Filed under: taza del día

the heated Filed under: taza del día

Filed under: taza del día

alpha teacup set Filed under: taza del día

Filed under: taza del día

© ~nonsense-dreamer Filed under: té veo Tagged: Darth Vader, Tea Party

“El té carece de la arrogancia del vino, del individualismo del café, de la inocencia sonriente del cacao”. Okakura Kakuzo (1862 – 1913), autor de El libro del té Filed under: las historias

Filed under: taza del día

foto © david moir Cascos de Darth Vader re- imaginados por los artistas callejeros Niagara y Eelus son exhibidos por las asistentes de los subastadores Lyon & Turnbull (Kerry Wallace y Victoria Crake). Los cascos pertenecen a la colección de The … Continuar leyendo →

sólo por hoy no te preocupes sólo por hoy no te enojes se agradecido trabaja duro (sobre ti mismo) demuestra gratitud hacia todo lo vivo 5 principios Reiki – Mikao Usui Filed under: probando té

Tea Type: Rooibos

Where To Buy: eTeaket

Product Description:

Chilli Tea
Chilli Rooibos Tea
Handle our Chilli Rooibos with care! The chilli highlights are built on a base of classic Rooibos tea and vivid wild cherries, rosebuds, safflower petals, peony petals and carrot flakes. This tea has serious attitude.

To Enjoy: Use 1 tsp per cup, add freshly boiled water and brew for 3-4 mins. We recommend holding off on the milk, but whatever floats your boat.

Tasters Review:

I tried this one mostly for the uniqueness of it.  I guess it intrigued me.

This smells like cherries and chilli!  And orange-ish brown color is pretty neat, indeed!  I under infused…on purpose because I was a little worried about the Chili.  I have had Chili Teas before BUT haven’t had the best luck with them.  This one surprised me!

My first impression was that I could taste carrots first with a little bit of chili followed by a lingering cherry. WOW…this one is VERY unusual but oddly pleasant. As it cools I could taste more floral notes at the beginning of the sip and then it morphs into a carrot and cherry combo – not so much chili – but like I said I under infused. I am thinking the chili will get stronger as you infuse but I kind of like it under infused.

Filed under: Rooibos Tagged: carrot flakes, carrots, Cherries, Chili Tea, Chilli Rooibos, Chilli Tea, peony petals, Rooibos, rosebuds, Safflower

I was eating my lunch at Teacup last week when I got an unexpected phone call from the Mauna Kea Tea Company on the big island of Hawaii. The proprietress, Kimberly, and I had a nice discussion about her and her partner Takahiro's tea farm. I could tell that they had truly found their calling producing organic tea in Hawaii, so after our conversation, I went right to their website and ordered one 25-gram bag of both Kama'aina Oolong Tea and Kama'aina Green Tea.

A week later the teas arrived, and I am excited to now share my opinion of them in the following two reviews. Keep in mind that I had no idea what these teas would be like before I first opened the bags and inspected them. Only at that point was I able to attempt an educated guess on how best to brew them for my first time.

I started with the green tea on September 1, 2010. According to Kimberly this tea is "a mix of varieties picked on June 30th, July 5th, and July 6th." The dry leaf was quite lovely and had a pleasing toasty aroma. Because it kind of looked and smelled to me closer to a Chinese style green tea, I decided to use one teaspoon of dry leaf in a 5 ounce gaiwan, 170° spring water and a two minute steep.

Kama'aina Green


The resulting tea soup was a striking fluorescent yellow color. It smelled sweet and nutty and I was in love from my first sip. To me this green tea is very complex and satisfying. It was unique and familiar at the same time. It had moments that reminded me of my beloved Yang Xian Mao Feng (陽羡毛峰) green tea, but it also hinted at gyokuro in the aftertaste. My tasting notes were all over the place and included: buttery, macadamia nut, black peppercorn, sauteed Swiss chard, and raw summer snap peas. I would reorder this tea in a heartbeat.

Green's Tea Soup


Green's Leaves


I drank the Kama'aina oolong throughout the day on September 2, 2010. Its dry leaves looked similar to the green, but it also had flecks of yellow, gold and brown. This tea was harvested on May 20th and May 21st.

At first I decided to brew it like I normally would a hearty Chinese oolong. I used two teaspoons in a 5 ounce gaiwan and boiling water. I gave the leaves a five second rinse and proceeded to smell them. Unexpectedly, they had a grassy, earthy aroma that reminded me somewhat of Japanese bancha green tea.

Kama'aina Oolong


My first infusion was about 60 seconds with boiling water. It presented an amber-yellow color with a heady grass and wildflower aroma. My first exploratory sip yielded a harsh and disappointing liquor. I had clearly over-steeped it so I backed off quite a bit on the steeping time, but the obvious potential in these beautiful Polynesian leaves was proving highly elusive.

Oolong's Tea Soup


The mouth-feel was bold and thick but the taste was "blah." The aroma on the underside of the gaiwan lid, on the other hand, was intoxicating. It was so fruity and delicious. My wife was reminded of candied pineapples and I of passionfruit. The question became... "How do I get this aroma into the cup?"

So after 3 infusions I removed half of the leaves from the gaiwan and cooled my water down to about 180°. This method became my saving grace and the softer, sweeter soup that it now poured was milky, floral and smooth. I do like this tea but I think I need to brew it like the green tea.

Oolong's Leaves

Tea Information:

Leaf Type:  Black

Where to Buy:  Urban Tea

Company Description:

A festive, master blend of premium black tea, fruits, warm spices and garden flowers.  Celebrate produces an irresistible bold aroma and flavor that is seductive and satisfying.  One cup won’t be enough!  Try this hot or iced, it’s a winner any way you drink it!

Ingredients

• Black tea, orange peel, rose petals, apple, almond, cornflower, cinnamon, papaya, peach, cranberry, rosehips, natural flavoring.
• Origin: Sourced from the finest ingredients from India and the USA

Taster’s Review:

This is a very flavorful cup of tea.  It reminds me a bit of a hot & spicy cinnamon/orange tea, but with a delightful fruit-flavored twist.

The cinnamon dominates this cup, and it is on the warm side!  It’s a bit like those sweet-hot cinnamon hearts.  YUM!

Of the fruit flavors featured in this tea, the orange is the most prominent.  It adds a lovely sweetness to the cup, and the cinnamon accents it so well.  It’s very autumnal.  I can also taste the peach, apple and papaya flavors.  The cranberry is very faint, but I can taste a hint of the tartness from the cranberry in the finish.

The black tea base is not real strong in this blend, and I feel like the flavor of the black tea gets a little lost here.  The same is true for the almonds.  In fact, had I not read the ingredients, I wouldn’t have known that there were almonds in this blend.

That being said, this is still a very tasty blend, and one I would recommend to those that really enjoy those spicy cinnamon teas.  I really like this.  It does have a lot going on, but, I can’t really hold that against this tea because it is so fun and flavorful.

This tea is delicious hot or iced – and the flavors do change a little as the tea cools.   It becomes a little smoother and softer in taste, and this seems to awaken some of the black tea flavor.  Because it is such a “warm” tea (and by warm, I mean the spicy-hot kind of warm) – this tea is perfect now that the air grows cooler!  A fantastic tea for autumn!

Filed under: Black Tea Tagged: Black, Celebrate, cinnamon, Fruit, Orange, Review, Tea, Urban Tea

It's that time again. The Tea Blog List just passed 300 titles and here are the latest additions. Look for the full list here. Feel free to add your tea blog to the list and consider linking back to us.

A Girl With Tea
The Ancient Art Of Tea
The Anytime Teas Blog
Canton Tea Co Blog
Carolina Tea Time
Chadao, Way of Tea
Chama Tea Blog
Expanding Leaves
Lahikmajoedrinkstea
Maitre_Tea
Moteas
SA Japanese Green Tea
Sir William of the Leaf
Sustainable Tea Leaf
The Tea Files
The Tea Table's Blog
Tea Trainer
Teeblogi (Finnish/English)
That Pour Girl
Top of the World Tea
Wrong Fu Cha


Tea Guy Speaks Amazon Store

Hello TEA Friends,

I first met Jane Pettigrew, tea historian, writer, and former tea room owner, back in 2004 at the World Tea Expo (then called "Take Me 2 Tea") in Rhode Island (see picture below). She was captivating to watch and listen to: a petite, pretty woman with close-cropped cut blond hair and a charming English accent, her enthusiasm for tea was truly inspirational.

At that time, Barb's TEA Shop was only several pages of notes and outlines in a three-ring binder. After meeting and talking with Jane, her knowledge and encouragement sent me home with plans to go from paper to real world in a few short months.

Jane Pettigrew has written 13 books - most of which I own, including my personally autographed copy of " A Social History of Tea" and my well-worn, "Tea in the City, Paris", which was given a real work out when we visited the City of Lights two years ago this month.

This year, I again, along with my daughter and BTS Creative Director, Rachel, met Jane in June at the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas. She was just as pretty and engaging as when we first met her in Providence and as she spoke about tea rooms in England, we were reminded what fun it is just to hear her recount stories with her enchanting style and humor.

Any tea time with Jane Pettigrew is always historic and we at BTS are great fans. We're sure you'll find any of Jane's book's, including her most recent "Tea Classified" which was voted best new publication 2009 at the World Tea Expo, tea time well spent.

Jane Pettigrew also conducts Tea Masterclasses every month in London, England. For more information on her classes and a full list of all her books, check out her webpage at janepettigrew.com.

My favorite monastery courtyard and tower, in Sorrento, Italy. The
pillars are all taken from defunct monasteries. Now, that's recycling!



The trees are already starting to lose their leaves. Two of them down the road have lost at least half. The farmer has gotten a third cutting of hay and his corn is beginning to move towards harvest color. It didn't get very big, due to the dryness. Fall is definately let us know it's lurking.



For the past week the blue jays and crows have been incredibly noisy, for what seems like hours. Their constant raucous cries have really gotten annoying. I haven't heard much from any song birds. I guess now that the young are raised, they may be off to more fertile climates. Or they are getting ready to leave. I saw one of those huge flocks birds make when they begin to head South. It always amazes me when they can wheel in near-formation. They are amazing creatures.



After a week of very high temperatures, today is quite different. Instead of being over 90, it may not even reach 70. The wind is blowing and the sky is gray instead of what has seemed like an oppressive blue. An ideal time for....You guessed it, TEA. And do I have tea. Yesterday I received 3 different lots. Two I had purchased and one was a gift of samples from the Boston Tea Company. The big problem now will be which to choose. I think I am going to go with a Japanese black tea.



I would bet you thought I made a mistake - Japan doesn't make black tea. Well, apparently they do. A new-to-me company in California, Far West Trading Company carries it under their T Bar brand. It is called Kocha. Cha is tea in Japanese, so ko must be black, as in kohl, which is used as eye liner. The company is located in Graton, CA, in Sonoma County, which is more famous for wine.


But on to the tea itself. The dry leaves are very black, tiny and with a lot of dust. I don't know if this is travel fatigue or just the way it is. They have an intense, sweet nutty smell, perhaps closest to hazelnut. There is also a strong scent of cooked squash. Both these aromas lasted all the way through the first and second cups. The directions say to brew for 1-3 minutes, with water just under the boil. Well, I decided to do all three, pouring out a cup at each minute mark.

The first was pretty bland and quite bitter. The second tasted more of squash than nuts, with a bitter edge. The third, brewed for 3 minutes was, for me, the best. The bitterness had disappeared and the nuttiness and squash seemed to have found their places, with the nuttiness most forward. There was also an understorey of clean earthiness, almost an old woody quality.
While this was very interesting, I don't think it will ever be a favorite, but I would probably serve it with a Chinese meal - I don't know how to cook Japanese, except for sukiyaki, with which this would go well.

So I ordered a sample of this from Hou de, simply because I am always willing to try and educate myself on Aged Puerh. Its quite stormy here today which is nice as its been awhile without rain.

I've been drinking so many green teas lately, I forgot how beautiful a nice steaming cup of a darkish colored tea could look. And this is quite clear with a nice reddish hue to it. Smelling the cup full of tea really brings me back into what amazing aged puerh can be like, even though this is only about 13 years old its got the nice minty camphor aroma, with a lot of hints of lighter fruits mostly berries.
The taste though is remarkably clean, its got everything I'm looking for but not too much of anything. And surprisingly as aged puerh runs a real risk of producing a cup that is so incredibly earthy that to me it can be off putting.


Brewing it a little stronger and certain flavors do rise to the front, mostly the slightly minty and earthy camphor, but for the most part the taste comes across as incredibly clean.
I must say that I do not typically order from Hou de, but while their prices are high they typically offer some incredibly solid tea. Though I really do not know why as shipping from Texas to here is rather inexpensive compared to from Asia.

Det här är ett riktigt bra svart te från Fujian. Teet är uppkallat efter byn Tanyang 坦洋 (?), och odlas i häradena Fu'an 福安市 (1), Tuo Rong (?), Shouning 寿宁县 (2), Zhou Ning 周宁县 (3) och Xiapu 霞浦县 (4)1. Tanyang ligger söder om Fu'an på den västra stranden av ett vattendrag som heter Shexi (?), en del av Changxi (?)2.

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Under tidig Ming (1368 - 1644) skall en man i Tanyang , Hu Youcai, tagit fram en ny tekultivar som kom att kallas Tanyang Cai Cha. Denna blir omkring två meter hög och växer mycket snabbt. Teet kan skördas från Qing Ming till sen höst och skall kunna producera över 5 ton per hektar(!), jag är dock osäker på om det är färska löv eller färdigt te. Kultivaren blev snabbt populär och spreds vida omkring. Från början användes Tanyang Cai Cha i huvudsak för att producera bakat grönt te, ett te som blev vackert format ljusgrönt te bra arom2.

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Detta är ett Tan Yang från 2008 som jag köpte från TeaSpring. Jing Zhi betyder "Förfinad" eller "Förbättrad" och är en benämning på en ovanlig och bra kvalitet. Teet har skördats tidigt på våren och producerades i Fu'An Shi. Enligt teaSpring säljs detta te även som Panyang Refined Congou och Tan Yang Jing Zhi Gongfu. Teet kostade 10 dollar för 25 gram vilket är ganska mycket. Visserligen är smaken utmärkt men utseende ganska trist.

foto © tea alberti Filed under: taza del día