to do some homework and here’s the facts…

Although previously it was seen as preferable to cut caffeine entirely this was only due to a lack of studies and so scientists erred on the side of caution.  However, there’s increasing evidence that moderate caffeine intake is safe for your developing baby.

Moderate caffeine intake is about 6 cups of black tea per day.

However, It’s often difficult to get an accurate handle on how much caffeine is in each cup of tea or coffee so the above may not be 100%.  If you want to be completely safe then there’s a variety of other paths to take…

Green tea contains much less caffeine than black tea and so you’ll be safe drinking more.  The average amounts of caffeine in various teas is:

• US Tea (black): 40mg
• Imported Tea (black): 60mg
• Green Tea: 15mg

So unless you have a severe addiction to green tea and can go through 10 cups per sitting – you should be completely safe drinking green tea during pregnancy.  In fact it could be beneficial to your baby with a selection of powerful antioxidants.

Alternatives

Decaffeinate

When it comes to tea I’d recommend decaffeinating it yourself rather than getting the decaffeinated variety as they use powerful solvents to ‘wash’ the leaves of the caffeine and although no health risks have been associated with this I think its safe to say that washing with water is much better.

So to get caffeine out of your tea simply steep the tea in warm water for 30 seconds before making your proper cup of tea with it.  Caffeine ‘leeches’ out quicker than the flavour so this is a good way to DIY decaffeinate your tea during pregnancy.

Herbal

You could also go down the herbal tea route.  Before dismisisng this because none of the varieties are your beloved tea I’d give them a try because I’ve often found a huge variety of nice fruity teas this way.  It opens whole new avenues for you.

Bad Herbs

What you don’t want to do is replace your tea during pregnancy with a much worse herb or tonic.  So plants such as ephedra (ma huang), cohosh and mugwort are best left on the shelf.  You should be fine with fruit teas though.

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Assam

It’s been almost 12 months since my last introduction to teas from around the world but much has happened since then and I should now be able to continue the series with grace, regularity and consistency.

So lets get on with it and today I’ll be discussing Assam.

Assam Tea Located in India

Similarly with my previous post introducing Darjeeling this tea is from a region in north west India by the name of Assam (see map for details).

Flavour
Assam is a black tea which has a malty and full bodied texture with a strong flavour.  It’s often the main component of Breakfast Teas due to its robust flavour and higher caffeine content.

A Little Known Fact
Assam tea was originally chewed by locals as well as drunk – although not as common since commercialisation.

Assam Born
It is the region of Assam along with China that were the cradles of traditional commercial tea production and so it has a long and prestigious history. The Assam cultivation industry sprang forth in 1838 when 350 lbs of tea were imported from there into London to be sold at the London India House. It was such a popular success that Charkes Bruce began clearance of jungle for the new tea plantations.

Assam Gold Rain Black Tea

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Its a tiresome myth that I oft hear peddled by the organic lobbyists that bleach in teabags health risks are many and horrifying. I’ve heard everything from burned throats to cancerous growths. Stomach ulcers and sudden and painful death.

Although it’s true that most tea bags go through a process of bleaching during their manufacture they do not retain any bleach in the tea bag when it comes to brewing your next cup of tea.

Far worse than bleach in teabags health risks is the sorry state of your taste buds upon their assault by the papery tainted aroma of your tea. Green tea especially suffers from being bagged due to its delicate taste and you’ll often find cheaper teas will put floor sweepings and other low quality leaf crud into their bags.

That isn’t to say all bagged tea is bad – I myself drink bagged tea 50% of the time. Sheer convinience demands it in my busy life. At the office I drink Yorkshire tea by the bag and quite adequate it is too. If you’re to get bagged tea then make sure its a quality tea. For the office I’d recommend Clipper Fairtrade or Yorkshire.

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In a similar vein to my previous quotes post I’ve found a poem by a Chinese gent by the name of Lu T’ung who’s titled this piece: “Tea Drinking”. Here’s the full text and I’m sure you’ll agree with his sentiments.

Tea Drinking

The first cup moistens my lips and throat;

The second cup breaks my loneliness;

The third cup searches my barren entrail but to find therein some thousand volumes
of odd ideographs;

The fourth cup raises a slight perspiration-all the wrongs of life pass out through my pores; At the fifth cup I am purified;

The sixth cup calls me to the realms of the immortals.

The seventh cup-ah, but I could take no more! I only feel the breath of the cool wind that raises in my sleeves.

Where is Elysium? Let me ride on this sweet breeze and waft away thither.

Lu T’ung

[Update]: It turns out – after some research – that Lu Tung was a Tang dynasty poet who was more famous for his love of tea than he was his poetry! Sounds like a wise man indeed if you ask me.

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As promised now the new blog is up I’ve started to add new sections and pages to the site. I started by busting some myths about tea tree oil and then put together a list of Royal tea breaks.

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George Orwell on Tea

This is a truly awesome piece of writing by one of England’s greatest authors. George Orwell is more famed for his dystopian epic 1984 but he also wrote in one of his many essays a discourse on the subject of tea.

I’ve copied the full extract from his book below for you all to read:

If you look up ‘tea’ in the first cookery book that comes to hand you will probably find that it is unmentioned; or at most you will find a few lines of sketchy instructions which give no ruling on several of the most important points.This is curious, not only because tea is one of the main stays of civilization in this country, as well as in Eire, Australia and New Zealand, but because the best manner of making it is the subject of violent disputes.

When I look through my own recipe for the perfect cup of tea, I find no fewer than eleven outstanding points. On perhaps two of them there would be pretty
general agreement, but at least four others are acutely controversial. Here
are my own eleven rules, every one of which I regard as golden:

• First of all, one should use Indian or Ceylonese tea. China tea has virtues which are not to be despised nowadays — it is economical, and one can drink it without milk — but there is not much stimulation in it. One does not feel wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking it. Anyone who has used that comforting phrase ‘a nice cup of tea’ invariably means Indian tea.
• Secondly, tea should be made in small quantities — that is, in a teapot. Tea out of an urn is always tasteless, while army tea, made in a cauldron, tastes of grease and whitewash. The teapot should be made of china or earthenware. Silver or Britanniaware teapots produce inferior tea and enamel pots are worse; though curiously enough a pewter teapot (a rarity nowadays) is not so bad.
• Thirdly, the pot should be warmed beforehand. This is better done by placing it on the hob than by the usual method of swilling it out with hot water.
• Fourthly, the tea should be strong. For a pot holding a quart, if you are going to fill it nearly to the brim, six heaped teaspoons would be about right. In a time of rationing, this is not an idea that can be realized on every day of the week, but I maintain that one strong cup of tea is better than twenty weak ones. All true tea lovers not only like their tea strong, but like it a little stronger with each year that passes — a fact which is
  recognized in the extra ration issued to old-age pensioners.
• Fifthly, the tea should be put straight into the pot. No strainers, muslin bags or other devices to imprison the tea. In some countries teapots are fitted with little dangling baskets under the spout to catch the stray leaves, which are supposed to be harmful. Actually one can swallow tea-leaves in considerable quantities without ill effect, and if the tea is not loose in the pot it never infuses properly.
• Sixthly, one should take the teapot to the kettle and not the other way about. The water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact, which means that one should keep it on the flame while one pours. Some people add that one should only use water that has been freshly brought to the boil, but I have never noticed that it makes any difference.
• Seventhly, after making the tea, one should stir it, or better, give the pot a good shake, afterwards allowing the leaves to settle.
• Eighthly, one should drink out of a good breakfast cup — that is, the cylindrical type of cup, not the flat, shallow type. The breakfast cup holds more, and with the other kind one’s tea is always half cold before one has well started on it.
• Ninthly, one should pour the cream off the milk before using it for tea. Milk that is too creamy always gives tea a sickly taste.
• Tenthly, one should pour tea into the cup first. This is one of the most controversial points of all; indeed in every family in Britain there are probably two schools of thought on the subject. The milk-first school can bring forward some fairly strong arguments, but I maintain that my own argument is unanswerable. This is that, by putting the tea in first and stirring as one pours, one can exactly regulate the amount of milk whereas one is liable to put in too much milk if one does it the other way round.
• Lastly, tea — unless one is drinking it in the Russian style — should be drunk without sugar. I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tealover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant
  to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water.Some people would answer that they don’t like tea in itself, that they only drink it in order to be warmed and stimulated, and they need sugar to take the taste away. To those misguided people I would say: Try drinking tea without sugar for, say, a fortnight and it is very unlikely that you will ever want to ruin your tea by sweetening it again.

These are not the only controversial points to arise in connexion with tea drinking, but they are sufficient to show how subtilized the whole business has become. There is also the mysterious social etiquette surrounding the teapot (why is it considered vulgar to drink out of your saucer, for instance?) and much might be written about the subsidiary uses of tealeaves, such as telling
fortunes, predicting the arrival of visitors, feeding rabbits, healing burns and sweeping the carpet. It is worth paying attention to such details as warming the pot and using water that is really boiling, so as to make quite sure of wringing out of one’s ration the twenty good, strong cups of that two ounces, properly handled, ought to represent.

- Taken from The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell, Volume 3, 1943-45

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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!

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