Category Archives: Types of Tea

Tisanes and Herbals

Tisanes and herbals are often referred to as tea, however these drinks normally do not contain any camellia sinensis (tea). Instead they are made from seeds, leaves, roots, flowers, bark, fruits and may also be referred to as infusions or botanicals. There are a huge variety of tisane and herbal drinks since it seems almost anything that is safe for human consumption can be infused (soaked in hot water) or decocted (heated in water to a boil allowing evaporation of much of the water).

Tisanes and herbals are consumed around the world offering a great many tastes, aromas, and flavors. Some originated many hundreds or thousands of years ago while many are more modern attempts to offer new tastes or capitalize on popular fads.

Just a Few Tisanes & Herbals

Organic Raspberry Rooibos Tisane, Organic Red Raspberry Leaf, Organic Hibiscus, Organic Calendula

Adirondack Berries – A Rooibos Based Tisane

Rooibos has been consumed in South Africa for hundreds of years by native people and European settlers. Native to the Fynbos region of South Africa’s Southwestern Cedarburg Mountains, Rooibos is a tisane produced from finely chopped Aspalathus linearis of the legume family. This drink enjoys growing popularity around the world and makes a great base for a naturally caffeine free drink.

Dried Hibiscus for Karkade or Hibiscus Tea

Karkade, also known as Hibiscus Tea, and a myriad other names, is consumed around the world in places as diverse as Australia, the Middle East, the Caribbean and parts of Asia. It features a tart, cranberry like taste and deep red color. The first consumption as a drink is difficult to pin down but it is noted as being edible as far back as the late 1600’s. More recently one can thank Celestial Seasonings for increasing awareness of this drink, marketed as “Red Zinger” starting in 1972.

Liang Cha is a Chinese herb tisane originating from Guangzhou Province. Literally translating to “cold tea” it is thought to literally cool the body temperature which can be a big plus in the summer months in this part of China. That said, this herb tea seems to have a great many variations though Chrysanthemum seems to be a common name attributed to it. (Guangzhou.chn.info, 2014)

Paspanguwa, also known as “Five Potions” comes from Sri Lanka and is considered to be an Ayurvedic remedy to tread colds and fever. In fact, the Sri Lankan Government setup the Sri Lankan Ayurvedic Drug Company in 1969 offering, among other things, Paspanguwa which it considers a drug (Fernando, 2009). The name “five-potions” comes from the five ingredients (though others are often added), Mollugo cerviana, Solanum virginianum, Coriander seed, Long pepper, and Ginger. It is often served with a sweetner.

Kombucha Mature by Mgarten, CC BY-SA 3.0

Kombucha, unlike the other drinks discussed, is actually made from the tea leaf, and is not an infusion or decoction. Instead, it is sweetened black tea that has been fermented with bacteria and yeast. Originating in Northeastern China in the 1900’s, Kobucha became popular as a health drink although such claims haven’t been established and indeed the drink, when improperly prepared may cause severe side effects and death (Centers for Disease Control, 1995).

Summing Up – Tisanes & Herbals

In many cases tisanes and herbals became popular for their stimulant, relaxant, or sedative properties. These days many different tisane and herbal drinks are being consumed for perceived health benefits; everything from curing colds to curing cancer and everything in between. However, the health claims attached to most tisanes and herbal drinks have not been validated through rigorous testing and, since many are considered neither food nor drug, they are not routinely evaluated by the FDA or USDA. Further, no data had been provided to the FDA as of 2003 to support any claims of health benefits from tisanes or herbals (Nass, 2003).

From our perspective, while there may well be health benefits to some herbal and tisane infusions, there may also be risks, especially from high consumption and drug interactions. Therefore, we prefer focus instead on the historical and cultural background behind tisanes, yet consume only a limited few.

Works Cited
Centers for Disease Control. (1995, 12 08). Unexplained Severe Illness Possibly Associated with Consumption of Kombucha Tea — Iowa, 1995. Atlanta, GA, US.

Encyclopedia Britannica Company. (2014, 06 17). Miriam-Webster. Retrieved from Tisane: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tisane

Fernando, N. M. (2009, 09 18). Sri Lanka Ayurveda Drugs Corporation – four decades of progress. Sri Lanka.

Guangzhou.chn.info. (2014, 06 18). Cantonese Liang Cha, Herb Tea. Retrieved from Guangzhou.chn.info: http://guangzhou.chn.info/dining/liang-cha/herb-tea.html

Nass, R. (2003). Is the Health Food Store and Oxymoron. Retrieved from Naturally Dangerous: Surprising Facts About Food, Health, and the Environment: http://www.stanford.edu/~jpc/Chapter3.htm#_Herbal_Teas_Are

Cold Brewing Iced Tea

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Sun Tea by flickr user SanFranAnnie, CC BY SA 2.0

As a native of Arizona, I spent most of my childhood drinking sun tea. It was always an interesting sight to watch the tea bags infuse the water in the glass jar using just the rays and heat from the sun. At the height of summer, it usually took no longer than a few hours for it reach the color my mother wanted. When we moved to Florida, it was disappointing to learn that sun tea didn’t quite work there. So in came the countertop ice tea maker. This remained my go-to method of getting quick black iced tea for many years. Then I learned of cold brewing tea and quickly found this easy method opened up a whole new world of drinking some of my favorite hot teas cold.

Anyone with an iced tea maker will tell you it is impossible to get green iced tea out of it that is not horribly bitter. As someone who steadfastly refuses to add anything to my tea, this was very disappointing. The water is just too hot and the steeping time too long for the tea. Even some of the best flavored teas lose their flavor in the ice tea maker; Jasmine tea being one. Cold brewing these teas leaves their flavors intact.

Cold brewing iced tea to filter for serving.

Cold Brewed Iced Tea – Perfect for Summer

How to Cold Brew Iced Tea

It is super easy to cold brew tea. You just need a pitcher and water. The ratio is roughly 7 teaspoons of loose tea to 750 mL of water. Put the loose tea and water into the pitcher and put it in the refrigerator for about 6-8 hours and see what happens. The trick behind cold brewed iced tea is getting the liquid out at the end of brewing without the tea leaves. That’s a piece of cake if you find one of the pitchers with mesh infusers at your local big box store. Or if you happen to have 2 pitchers and a fine mesh strainer, you can strain the contents of your brewing pitcher through the strainer into the other pitcher and then discard your teas leaves, hopefully as compost for one of your favorite plants. Play with the amount of tea versus water and your steeping time until you find the combination that works for you.

This cold brew method has been used in Japan for many years. Not a surprise when you think about all the green tea Japan drinks. So feel free to try this with your favorite green tea and see what you get. This method also allows oolong to become a fabulous iced tea. Those complex oolong flavors remain after brewing cold.

My favorite so far is cold brewed sencha iced tea. It is really refreshing after a workout. Have you tried cold brewing your favorite tea? What do you think? As we head into warmer weather we’ve highlighted the teas that we think will cold brew well for you on the Dominion Tea specials page.

Hillary @ Dominion Tea

The Tea of Assam, India

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Assam tea plantation worker carrying a basket supported from her head.

Assam Tea Plantation Worker, by Flickr User Akarsh Simha, CC BY-SA-2.0

Teas from the three main growing regions of India, Nilgiri, Darjeeling, and Assam, have become highly regarded over the years, forming the base to many popular teas including English and Irish Breakfast teas as well as great stand-alone specialty teas. Known for its black tea, the Assam region produces tea with a distinct malty taste, known for its briskness (which by the way is another way of simply saying that its taste makes you sit up and take note vs having a flat, dull, or otherwise non-memorable taste). Tea is produced in this region comes from some 600+ tea gardens and is manufactured both as CTC (crush, tear, curl) as well as orthodox or specialty tea. The sheer volume of tea produced in Assam contributes substantially to making India the second largest producer of tea after China. While known almost exclusively for its black teas, it should be noted that the Assam region of India also produces some green and white orthodox teas.

Assam Tea and West Bengal (Darjeeling Tea) India along with its neighbors.

Map of India with Assam Tea and West Bengal (home of Darjeeling) Tea Growing Regions

Assam Tea History

The history of tea in India likely dates back thousands of years, as it does for its neighbors in Nepal and China. However, most agree that commercial development of tea in Assam began with the British in the 1830’s when Britain, and in particular the East India Company, which wanted to find cheaper alternatives to Chinese tea, started looking for tea and suitable growing conditions in other corners of the empire. Since it appeared the climate was similar to that of tea growing regions in China, the British imported seeds and plants of Camellia sinensis var. sinensis, the variety found in China. This, unfortunately for the East India Company, turned out to be a failure, as the variety wouldn’t grow successfully in India. Around the same time, beginning in 1815, Major Robert Bruce discovered a plant in Assam that he thought was likely the tea plant growing in the wild. It wasn’t until nearly 30 years later, in 1834 that his brother Charles Alexander Bruce successfully got testing and recognition that the plant was indeed tea. As it turns out it was simply another variation of C. sinensis, the assamica variety. Much more recently, using DNA sequencing techniques, research is suggesting that C. sinensis var. assamica (Assam), along with C. sinensis var. sinensis (China) and many other varieties, are in fact all related to a single parent from Mongolia, which migrated over time to give us the varieties we see today.

Assam Tea Garden, by Flickr User Bidyut Gogoi, CC-BY-2.0

Terrior of Assam Tea

It is the terrior found in Assam, combined with the C. sinensis var. assamica variety, which produces the significantly different taste that has become so highly regarded. The leaves are larger in Assam and the nutrients in the soil lead to different taste and flavor compounds in the leaves. Whereas in China tea is often grown at higher elevations, in Assam it is grown at low elevations along floodplains with sandy, nutrient rich soils which are typical of floodplains. Also unlike tea grown in other parts of the world, it is the second flush, not the first, which is preferred. The second flush is considered to produce a sweeter liquor with a more robust full bodied taste.

Given the proximity to other great tea production regions like Darjeeling, Nepal, and China, along with the historical thirst for tea driven by colonialism, it is really little wonder that Assam has developed to play a major role in the global tea trade. We are looking forward to further exploration of Assam and the specialty teas to be found from this great region.

Specialty Tea is Not a Commodity

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There are a number of definitions for commodity but one we like states that “a commodity is any homogeneous good traded in bulk on an exchange.” (InvestingAnswers, 2014) This definition goes on to say that for an item to be considered a commodity it must meet three conditions.

It must be standardized (for agricultural and industrial commodities it must be in a “raw” state).
It must be usable (i.e., have a shelf life) upon delivery.
Its price must vary enough to justify creating a market for the item.

Wheat is a Commodity Like Oil and Gold

This works well for things like oil, gold, wheat and other products which can be produced in bulk, measured against well-known and agreed upon standards, and are usable for long periods of time. Even though there are some differences in grades for each of these examples, they are by and large, equal to each other no matter where they come from and meet a standard definition of quality. They are fungible. You can generally intermingle all of them together and the buyer doesn’t know or care what the initial source of the product was.

Specialty Tea or Commodity Tea?

So how about tea? I’ll go out on a limb (admittedly not very far) and suggest that there are really two major kinds of tea; commodity tea and specialty tea. Commodity tea is produced in bulk by one of a half dozen or fewer global corporations. Their aim is to sell a consistent product in massive quantities as inexpensively as possible. The commodity definition breaks down a bit with tea, in that the product really isn’t raw at this point, as the raw leaves have been oxidized and macerated into fine pieces. Even if it were sold raw, it wouldn’t be fungible since different cultivars and terroir produce significantly different taste. It’s at this point where the tea markets like the one in Mumbai, India and Mombasa, Kenya play a role in getting teas of various taste to the small number of global players. It has been standardized in terms of the leaf size (or particle size if you prefer) and buyers are looking for specific taste profiles to be blended to produce that consistent taste they are going for. This blended tea is ultimately packed into sacks for global transport, and sold in massive quantities. Finally commodity tea is used in applications where consistent taste and low cost is the primary driver; mass produced tea bags, many ready to drink products, and health and beauty products.

Specialty Tea Features Variety in Shape, Aroma, and Liquor Color

Where commodity tea defines quality in terms of consistent taste profile and particle size, specialty tea defines quality in terms of aroma, shape of rolled leaf, liquor taste, and sheer variety. Specialty tea does not seek to maintain the same taste profile year over year. Instead, specialty tea takes advantage of the uniqueness of its manufacturing process and variety in terroir. It celebrates the differences between teas from different regions, countries, and elevations. Consistent taste and lowest price are not the for specialty tea. Instead the drivers for specialty tea are the story behind the tea, the desire for variety in flavor and aroma, and the degree to which one can appreciate where it comes from. While this makes a clear definition of “quality” somewhat elusive, it encourages curiosity, learning, and experimentation, all key ingredients to a better tea experience.

Works Cited

InvestingAnswers. (2014, April 30). Commodity Definition & Example. Retrieved from Investing Answers: http://www.investinganswers.com/financial-dictionary/commodities-precious-metals/commodity-1035

$28,000 per Pound – Dragonwell Tea History

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Map showing Zhejiang China where Dragonwell Tea originates.

Zhejiang, China – Home of Dragonwell Tea

Longjing, or Dragonwell Tea, is China’s most famous green tea. This tea is so prized in China that a pre-market release sale of Dragonwell in May of 2012, resulted in 500 grams of the tea selling for 180,000 Yuan or $28,499. On a per gram basis, it was purchased at a rate higher than gold was trading that day. On a per cup basis that is $171 per 8 oz of liquor, which is on equivalent to some of the more famous wines. Tea purchased at this rate usually remains in China and exchanged between business men and politicians as gifts.

The name, Dragonwell, comes from Chinese mythology where a village in China was suffering from a severe drought and was advised to pray to the benevolent dragon who lived in the nearby well to bring rain. The rain came and the village in appreciation renamed itself and its tea to Dragonwell. Authentic Dragonwell is produced in Zhejiang providence outside of the fifth largest Chinese city of Hangzhou. The area is also referred to as Xi Hu or the West Lake region and is home to several UNESCO sites, as well as tea plantations. Due to the popularity of Dragonwell, the Chinese government expanded the region they claim as home to authentic Dragonwell to all of Zhejiang province. Originally it was only produced in a 65 square mile area of Xi Hu, made up of four regions – Lion Mountain (Shifeng), the center of the original Dragonwell tea growing area, Mei Jia Wu (Mei family valley), Long Jing and Lin Yin Temple areas. Given the popularity and relatively high price at sale, there are many counterfeit Dragonwell teas on the market, so knowing how the characteristics of the authentic tea is important.

Photo of Dragonwell Tea, its leaves and liquor.

Dragonwell Tea – Dry Leaf, Infused Leaf, and Liquor

Authentic Dragonwell is harvested by hand and then pan fried to stop the oxidation process. High quality Dragonwell will be have uniform tight, flat lime to dark green dried leaves. The steeped leaves will appear plump with a uniform light green color. Lower quality Dragonwell leaves will turn bluish green to dark green in color after steeping. The tea liquor should be a bright clear jade yellow. This tea is best when brewed between 167-176 degrees Fahrenheit. The North American Tea Championship definition describes the liquor of Dragonwell tea as having a gentle smell of fruitiness with mellow plant notes. In the mouth, the liquor should have a light-bodied, buttery and smooth feel with slight astringency and hints of peas and sweet-corn with husk and a nutty finish.

I will admit the description above makes me roll my eyes and think how pretentious this sounds. However, if you are lucky enough to get your hands on an authentic Dragonwell, the description barely does it justice. It is a truly complex tea with a fabulous flavor worth slowing down to enjoy over multiple steepings.

There are many different types of Dragonwell on the market. Here is a quick list that does not cover all of them, but some of either the more common or special Dragonwell varieties.

Xihu Longjing	This just refers to the region where the tea is grown. This is the traditional region for Dragonwell.
Bird’s Tongue Longjing	First growth picked on about March 21 yields a more intense aroma and taste of sweetness than the better known Ming Qian Longjing. Supply is highly dependent on the weather conditions and varies wildly year to year.
Bai Longjing	Not a true Longjing but looks like one and is commonly sold as one, it is actually a Bai Pian. It comes from Anji in the Zhejiang Province.
Shi Feng Longjing	A type of Xihu Longjing. Fresh tasting, its fragrance is sharp and long lasting. Its leaves are yellowish green in color, and easily imitated with excessive Pan frying of other green teas.
Pre-Qingming Longjing	The premium early season first-picking known as Ming Qian or Pre-Qingming. This tea is harvested before the QingMing Festival, which occurs around the 5^th of April each year. The production cycle is very short, usually only ten days before Qingming every year.
Yuqian Longjing	This tea is picked after QingMing but before the summer rainy season. Its name translates to Dragonwell before the rain.
Qiantang Longjing	This tea still comes from the Zhejiang province but outside of the Xi Hu district.

Even if you think you are not a green tea fan, Dragonwell tea is worth trying. What is your favorite Dragonwell memory?