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There is much more to tea than a Lipton bag. Similar to fine wine or gourmet cheese, tea comes in a multitude of varieties, each with unique aroma, color and taste. We invite you to learn more about its origin, preparation and many amazing health benefits.
Hardly a week goes by without news of yet another research study confirming the health benefits of tea. Impartial analysis and hard data are now confirming what the ancients in Asia have known for centuries: tea is good for you.
Iced tea made from real leaves tastes great. And is very easy to make. Simply double the amount of tea leaves (making it two teaspoons per cup of water), and steep as usual (five minutes in most cases). Once tea is ready, dilute with an equal amount of cold water or ice. Garnish with mint or lemon, and enjoy its great taste.
The art of pairing teas with each course is still being developed, and part of the education (and delight) of discovering what teas your palate enjoys with which foods. Anyone who says blacks are only for entrees or that greens must stand alone, has not had the pleasure to pair a wide variety of teas with every part of a menu.
One cup of black tea typically contains between 40 and 60 milligrams of caffeine. This is equivalent to a level of caffeine found in a can of cola. Green tea contains only half that, between 15 and 30 milligrams. To eliminate caffeine intake completely, please consider switching to herbal tea, because even decaffeinated tea contains a trace (between 5 and 10 milligrams) of caffeine.
Tea is produced in over thirty countries around the world, though the finest comes from just five: India, Sri Lanka, China, Taiwan and Japan. Home to most of the world's tea drinkers, these countries continue to pay much attention to how tea is grown and processed. In many, tea continues to be produced by hand in accordance with age-old traditions. We invite you to learn more about the big five.
Similar to wine, tea is affected greatly by the climate in which it grows. Differences in soil and weather conditions give us a rich mosaic of tea's many varieties and flavors. Tea plants grow slower at higher altitudes, producing leaves that are succulent and tender. Most premium tea varieties are made from these high-grown leaves, the source of their unmistakably superior taste.
Premium teas are made exclusively from the plant's most tender young leaves. Tea pickers, usually working by hand, select the plant's two youngest leaves and a yet-to-open bud. The tender new leaves invariably produce a tea that is more gentle and flavorful than the older leaves. The latter are typically used in poor-quality tea offered in most supermarkets.
All the world's teas come from the same plant. How the leaves are processed will determine their final classification as black, green, and oolong teas. The main difference between the many tea varieties is how much oxygen the leaves are allowed to absorb during processing. Much oxygen produces dark-colored black teas. Little oxygen results in green tea. Somewhere in between lies oolong tea.
Tea tastes best when consumed within a year after production. To shield tea against the damaging effects of air and light, all tea should be stored in opaque and airtight containers. Metal tins seem to function best in this role. All our teas, including the one-ounce samples, are available in airtight tins.
Tea is one of the world's most economical beverages. One pound of leaves will produce about 200 cups. This means that most of the premium teas you'll find offered here cost less than a quarter per cup. Mere pittance compared to the wealth of aroma and flavor found in each sip of our premium tea.
Tea offered at your local market is a sorry product of mass production and marketing. It is a low-quality tea composed of leaf fannings and dust, the tiny leaf particles that break off when tea leaves are processed. It brews up a dark cup, but one unfortunately devoid of much flavor. A far cry from the abundance of flavor and intoxicating aroma found in a cup of fine loose tea. We are convinced that once you discover the pleasures of premium tea, you will no longer accept the inferior contents of a mass-market box.
How did WWII affect tea consumption in America? What gave birth to the custom of tipping? How were early American fortunes made? And how did Brits come to love putting milk in their tea? These questions and more are answered on our whimsical tea trivia page.
We invite you to download our free "Discover Tea" pamphlet, a concise story of the drink's origins, its many varieties, and the different ways it is enjoyed around the world. We also invite you to view our collection of books on tea. Of the hundreds available, we think these are the finest.
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