Indie Teas

Here's a cool tea strainer design that allows you to steep tea from the bottom of the cup. It makes me want to listen to "Yellow Submarine" by the Beatles for some reason.

Here's a very cool video of a tea bag that "lights" up as you steep it. It's pretty interesting to see exactly the shape the tea takes that diffuses into the tea cup. If you want to know more information then click here.

Lighting Bag by Wonsik Chae from Takashi Yamada on Vimeo.

Today I am reviewing another tea from Dream About Tea. You can check out the first tea I reviewed here. This tea is called Lushan Yun Wu and it's a green tea from Jiangxi, China. 

The Nose and Color: The smell is wonderful. It smells like peaches a little bit before steeping and the leaves are thin and wiry which I don't see too often out of teas from China. However, after I steeped it it immediately made me think of a green pekoe. I noticed after steeping that the leaves were a bit uneven and choppy. I didn't really like that too much because I like to see a thorough consistency throughout. The color was a nice light green/yellow.

Tasting: After tasting it made me really think of Adagio's Green Pekoe even more. It tastes kind of like snow peas with a salty component. I liked it and seemed like a very traditional green tea. I was a little worried about the consistency of the tea leaves but it didn't make a difference in the end.

Food Pairing: I would pair this tea with some nice salty treats to really bring out the salty aspect of the tea.

Price: $25.00 for 2.0 oz

Summary: 86 out of 100. This tea tasted good and had some interesting aromas. I recommend it to help develop your palate but due to its price I wouldn't really recommend it for everyday steeping.

Full Disclosure: Samples were provided by Dream About Tea

Starbucks has announced that they will be offering 10 new Tazo teas and all of them will be full leaf teas as compared to the previous Crush, Tear, and Curl (CTC) automated method. 

“Many tea drinkers find full leaf teas have a more delicate and subtle taste experience,” said Stuart Johnson, director, Tazo Tea beverages. “By making these available, we think the new tea options deliver exactly on what our customers have been asking us for, and that’s an enhanced, more dimensional tea experience.”

There are two new blends which are the vanilla rooibos herbal infusion and the orange blossom green tea. There are also eight current teas that will be turned into full leaf form: Awake, Earl Grey, Chai, Zen, China Green Tips, Passion, Calm and Refresh.

This is pretty good news because I've always been severely disappointed when paying for a cup of tea at Starbucks. It's never been worth the price before so I'm excited to see how these new teas taste (hopefully I will get a review up as soon as my local Starbucks gets them in). Of course, I wish they were in loose leaf form but hopefully this is a little bit better than what I've tried so far. 

Today I am reviewing a tea from a little known indie tea shop called Dream About Tea. They are a small shop located in Evanston, IL that has started to sell tea online. They import all of their teas straight from China and also have some cool looking teaware.

The Nose and Color: This tea smells a lot like Rishi Tea's China Breakfast that I reviewed earlier. The leaves are very bold and look untouched and undamaged which indicates they were handpicked. The steep produces a nice rounded yellow hue on the outer edges with the body consisting of a light brown color. I don't expect this to come off too strong which I usually like in black teas.

Tasting: After tasting this tea a couple of times it seems slightly sweet and malty. It has got a really lovely flavor that isn't too strong like I expected. It feels very silky and smooth going down. It's also slightly astringent too as it dries out my tongue on the finish. There aren't too many light black teas out there but this is definitely one of them which I like a lot.

Food Pairing: I would pair this tea with some breakfast treats such as the classic toast to start your morning off right. 

Price: $7.00 for 2.0 oz

Summary: 90 out of 100. This tea was a lot like Rishi Tea's China Breakfast however it was a little softer and slightly sweet which suited my palate more. The astringency wasn't too much to handle and it got me going for work pretty good with its caffeine level.

Full Disclosure: Samples were provided by Dream About Tea

Jamba Juice has announced three new tea based Hot Blends beverages called Original Spiced Chai Tea, Perfectly Chocolate Chai Tea, and Heavenly Green Tea. In addition, Jamba Juice is going to offer six organic Mighty Leaf Tea pouches consisting of flavors Organic Breakfast, Organic Earl Grey, Organic Green Dragon, Organic African Nectar, and Organic Detox Infusion.

Jamba Juice is known as one of those high end drink places that makes the company adding tea drinks exciting. It seems like tea is culturally becoming more and more gourmet while coffee has become more mainstream even including high end places such as Starbucks. I think it's a key trend that shows the tea industry is moving towards more high-end quality products to differentiate itself away from coffee in the beverage industry. 

Today I'm reviewing another tea from Teatulia. Check out my first review here. This tea is Teatulia's Herbal Ginger Tea. Like the lemongrass I reviewed earlier this tea is also very simple and consists primarily of ginger. I'm trying out the bagged form of this although you can find a loose leaf version online.

The Nose and Color: This tea has a very biting smell. It smells like fresh ginger straight from the supermarket. It reminds me of peeling fresh bark off a tree and smelling the sap part on the backside. It's got a pine component as well as a bark-like aspect. This tea contains some vasaka leaves so maybe that's what's adding that smell for me. Furthermore, it looks like a light green tea when steeped with a slightly brown hue. 

Tasting: Without a doubt this tea is very flavory. This ginger hits you square in the mouth and the added vasaka leaf smoothes out the flavor a little bit. However, this tea has a lot of strength and my palate isn't that used to this type of flavor. It's a little too much ginger for me. It was almost like I was chomping off a piece of ginger like I did when I was a child and realizing that an interesting sniff doesn't always result in a pleasant taste.

Price: $13.00 for 2.0 oz

Summary: 82 out of 100. Above average. A good tea. Something that didn't suit my palatte but it had its moments. Not a recommended buy.

Full Disclosure: Samples were provided by Teatulia

Today I tried out an Organic Lemongrass herbal tea from Teatulia. This particular tea is bagged in the triangular shaped bags that have become fairly common. I am not really a fan of bagged tea so we will see how it is. This tea was grown in Bangladesh which exports a decent amount of tea but they aren't one of the big boys. This company is very ecofriendly and have created an interesting way of growing tea. They grown the tea on virgin soil using natural farming methods inspired by Japanese Master Masanobu Fukuoka. All of their teas are grown and sold straight from their gardens which ensures fresh tea and no middle men which I like a lot.

The Nose and Color: This tea is a very simple herbal tea. It's pure lemongrass. That's it. It makes for a nice change of pace and results in a very defined and bold aroma. None of the leaves were broken and they were clearly well handled. The leaves look like a green kukicha which I'm not really a fan of but I bet the similarities will end there.

Tasting: This tea is smooth and subtle. The flavor is all lemongrass which leaves your breath smelling great and it goes down easy from start to finish. 

Food Pairing: This tea is very simple so I wouldn't pair it with anything. Instead, because it's an herbal tea I would drink it at night before bed since it's caffeine free.

Price: $13.00 for 2.0 oz

Summary: 90 out of 100. This tea is a very simple herbal tea consisting of pure lemongrass. The nose, color, and taste are all pleasant and it's caffeine free so it's perfect before bed. You can find it in loose leaf form which I recommend although I was pleasantly surprised by the bags. There wasn't much complexity to it which isn't a bad thing but I usually prefer the challenge of finding out what the different kinds of flavors are.

Full Disclosure: Samples were provided by Teatulia

There is a fantastic piece in the New York Times about small indie tea vendor Dilmah from Sri Lanka and their battle against some of the bigger tea giants around the world.

Mr. Fernando has relished his role as the underdog battling the giants of the global tea business. In the last two decades, he has built Dilmah into one of the world’s largest independent tea companies and one of the best-known Sri Lankan brands by selling tea that is critically acclaimed and more expensive than the competition.

I can't remember the last time I had a Sri Lankan tea but I am definitely going to give Dilmah a try soon. Their tea is pretty expensive but you can check it out here if you would like to try some.

Read article here.

Basic Facts

White tea is the least oxidized of all teas and it typically comes from the famous Fujian province in China. It is not really popular in the West but it is starting to gain some traction due to its health benefits similar to green tea.

Common Types of White Tea

There are four major types of white that range in grade of quality. The four common types from highest grade to lowest are as follows: 

1. Bai Hao Yin Zhen (Silver Needle) - The highest grade of white tea and the most common that I've seen sold. Easily noticeable by the so-called "hairs" of the tea leaves. 
2. Bai Mu Dan (White Peony) - Mostly unbroken leaves with "hairs" on the underside.
3. Shou Mei (Longevity Eyebrow) - Broken tea leaves with a brown-like color.
4. Gong Mei (Tribute Eyebrow) - The lowest quality of white tea.

 

White Tea vs. Green Tea

White tea and green tea both have a lot of health benefits but I would give the edge to white tea from what I've read. White tea contains higher catechin levels, more anti-viral and anti-bacterial components, higher amounts of gallic acid, and theobromine. Also, white tea contains more theanine which gives more of that relaxed, alert state that I absolutely love about tea. 

How to Brew White Tea

White tea should be steeped with about 1-2 teaspoons per cup at a temperature of around 180oF. Many suggest to steep white tea for about 2-3 minutes. However, good white tea leaves will allow you to steep for up to 10 minutes. If you really want the taste and aroma to develop then I recommend letting your tea steep for longer. This is also a good trick to see if you are getting good tea leaves or not as bad tea leaves will go bitter. Also, if you have good tea leaves you will find that you can steep your leaves up to three times. It's a good idea to steep them for longer with each consecutive brew.

Taste Profile

White teas are very delicate teas and provide wonderful subtle tastes. I like to think of them as green teas without the grassy component.