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| Choosing Your Cup In This Issue...
Serve something wonderful with your cup of tea Be ready for Halloween shop now Suggestion Box This is your newsletter let us know what you would like to find in it. Let us know.
| Tea Note Speaker - August 2010 Issue Editors Note If you enjoy this e-zine, and you think a friend would benefit too please feel free to pass it along. If a friend sent this to you and youd like to continue rceiving it please opt in here! Thanks for inviting me to your inbox and I hope you will share your thoughts and experiences with us. I thought I would take the time to get back to basics on just what makes a good tea? Sure tea is just water and tea leaves, but tea, like wine, can be taken to any degree of complexity. Tea connoisseurs take their tea very seriously. Consistency in the size and color of the tea leaf is very important. A quality loose leaf tea is picked with consistency and love. Something a machine could not do. Just like the grapes are grown for a specific wine, tea growers try to develop a line of tea with consistent body, flavor and aroma. Freshness is important. There are teas that are grown for different seasons. You really want to try to avoid the tea that has been sitting on a shelf for six months or longer. It just wont taste the same or have the same health benefits. Water that tastes good is most important. Filtered water is highly recommended for the best possible pot of tea. Water at the right temperature for the tea you plan to make. Some teas require boiling water. Other teas require less than boiling. I suggest, in that case, you bring the water to a boil, and let it sit for a minute, then pour it over your tea leaves. Infuse your tea. How long to steep your tea? Black teas should not steep longer than 5 minutes (I prefer 4), green leaves do best at 3 minutes and white leaves at 2 minutes. Some like their tea bold and strong, while others prefer it lighter. Rather than steep longer for a stronger flavor which will only cause bitterness add more leaves to extract a bolder flavor or less for a milder taste. Tea is meant to be enjoyed and savored. Relax and enjoy. Tell us about your favorite tea and how you like to drink it. Now that we have reviewed how to make a great pot of tea, I thought I would share how to pair tea and food together. This is a project that we are working on and you can see what we've done so far by clicking here.
Tea based drinks are becoming the hot new trend. Tea lattes, fruit smoothies with tea for added nutrition are popping up everywhere I recently experienced a chocolate chai shake with peppermint ice cream that was delightful. The chai spices took the shake to a new level of flavor. There are even tea cocktails with tea in syrup form as a base for many new cocktails. Heres a Matcha Green Tea Latte Recipe for you. As a summer treat, pour into Popsicle trays. Put into the freezer until hard. Serve when fully frozen
We sent out a special notice informing you that Camellia Sinensis (tea plants) are finally available. These are young plants, only 1 year old. Here is where we will show our patience yet again by allowing the new plants to grow and mature until they are three years old before harvesting any of the leaves. The CAMELLIA SHOP gives a little direction on how to grow this plant. Since the plant is so young it is best to grow in a container until your plant is established in it's new enviornment. I plan to keep my plant in a container because I do not live in the proper growing zone which is zone 7, 8, or 9. I live in zone 6 so I will bring my plant in to spend the cold season. This works fine for me because living in a high rise all my gardening is container gardening. We will also need to use the right soil and it is not commercial potting soil. Tea plants need good drainage. The Camellia Shop recommends soil made up of ground aged bark, sand and peat moss. I'll be off to a local nursery to look for this soil while I wait for my plant to come. In the mean time I have already ordered the perfect organic fertilizer recommended by the Camellia Shop under care supplies.
This is your opportunity to tell us what you need, share a fantastic tea party you hosted, describe your absolute best tea house experience. Let others know where to stop in their travels for the best tea.
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