Best Tea and Honey

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  A Famous Tea Arrives

  

  Our host, Red Leaf Tea, is often able to get extraordinary teas at very good prices, and a new bonanza has definitely hit American shores, thanks to this Chicago-based vendor.  The premium Dragon Well Tea of Hangzhou has arrived in good supply!  A member of China’s traditional Famous Teas List, Dragon Well is grown from [...]

  
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  Earthiness and Umami in Tea

  

  There is a quality, or flavor, in many foods called umami.  You probably haven’t heard of it before, and the flavor was only discovered in 1908 by a Japanese chemist, Kikunae Ikeda.  Since his initial work, the discovery of taste buds on the human tongue designed specifically to respond to the presence of umami has [...]

  
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  A Pretty Look for Late Spring

  

  We wanted to give you a look at the absolutely beautiful visuals of this floral blend from our host Website, Red Leaf Tea.  This tea is a 1-to-four mixture of fine Silver Needle White Tea and delicate pink rose petals, and it is inspiringly named, “First Love!”  The delicate look of this tea is matched [...]

  
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  Coffee From Tea?

  

  Lately we added a post praising a German stainless steel filter, adding that it worked equally well with coffee or tea.  And while we would never give coffee a front and center place in our kitchen, we do think it has a place in the cupboard somewhere!  If you have problems with coffee as it [...]

  
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  Super Sweet Teas for Summer Fun!

  

  With summer just around the corner, you may be looking at a few new treats for your kids to try.  We recommend this Cherry Tea, pictured here!  Blended from dried chunks of cherry and apple fruits, along with aronia and rowan to add a touch of astringency, this zesty tisane is a beautiful sweet tea [...]

  
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  Versatility in Tea Equipment

  

  While some tea lovers may shudder at the very thought of the competitive coffee bean, we prefer to think of the other morning brew as an emergency wakefulness aide.  There is, after all, no denying that coffee gets more caffeine into your systems with greater speed than tea.  For this reason, you should certainly allow [...]

  
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  Growing Expertise in Your Tea Palette

  

  When tasting a variety of teas it is important to remember the base flavors of each of the basic tea types, which are black, green and oolong.  Black tea should bring a strong flavor of rose, rose petals, or even rose hips to mind.  A good green tea such as the Citrus Green, pictured here, [...]

  
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  The Far East Fave, Green Tea and Jasmine

  

  We’ve written several times in this blog about the popularization of black teas and rooibus tea in the U.S., and we wanted to return again another interesting part of tea history: the emergence of green tea from the Orient to Western awareness.  Black tea was always easier to ship around the world than green.  Today, [...]

  
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  Try the Green Rooibus!

  

  Rooibus is Akrikaans for “red bush,” the name of the South African shrub that gives us the leaves that roast so beautifully into red tea.  When rooibus leaves are simply picked, dried and chopped up, with no roasting invovled, they remain greenish-yellow in color, and they brew into a great tea called Green Rooibus, shown [...]

  
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  Blooming Mountains of Tea!

  

  We’ve earlier written abut the Blooming Tea phenomenon.  Blooming Teas are little balls or pellets of woven green tea leaves.  When immersed into hot water, they slowly unravel!  As they expand, they reveal beautiful flowers like the amaranth or jasmine, and form themselves into incredible shapes.  The base of green tea leaves are from premium [...]

  
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  The Chamomint Toddy!

  

  We’re always on the lookout for new recipes for both teas and cocktails, and here is one that combines the best of both worlds.  The tea in question is the Chamomint Tea here, offered by our host, Red Leaf Tea.  The Chamomint Toddy is created by heating a cup of apple juice to a low [...]

  
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  A Cup of Beauty!

  

  Social teas are great occasions for sharing beautiful beverages in an elegant setting.  The traditional English tea set was created to make these events as uplifting and pleasurable as possible.  Inspired by England’s example, our host, Red Leaf Tea, has created this new collection of Decorated Flowering Teacups!  With their brightly tinted images of unfolding roses, these teacups [...]

  
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  More Exotics: Japan’s Mu Tea # 16

  

  As one might expect of the country that gave the world the tea ceremony, tea is a serious business in Japan, and it is not unusual for Japanese tea manufacturers to hire tea designers to assemble new and intriguing blends.  In this case, George Osaka gets the credits for inventing Mu Tea #16!  Our host, [...]

  
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  The Best In Irish Tea

  

  Irish Tea is well known a a wake-me-up brew.  In the 1600′s, the first teas to come out of China were usually black, because they were easier to ship, due to their long shelf life.  Black teas soon became the basic brew known to Europeans.  In the 1800′s, India emerged as a tea growing force, [...]

  
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  Handcrafted Tea From Fujian, Yunan

  

  We recently discovered a wonderful new version of white tea!  Harvested by hand in the famous forests of wild tea trees, in both Fujian and Yunan provinces of China, these white and green tea leaves are woven into little shapes.  Our favorite version is the Golden Star, though there are also Golden Dragon Feelers, Wheat [...]

  
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  Welcome to Tea World!

  

  If you’re curious about the world of loose-leaf tea, freshly imported form tropical lands (and not beaten into tea dust suitable for teabags), with all their nutrients and inherent virtues still alive and kicking, then you should order this gift package!  Composed of several great tea accessories and gourmet loose-leaf teas, this set is available [...]

  
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  Bamboo and Tea

  

  If you enjoy brewing loose-leaf tea, then you’ve almost certainly had the problem of of poor filters that allow tea leaves to float in the liquor, and then to get stuck in your teeth!  And perhaps you find the antiseptic metal and paper filter commonly available in modern supermarkets not quite to your satisfaction.  You [...]

  
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  The Kalahari Herb: Rooibus Tea

  

  Technically speaking, the tea tree produces the only true tea, while all other beverages made of brewed leaves and roots are “tisanes.”  Despite this fussy nomenclature, rooibus tea has definitely conquered the tea market in the United States during the last decade!  A product of South African scrubland and desert, the rooibus is a small [...]

  
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  The Mountain Town of Darjeeling

  

  In the Lower Himalaya mountains there is a town called Darjeeling, which today produces a tremendous supply of supremely spicy and rich black teas to the world.  Darjeeling was a simple village until the British arrived in the 1830′s, when they built a depot there.  A Dr. Charles Campbell also arrived, bringing with him a [...]

  
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  Pink Tea as White Zinfandel?

  

  When we enjoy a white zinfandel wine, we are melding the sweetness of white wine with the robust fruit of the red, and the same might be said for the flavors brought together in this delicate white tea.  Pink Sonoma Tea (available here at a real bargain price!) is a blend of a white tea [...]

  
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  Learn by Tasting!

  

  In the world of tea, oolong is the middle leaf.  It is processed, as we noted a few weeks ago, to be halfway between lightly oxidized green tea and completely oxidized black tea.  This gives a good oolong a flavor that can be hard to nail down in words.  There is some astringency, yet also [...]

  
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  The Flavor of Nature

  

  Organic foods have a tough job.  They have to go up against all those perfectly displayed, chemically preserved, and attractively packaged commercial products every day!  Yet because they are not sprayed with chemicals designed to keep them frozen in time, they have blemishes and other flaws that don’t look as good.  The secret value of [...]

  
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  The Sacred Mountains of Tea!

  

  In Ancient China, the greatest tea of all was called Pu Erh.  It is still made today, as a a deluxe, gourmet tea in the form of cakes that gains value and flavor as it ages, like fine wines.  At Red Leaf Tea, you can find a few pu erhs for sale at great prices, [...]

  
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  Bunnies for Kids, Tea for Grownups!

  

  Now that spring is here, it’s time to start planning for the Easter holiday, and we would like to urge you to make gifts of tea a part of the festivities!  Now, we would never dream of replacing chocolate bunnies with teabags – it wouldn’t be fair!  And scientific surveys have shown a little dark [...]

  
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  A fine compromise! Oolong Tea

  

  We find that sometimes we need a break from the simple choice of green or black tea, and that’s when we like to have an oolong.  Oolong is usually light in color and body, and it can be counted on to refresh and clear the head.  It is processed in an exactly middle form, oxidized [...]

  
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  The Greatest Tea of All: Pu Erh

  

  Pu Erh tea is without a doubt the finest of all teas based on the Camillia Sinsensis tea tree.  It is made only from the leaves of a subspecies of Camillia that has larger leaves than the more common strain, and only in China’s Yunan province.  Pu erh tea is made in the same way [...]

  
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  An Exotic, Colorful Blend

  

  At our regular website and online store, Red Leaf Tea, we’re proud of our ability to find odd or unusual teas that you don’t often find anywhere else.  We think we hit the jackpot with this lovely blend that we call “Blue Moon.”  A festival of bright colors and flavors melded with a fine black [...]

  
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  Flavored Honey for Fun

  

  At Red Leaf Tea, our host site and online store, we have a lot of great honey’s available, including a honey made near tremendous fields of macadamia nut trees, right here.  These blossoms give the honey a buttery flavor.  Honey is mostly sugar, of course, and the palate can easily be overwhelmed by the sweet [...]

  
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  Teas and Caffeine

  

  We all know that a good cup of tea will perk you up.  This is due to the presence of caffeine, a stimulant that occurs naturally in the leaves of Camilla Sinensis, the tea plant.  Tea leaves, in fact, have more caffeine than the seeds of the coffee plant!  The preparation of the two brews, [...]

  
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  Which to Choose? Green or Black?

  

  When you enjoy a dinner at a Japanese restaurant, you will almost certainly enjoy a cup of green tea, such as these, at the start of the meal.  With it ability to improve digestion and its mellow blend of grassy and earthy flavor notes, green tea certainly is perfect for a meal of lightly sauced [...]

  
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  We’re Sticklers for Honey!

  

  If you have a kid who gets fussy about their food, this is a bit of honey you can employ to great effect, in tea and many other consumables!  Our host, Red Leaf Tea, now offers these Honey Sticks on their website, here.  The idea is perfectly simple, and like many simple ideas, it works [...]

  
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  A Wild Marsala Tea

  

  If you enjoy exotic flavors, this tea is for you!  Our hosts, Red Leaf Tea, have found this zesty and stimulating Wild Monkey Marsala imported from China (and available online here).  Starting with a basic Chinese black tea and adding a few light spices such as cinnamon and allspice, the blend is then infused with [...]

  
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  Organic Tea, Arise!

  

  If you’ve followed the food news in the U.S., you’ve probably seen a lot of nasty reports lately.  McDonald’s food was shown to be a virtual poison in the documentary, “Supersize Me,” from Morgan Spurlock.  Serious and noisy publications describing the wretched details of mass-produced  foods, such as “The End of Food,” by Thomas Pawlick, [...]

  
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  A delicate balance…

  

  We are always eager to enjoy a new white tea, and our host, Red Leaf Tea, has brought a great new brand to the market.  This  new blended flavor is called the Sicilian Vespers, a great mix of white tea with floral sweeteners and a cabernet wine infusion.  The delicate white leaf successfully retains is [...]

  
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  White Tea, Champagne and Raspberries

  

  White tea famously adds a strong earthiness to the normally green and grassy flavors that suffuse most teas.  Red Leaf Tea recently has invented a great new version of this delicate and strongly caffeinated liquor called Champagne Infused White Raspberry tea, now available online here!  This blend was developed by infusing champagne into the leaf, [...]

  
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  The Beauty of Flowers and Tea

  

  Blooming Tea has become an astonishingly popular gift for Christmas, our hosts site reports.  Red Leaf Tea is processing an incredible array of orders for lovers on Christmas Day, as Gift Pack of Blooming Tea shows!  Each Gift Pack holds nine Blooming Tea bundles, and is adorned with stylish labeling and ribbons.  Blooming Tea is [...]

  
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  Try “Black Night” Tea as a Christmas Present!

  

  The hosting website for this blog, Red Leaf Tea, offers several Christmas specials this month, and one of them features an exciting new black tea called “Black Night!”  A rich, heavy, and strongly caffeinated black tea from the mountains of Sri Lanka, Black Night tea is both stimulating and astringent, with the typical floral aromas [...]

  
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  Kukicha Twig Tea: A Special Winter’s Tea!

  

  As you may have noticed from my earlier post, I’ve started preparing presents for Christmas.  As you may imagine, tea enjoys a prominent role in the gifts I choose!  If you’re you’re wondering what tea is best for a winter’s night, let me assure you that the Kukicha Twig brew is a fantastic option.  Kukicha [...]

  
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  Season’s Greetings with Loose Leaf Tea Gifts

  

  Well, here at the house, I’m starting to creating my gift pack for several friends and relatives.  There are some who share my love of tea, and some who sort of enjoy tea, and some who prefer not to deal with the leaves.  For the tea rejectors, I’ve got mittens and goofy ties!  For the [...]

  
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  Loose Leaf Tea, the Oldest Brew

  

  The Chinese legend goes thusly:  the Emperor was in a parkland, resting and dealing with a headache.  When he had these headaches, one thing that made him feel better was to sip hot water.  On this lovely autumn afternoon, as the ruler sat in his park sipping, a few leaves from a nearby tree fell [...]

  
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  Herbal Teas and Red Tea

  

  The plant that produces the leaf that makes true tea is called the Camellia Sinensis.  It grows in tropical regions throughout the world today, after being imported from its native lands in the mountains of Southeast Asia.  Yet while the Chinese brew a wonderful liquor from the leaves of the Camellia, healers all around the [...]

  
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  Fine Loose Leaf Teas from Around the World

  

  Newcomers to the world of gourmet teas may wonder if there really is a difference between leaves from India and China.  Let us reassure these beginners that tea can be as varied as the fine wines of France or California!  The first first factor that beings to differentiate fine teas is the time of the [...]

  
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  Using Loose Leaf Tea in Baths!

  

  Did you know that ancient healers prescribed tea for the bath?  They were well aware that green tea has a beneficial effect on the bloodstream, which we now interpret as lowered blood pressure.  They also knew that tea cold have a strong medicinal effect on psoriasis and other skin problems.  There are now many wonderful [...]

  
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  Loose Leaf Teas: Starting at the Beginning

  

  It is always amazing to think about the limited availability of loose leaf teas in the United States today.  When teas began to arrive on American shores in the early 20th Century, they were quickly absorbed by importers who embraced the latest in mass production techniques -  and that meant tea bags for the tea industry!  [...]

  

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