There is no doubt that in this golden age of tea quality frontier teas are precious opportunities to increase the spectrum of possibility. With the right care, everybody could win as producers gain a new source of income and the flowering of that beautiful craft-pride from focused artisanal activity. We should never forget, when tasting new tea, to exercise reverence for the passion and determination it takes to harvest and convert any form of the leaf into a finished tea.
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Inspiring enthusiasts to refine their taste in tea
There is no doubt that in this golden age of tea quality frontier teas are precious opportunities to increase the spectrum of possibility. With the right care, everybody could win as producers gain a new source of income and the flowering of that beautiful craft-pride from focused artisanal activity. We should never forget, when tasting new tea, to exercise reverence for the passion and determination it takes to harvest and convert any form of the leaf into a finished tea.
by Kevin Gascoyne
Shun the expensive spring water If you want a better-tasting cup of green tea ― your water of choice should be from the tap. If it is health benefits you seek, choose bottled or deionized water for superior extraction of catechins, nearly double that of tap water.
by Jaq James
Tasting Qualities: The Past and the Future of Tea by Sarah Besky manages to easily deconstruct and demystify the space between the plantation and the cup of tea.
by Aravinda Anantharaman
During the past few decades, all types of tea, from herbal to Pu’er, have re-emerged in premium formats favored by younger generations. “What makes the super-premium tea category unique, in my view, is the importance of storytelling with regard to ingredient origin, processing, and functional appeal,” says Euromonitor Beverage Analyst Howard Telford.
by Janis Hashe
Globally fewer men drink tea than women but tea culture varies greatly by region and custom. During the past decade, the stigma associated with men sipping tea has eased. In ancient times Japanese samurai drank tea and statesmen continue that tradition. Popular magazines like The Art of Manliness post helpful guides like this “Primer on the Manly Tradition of Tea” and on the big screen Jean-Luc Picard, the captain of the US Starship Enterprise drinks tea. What more needs to be said?
by Dan Bolton
The tea education initiatives of specialty tea importer Devan Shan founded and supported in this country and India live on ― memorials to a man of enormous accomplishment.
by James Norwood Pratt
The Tea Leaf Theory team is very lean, choosing to remain independent, bootstrapped, refusing certifications, they represent a new kind of startup, modern yet rooted in something traditional, ancient even. There’s the social impact but Tea Leaf Theory is not an NGO working for small farmers. “We want to make them entrepreneurs, not beneficiaries,” say co-founders Upamanyu Borkakoty and Anshuman Bharali.
by Aravinda Anantharaman
Sikkim’s Temi Tea has protected and sustained its legacy. But it also made this legacy a part of its brand story, one that complements its topnotch tea.
by Aravinda Anantharaman
What would rhyme have to do with a tea’s aftertaste? To understand the many layers of this play on words, it is important to know that Chinese singing and by extension Chinese poetry have a Yang (masculine) and Yin (feminine) rhyme system.
by Virginia Utermohlen
Wang Hai tea is a pre-Qingming green tea that is grown on Mount Tiantai in China’s Zhejiang Province.
by Jaq James
Three sisters from Manipur, India, and their brother launched Forest Pick Wild Tea about two years ago. Together they organized villagers to harvest tall-grown tea trees on a schedule, arriving with portable processing equipment to make artisan oolong, black, green and white teas. “Irrespective of the market size or market opportunity, Forest Pick Wild Tea is not another start-up, but an eco-system we are creating in which all the villagers participating will benefit.” — Julie Gangte
by Aravinda Anantharaman
Fu Brick Dark Tea, also known by its visually descriptive name of Golden Flower Dark Tea, is a relatively unknown fungi tea in China that is awaiting one clever and energetic entrepreneur to bring it into mainstream awareness in the West.
by Jaq James
Jian Zhan teaware inspires poetic praise among its ardent lovers and devotees. Those who gain a genuine appreciation of Jian Zhan teaware find it impossible to shed their fascination with the history, science, art, and economics of these enchanting cups.
by Jaq James
There is no need to fear contagion from tea, a beverage proven to boost your immune system with beneficial phytochemicals […]
by Dan Bolton
He speaks of tea as one would about a real person, as a friend. That’s true love, if it can be called anything.
by Aravinda Anantharaman
We don’t yet fully understand why time of day matters when plucking tea leaves. At dawn leaves wet with dew […]
by Virginia Utermohlen
A growing body of studies of leaf chemical composition is beginning to support the experienced tea maker’s choices. A striking […]
by Virginia Utermohlen
From drones to DNA fingerprinting, technology is enhancing tea without reducing quality.
by Peter Keen
Tea farmer, seller, event coordinator, gourmet, and nationally certified tea appraiser, Yasuhiko Kiya radiates love for his tea-growing neighborhood, Japanese tea, and his son, who will become the fourth generation to run the family business.
by Greg Goodmacher
This is an unusual Tea Journey review: a kit of 45 vials of chemical compounds that correspond directly with the […]
by Peter Keen
If you are wondering if tea can help you sleep better, the quick answer is yes so long as the tea is caffeine free.
by Scott Anderson
Many mothers feel they don’t produce enough milk, especially in the earlier days, weeks, or months after giving birth; after all, when you breastfeed, you can’t see exactly how much your baby is eating. What if increasing your milk supply was as easy as brewing a cup of tea?
by Giselle May
The question is old and simple: Does drinking green tea directly create weight loss? The answer is not at all simple and it hasn’t changed.
by Peter Keen
Tea helps your brain maintain efficiency by altering the physical structures of its networks of connections, a finding that opens up a promising new horizon in the investigation of tea and wellness.
by Peter Keen
Tea is proven to enhance the well-being of those who drink several cups a day. It inspires a process of discovery among imbibers, cultivating a deep appreciation for the growing, crafting, and preparation of great tasting tea. Finding your own favorite tea leads to a daily ritual and, in time, a healthy life-long habit.
by Dan Bolton
Hoshino villagers have experimented with growing, processing, and savoring tea for more than 600 years. The village’s Tea Culture Museum offers visitors a first-hand experience preparing artisan tea amid displays of ancient crafts.
by Greg Goodmacher
Given that the Indian tea industry is struggling, Craigmore Tea Estate’s profitability offers important insights. The estate produces orthodox green and black tea, with the former exported and the latter sent to the auctions. Over the years, the balance has tilted to favor more green tea production to meet the demand.
by Aravinda Anantharaman
In puers, the dynamic elements are microbial and have the most impact on lipids. The most promising avenues of research and application for standard tea types is cancer prevention and treatment. For puers, it is cardiovascular health.
by Peter Keen
Tea Studio celebrated its second birthday in August 2019. What it offers is a new model for processing tea in India. Small has not meant few teas. Nearly 90% of Tea Studio’s teas are exported to Canada, United States, Japan, and Australia. Teas are made to order, production is a modest 20 kilos a day.
by Aravinda Anantharaman
The amount of plastic in a single bag is around 60 micrograms – 60 millionths of a gram. Change the headlines from “Tea bags release billions of particles” to “millionths of an ounce” and the emotive reaction is surely more muted. But the figures are exactly the same.
by Peter Keen
Many sought to establish a tea dynasty in Georgia, and failed until a tea merchant named Popov invited the Cantonese (Guangdong) tea expert, Liu Junzhou (刘峻周) and ten of his countrymen, to Chakva, just north of Batumi, in 1893. Liu brought 1,000 kg of tea seeds and 150,000 saplings from China. By 1950 under Soviet control Georgia tea supplied half the world. Read what happened next.
by Michael Denner
There’s the only one method of tea grading that amounts to a system: pekoe grades. It’s comprehensive, precise, arcane – and also easy to misinterpret.
by Peter Keen
Tea seems a powerful factor in preventing or easing the wide range of ailments where estrogen is a key factor.
by Peter Keen
Tea is the gentle energizer, for mind and body. It contains natural beneficial nutrients, is free of sugar, artificial stimulants and offers a range of flavors, which in itself can sharpen the senses and waken the metabolism. If you want a pick me up, tea is hard to improve on.
by Peter Keen
Think of tea as a nutrient for your bones and an investment in an imaginary health savings account. It won’t directly add to your income, but the odds are high that it will pay off in reducing the risks of osteoporosis and fractures endemic to old age.
by Peter Keen
China’s National Tea Museum, established in Hangzhou in 1991, is considered the epicenter of knowledge and appreciation of China’s most treasured beverage. Whilst there are small tea museums sprinkled across China
by Jaq James
Consider owning a 470 million-year-old work of Mother Nature’s art, appropriately priced well over $500.
by Jaq James
Kakuzo Okakura first described Japanese tea culture to a readership in the U.S. in The Book of Tea in 1906. Since then, his book, his ideas, and Japanese tea culture have traveled across the world.
by Greg Goodmacher
The Nine Bend River (Jiuqu Xi) is a masterpiece one hundred million years in the making, cutting through China’s oolong tea capital.
by Jaq James
Background Yellow Goddess of Mercy, also simply known as 105, is a relatively new oolong tea from Mount Wuyi in […]
by Jaq James
In The Power of Tea Meditation, we talked about applying mindfulness to overcome the brain’s automatic tendency to look for […]
by Suzette Hammond
I started to feel something stir within my tea quite some time before I actually worked in tea professionally. […]
by Suzette Hammond
KOOMTAI, Assam – Forty years ago executives of Goodricke Group, which had just split from Duncan Brothers & Company Ltd., […]
by Pullock Dutta
Straight out of university with a masters in English, I found myself at age 22 up in the High Ranges […]
by Gurrinder
Caffeine is one of the main factors people consider in their choice of daily beverage. For some, it is the decider in their selection. For most, it is more a cautious concern.
by Peter Keen
Long before cut, tear and curl (CTC) dominated tea processing in the West, India exported sizeable quantities of handmade orthodox tea to an appreciative world market. Small factories at small gardens cultivated the art of rolling
by Dan Bolton
Peter Luong is not a tea mystic. The founder of San Francisco’s Song Tea & Ceramics knows and values the […]
by Janis Hashe
Daniel Hong’s whimsical online profile picture has him adorning a Charlie Chaplin hat with an oversized black cardboard moustache.Chinese millennials don’t usually do whimsical, so I thought I might soon be meeting an over-the-top eccentric…
by Jaq James
Red teas in China are experiencing a Renaissance. One of the most sought after of the high-end red teas is Jin Jun Mei – a fully oxidized tea created in 2006. It is made wholly of tea buds picked in early spring…
by Jaq James
Global beauty industry embraces tea’s rejuvenating power “We’ve benefited from rising awareness among about the detoxing power of puer tea […]
by Janis Hashe