Tag Archives: Tea

Beyond the Teabag – 5 Things To Upgrade Your Tea Experience

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For so many Americans, our only exposure to tea is from teabags, the tea served at Chinese restaurants, or those few selections offered at one of the nationwide chains.  Are you aware that there are 6 major types of tea and hundreds of options when you consider growing conditions, manufacturing methods, and local variations?  Unlike other beverages there is something for everyone, however too much choice can often be overwhelming.  Here are a few of our thoughts to simplify your early experience with loose leaf tea and tisanes:

  1. Start simple with a black, oolong, green or blended tea.  If you prefer no caffeine then consider an herbal or rooibos.
  2. Loose leaf tea is easy to make:  Start with a good infuser or use a good paper filter.  Avoid the stereotypical tea ball and go with something large to allow room for the tea to move around while steeping.
  3. If making black, oolong, or pu’erh, use boiling water and steep 1 tsp per 8 oz mug, no longer than 5 minutes.  If you are like us, you use a large mug or travel tumbler, so make sure you know roughly how much water is in your mug of choice and adjust the amount of tea accordingly.
  4. When steeping green, yellow, and white tea, allow boiling water to cool 3-4 minutes before adding tea.  Never use boiling water with these.  Use 1 tsp per 8 oz of water for green tea or 1 Tbsp per 8 oz for white tea or yellow tea.  Don’t steep any longer than 3-5 minutes.
  5. Steep 1 tsp per 8 oz of water for pure herbals (those containing no tea at all), rooibos, and honey bush for 7-10 minutes with boiling water.

More Ways to Upgrade Your Tea Experience

If the top five list above doesn’t quite satisfy your need, here are a few other things to be aware of.

Re-using an infuser after simply knocking out the prior tea leaves yields a mixture of the old and new leaves.

The result of adding boiling water to an emptied, but not really clean, fine mesh infuser.

  • Green tea really does not need to be bitter.  The key is to make sure you do NOT use boiling water.  With green tea you really want 170-185 degrees Fahrenheit and you don’t want to steep longer than 5 minutes.  Steeping at a lower temperature is often better.
  • If you use a fine mesh infuser, be sure to at least rinse it with boiling water before adding a new tea.  If you are like us, you are very busy and it’s so tempting to just knock out the last tea leaves and refill.  Without rinsing with boiling water you end up with lots of contamination from the last tea you brewed.
  • It pays to pre-heat your mug when steeping black, oolong, and pu’erh teas.  Adding boiling water to a mug, especially a ceramic mug, will almost instantly drop the temperature below 200 degrees.  If you add boiling water to your mug first, discard, and refill a second time for steeping you will keep the temperature higher for a longer period of time adding to the intensity.

Start Simple Then Experiment

Most teas do come with recommended times and loose tea per 8 oz serving size.  These more specific suggestions are certainly a better starting point than the general guidance above.  However, if you are new to loose leaf tea there really is no need to make it overly complicated.  Find something you like, use a good infuser or single use tea filter, and follow the general time and temperature guidance above.  As you drink tea more often you might try to start varying the amount of tea you use, as well as temperature and time to see how the taste varies, perhaps finding a combination more to your specific taste.

Clay Yixing Teapot in Hot Water

Yixing Teapot by Flickr SOLO-ASSA, CC BY-SA 2.0

Making tea can, of course, be a lot more involved if you want it to be.  We didn’t talk about specialty teapots, gaiwan sets, or the myriad other accessories and techniques for steeping.  Nor did we talk about making your own blends or baking tea on your own.  These are all topics for another day if and when the curiosity arises.

Know someone who could benefit from this post?  Please share and help others experience loose leaf tea.  And be sure to like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for more information on tea, its history, and culture.

What Diversity in Tea Means to Your Next Cup – Japanese Green Tea Cultivars

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As we have discussed before, tea originates from the Camellia Sinensis plant.  However, just as the leaf size of tea grown in China vary dramatically different from that grown in India, so too does the varieties, or tea cultivars grown in Japan differ.  As the tea plant has traveled the globe, countries have invested in the tea industry, developing many different tea cultivars more suited for their part of the world.  Tea cultivars are the cultivated variety of a tea plant selected and breed by humans for a very specific set of characteristics like flavor, resistance to pest or diseases, and speed of growth.  What that tea cultivar was created for directly impacts the flavor of the final tea product.  So why care about these tea cultivars, so long as I get a good cup of teas?

As climate change alters the behavior of the jet stream and therefore our weather patterns, it will affect the quality and quantity of tea being produced.  Countries around the global are busy trying to breed a tea plant that can handle longer spells of drought, cold, rain and other weather pattern changes so as to minimize its effects on tea production.  So how do these researchers balance the need for a more hearty plant with keeping its signature flavor?

Rows of Trimmed Tea Plants - Tea Cultivars

Tea Plantation Kirishima, By Akuppa John Wigha, CC By 2.0

Over Fifty Tea Cultivars in Japan

Japan, offers an excellent case study of the impact of cultivar diversity in the tea industry.  Since the 1970’s, when Japan mechanized its tea harvesting in response for more demand for tea and less labor to harvest it, the country has been a study in both the positive and negative impacts of cultivar development and selection.  There are currently fifty-two tea cultivars registered with the country that are part of the commercial tea industry, but that was not always the case.  In the 1970’s, the Yabukita cultivar was selected as the best tea cultivar for mechanized harvesting while keeping the flavor that was expected in Sencha tea.  Yabukita became the tea plant of choice and rose to be almost 75% of all tea plants used for commercial production (Chika Yagi, 2010).

Having a nearly mono-culture tea industry created two very big problems for Japan.  First, there were frequent outbreaks of grey blight and pest infestations that would practically wipe out a single season’s harvest.  Then, in years when the crop could be harvested it caused price fluctuations in tea because the entire tea harvest occurred at the same time, glutting the market and dropping prices.  The National Institute of Tea Science quickly caught onto these problems and, in the 1980’s, began the development of more tea cultivars with different harvest periods and better pest and disease resistance.

Tea Cultivars Plus Standardized Cupping Methodology

In breeding more tea cultivars, Japan developed a regimented harvesting and simple tasting procedure to ensure flavor was not lost while breeding for other traits.  Their steps go so far as to dictate time of day of harvest, number of leaves to harvest, drying time and then cupping instructions.  They even require the tasting bench to be placed near a window with diffused morning sunlight to help standardize the evaluation of the color of the dried leaves and brewed liquor during cupping.  This attention to the small details around testing for the final product of cultivar allowed the Japanese tea industry to introduce more cultivars with extended harvesting periods, disease and pest tolerance, without losing flavor (Chika Yagi, 2010).

It gives me great hope that as other countries like India and Kenya start their own cultivation of new varieties in response to climate change that they can turn to Japan as a model to follow.  Do you see the cultivar that makes your favorite Japanese green tea below?

Five of the Most Widely Used Tea Cultivars in Japan
Tea Cultivar Name: Yabukita Okuhikari Okumidori Saemidori Yutakamidori
Spring Harvest Time: April to mid-May 5 to 6 days later than Yabukita Later than Yabukita Earlier than Yabukita 5 days earlier than Yubakita
Cold Resistance: High High High Low Medium-High
Pest and Disease Resistance: Susceptible to anthracnose Resistant to anthracnose Slightly susceptible to anthracnose Resistant to anthracnose High Resistance to anthracnose
Main Type of Green Created from Cultivar: Sencha Sencha/Bancha (higher yielding than Yabukita) Tencha Matcha Gyokuro

Works Cited
Chika Yagi, N. I. (2010, August). Characteristics of Eight Japanese Tea Cultivars. Honolulu: College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii at Manoa.

CSS Shenandoah: Tea Clipper Turned Confederate Raider

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This week we are deviating a bit away from a pure tea related blog and taking inspiration from a book by Clive Cussler and Grant Blackwood.  Their book Lost Empire, a story about treasure hunters Remi and Sam Fargo who find a ships bell off the coast of Zanzibar, Tanzania leading them on a search for information about the Confederate Sailing Ship (CSS) Shenandoah, a ship which began life as a tea clipper ship before becoming a commercial raider in the US Civil War.  Curiosity got the best of me and I wanted to find out if the Shenandoah actually existed and what its role in history actually was.  As it turns out the Shenandoah did actually exist and has a fascinating story all its own.

The CSS Shenandoah began life as the steam cruiser Sea King, intended for the Chinese tea trade.

“From the North British Daily Mail, August 18th, 1863:  ‘She is named the Sea King, and is, we understand, the first screw steamship built on the principle of iron frames and wooden planking, and also the first steamer that has been specially constructed for the China trade, having been built with the view of competing with the fastest ships in the trade direct from China to London, in bringing home the first teas of the season.’” (Grace’s Guide, 2012)

Confederate Sailing Ship Shenandoah

Confederate Sailing Ship Shenandoah

Constructed in Glasgow, Scotland in 1863 by Alexander Stephen & Sons, who also built the paddle steamers Fergus and Dare as blockade runners for the Civil War  (Grace’s Guide, 2012), the Sea King was built with an iron frame and wooden deck.  This alone was somewhat novel for the time as iron based ships were a very new concept and there were still many who thought iron ships could never float.  In fact the British government didn’t even allow transport of mail in iron vessels until 1960 (Grace’s Guide, 2012).

During its construction the ship attracted the attention of Confederate agents in Europe looking for candidates for commercial raiding ships.  In particular, she was a three mast sailing ship with an auxiliary coal-fired steam engine and a screw that could be raised while sailing to reduce drag. (Markowitz, 2013)  The ability to run either as a sailing vessel or under steam power allowed the ship to be very fast and make headway in a variety of conditions.

After an initial voyage to deliver British troops to New Zealand, the Confederate Navy secretly purchased her.  She was met at sea by confederate officers and equipment necessary to refit her for military purposes including the installation of large guns.  The CSS Shenandoah set sail October 1864 for what would be only a 13 month voyage.

James Iredell Waddell, Captain of the CSS Shenandoah

James Iredell Waddell, Captain of the CSS Shenandoah

Commanded by James Waddell, the CSS Shenandoah regularly needed to recruit sailors as a large crew was necessary to meet needs for sailing, firing guns, and boarding other ships.  Many sailors were recruited from captured ships and when she arrived in Melbourne, Australia in January 1865 for repairs she was able to take on quite a number of new replacement crew members.

The Shenandoah focused on unarmed merchant ships from the Union.  Among others, she destroyed over 20 whaling vessels and may have inadvertently helped end of the US whaling industry, having wiped out nearly 50% of the fleet during her short service.  Despite the civil war ending in May 1865, the CSS Shenandoah didn’t receive official word until after capturing and destroying about two dozen ships.  She finally learned that the Civil war had ended in late June 1865 off San Francisco.  Rather than returning to the United States, she sailed to England and was turned over to the British in Liverpool in November 1865.

After that the Shenandoah was sold on behalf of the United States to Zanzibar and was renamed to the El Majidi.  At this point the details are a bit fuzzy, with various sources suggesting she then served as a passenger liner, a slave ship, or a cruiser in the Zanzibar navy.

Sultan Sayyid Majid bin Sa’id, the new owner of the Shenandoah, now the El Majidi, was the Sultan of Zanzibar which had had only been recognized as an independent realm in 1861.  This was a time when the British Government was pressuring Zanzibar to end slavery.

A couple of additional notes to round out the story of the CSS Shenandoah:

  • She was the only Confederate ship to circumnavigate the globe.
  • Her battle flag still sits in the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, VA.
Map of Tanzania

Map of Tanzania

As for Zanzibar and tea; while Zanzibar itself is known for cloves, the island is now part of Tanzania.  The country of Tanzania is a grower of tea, like Kenya to the north.  The tea industry in Tanzania is supported in part by the Tea Board of Tanzania, the Tea Research Institute of Tanzania and the Tanzania Smallholders Tea Development Agency.

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Works Cited

Born 2 Suffer. (2008, January 23). The Al Bu-Said Dynasty. Retrieved from KBI-SGD (Born 2 Suffer): http://borntosuffer1.blogspot.com/2008/01/al-bu-said-dynasty_23.html

Grace’s Guide. (2012, November 6). A Shipbuilding History. 1750-1932 (Alexander Stephen and Sons): Chapter 2. Retrieved from Grace’s Guide: British Industrial History: http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/A_Shipbuilding_History._1750-1932_(Alexander_Stephen_and_Sons):_Chapter_2

Markowitz, M. (2013, January 9). CSS Shenandoah and the Last Shot of the Civil War. Retrieved from Defense Media Network: http://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/how-the-rebels-saved-the-whales/

Finely Chopped and Oxidized Rooibos

Rooibos: A South African Specialty

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Options for tea drinkers abound with green, white, oolong, black and more as we have discussed earlier.  Also well-known are the many tisane blends; be they pure herbals or herbal tea blends.  Rooibos represents another option for an infused tisane and one that is growing in popularity due to its caffeine free nature and mix of anti-oxidants.   Camellia Sinensis naturally has caffeine as a self-defense mechanism, and decaffeinated tea in the U.S is allowed to have up to 5% residual caffeine. The rooibos plant has no caffeine at all.  Rooibos also enjoys significant popularity for the wide variety of anti-oxidants it contains including aspalathin which is only found in rooibos.

Cederberg Mountain Region of South Africa

Cederberg Mountain Region of South Africa

The scientific name for rooibos, which comes from Afrikaans meaning “red bush”, is Aspalathus Linearis.  Coming from the legume family, rooibos is related to beans, peas, clover, and peanuts, though the family also includes over 16,000 other species.  It is a shrub that grows up to 6’ in height with green, needle shaped leaves and yellow flowers.

Rooibos is only grown in one location in the world, the valleys of the Cederberg Mountain region of Western Cape, South Africa, to the north of Cape Town (South African National Biodiversity Institute, 2007).

Rooibos - Aspalathus Linearis

The Rooibos Bush – Aspalathus Linearis

Production of finished rooibos for export comes from both the needle shaped leaves and bits of small stem.  The leaves of the plant and small stems are harvested from January to March, the South African Summer to Fall season.  After harvesting they are cut into small pieces and bruised, similar to the bruising of tea leaves to bring out flavor and encourage oxidation.  After bruising, the leaves are traditionally moistened and allowed to oxidize in piles before drying in thin layers in the sun.  This oxidation process is what produces the deep red-brown color and its sweet, woody taste and aroma.  In much the same way that green tea is produced by preventing the fermentation process, green rooibos is also produced by skipping the fermentation stage and moving straight from cutting to drying in the sun.

Rooibos has been consumed by local Khoisan inhabitants for more than 300 years.  The arriving Dutch settlers to South Africa in the 1700’s started to consume rooibos due to the high cost of imported black tea.  Commercial production began in the 1930’s and more recently its anti-oxidant properties have attracted significant demand, initially from Japan but now from many other countries as well.  In fact, exports have increased over 700% from 1993 to 2003. (Hansen, 2006)

While rooibos is increasing in popularity and is a significant crop for the Western Cape region of South Africa, there are concerns both about the impact of production on the environment as well as the threat to rooibos from climate change.

Regions of South Africa

Western Cape, South Africa with Rooibos Growing Region Highlighted in Yellow

Rooibos comes from one of the most biologically diverse regions of the world and the birthplace of modern humans.  The area has several distinct regions ranging from coastal, to lowland fynbos (shrubs with varied shapes and sizes), and mountains with many others in between. (Fynbos Forum, 2005) The specific region where rooibos is grown recently was designated a World Heritage Site, yet the majority of land is privately owned, so the need for responsible land use and development practices has driven the South African Rooibos Council to develop Right Rooibos, a program to foster sustainable production practices for the industry and support production while protecting the environment.

More recently farmers have noted increasing temperatures and drier conditions, both of which are being attributed to climate change.  This trend, if it continues is expected to make it harder to grow rooibos and eventually could mean the demise of the industry. (Price, 2012)  And since rooibos, thus far, has not been successfully cultivated anywhere else in the world, the end of rooibos in South Africa would mean the end of rooibos globally.

For now, we continue to enjoy rooibos and wish the best for sustainable farming practices under the Right Rooibos program.  We love rooibos straight or blended with more traditional teas and herbals.  How about you?  Have you tried rooibos?

Tell us what you think.  Post a comment here, message us on Twitter, or leave a note on Facebook.

Works Cited

Fynbos Forum. (2005). Ecosystem Guidelines for Environmental Assessment in the Western Cape. Sounth Africa.

Hansen, T. (2006). Sustainable Rooibos Initiative. Greater Cederberg Biodiversity Cooridor & South African Rooibos Council.

Price, C. (2012, February 28). Climate change threat to rooibos tea. Retrieved February 12, 2014, from Mail & Guardian: http://mg.co.za/article/2012-02-28-climate-change-threat-to-rooibos-tea/

South African National Biodiversity Institute. (2007, June). Aspalathus linearis. Retrieved February 10, 2014, from PlantZAfrica.com: http://www.plantzafrica.com/plantab/aspallinearis.htm

Chinese Tea Culture

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In trying to explore the tea cultures of other countries, it is difficult to isolate tea from the rest of the country’s culture.  A beverage, especially one as old as tea, makes its way into everything and its use reflects the overall culture of the country.  As the birthplace of tea, China’s tea culture is rich in ceremony and history.  The drink has been part of Chinese life for over 4,000 years.  It has brought great wealth, supported opium addiction, triggered wars, and became part of everyday life.

Tea in a Porcelain Cup

Tea in a Porcelain Cup (Stilllife) by Flicker User Jos Deilis, CC BY 2.0

A fundamental aspect of Chinese culture is Confucianism.  This is a complex set of beliefs that influence many parts of Chinese culture, the largest being the focus on social harmony brought about through each individual knowing his or her place within society and focusing on doing the best job possible in that place.  Tea plays a role in social harmony.  Every Chinese household has a tea set and tea is routinely offered to guests, family, and friends as a sign of respect and love.  Interestingly, in formal settings, it is always the person in the lower social role that serves the tea to the person of the higher social status, like a child serving tea for a parent.

Since tea is considered one of the seven daily necessities in Chinese culture along with firewood, rice, oil, salt, vinegar and soy sauce, it has created entire industries in China around teaware, teahouses, and various methods of brewing tea.  From glazed porcelain tea cups to terra cotta teapots used only for oolongs, there is a wide variety of wares for brewing and consuming teas.  Many of these are built around either the chaou or gongfu brewing methods.  The chaou brewing method is usually done in a porcelain bowl that allows the drinker to both drink the tea and inspect the tea leaves.  There is no strainer, just a bowl with a lid and saucer.  It may be used with serving cups or by itself and is considered an informal way of drinking tea.  It is said that this method was devised as a way for faster tasting by the tea merchants of tea they were considering purchasing.  The gongfu brewing method is more formal and uses a smaller terra cotta tea pot to do multiple steepings of a single tea.  The teapots usually only hold between 100-150 mL or 4-5 oz. The gongfu method varies across regions of China and may also include the use of other instruments like tweezers and various strainers.  Teahouses are everywhere in China and are social gathering places for the exchange of ideas.  Unlike Americans, who either take their coffee to go or bury their head in their laptops at the coffee shops, these teahouses are built around staying to talk and to share a pot of tea prepared by the hostess.

Tea Shop

Back of Tea Shop, Zhuhai Guangdong, China, By logatfer, Flickr, CC BY SA-2.0

Tea also plays a large role in Chinese weddings.  During a wedding, the bride and groom will serve tea to their parents as a sign of respect and thanks.  If the couple wishes, they may do a full tea ceremony which includes serving tea to the rest of the family after serving it to their parents.  Often this could include serving tea to hundreds of people as Chinese extended families are often quite large and all are invited to the wedding.  This full ceremony allows the couple to meet each other’s extended family members that they may not have met while dating.

The idea that an everyday drink can also be given prominence in a special event shows the integration to tea into the lives of the Chinese at all levels and helps to explain why most of their tea does not leave the country.  I don’t believe America has anything like this within our own culture, but given that American culture is centered on the individual instead of the collective society it shouldn’t be a surprise.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we slowed down a bit to enjoy each other’s company over a pot of tea?

Let us know what you think, follow us on Twitter @DominionTea, or like us on Facebook.

– Hillary