Taking the mystery out of tea?
By Robert Ridge
To have a drink that is called Tea, in my opinion it has to contain Tea! It reminds me of the old advertisement for burgers “where’s the beef?” So where is the Tea? There are many offerings of Herbal and Fruit Teas that miss this necessary ingredient, which I call Herbal and Fruit (Tisane) infusions. Over the years this Tea idea has developed because they are brewed (steeped) the same way as Tea, but it has confused a lot of people. So to be a real Tea, the leaves or buds have to come from the Camellia Sinensis plant .There are over 3,000 types of Tea produced all over the world and there are great similarities to wine, and probably as many choices. The different types can be divided into 3 main categories, green, black and oolong. White Tea is really a very young green with minimal processing. One of the main differences with Tea and wine is the aging process. Tea needs to be delivered to the customer as quickly and freshly as possible and Darjeeling has a similar “contest” to Beaujolais Nouveau, but with better results.
Pu Erh, an oolong, is the only purposely aged Tea, and has some fantastic medicinal properties. It’s great for curing nausea, as many of our customers can testify. So how are the Teas produced?
If you imagine taking a leaf from a Tea plant, and immediately dry it, you have green Tea. If you take another leaf, wrinkle it in your hand to make the juices flow and hold it in the air for, say 6 hours, dry it, you have black Tea. Taking another leaf and wrinkle it a little, and hold it in the air for 1 to 3 hours, dry it, and you have an oolong. This is obviously an over simplification, missing out the exact processing such as withering and rolling etc., but it demonstrates the basic differences. Holding the leaves in the air is called oxidization, which is sometimes referred to as fermentation. We have three main types of tea drinkers in our Café. Those that prefer plain teas, flavored teas, and decaffeinated teas. A few of the plain tea drinkers will crossover for an exceptional natural flavored tea.
A blend might be a combination of 2 to 4 teas to give a unique taste and strength, such as a Russian Caravan. There are two types of Russian Caravan, a fruity version and a smoky one. The blending of Keemum and Darjeeling is one of the fruity versions and with the addition of Lapsang Souchong you get the smoky one, which we blend in Parker and call Rasputin. We thought that we could easily blend many different teas and found it was much harder than we envisaged. With Rasputin we were trying to get a smoky taste, without being so strong that the aroma was off putting before you experienced the taste. We succeeded!
A blend can also be of many different estates of the same tea to give a consistency of taste over many years, regardless of the current harvest. Good examples of this are Assam, Darjeeling, and black teas from Ceylon.
It could also be a blend of a tea, a sprayed on flavor, and the addition of a flavored fruit or herbal. Lemon Grass Oolong blend is a greenish oolong that is sprayed with the oil of Bergamot, as used for an Earl Grey, and then blended with a Guatemalan lemon grass. This is a case where the lemon grass is really adding big time to the flavor, not as with the majority of the flavored teas, where the dried fruit, flowers are added to just look nice. It is delicious hot or cold and can be infused at least twice.
If you are just looking for a hot or cold tasty drink, and don’t need the caffeine or tea flavor, consider a blend of dried fruit or herbs. They are now becoming more sophisticated, by combining over 10 different ingredients, with some great tastes. In some ways it is easier to create a good flavor without the tea, as you don’t have to balance the strong tea with the other flavors, but you miss the caffeine? That’s why the more subtle flavors use green or greenish oolong tea.
Jasmine tea is very popular, and there are many different qualities. Here the sweet smelling jasmine flowers are rolled with the tea, white, green, oolong or black to give a delicious tea. The number of times the tea is rolled with the jasmine is dependant on the quality, and varies from 3 to 10, after which the jasmine is removed. Jasmine Dragon Pearls generally consist of 3 young green shoots that are hand rolled, and open up as the tea is brewed. If you like a sweet jasmine tea, this is close to the ultimate, as the rolling seems to keep in the flavor and it is fascinating to watch the pearls uncurl into “dragons!” The pearls can be infused 3 to 4 times, and I prefer to “wash” the pearls with a 30 second infusion, pouring off the liquor, and then re-infusing for 3 minutes. Fantastic taste, aroma, and no bitter after taste. Try Yin Hao for my favorite jasmine.
Earl Grey is one of my favorite teas, and I have it with breakfast every morning. We offer 6 different Earl Greys, 3 with different base teas, blends of black, 2 decaffeinated, and one with an additional citrus flavor to give a milder, less tea flavor. There are several stories that give the origins of this very popular tea. A British diplomat, according to one tale, saved the life of a very important Mandarin, and in return was given the recipe for the flavored tea. The diplomat was Earl Grey, who later became Prime Minister from 1830 to 1834.The black tea is flavored with the oil of Bergamot, which is pressed out of the rind of the Bergamot fruit, a pear shaped citrus fruit grown in the Mediterranean. The different aromas of Earl Grey teas can be explained by the way the oil reacts with different teas, how much is added and if it is really natural oil or synthetic. Less perfumed is normally preferred with food.
If Earl Grey is in the top three blended teas, what is more popular? The answer is English Breakfast, or on the East Coast, Irish Breakfast. The English is a typically an equal blend of Assam, an Indian tea, and a Ceylon blend. Variations add other teas, such as from Kenya or Indonesia, and vary the amount of each. An Irish Breakfast is renowned to be stronger, especially in caffeine, and the percentage of Assam, a very strong malty tea, is increased, to the extent that some Irish Breakfast is just a blend of Assam teas. The biggest seller in the Café is our own blend, Tealeaves Breakfast, combining two Indian teas, Assam & Nilgiri, with Ceylon. As the name suggests the tea is ideal to have with a real English Breakfast, where there is high grease content in the rich and hearty plate of bacon, sausage, fried eggs, fried bread, mushrooms and tomatoes. If you have stayed in a B&B (bed & breakfast) in the UK you will understand how this tea, which I rarely drink on its own, is perfect with the breakfast. Next time we will share some of the reasons why people are turning to tea for the health benefits.
