Best Tea and Honey 
Earthiness and Umami in Tea
Pu Erh tea contains a heavy measure of earthy umami flavor
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 confirmed the existence of the flavor. Umami has been described as earthy and meaty, and the best examples of it are probably found in mushrooms and Parmesan cheese. Tea lovers will recognize the flavor from the “earthy” qualities of many white teas and Pu Erh teas, found here at our host’s online store! Compare the grassy and astringent flavors of green tea to a good, strong, meaty white tea, all available from our host, Red Leaf Tea, and learn more about umami today.
A Pretty Look for Late Spring
A more delicate look and flavor than "First Love" cannot be imagined
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 only by its subtle flavor. The scent of rose is very easy to recognize, and it is surprising to see how often the flower appears in cooking. Rose petals are very easy to use as sweeteners, although they don’t work whenever a floral effect would create a problem. Floral flavors are also easily overwhelmed. The flavor of white tea, less grassy, earthier, and much deeper than green, is a perfect match for rose petals. Between visual presentation and supreme delicacy, this tea is the perfect brew for a late spring get together!
Coffee From Tea?
Brew this tea for 5 minutes to get a great coffee!
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 is found in stores, we can actually recommend this herbal blend very highly! A carefully balanced blend of roasted dandelion root, roasted chicory root, chocolate barley malt and crystal malt, Herbal Jahva Tea makes an incredible facsimile of regular coffee. One reviewer thought that when mixed with milk, the liquor was actually a very good iced cappucino! Get it at Red Leaf Tea today!
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 made for summer. It works great when mixed with seltzers or clear sodas, too! Rosehips and hibiscus complete the candy-like package iwth their flowery flavors. Try chilling the tea before adding anything carbonated! You can get this Cherry Tea at Red Leaf Tea at a great price, so order online soon!
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 yourself the flexibility in brewing that this tea equipment offers. The Finum Stainless Steel brewing filter pictured here can serve to brew both tea and coffee. It is dishwasher safe and easy to use in almost any large container. It allows allows you to experiment with your tea blends, from adding fruit to mixing various loose-leaf teas, and even to emptying tea bag to better observe how their contents brew up. This filter is hard to get, so try shopping for one at Red Leaf Tea, soon!
Growing Expertise in Your Tea Palette
Citrus Green is a good example of a sweetener lightening the astringency of a green tea.
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, always evokes a strong sense of grass. Oolong tea sits somewhere in between the two. Every tea made from the Camillia Sinenesis plant has an astringent element in it, which is to say a faint and slightly bitter flavor that causes a barely perceptible puckering effect. The most interesting flavors associated with good teas is called earthiness. Earthiness is highly valued in a tea because it tends to replace the astringent elements of a strong brew, common to all the basic types. Pure sugar and other sweeteners generally work well with most teas, although a tea with a strong element of earthiness loses something when oversweetened. Keep these notes in mind when shopping for a new, imported loose-leaf tea at our host’s website, Red Leaf Tea!
The Far East Fave, Green Tea and Jasmine
Jasmine and green tea are two of the most popular flavors of the Orient.
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, we’ve seen green tea exceed it’s oxidized cousin in many parts of the world. In the Far East, green tea is an essential drink, and it is usually combined with the beloved jasmine blossom, such as this blend here. This creates a delicate and sweet brew that many feel is the ultimate expression of Eastern civilization. Order soe online today, from our host, Red Leaf Tea!
Try the Green Rooibus!
Green Rooibus tea is less nutty and sweeter than regular red 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 here. Green rooibus is sweeter and less nutty in flavor than red, and in South African it is often flavored with tropical fruit like papaya or mango. Like it’s better known red cousin, green roobius is caffeine free and full of nutrients. Order some today from our host, Red Leaf Tea!