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Tea Tips

Making Good Tea Time After Time
by Bruce Richardson

All tea comes from the Camellia sinensis plant. Processing the fresh green leaves and bud of the tea plant determines the tea family – white, green, black or oolong. After picking, green tea leaves begin to oxidize. The manufacturing process, amount of manufacture time, and length of oxidation will determine the tea family assignment.

White Tea begins with two young leaves and bud, or just the unopened bud. The delicate pluckings undergo a long wither and are naturally lightly-oxidized and dried, usually in the sun or in a warm drying room.

Green Tea has little oxidation as the leaves are steamed or wok fired, rolled, and dried soon after picking.

Oolong Tea falls somewhere between green and black teas because the leaves are only partially oxidized, rolled, and dried.

Black Tea is made by bruising green tea leaves by hand, or machine. The leaves are allowed to oxidize for two to four hours and then dried with heat.

How to Brew The Perfect Cup

· Fill your kettle with cold filtered water and begin heating.

· Warm the tea pot with hot water.

· Discard the water in the teapot.

· Using an infuser basket or tea filter, add 1 teaspoon of tea per cup to the pot. (Measure how much water your teapot holds so you know how much tea to use. We have found that some "two" cup teapots are really three cup teapots).

· Pour the hot or boiling water over the leaves in the pot. Allow to brew for the appropriate time.

· Remove the leaves from the liquor and pour into cups.

At Queen’s Pantry we like to help customers remember how to make their black tea with 5-1-1.

5 – minutes brew time

1 – teaspoon of tea

1 – cup of boiling water

Oolong ,Green and White tea, remember 3-1-1.

3 – minutes brew time

1 – teaspoon of tea

1 – cup of "just below the boil" water

The above is a starting guide for time and temp. For example, you might like your particular blend of black tea very strong and use a heaping teaspoon per cup instead of a level teaspoon. If the time is varied much you might feel your cup of tea is bitter-- tannins are released after seven minutes and are bitter tasting to most.

Tea & Health
(From Elmwood Inn Fine Teas & Benjamin Press 2009 Catalog)

The buzz word in tea and health is EGCG, tea’s principle catechin and a strong antioxidant. Green tea EGCG appears to prevent brain cells from dying and may even rescue the neurons once they have been damaged, to help them repair. It’s worth noting that the Michael J. Fox Foundation is funding a current study on tea’s effects on Parkinson’s disease.

Numerous worldwide studies have showed a lower incidence of cancer in cultures where green tea was consumed regularly.

Black teas are rich in flavonoids that may improve blood vessel function. New research shows tea flavonoids bring about a decrease in arterial stiffness, suggesting that tea consumption may have favorable effects on cardiovascular disease. Studies also showed tea’s positive effects on reducing blood cholesterol levels and providing dilation of blood vessels to help manage blood pressure.

A cup of tea contains approximately 125 mg of flavonoids, which is more than most non-tea drinkers consume in an entire day!

Tea Quotes

“Christopher Robin was home by this time, because it was the afternoon, and he was so glad to see them that they stayed there until very nearly tea-time, and then they had a Very Nearly Tea, which is one you forget about afterwards, and hurried on to Pooh Corner, so as to see Eeyore before it was too late to have a Proper Tea with Owl.”
-from “The House at Pooh Corner” by A.A. Milne

“The first cup moistens my lips and throat. The second shatters my loneliness. The third causes the wrongs of life to fade gently from my recollection. The fourth purifies my soul. The fifth lifts me to the realms of the unwinking gods.”
-Chinese mystic Tang Dynasty

“No,” he said. “Look, it’s very, very simple…all I want…is a cup of tea. You are going to make one for me. Keep quiet and listen.” And he sat. He told the Nutri-Matic about India, he told it about China, he told it about Ceylon . He told it about broad leaves drying in the sun. He told it about silver teapots. He told it about summer afternoons on the lawn. He told it about putting in the milk before the tea so it wouldn’t get scalded. He even told it (briefly) about the history of the East India Company.
“So that’s it, is it?” said the Nutri-Matic when he had finished.
“Yes,” said Arthur, “that is what I want.”
“You want the taste of dried leaves in boiled water?”
“Er, yes. With milk.”
“Squirted out of a cow?”
“Well, in a manner of speaking I suppose…”
-from “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams

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