National Hot Tea Month!! 2014
The fifth day of the first month of the year two thousand and fourteen
Jasmine Tea
From wikipedia
Jasmine tea is a type of scented tea which absorbs aroma from jasmine blossoms. Scented tea was known during the time of the Song Dynasty (960–1279); however it was reserved for the Imperial Court. Typically, jasmine tea employs green tea as the tea base; however, white tea and even black tea are also now used. The resulting flavor of jasmine tea is subtly sweet and highly fragrant. It is the most famous scented tea in China.
Scented tea was known in China since the Song Dynasty. Cai Xiang wrote in the classic work The Record of Tea: “Tea has natural fragrance, entered as an imperial tribute item; to which a tiny amount of borneo camphor is added; in order to change its fragrance.” This proves that during the Song Dynasty tea was scented with musk and borneo camphor, although it was only available to royalty at the time. The Jasmine plant is believed to have been introduced into China from Persia via India during the Han Dynasty, along with the introduction of Buddhism into China. However, Jasmine tea did not become widespread until the Qing Dynasty when tea started to be exported in large quantities to the West.
The jasmine plant is grown at high elevations in the mountains. Jasmine tea produced in the Chinese province of Fujian enjoys the best reputation. Jasmine tea is also produced in Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Zhejiang provinces. Vietnam is also known for the production of jasmine tea.
Tea leaves are harvested in the early spring and stored until the late summer when fresh Jasmine flowers are in bloom. Jasmine flowers are picked in the late afternoon when the small petals are tightly closed. The flowers are kept cool until nightfall. In the early evening, when the flowers begin to open, the tea is blended with Jasmine flowers and stored overnight. During the night Jasmine flowers open, bloom and release their fragrance into the tea. It takes over four hours for the tea to absorb the fragrance and flavor of the jasmine blossoms. This scenting process may be repeated for as many as six or seven times. The tea absorbs moisture from the fresh Jasmine flowers so it must be dried again to prevent spoilage.
In northern China it is customary to serve Jasmine tea as a welcoming gesture to guests. Jasmine tea is the local tea beverage of Fuzhou, while Jasmine flowers are the municipal flower of that city.
2014/JAN/06
Houjicha
From Wikipedia
Hōjicha (Houjicha) is a Japanese green tea that is distinguished from others because it is roasted in a porcelain pot over charcoal; most Japanese teas are usually steamed. The tea is fired at a high temperature, altering the leaf color tints from green to reddish-brown. The process was first performed in Kyoto, Japan in the 1920s and its popularity persists today.
Hōjicha is often made from bancha tea from the last harvest of the season; however, other varieties of Hōjicha also exist, including a variety made from sencha, and Kukicha, tea made from the twigs of the tea plant rather than the leaves.
Hōjicha infusions have a light- to reddish-brown appearance and are less astringent due to losing catechins during the high-temperature roasting process. The roasted flavors are extracted and dominate this blend: the roasting replaces the vegetative tones of standard green tea with a toasty, slightly caramel-like flavor. The roasting process used to make Hōjicha also lowers the amount of caffeine in the tea. Because of its mildness, Hōjicha is a popular tea to serve during the evening meal or after, before going to sleep, and even preferred for children and the elderly.
I did not realize the process lowered the caffeine. Guess I’ll be needing a cup this evening because I am an elderly child. :)
January the Seventh, 2014
Genmaicha
From Wikipedia
Genmaicha is the Japanese name for green tea combined with roasted brown rice. It is sometimes referred to colloquially as “popcorn tea” because a few grains of the rice pop during the roasting process and resemble popcorn. This type of tea was originally drunk by poor Japanese, as the rice served as a filler and reduced the price of the tea; which is why it is also known as the “people’s tea.” It was also used by those persons fasting for religious purposes or who found themselves to be between meals for long periods of time. Today it is consumed by all segments of society.
Tea steeped from these tea leaves has a light yellow hue. Its flavor is mild and combines the fresh grassy flavor of green tea with the aroma of the roasted rice. Although this tea is based on green tea, the recommended way to brew this tea is different from that of green tea. To make best aroma, it is recommended to use boiled water with brewing time of 30 seconds.
Genmaicha is also sold with matcha (powdered green tea) added to it. This product is called Matcha-iri genmaicha. Matcha-iri genmaicha has a similar flavor to plain genmaicha but the flavor is often stronger and the color more green than light yellow.
Jan. 8
Lapsang Souchong
From Wikipedia
Lapsange souchong is a black tea originally from the Wuyi region of the Chinese province of Fujian. It is sometimes referred to as smoked tea. Lapsang is distinct from all other types of tea because lapsang leaves are traditionally smoke-dried over pinewood fires, taking on a distinctive smoky flavour.
“Souchong” refers to the fourth and fifth leaves of the tea plant, further away from the more highly prized bud (pekoe) of the tea plant. These leaves are coarser than the leaves closer to the bud, and have less aromatic compounds. Smoking provides a way to create a marketable product from these less desirable leaves.
According to some sources, Lapsang souchong is the first black tea in history, even earlier than Keemun tea. After the lapsang souchong tea was used for producing black tea called Min Hong (meaning “Black tea produced in Fujian”), people started to move the tea bush to different places like Keemun, India and Ceylon.
Lapsang souchong is a member of the Bohea family of teas (“Bohea” is the pronunciation in Minnan dialect for Wuyi Mountains, which is the mountain area producing a large family of tea in South-East China). The story goes that the tea was created during the Qing era when the passage of armies delayed the annual drying of the tea leaves in the Wuyi Mountain. Eager to satisfy demand, the tea producers sped up the drying process by having their workers dry the tea leaves over fires made from local pines.
Lapsang souchong from the original source is increasingly expensive, as Wuyi is a small area and there is increasing demand for this variety of tea.
A black tea, lapsang souchong has a rich colour. High grade lapsang souchong possesses a taste of dried longan for the first few brews. Lapsang souchong’s flavour is strong and smoky, similar to the smell of a barbecue or campfire, or of Latakia pipe tobacco. The flavour of the pine smoke is meant to complement the natural taste of the black tea, but should not overwhelm it.
Tea merchants marketing to Westerners note that this variety of tea generally produces a strong reaction, with most online reviews extremely positive or strongly negative.
Tea connoisseurs often note that Formosan lapsang souchong typically has a stronger flavour and aroma, the most extreme being tarry souchong (smoked, as the name implies, over burning pine tar).
The smoke roast version is roasted in a bamboo basket called a honglong, which is heated over burning firewood which contributes to the dried longan aroma and smoky flavor. Pine wood is used as the firewood for lapsang souchong and contains the characteristic resin aroma and taste.
The unique aroma of lapsang souchong is due to a variety of chemical compounds. The two most abundant constituents of the aroma are longifolene and α-terpineol. Many of the compounds making up the aroma of lapsang souchong, including longifolene, originate only in the pine smoke, and are not found in other kinds of tea.
It was Sir Winston Churchill’s preferred tea, a habit which he acquired together with cigar smoking early in his military career while in Cuba, and always brought him a reminder of his campaign days of youth. In American author James A. Michener’s 1974 historical novel Centennial, Rocky Mountain fur trapper Alexander McKeag describes lapsang souchong as “a man’s tea, deep and subtle and blended in some rugged place […] better even than whisky.”
01/09
Yellow tea
From Wikipedia
Yellow tea usually implies a special tea processed similarly to green tea, but with a slower drying phase, where the damp tea leaves are allowed to sit and yellow. The tea generally has a very yellow-green appearance and a smell different from both white tea and green tea. The smell is sometimes mistaken for black if the tea is cured with other herbs, but similarities in taste can still be noticed between yellow, green and white teas.
Friday the 10th.
Guayusa
From Wikipedia.
Ilex guayusa is an Amazonian tree of the holly genus, native to the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest. One of three known caffeinated holly trees, the leaves of the guayusa tree are dried and brewed like a tea for their stimulative effects.
The guayusa plant is a tree growing 6–30 meters tall. The leaves are evergreen and 2.5–7 cm long. The flowers are small and white. The fruit is spherical and red, 6–7 mm in diameter. The leaves contain caffeine and other alkaloids.
The plant yields xanthines such as caffeine. Two other species of holly trees, Ilex paraguariensis, or yerba mate, and Ilex vomitoria, or yaupon holly, also contain caffeine. A tall tree native to the upper Amazonian regions of Ecuador, northeastern Peru, and southwestern Colombia, guayusa has been collected only rarely by botanists is known almost exclusively as a cultivated plant. Melvin Shemluck documented a flowering guayusa tree in Pastaza Province, Ecuador in his work between 1979 and 1980.
The plant is grown primarily in Ecuador in the eastern provinces of Napo and Pastaza, but is found in parts of Peru and Colombia. After harvest, the guayusa leaves are dried which allows flavor to develop.
Traditionally, some Ecuadorian Kichwa people boil guayusa leaves in water and consume the resulting beverage for its stimulative effects. In addition to drinking cups of guayusa like many Americans drink coffee, indigenous hunters drink guayusa to sharpen their instincts and call it the “Night Watchman" because it helps them stay alert and awake all night. Fresh leaves are used as well as dried leaves, which are dried in rolls and strung together as a wreath resembling a Hawaiian lei.
In addition to caffeine, guayusa also contains theobromine, a stimulant commonly found in chocolate, and L-theanine, a glutamic acid analog found in green tea that has been shown to reduce physical and mental stress.
Chemical analyses in 2009 and 2010 have shown caffeine content in guayusa of 2.90-3.28% by dry weight. Guayusa contains all of the essential amino acids for humans and has a “high antioxidant activity,” with ORAC antioxidant values of 58μM per gram, compared to 28-29μM per gram for commercial green teas.
There have been few published studies on the possible medical benefits of guayusa, but one study has shown that ingesting guayusa helped reduce hyperglycemia and other side-effects of Type 1 diabetes in an animal model.
“Wayusa” as spelled in the indigenous Kichwa language of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Also pronounced “Why-sa” by the Kichwa people and “Why-ees” by the Shuar people.
Michael Harner, the founder of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies describes how “the Jivaro say guayusa is so habituating that before it is offered to a visitor, he is warned that once he drinks it, he will ever always after return to the Ecuadorian Jungle.”
The Kichwa people claim that guayusa induces dreams that foretell whether hunting expeditions will be successful.
A 1,500-year-old bundle of guayusa leaves was found by Harvard University ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes in a medicine man’s tomb high in the Bolivian Andes, far beyond the natural range of the plant.
Second Saturday
Nilgiri Tea
From Wikipedia
Nilgiri tea is generally described as being a dark, intensely aromatic, fragrant and flavoured tea grown in the southern portion of the Western Ghats mountains of Southern India. It is grown in the hills of the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu, though there are numerous other tea-growing districts in South India as well, including Munnar and Central Travancore, further south in Kerala state.
Nilgiri tea plantations are represented by the Nilgiri Planters’ Association, which is an organizational member of the United Planters Association of South India (UPASI), headquartered in Coonoor. UPASI is the peak body representing plantation owners in South India. However, plantations only account for around 30% of tea production in Nilgiri District. The vast majority of production is undertaken by small growers, who typically own less than one hectare each. The majority of Nilgiri tea small growers are the Badagas, a local community of agriculturists.
Tea plantations in Nilgiri District (as in other growing districts of India) typically own and operate their own processing factories. Small growers sell their tea as green leaf to “bought leaf factories”, which are independently owned. (Although in recent years, some plantation factories have started buying green leaf from small growers). After processing (which converts the green leaf into ‘made tea’), most is sold through regularly scheduled auctions in Coonoor, Coimbatore and Kochi. More than 50% of Nilgiri tea is exported, and usually finds its way into blends used for tea bags.
The expensive hand-sorted, full-leaf versions of the tea like the Orange Pekoe (O.P.) are highly sought after at international auctions making it unaffordable for most locals. In November 2006 a Nilgiri Tea achieved “Top Honours” and fetched a world record price of $600 per kg. This was at the first ever tea auction held in Las Vegas. A machine-sorted, lower-cost variety of high quality tea is a semi-full leaf variety known as Broken Orange Pekoe (B.O.P.). However, most production occurs via the Crush, Tear, Curl or CTC process of manufacture, which delivers a higher number of cups per measure (technically known as cuppage). The strong flavours of Nilgiri tea make it useful for blending purposes. At the same time, Nilgiri tea has suffered from poor reputation associated with its erstwhile reliance on sales to the former USSR. Soviet buyers had little regard for quality. In the 1990s the collapse of this trading partner triggered a substantial economic downslide in the Nilgiris district, which was further aggravated by various quality issues. In recent years the Tea Board of India has charged some producers of Nilgiri tea with fraudulently adulterating their product, and has closed some Bought Leaf Factories due to non-compliance with food safety regulations. Also with a view to improving product quality, the United Planters Association of South India and the Tea Board of India have instigated programs to change cultivation and harvest practices among small growers.
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