It's almost the solstice and I'm just getting my Tea Spring Cleaning done. Not surprising what with a pandemic and massive civil uprising against systemic oppression in the United States of America. There are a lot of distractions. But directly related to tea, the crash in domestic flights between Asia and the United States has significantly impacted shipping rates and times. So as I wait for the new tea shipments, I'm making room.
Traditional hot brewing vs. modern cold brewing
Iced tea is a tradition in the United States. Urban legend has it that it was "invented" here but I can't really buy into that kind of appropriation. But I can acknowledge that it was popularized here and that it is definitely one of the primary ways tea is consumed in this country. It is also responsible for the fact that the U.S.A. is the largest consumer of tea by dollars in the world, although not by volume. Most iced tea is made with lower quality commodity tea, usually bagged, and often sweetened or flavored. Which is also why this country is flooded with crappy tea. Some of us grew up on the (in)famous "sweet tea" of the U.S. South. For most of my life, I've sweetened and added milk or other less than healthy additives to my tea in order to make it drinkable. But no more!
Iced tea made with your favorite Leaves of Cha or other specialty tea is delightful and delicious without any additives. I recommend trying it with any of your favorite teas, except maybe that $1000/g hundred-year-old puerh you've been hiding in your tea hoard. Personally, I also use the word "iced" loosely, as I don't actually ice my tea because I don't want it to continuously dilute. But room temperature or refrigerated tea tastes wonderful.
So how to prepare your "iced" tea? Since I am not going to "ice" it, I use the same dosing I enjoy for hot tea. If you do decide to ice, you could increase the dosing to allow for the melting ice and dilution of the tea. I'm going to talk here about two methods: cold- and hot-brewing. Cold brewing, perhaps obviously, means putting the leaves into cold or room temperature water and then refrigerating it for up to 24 hours. The traditional hot brewing is prepared just like you would for your hot tea and then cooled down and refrigerated or iced to the temperature you prefer. The biggest downside to hot-brewing is that you have to watch your steep time: too much time in the hot water will pull the tannins out of the leaf and make the infusion bitter and possibly undrinkable. Cold brewing does not have this problem. It's basically worry free. At room and refrigerated temperatures, the tannins do not cause the tea to become bitter. This makes cold-brewing a favorite when I'm serving it with a big, complicated meal like at holidays. It's one less thing for me to worry about. I just make it the night before and forget about it until I'm ready to serve it. One less thing to put me "in the weeds" when I'm in the kitchen.
What do I use to cold brew? Really any container that allows the leaf to expand into the whole volume of water will do. Then just pour through a mesh strainer. Or you can use a teamaker, french press, or tumbler for individual servings or this wonderful pitcher for small groups. When I'm brewing for a huge group, it's an appropriately sized pot or jug and then a mesh sieve to strain the tea through when the infusion is done.
I ran an experiment with one of my favorite cold teas, the Kanoka Assam, to compare hot- and cold-brewing. The results and recommendations are below. But again, any of your favorite teas would do. I also really like cold greens, oolongs, and some whites.
Cupping Parameters
I cupped three variations: a hot-brew and two cold brews,.
Dosing: 4 grams tea to 8 ounces of water
Assam #1: Cold-brewed for 24 hours
Assam #2: Cold-brewed for 8 hours
Assam #3: Hot-brewed for 4 minutes with 195˚ water, then refrigerated for 2 hours
Results and Conclusions
The first thing that you will notice it the huge difference in appearance. The color of the tea liquor is very different for the three variations, In the first two photos above, Assam #1 through #3 are from left to right, respectively. In the last photo, Assam #1 through #3 are from top to bottom, respectively.
For me, the most obvious difference in taste is in astringency (perceived as bitterness and/or dryness to the western palate). The cold-brews (#1 and #2) had none. Assam #3 was astringent but not in an over the top way. Any longer in the hot water when brewing might make it too much for my taste, or tempt me to sweeten or add a fat like dairy or nut milk.
The subtleties of the tasting are more subjective to individual palates, but my notes are below. I've also noted when I might prefer the tea made that way and also a pairing with one of my culinary specialties.
Assam #1: Color Yellow/Orange. No bitterness or dryness, notes of honey. This was my all-around favorite, It would pair well with my pasta with marinara or Pomodoro alla Napoletana sauce.
Assam #2: Yellow color. No bitterness or dryness. Crisp and refreshing with hints of citrus. This would be a favorite on a hot day to quench my thirst after a long round of tennis or crushing some hills on my mountain bike. It would be great for taming the heat of my pasta All'Arrabbiatta
Assam #3: Reddish brown color. Definite dryness and medium astringency. Hot brewing brought the malt notes forward as well. This is exactly how I like it to taste hot and is delightful cold. Some might be tempted to add a tiny bit of your favorite sweetener, but not this tea lover, The bigger mouthfeel of this tea would make it a favorite if I needed a pick me up. I think it would pair well with a hearty meat dish, like my pasta Bolognese or Beef Bourguignon.
Blind Test: I had my partner also pick her favorite, with no knowledge of the test parameters. She also chose Assam #1 as her favorite and mentioned a sweetness that was not in the others. So our tastes are closely aligned here. Go figure.
I wish you all the best of times surrounded by whatever brings you comfort during these holiday times (Also...tea!)
I've been busy on the Holiday boutique scene and filling tea orders as you all stock up on your teas and gifts. But I want you to know how much I appreciate your support, whether you've become a regular customer or are an occasional visitor to the website.
These first couple of years of getting my tea business up and running have been a beautiful struggle; both to spread my passion for tea and to create a viable business bringing you consciously sourced specialty tea. It's a struggle to be a small-margin micro-business competing against the Amazons of the world, the commodity tea market, and hyper-capitalism. As the big guys have holiday sales with discounts that are bigger than my profit margins and offer free shipping even as I get emails from USPS about more rate increases, I keep plugging along trying to offer fair prices without feeding the consumer frenzy of the holidays. That being said, I acknowledge that tea is a wonderful gift and appreciate all of you that have made these festive weeks so busy for me.
Once again, thank you! And I hope you are taking plenty of time to simply make tea.
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2nd Cupping: Jin Ya Black Tea
2g tea/4oz water; 196˚ 2 minute infusions
Heirloom cultivar Sencha from Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan
This delicious sencha is made with the Asanoka cultivar. Asanoka means “Morning Aroma” and is a cross between Japanese Yabukita and a Chinese cultivar. It was developed at the old Kagoshima Tea Research Center.
One of the things I’m passionate about with tea, and food in general, is unique and heirloom varietals or cultivars. So I was very excited to find this single cultivar sencha NOT made with the ubiquitous Yabukita cultivar. Of course there are fabulous senchas made with Yabukita but I’m all about preserving and encouraging diversity in specialty tea. The region of Kagoshima where this Asanoka was grown has a high temperature difference between day and night which helps the tea develop a deeper flavor that is vegetal and umami with a light sweetness and without much bitterness
Provenance:
Tasting Notes:
Find it on the website here.
The amazing shade grown Green Tea from Yame
Gyokuro (“Jade Dew”) gets its name from its intense green color and the historical ball-shaped preparation of this tea. Nowadays, the leaves are straight needles like sencha, but the shading process prior to harvest still gives the tea its deep, saturated green color and rich umami flavor.
The Yame growing region is known across Japan for its excellent Gyokuro. Production of Gyokuro involves a 10-day period of shading the tea plants prior to harvest. The shading forces the plant to boost its chlorophyll production and retain its store of amino acids, leading to a deep green color and rich umami.Provenance:
Purple varietal white tea
This rare tea’s leaves come from wild purple tea trees that grow in the high mountain areas of Jinggu. The trees are a varietal often referred to as purple “ye sheng”. Since the trees are completely wild and relatively remote, this tea is produced in tiny quantities and production cannot be scaled. The cost of the tea is almost entirely due to the labor of finding and plucking the leaf material. It takes about 15 days for them to collect enough to process into 15kg of tea. I sampled 25g in 2017 and loved it. When I decided a month later to add it to the Tea Chest it had already sold out for the year. I don’t expect it to be around for me to reorder before the 2019 harvest, so get it while you can.
(I know, I know, another purple tea…I just love them so much. I’ve noticed their rarity often means more (hand)craftiness and skill goes into their making than the more common cultivars. And I’m all about that handmade tea and those heirloom and non-commoditized cultivars)
Provenance:
Tasting Notes:
Cupping the latest harvest
Long Jing is one of the most famous teas of China, and the authentic tea grown within the National Designated Protected Zone (NDPZ) of the original five West Lake villages is especially prized. The last lot of Long Jing on the LoC website was from Meijiawu Village, one of those villages. It was delicious and amazing. One of my lucky customers has bought out the last of it, on sale no less, so kudos to them. Unfortunately, due to it's rarity and the demand for it, the prices have skyrocketed way past what the U.S. market will typically support. Indeed, most of the "official" Long Jing from the NDPZ is now bought up in China and never gets out of the country. I only saw Meijiawu Long Jing in one place this year and it sold completely out in a matter of days. I also missed the opportunity to get a little of it for my own enjoyment.
I love the taste and craft of Long Jing, so I am exploring alternatives from outside of the area that use the Long Jing cultivars and are crafted with the same skill and love. Because of its popularity, Long Jing style tea is grown everywhere in China with varying degrees of success and quality. While the quality of the taste is "in the mouth" and subject to your preference and tastes, the ultimate success of the tea as "Long Jing" depends on how closely the terroir matches that of the NDPZ, the cultivars used (traditional heirloom, the commercially developed culitvar Longjing #43, or something else entirely) and the ability of the teamaker in matching the Long Jing style.
The picture above is from my cupping of a couple of candidates I am sampling. I hope to have a delicious alternative up on the website shortly. Another alternative that I love, is our Bao Hong Mountain tea, which is similar in appearance and shares some palette notes with Long Jing, even though it is a completely different cultivar than the ones use for Long Jing. And it is devotedly grown and processed by a family that has been producing this tea on their land for 10 generations.
I will notify all the subscribers when the new Long Jing is up!
Apres-ski gongfu tea breakI just returned from the Professional Ski Instructors Association Spring Convention at Mammoth Mountain CA. I took some adaptive continuing education clinics to support my volunteer work with the Los Angeles and veteran disabled community. For a quick video of my tea break, click here. |
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Small Farm Tea from Darjeeling India
Yanki Special 2nd Flush is a black tea from Darjeeling, harvested and crafted in small batches from small farms. It is one of the first Darjeeling teas of its kind in the market, as most Darjeelings are from large estates. The small-batch processing allows for a higher standard of quality and ethics for the growers and teamakers.
Yankhu Tamang founded the Society to "Promote Small Farmers, Socially and Economically”. The group is trying to change the narrative of Darjeeling tea production by empowering small growers to make their own tea, including both standard Darjeeling teas and handcrafted quality batches like this Yanki Special Darjeeling. This empowerment of the local Gorkhas, who have always supplied the manpower for the big tea estates, cannot fail to improve the quality of the famous Darjeeling tea and improve the livelihoods of the farmers and teaworkers.
Outside absentee ownership of those large estates has led to a decline in overall quality and a commoditization of most Darjeeling on the market, as well as being a factor in the unrest3 currently happening in the region.
Provenance:
Tasting Notes:
Find it on the website here.
Blended Yunnan Green Tea
This jasmine green tea was too beautiful and delicious to pass up even though the Leaves of Cha tea chest is primarily filled with straight teas. This delicate and aromatic blend is produced in the traditional way using just jasmine flowers steamed under the green tea and then also added to the finished tea.
Provenance:
Tasting Notes:
Incredible jasmine aroma that balances out in the cup to wonderful pair with the umami and vegetative notes of the green tea; all enhanced by the beauty of the jasmine flowers left in the tea leaves. Jasmine notes will be most prominent on first infusion.
Find it on the website here.
]]>Green Tea from Shizuoka Japan
Kukicha, or “stem tea”, is a specialty green tea made from the stems of green tea leaves. Kukicha typically is only made during the spring using a careful process to separate the leaves and stems. This kukicha is made even more delicious by using the flavorful first flush of the tea plants, after they have gone through their period of winter dormancy.
This wonderful tea is from Toshiaki Kinezuka's small, completely organic farm in Shizuoka. Their natural growing practices are an anomaly in the midst of Japan’s typically heavy use of chemicals in their industrialized tea industry.
The farm is now being led by Toshiaki's eldest daughter, Ayumi Kinezuka. Her passion is to keep Japanese tea traditions alive, while also gaining knowledge from other tea traditions. She studied black tea production in Sri Lanka.
She works alongside her father, mother, younger brother, and younger sister on the farm. Leaves of Cha is especially proud to support women-run tea businesses in what is a primarily male-run industry.
Provenance:
Tasting Notes:
Find it on the website here.
Yunnan Green Tea
This Bao Hong green tea is just the kind of tea that gets me excited in this world of generic, commodity teas. It’s delicious, it has history, and it is cultivated and made with dedication and love. I’m still trying to sleuth out the name of the cultivar, if it has one, but the original plant is believed to have been brought to Bao Hong Mountain by a wandering monk from Fujian. Cultivation started during the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618-907) around the same time as the Bao Hong Si Buddhist Monastery was being built on the mountain and has continued ever since. The Liu Family has been growing this tea for at least 10 generations.
This tea is similar to Long Jing/Dragonwell is many respects. It has a unique history and provenance, a similar appearance in the dry and steeped leaf, and in its taste. Yet it is unique in its own right and a great value given the skyrocketing price of authentic Long Jing.
Provenance:
Tasting Notes:
Find it on the website here.
]]>2017 National Disabled Veteran's Winter Sports Clinic, Snomass Colorado
At Leaves of Cha, we believe in being of service. Last week, the Teamonger was in Snowmass Colorado volunteering as an adaptive ski instructor at the 2017 National Disabled Veteran's Winter Sports Clinic. This is my sixth year at the Clinic and it is one of the highlights of my year. This year almost 400 disabled veterans participated, including around 150 new participants. They were supported by about 1000 volunteers, including 200 of the top adaptive ski instructors in the U.S.A. and Canada. On top of that there were the veteran's own caregivers and supporters: family members, friends, and professionals who accompany the veterans and make it possible for them to attend.
Here's a little "taste" of what I do when I'm not brewing tea...
Check out the video here.
And even when I'm out on the snow and ripping off the tops of mountains, I still find time for tea, as you can see here.
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Keep checking the Leaves of Cha website for new and restocked teas
10% off all Teaware through March 22nd
The Ides of March was not a good day for Julius Caesar. But everyday is a great day for tea. And great tea deserves great teaware. Check out all the great choices at Leaves of Cha here; from functional teaware to lovely handmade pieces that perfectly complement the handmade teas we sell here.February 25th & 26th, 2017 in Las Vegas
If you are looking to get out of whatever weather you are experiencing (it seems like everyone is too hot, too cold, too wet, or too dry!) and immerse yourself in tea, come visit my table at the Southwest Tea Festival. The Festival aims to unite tea educators, retailers, and growers with tea drinking consumers and hobbyists. This two-day festival will provide tea knowledge, cultural experiences, tastings, cuppings, pairings, and demonstrations for tea enthusiasts.
This will be Leaves of Cha's first Tea Festival and it's very exciting. I would love to see your there and meet you face to face over a cup of tea. AND, I have a discount code for my customers good for 25% off the ticket purchase price! Hope to see you there.
Code: LEAVESOFCHA
In order to use it, visit www.swteafest.com and choose to purchase tickets. When you are in the window where you get to choose the number of tickets that you would like to purchase, there is an option in the top right corner to enter a discount code. Once the code is entered, it will immediately take 25% off of the purchase price.
Surfas Culinary District, Costa Mesa and Culver City CA
Leaves of Cha has teamed up with the talented Bridget Reilly, owner of Costa Mesa's Royal Tea & Treatery for a couple of demonstrations at the Surfas locations in Southern California. The first one was at the Costa Mesa location before Valentine's Day and featured the making of delicious gluten-free, dairy-free treats. Whenever Bridget paused to prep or cook her treats, I would talk about and sample teas. The picture above is in the Surfas Test Kitchen at the event.
We have another one coming up at the Culver City location on Saturday, March 4th. Keep an eye on the Leaves of Cha Facebook page or other social media for more info on this event as it becomes available.
Holidays are stressful. Have a cup of tea
I hope everyone of my customers are taking time for themselves this holiday. Let's face it; they can be stressful for the simple reason that they are "supposed" to be happy. It's a little more complicated than that. So for me, I breath, I meditate, I make a cup of tea.
I hope you have some on hand so you don't even have to worry about purchasing some. But in case you don't, I have special pricing on some of my teas here. And don't worry that you have to do it now...while supplies last, I'll keep the sale going through for a week or so.
Thank you for all your support and for your love of tea. Peace.
Roasted Green Tea from Shizuoka Japan
Houjicha is a popular Japanese green tea. The dark color is due to the roasting process, which smooths out the bitterness and brings out beautiful aromatic, savory and smoky flavors.
Most houjicha is crafted from lower grade, autumn harvest leaves. However, this tea from the Kinezuka Family is crafted from Spring leaves, harvested in May. These young, tender leaves yield a stronger, more robust flavor and the tea lasts for many more infusions.
The roasting process is said to reduce the amount of caffeine to levels less than decaffeinated tea, but I’m not sure why that would be so I will reserve an opinion until I see some science behind the claim. That being said, the sweetness and lower caffeine content makes it popular for children and evening tea in Japan, so there might be something to it. It is also very easy to brew. The Japanese often drink it hot in the winter and cold in the summer.
This wonderful tea is from the small, completely organic Kinezuka farm in Shizuoka. Their natural growing practices are an anomaly in the midst of Japan’s typically heavy use of chemicals in their industrialized tea industry.
Provenance:
Tasting Notes:
Find it on the website here.
Just in time for holiday gifts for the tea lovers in your life or for your own tea enjoyment, I have added some beautiful functional tea ware to the store:
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Handcrafted Green Tea
Led by community leader Purna Mukhiya, Hariyali Cooperative is an independent grower seeking to make a name for Nepal on the international tea stage. Tea has been growing here for many decades, even before the establishment of the cooperative and its shared-use facilities.
As a result, many of the teamakers here are some of the most knowledgeable handcrafters in Nepal, having inherited the skills from their parents and grandparents. Sharad Subba, one of the most skilled crafters, is the son of one of the village's "Mothers of Tea", a group of women who have been making tea for decades. Hariyali's teamakers have learned to intuitively handle tea leaves, changing the crafting of various batches of tea to suit the personality of each tea field's harvest.
In the typical collaborative Nepalese spirit, some of the teamakers have gone on to share tea knowledge with many other cooperatives in Nepal.
The tea plants are grown at high altitude, with wonderfully fertile soil that seems alive with bugs, native plants, and wildflowers. The farmers of the cooperative grow with all-natural methods, using natural manures. The name "Hariyali" describes a beautiful, vivid green landscape.
Hariyali Cooperative is located near Mai Pokhari, a beautiful lake of great religious and natural significance. Purna Mukhiya's grandfather and grandmother were key to establishing the lake as a spiritual ground.
Provenance:
Tasting Notes:
Find it on the website here.
That is a picture of the Kurihara Family Awards Case above and a picture of their Tea Garden below. Get the Sencha here and the Gyokuro here on the website.
]]>I'm back in civilization, on the grid, and energized from staffing another amazing session at Not Back to School Camp in Myrtle Creek Oregon. Thanks to everyone that took advantage of the sale incentive to order before I left so I could take care of your tea needs before I left. And all order backlog from my absence was taken care of within a day of my return. Again, being of service to my community is so important to me and I appreciate the support you all give me to sustain Leaves of Cha in a way that allows me to realize my intention there.
It was another great session that also yielded some good tea-related pictures for my social media feeds. Hopefully you saw them. If not, I've included a couple of them here. One of the highlights of camp for me is the workshops I get to run. My tea workshops are always overfilled with appreciative and inquisitive teenagers who are generally interested in learning about tea and how to drink it in a socially conscious way. I love that I'm helping to spread tea culture to a new generation of tea lovers.
Look for some new tea announcements and news soon!
As mentioned in the previous post, I am off being of service as a staffer at the Not Back to School Camp Session 2. If you'd like to learn more about this wonderful camp targeted at un- and home-schooled teenagers (or those curios about alternative education models), check out the link here.
Thanks to all of you that took advantage of the sale to get your orders in before I left. I'm mostly off-grid while at camp. That means order fulfillment will be slower during the next couple of weeks but all orders will be on their way by September 9th at the latest, at which time I am back full-time. Thank you for your understanding and patience, for drinking my tea, and for allowing me to be of service.
P.S. The above picture was taken at Camp Myrtlewood last year. Look for more pictures of tea and camp here and on my other social media feeds.
]]>Your reward for me being of service: Discount Code NBTSC16
I believe in being of service. My dream service goal is to donate at least 10% of my time to things I believe in. That was not possible when I worked the corporate 2-, maybe 3-weeks of vacation a year gig. 10% is 5 weeks of service a year, and it would also be nice to vacation and take time with family and friends. It takes some juggling with having my own businesses. But I get to trade off that service goal against my financial goals in ways that I couldn't when I worked for someone.
So I'm off to staff a session Not Back to School Camp for two-and-a-half weeks starting August 20th. This is one of several annual volunteer gigs I have, so expect to see more "service" sales in the future. And since I'm essentially a one-man business and I'm off the grid most of the time, that means orders placed during that time will most probably have up to a two week shipping delay. I will strive to still get them out but you can expect some delays. They will all go out within a couple days of me returning on September 9th.
However, I want to take care of your tea needs so you don't run out while I'm off adventuring. To encourage you to put in your orders before I go, I'm offering 12% off orders placed between August 1st and 14th, all of which will ship as normal before I leave.
In the nearly 100 years that Satemwa has been cultivating tea plants, they have made it a priority to improve the standard of living for their employees and their families. From their unique terroir, Satemwa is able to produce some unique orthodox white, green, oolong, black and dark teas. Experimenting with different local cultivars and playing around with some traditional and new processing techniques, with trial and error and loads of tasting, they have produced great and unusual teas. The special cultivars, the unique climate and the specialized processing techniques make these teas exceptional.
Zomba Pearls is an example of what a white tea can become in the hands of skilled and passionate tea makers. The hand shaped pearls (or crickets!) are beautiful before, during, and after infusion. As the rolled tea opens up, it reveals the beautiful leaves used to create this tea. I am pleased that we are seeing teas from other places in the world made with the same care and love that we see in China’s specialty teas.
Provenance:
Tasting Notes:
Matcha Hattori Midori Green Tea
This unique single-origin matcha is produced by Yoshiaki Hattori on his small tea garden, where he grows all seven cultivars he uses for his matcha blend. Matcha production is very labor, time, and equipment-intensive and is typically done in large-scale production facilities that procure leaf material, or tencha, from multiple sources. These sources are usually growing their leaves with conventional agri-business techniques and inputs.
Hattori-san’s matcha’s single-origin allows him to closely control the quality, taste, and blend to achieve the desired flavor profile. He combines old time-honored techniques with modern efficiency and ingenuity. Part of the traditional shading for the tea plants comes from solar panels installed to help power his tea factory. He uses modern steaming techniques to prepare the tencha and modern refrigeration to age the leaves. Then employs traditional granite millstones to grind the leaves but powers them with the solar panels instead of elbow grease. This grinding method is slow (40-50g per hour per grinder) but produces a very fine (~5 micron) consistent particle size that results in a smoother, creamier cup of matcha.
I had the honor of meeting Hattori-san and his business partner Kunikazu Mochitani at the 2016 World Tea Expo in Las Vegas. They were grinding their tencha by hand on the show floor, allowing the rare opportunity to taste fresh ground matcha served in the traditional ceremony by Hattori-san himself. Even better, I was lucky enough to sit with them at a Tea Pairing dinner at the Tealet-sponsored Nui Gu restaurant. Delightful to hear first hand the care and love that goes into the production of this unique single-origin matcha.
This is truly a magical matcha. Hattori grinds to order so I procure small amounts at a time to keep it fresh. If you have the misfortune of seeing an “out of stock” notice when ordering, know that I probably already have more on the way. But feel free to send me a note that your wanting to order.
Provenance:
Well, to be honest, it's always iced tea season in my house. Just like it is always a good time for hot tea. But as the weather turns hot, I definitely drink more iced tea. If feel like I can savor it longer over a good view or a good book. Although I've been know to drink almost any of my teas iced, I definitely tend towards the blacks first and then the greens. I always have a carafe of it for my big dinners as an alternative to alcohol and for those who prefer it to the hot tea I'm almost always brewing gong fu at the table. And one of my best friends always knows there will be green tea iced for her.
My two favorite black teas to ice are the Kanoka Orthodox Assam and the Hong Mao Feng. I've had really positive feedback for both of them when I have them out at tea events. I exclusively cold brew now, as it is simple and almost impossible to mess up. Depending on how much I need, I either use a tea press or an Iced Tea Jug. Since I don't tend to use ice and just drink it cool from the refrigerator, I use the same dosing as I would for hot tea. For me, that is 0.5g tea per fluid oz of water. If you are going to ice it, you can make it a little stronger to hold up longer to the melting ice. Then I just fill with cold water and refrigerate 6 to 24 hours.
I've found this method to be delicious and foolproof. Just brew the night before for your tea needs the next day! Enjoy!
Uchawi Zambarau Purple Leaf Green Tea
I’ve been to Kenya twice on photo safari but never saw any tea plantations. In honor of the beauty of Kenya, its magnificent (and fragile) wildlife, and the amazing people I met there, I wanted a Swahili name for this tea. Uchawi Zambarau means Magic Purple. The magic comes from the rarity of finding purple cultivars outside of the Yunnan area in China. I love the unique flavors and characteristics of purple tea cultivars but primarily find them processed to black or pu-erh tea. This is only the second purple leaf cultivar I’ve found processed to a green tea and the first outside of Yunnan.
The purple characteristic in the leaf and sometimes in the liquor is a result of the plant producing anthocyanin flavonoids, as a natural reaction to the high UV light at higher altitudes or due to genetic mutation. Anthocyanins are the color pigments that are found in red-purple plants like grapes (wine) and blueberries. These anthocyanins are considered super-antioxidants. So as you might expect, there are studies out there that claim that purple tea leaves contain a higher antioxidant count than other teas but I’ll reserve judgment on that until more research is done. However, there is no denying that tea is good for you, so focus on the beautiful taste of this tea knowing that your health will be the better for it. Oh, and for a bit more magic, add a bit squeeze of lemon (or similar acidic food) to turn the tea liquor bright pink/purple!
Provenance:
World Tea Expo in Las Vegas
World Tea Expo is an annual tea industry trade show that I have attended primarily for the educational opportunity that the associated seminars, workshops, and tastings provide. On the tradeshow floor, there are lots of suppliers of tea, teaware, and other tea-related equipment and services. Since tea is a commodity, much of the tea suppliers and tea there is commodity tea; something I’m definitely not interested in for Leaves of Cha. There are a few high-end specialty tea suppliers there, and sometimes the commodity tea vendors will have a little bit of specialty tea. But I don’t really expect to find much for my tea chest. When I do, it’s a nice surprise.
The highlights of the show for me were:
Rare Needle-Style purple tea renamed Purple Rain
This purple tea is from one of the three unique purple cultivars. Called variously “Purple Tea”, “Purple Bud”, or “Zi Cha”, it is a naturally occurring mutation of Camellia Sinensis Assamica. It grows all over the Yunnan Province but accounts for less than 1% of the cultivated Assamica produced there. The purple (or russet in my translation of Lü Yu) color is a result of the tea plants producing anthocyanin to combat the humid summers and high levels of ultraviolet light at the higher elevations.
This Zi Cha is a delicious tea and is another example of the wide variety of black teas from Yunnan. I simple can’t get enough of purple tea.
Named in honor of Prince, who tragically passed away at 57. The rarity of this cultivar reflects the rarity of musicians like him. And, of course, there is the whole purple thing. Have a sip and reflect on the artistry of the tea and the musician. Better yet, listen to some Purple Rain or 1999 or whatever Prince musical incarnation suits your fancy while sipping this tea.
So far 2016 has not been kind to my favorite musicians, having lost Bowie earlier in the year (hence the Golden Years Yunnan Black Tea I carry).
Provenance:
The Leaves of Cha Tea Chest is expanding
As I restock the teas already in the LoC Tea Chest, I am constantly sampling new teas and looking for others that fit into my philosophy of carefully curated teas made with love and care by people. Look for new announcements coming soon, including exciting new black, green (matcha, yes!!!), and white teas.
]]>I've added another local ceramicist to the Leaves of Cha website. Kim Hau is a Los Angeles based artist whose teaware are beautiful expressions of the classic eastern aesthetic. I'll have more of her work in the future as we collaborate on future designs. In the meantime check out her Sheep Mountain teacups (pictured above) here and the blue teacups (pictured below) here.
About Kim
Kim attended Metropolitan State College of Denver where she received her BFA in communications design in 2002. There was where she discovered her love for making functional ware while taking ceramics as one of her craft course requirements. She loved everything about it, the studio life, the chemistry of glazes, and the whole process of forming mud into a finished pot for use in your day to day life. After graduating, she enrolled in many ceramic classes/studios wherever she lived to continue practicing and playing with clay while working as a graphic designer, English instructor in Japan, and substitute teacher. She learned from great potters in Colorado, California, and Japan. As her passion for making pots kept growing stronger and stronger over the years, she finally decided to make the leap to pursue pottery full time in 2013 when she moved to Los Angeles, CA. Her constant curiosity and inquisitive nature helps drive her to passionately improve her skill and design in clay.
National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic
For the fifth year straight, I'll be volunteering at the Winter Sports Clinic in Snowmass Colorado. The Clinic is from 3/29/16-4/10/16. NDV brings in a few hundred veterans and about a hundred adaptive ski instructor like myself take them up on the mountain to ski, snowboard, and ski-bike.
It makes me immensely proud to serve my country's veterans in this way and give back a little bit for their service. This is part of my goal of providing 10% of my time to community service, or at least 5 weeks a year.
There may be a slight delay in shipments while I'm away but I'm sure you will understand that it is for a good cause.
Attending a Slow Money event recently got me thinking about the Slow Food Movement and organization. I wondered about how tea fit into these two movements.
The Slow Food website answers the question of what Slow Food is as follows:
Slow Food is food that’s good for us, good for our environment and good for the people who grow, pick and prepare it. In other words, food that is good, clean and fair. In many ways, Slow Food is the opposite of fast food. Slow Food is fresh and healthy, free of pesticides and chemicals, and produced and accessed in a way that’s beneficial to all – from the farmer to the eater.
So is Tea a Slow Food? According to that definition it can be. And it’s not THAT slow unless you are enjoying one of the more formal and ornate tea ceremonies.
In my opinion, a lot of tea is NOT Slow Food for various reasons. Agribusiness and the world commodity markets have pushed a majority of tea production into the use of pesticides and chemicals. Large estates in less than ideal terroirs tend to need pesticides for pests and chemicals to keep up production. And the poor working conditions on many estates, especially larger ones, are well documented. The distribution chains, many set up during colonial times or in a monopolistic way, eat up a lot of the money people are willing to pay for tea, ensuring that the farmers get pennies on the dollar. Marketing, profit, and consumer demand have made “ready to drink” (RTD) tea a hot sector.
But there certainly are Slow Food teas out there that meet the definition above. It’s well documented through thousands of years of use that tea is healthy and good for us. It can be grown without detrimental effects to the environment, as can be seen from wild trees, gardens, and estates that have been in production for hundreds of years. And, when grown, picked, and prepared by small farmers and artisanal teamakers, it can be good for the people involved as well, assuming that a more equitable distribution model allows them to reap more of the value of what they produce. The less people between the farmer and the drinker, the more chance that the farmers can earn a living, eat, and send his kids to school while preserving their land for future generations. So it can fit the definition of a Slow Food.
Coming back to the “slow” in Slow Food, the beauty of Slow Tea is that it can be prepared in all its glory in seconds or minutes depending on how you brew. So that ready-to-drink beverage isn’t saving you all that much time for the difference in quality (Unlike my Bolognese sauce, for instance, which takes two days to make vs. opening and heating up a jar of prepared sauce). Preparing and drinking tea lends itself to quiet contemplation and relaxing activities as well conversation between friends. So the importance of Slow Food in fostering connections is also there. In ayurvedic health circles, one is encouraged to eat foods that are prepared with love and avoid those prepared with resentment. We consume not only the food but also the emotions of the cook and preparers of that food.
So in the end, there is room for tea in both the commoditized, fast food market segments and the specialized Slow Food market segments. Where you choose to sip within that spectrum is up to you, your schedule, and your dharma.
You're Invited
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Introduction to Āyurveda Workshop
Hosted by YOGASMOGA
Join Arya, as we explore the beginning principles of āyurveda, the natural, holistic and medicinal system of yoga. You will be able to perceive your internal & external environments from an ayurvedic perspective and create the optimal space for well being.
Tuesday, March 15th
5-8PM
Sip tea, enjoy light bites, and shop while you learn the key traits of your specific dosha through essential oils that you can use in your everyday life.
All guests will receive aromatherpay blends to balance their predominant dosha.
20% off all YOGASMOGA apparel
RSVP to FashionIsland@yogasmoga.com
YOGASMOGA Fashion Island
1119 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach, CA 92660
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This tea is created from a high-altitude cultivar of mao feng grown in the Wu Liang mountains of Simao Prefecture. The pairing of cultivar with expert processing results in a black tea with a unique taste and aroma. Mr. Kin uses a special technique to briefly oxidize the leaves during the wilting phase before completing the rest of the black tea processing steps.
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Handmade Heidi Kreitchet teaware
This beautiful teacup was made by Pomona CA artist Heidi Kreitchet. While she leans predominantly towards wood-fired cups, this is a beautiful example of one of her gas-fired pieces. I find the cup especially beautiful coupled with Larry White's handmade mahogany tray, as the indentation in the cup seems to flow from the indentation in the top of the tray. Note: the cup are purchased separately
Tea Cup
Tray (Optional)
Look for more teaware from Heidi and other artists soon! (By the way, that is another of her beautiful cups in the Hong Mao Feng picture...)
Find Your Inner Warrior
Find Your Inner Warrior Workshop
Hosted by YOGASMOGA
The warrior poses are the most challenging and iconic in yoga. Through our practice of warrior we learn strength, focus and courage. This workshop will lead you inwards to rediscovering your own inner warrior.
Tuesday, February 23rd from 5-8PM
Sip tea & shop while you learn the key traits of the warrior and how you can embody the ancient spirit in your everyday life!
All guests are entered to win a set of three sessions with life coach Orly Levy & a tea Sampler Six Pack with a Tea Infuser compliments of Leaves of Cha.
RSVP to FashionIsland@yogasmoga.com
YOGASMOGA Fashion Island
1119 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach, CA 92660
Hui Long Zhai is in the western part of Bao Shan Prefecture on the borders with Myanmar, so it is no surprise that the Assamica cultivar is grown there. Using it for green tea is a delicious and intriguing surprise. The region is mountainous and contains peaks up to 3000m. This tea comes from a garden at 2000m, and the relatively cool weather leads to a late first flush from the tea plants. The short but hot wok firing gives this tea a delightful aroma that combines well with the more astringent and stimulating mouth-feel of this Yunnan green tea.
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Recently there was a big to-do on reddit and Steepster about some 1800-year-old puerh cakes that were being sold by a tea company. That audacious claim was firmly repudiated by several knowledgeable forum-members but also stirred up many who felt either hoodwinked by the company in question, or offended that another tea company should point out the ridiculousness of the claim. While the conversation quickly began to devolve into almost soap opera chaos, it seems there should be something that can be said about it.
My thoughts about it quickly went to the lack of standards for specialty tea in our industry. 1800-year-old puerh would certainly be a specialty tea, or maybe even in that rarefied air above a standard that some boutique and rare wines are. But the difference is that there are standards in the wine industry. As there are in the coffee industry and many others where the quality of a product can vary from a commoditized “meh, it’s edible” to a specialized “that’s the best ________ I ever tasted.” Having standards would hopefully make it a little harder for dubious claims to fool people and at least make for some peace of mind for consumers and tea retailers. In my mind, tea’s time has come for those standards. I don’t sell a lot of puerh because it is so complex, and with complexity comes risk and a whole lot of learning ahead of me. And that complexity probably means it would have its own set of standards. What I do sell, I don’t make grandious claims about. I simply do what I try to do for all my teas: Vet out the source, get the details about its origin, plucking, and production, and pass that along to you. And make sure it’s delicious. As Lu Yu stated, “Its goodness is a decision for the mouth to make.”
There is a lot of tea that would not meet a meaningful specialty tea standard that is being sold at price points equal to or greater than tea that would meet that standard. And the big companies and concerns that do it are not for standards, of course; they use marketing to define specialty and want to keep it that way. The standards are more for consumers, producers, and small tea businesses. Check out the Specialty Tea Manifesto as one effort to start the discussion and bring some accountability and transparency to the specialty end of the tea business.
Rounding back to the beginning of this post, standards don’t mean there will be no more dubious marketing or outright deception. That can always happen. But it is nice to have the bar set for those who are working hard to source and sell the best high-end specialty teas possible.
The other benefit of transparency is connectivity. These days we tend to think of connectivity as whether our phones and computers have access to the internet. But there is a more basic and human connotation to connectivity, especially within the food production system. Knowing where your food, or tea, comes from connects you to that place and to the people that produce it. When we don’t know where and by whom our tea is produced, we easily slip into the mindset of not seeing any harm in super-cheap tea or dodgy marketing. In general, global corporate farming and food production don’t want you to know the details of production; they just want to extract the profits from commodity (and specialty) markets. But when we are connected, we value our tea more; we think more about the conditions under which tea is grown and plucked for it to be so cheap. When we hear a news item about a flood or earthquake in Dehong, we might see and understand a correlation in tea production. When we know how close the sencha we like is grown to Fukishima, we might worry about those growers and workers and about the effects of the radiation on the tea. Knowing how unique some terroirs are for the specialty tea they produce, we might worry more about how a changing climate will affect livelihoods, availability, and prices. Living in Southern California, I don’t have the luxury of being a locavore with specialty tea like I do with so much of my produce and other foods. So I have to get the kind of tea I like to drink (and sell) from halfway around the world. But I still care about the stewardship of the people and lands that grow the tea I love to drink.
]]>The beginnings of my tea drinking are lost in the mists of my adolescence somewhere. I only know that I’ve loved and been drinking it for a long time. In the same way, when I heard that David Bowie passed on today, I realized I have no idea how long I’ve been listening to them or how long they have been bringing joy into my life. Two unrelated things, yes. But they are two things with a long, meaningful membership in my life.
You may have heard some Chinese teas referred to as “tribute” teas? In honor of one of my musical heroes, I am renaming my Jinggu Golden Strand Yunnan black tea to “Jinggu Golden Years”. This is my Tribute Tea.
In addition, if you mention your favorite Bowie song or memory in the notes section of your order for Jinggu Golden Years, I will include a free Sampler Three Pack made up of other delicious Leaves of Cha teas.
There's a Starman waiting in the sky
He'd like to come and meet us
But he thinks he'd blow our minds.
REMINDER: Make sure to reference Bowie in some way in the Notes section when you check out!
]]>Mao Jian from the Xinyang area is one of the most famous teas cultivated in the Henan Province. This mountainous area creates one of those unique Chinese terroirs that produces a distinctive quality tea. The name Mao Jian is usually translated as “Furry Tips” or “Hair Point” and refers to the white furry strips on the inner side of the typically needle-like leaf.
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Mao Feng is a classic Chinese tea that is ubiquitous in the tea market. It can be called Mao Feng because of the cultivar, or because of the plucking standard, as the Mao Feng “pluck” traditionally refers to a bud plus one leaf pluck, or it can be just a marketing name. This tea is from a Mao Feng hybrid cultivar grown in Yunnan and it is a premium grade Mao Feng pluck. It is not rolled like most green teas, leaving the large, hairy buds and leaves mostly intact.
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Some more teaware options
I've added some more teaware to the functional offernings on my site because I keep getting requests for them: an iced tea jug and a tea press. Also, my handmade teaware has sold out over the holidays. I'll be adding new pieces soon. If you know a local potter who makes beautiful and usable teaware that needs some support, send them my way!
Tea Sampler Six Pack
This is a great way to try out the delightful teas in the Leaves of Cha Tea Chest. Just pick out six teas that you would like to try in the 12g sample size pouches. The price of the six samples is discounted up to 56%, depending on the teas you select.
A great gift idea for the tea lover!
]]>Roasted Wild Tree Purple Tea
As you probably guessed from the teas in the Leaves of Cha Tea Chest, I love Yunnan black teas. The smoothness and low-astringency allowed me to kick my “English Breakfast with milk and honey” habit and just enjoy the tea. The wide variety of cultivars and styles that come from the province are mind-boggling. Purple Tea is one of those unique teas. There are three cultivars of purple tea and this is the naturally occurring original, knows as “Ye Sheng” or “Wild Tea”. Originally used to make puerh since it is quite bitter young but develops delicious complexity with age, it has recently started to processed into black tea with stunning results.
This roasted version is one of my favorite black teas and a very common start-of-the-day tea for me. I’m incredibly happy to be able to source this rare tea.
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Jing Mai Purple Needle Tea
This purple tea is from one of the three unique purple cultivars. Called variously “Purple Tea”, “Purple Bud”, or “Zi Cha”, it is a naturally occurring mutation of Camellia Sinensis Assamica. It grows all over the Yunnan Province but accounts for less than 1% of the cultivated Assamica produced there. The purple (or russet in my translation of Lü Yu) color is a result of the tea plants producing anthocyanin to combat the humid summers and high levels of ultraviolet light at the higher elevations.
This Zi Cha is a delicious tea and is another example of the wide variety of black teas from Yunnan. I simply can’t get enough of purple tea.
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Tea Sampler Six Pack
This is a great way to try out the delightful teas in the Leaves of Cha Tea Chest. Just pick out six teas that you would like to try in the 12g sample size pouches. The price of the six samples is discounted up to 56%, depending on the teas you select.
A great gift idea for the tea lover!
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Jade Earrings handcrafted White Tea
Description:
This is a spectacular hand-rolled tea from Yunnan that is a delight to behold and to drink. Be sure to watch the symmetrical “earrings” slowly unfurl in the water as you infuse the tea. I call this tea “Jade Nautilus”. The rings remind me of the marine creature as they sink slowly unfurling to join the rest of the writhing tea at the bottom. I add the tea to the water instead of the other way around so I can really enjoy them dropping through the water. The time-consuming hand rolling requires a high level of skill but the results are stunning.
Provenance:
You can find this tea in the Featured Products section of the home page or under White Tea.
Sentoya Momiji
Description:
Japan is renowned for their high-quality and delicious green teas. Black tea, on the other hand, is fairly uncommon. This one was inspired by Ayumi Kinezuka’s visits to Sri Lanka. But instead of the robust maltiness she tasted in the teas typically made there, her tea is crafted to be a smooth, drinkable, and essentially Japanese.
This unique tea is from the small, completely organic Kinezuka farm in Shizuoka. Their natural growing practices are an anomaly in the midst of Japan’s typically heavy use of chemicals in their industrialized tea industry
Provenance:
You can find this tea in the Featured Products section of the home page or under Black Tea.
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Tea Sampler Six Pack
This is a great way to try out the delightful teas in the Leaves of Cha Tea Chest. Just pick out six teas that you would like to try in the 12g sample size pouches. The price of the six samples is discounted up to 56%, depending on the teas you select.
A great gift idea for the tea lover!
But where did all this come from? Why a tea business when you should be quietly working that high-paying corporate job for those last twenty years until retirement? Why now? And why tea?
I guess in some ways I’m one of the “…unloosed, the wandering souls who were willing to scrape their lives clean and start again elsewhere”, as Jessa Crispin puts it in her book The Dead Ladies Project. My unloosening came four years ago when I lost my high-paying corporate job to right-sizing, restructuring, and a flat industry and economy with not a lot to offer to a 50-year-old. So I scratched my head and dabbled around in a couple of things to help pay the rent. One of those things was helping a local tea company wholesale tea to restaurants, coffee houses, and tea shops. Being a lifelong tea drinker, this gave me a way of combining my sales skills with a food I love. Those two years of wholesaling gave me an insight into how the tea business worked. Especially the fact that if you are buying tea grown in quantity as a commodity, you are probably getting inferior tea, the growers and workers are not being paid sustainable wages, and more corporate farming practices (i.e., agrobusiness fertilizers and pesticides) are probably being used. See this excellent article on these issues, or download a copy of TeaforMePlease’s newsletter. Coupling that experience with educating myself on tea to a much deeper level than I ever had before as a drinker, I almost unknowingly started incubating my next big move. Leaves of Cha. Quality hand-made teas with known provenance.
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