Brits and the whole tea-thing

[Bluesman]

Water SUCKS, unless it's frozen and surrounded by Scotch.

[lemontree]

May i introduce myself as one of the best tea brewers in town ;) . This fact got confirmed when my wife praised it apparently she hated it when her mom use to brew it.

(Now I don't know if I am being led up the garden path so that I am the first one out of the bed in the mornings, or if it was a genuine compliment .)

[Amled]

Water SUCKS, unless it's frozen and surrounded by Scotch.

You're not the Bartender of the WAB, for nothing! ;)
But make mine Rye!

[astralis]

black teas, smlack teas,

the original green teas still rule the roost. taiwan's got the world's most famous green tea, high mountain tea (gaoshan cha). the best come from alishan (mount ali, altho it is translated these days for some reason as alishan mountain). chinese tend to like green and oolong teas (unfermented and partially fermented) over black teas, probably the biggest difference between china and india/england.

we chinese do not add any milk or sugar to tea, so that many englishmen call the chinese concoction very washy stuff; if we do add milk and sugar, it is no longer considered tea but "milk tea" (nai cha), which is usually not drunk at meals but between them. in this case, black tea is usually the base, although again, it's not usually steeped as long as the english or indian cases. in fact, the chinese name for black tea is hong cha, which means red tea.

also, another big difference is that most chinese look down upon using tea bags. this is because the leaves or bits of leaves they put in tea bags are of inferior quality, or simply the leftover broken leaves. instead, they prefer to use the whole leaf (yuan pian), and as a result they do not have to steep the tea for as long- 2, 3 minutes instead of the 4-5 otherwise noted.

as you can guess, big tea drinker here, 6-8 cups a day. dentist hates it, because it's a real teeth-stainer.

[Ray]

Astralis,

You are correct that most of the tea bag teas can have inferior tea leaves since it cannot be seen.

However, as for staining your teeth, I am not plugging for AMWAY, but their toothpaste GLISTER is really fantastic for tea stained or tobacco stained teeth!

I smoke 40 to 50 cigarettes per day and I drink about 8 to 9 cups of tea per day!

My teeth?

Pearly white!

All 32 and never had caries or any dental hassles in my life. Visited the dentist only for the annual medical check ups!

[Ray]

MAKE YOUR OWN CHINESE TEA


Francis Zee
USDA/ARS, National Clonal Germplasm Repository Hilo, Hawaii

All tea comes from the same plant source, Camellia sinensis. It is the processing, involving different degrees of withering, 'Fermentation", heat processing and drying that produces different types of tea The fermentation process in tea making is not a microbe-induced fermentation as in wine making, but oxidation and enzyme reactions of chemicals within the tea leaves caused by the wilting and physical bruising of the leaves. These chemical reactions are stopped by steaming or heating the tea leaves at different "fermentation" stages to achieve the characteristics and fragrance of different tea types. The Japanese green teas and the Chinese green tea such as Lung Ching or Dragon Well are classified as "non-fermented tea" These freshly harvested leaves are steamed and dried immediately and are the least processed of all teas. A range of Chinese teas are classified under the "partially-fermented tea" group, these include the Paochong and Oolong teas and are 8-18% oxidized prior to steaming or pan-frying; the Teh-Kuang-Yum or lron goddess tea is 15-30% oxidized and the Formosa Oolong is 50-60 % oxidized. The familiar black or red tea is classified as 'fully-fermented tea" Traditional beliefs are that only tea grown at high elevations and from selected lines can produce good quality tea Lowland teas are said to be inferior, bitter and insipid. I am not a connoisseur of fine tea and have had no formal training in the subject. What started me going was a long row of tea seedlings at the Waiakea Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Hawaii, elevation 600 ft (200 m). It was there when I was a freshman at Hilo college some 25 years ago, and it is still growing vigorously with minimal care. No one is interested in it because all believe that it makes lousy tea. Most people who tried it just dried the leaves and drank the infusion. . . Yuck. I am very fortunate to have friends in Taiwan, who were helpful in getting me publications from the Taiwan Tea Experiment Station. The processing procedures used by the industry are quite involved and require equipment for cooking, rolling and drying the tea, which I do not have. However, I read and extrapolated the essence of the processing steps, and was able to develop a very simple method using common household facilities, to make small batches of tea similar to the "Paochong Oolong." I compared my "local" tea with the semi-expensive "Oolong" and "Paochong" tea that I brought back from Taiwan, and the "Hilo" brew is not bad at all, in fact I think it is quite drinkable. I would like to share my simple way of making the "partially-fermented tea" with you. Hopefully it will generate more interest in the study of growing and processing tea in Hawaii. It takes about four to five pounds of fresh leaves to produce a single pound of tea. More leaves are needed when harvested during a rainy period. I worked with about one pound of fresh leaves at a time.

1. Tea leaves are harvested two to three days after the first leaf closest to the tip is fully expanded. The best quality picking includes a single shoot tip and a leaf, but one shoot with two or three leaves is acceptable, as long as the lowest leaves and stems are still soft and fleshy. The older the leaves, the lower the quality. The harvested leaves and shoots, referred to as greens, should not be stuffed into a bag to avoid unnecessary bruising
2. The greens are spread flat on a screen, about one inch deep, and sun wilted for about 30 - 40 minutes until the leaf surface of the first leaf is wrinkled and has lost its luster. Lightly tossing the leaves once or twice is necessary during sun wilting to ensure even drying. About 8-12% weight loss is listed in the literature, but my batches lost 16 to 20% moisture and were okay. As you know, sunny days are hard to come by in Hilo, so my back-up wilting process involves a wooden box housing a household dehumidifier. At a setting of 7 or 8, the desirable wilting was achieved within an hour and a half on a rainy day. Tossing the greens three to four times ensures even wilting.
3. The wilted greens are moved indoors, tossed, turned lightly and left standing for an hour or two at room temperature. At the end of this period, the greens begin to develop a very faint flowery fragrance replacing the grassy odor of the raw greens.
4. The greens are tossed and turned again, with a light rubbing using a handful of leaves at a time. They are then hilled to about 6 inches to rest for one to two hours. This promotes further oxidation and enzyme activities within the greens.
5. Repeat step 4 until the leaves are evenly wilted, dull green in color with a visible reddish edging of the leave margins. The fragrance should be sweet and full with no grassy odor. It is time to stop the enzyme activities by heating.
6. The literature suggests pan frying at 160-180* C until the leaves are soft and develop a strong tea fragrance. The following is my microwave process: Place wilted greens onto a cotton cloth, fold to cover. Place in the microwave at highest* setting for 30 seconds. Remove and open cloth to let steam escape, toss greens. Repeat five times. The greens should be somewhat dry to touch.
7. After tossing and airing, bundle the leaves in the cloth with a gentle rolling and squeezing motion. This promotes oozing and intermixing of the sap and the leaf surfaces. After about one minute of rolling, open the cloth and separate individual shoots from the leaf ball. The greens should look shiny and a little sticky.
8. Reheat the greens for 20 seconds, air and repeat step 7 three times. The leaves should develop a pleasant tea fragrance. Be gentle, so the leaves remain whole and not broken into pieces.
9. Reheat 20 seconds, break up clumps for steam to escape. Press down or squeeze the leaf mass, then break up the leaf ball before reheating. Repeat the process 10 to 15 times to reduce leaf mass. The final product should be dry to the touch and dark green, almost black in color.
10. Place semi-dried leaves into a dehumidifier box or an air- circulating food dryer to dry overnight.
11. Put dried tea on a cookie sheet or aluminum foil. Preheat oven to 300* F. Turn off heat and bake tea for 5-10 minutes, the baked tea should have a sweet tea fragrance.
12. Remove from oven and cool. Keep in self-sealing plastic bag, cover bag with aluminum foil. Keep tea in cool, dry and dark place.
13. Keep the finished product in an air-tight container for 34 days to mellow. The fresh new tea without mellowing may be slightly more insipid.

HOW TO BREW AND SERVE TEA


The best leaves to water ratio for normal brewing is 1:50. Place 3 grams of dried leaves into a covered tea pot, pour in 150 ml of boiling water. Use water as it begins to boil. Brew tea for 5 minutes before decanting completely into a serving container. This ensures even concentration of flavor when served. Never let tea leaves sit in water, as it may develop into a strong, insipid and bitter brew. The same leaves can be brewed five to six times, adding an extra minute for each following infusion. The first brew is the best in fragrance and the second brew is the best in flavor. The infusion should be bright, clear and shiny, greenish-yellow to honey colored. The fragrance should be mild, rich and slightly flowery. The taste should be full. without bitterness or strong insipidness, and it should have a slightly sweet taste with a lingering after-note of sweetness and flowery fragrance coating the back of your mouth and throat. Now, for "Espresso' and strong tea lovers, try this ÒKung FuÓ tea brewing. Fill half or a third of a six to eight ounce clay tea pot with tea leaves. Add boiling water and brew for 60 seconds, decant into a serving container before serving. Use small tea cups or 'Sake' cups. The infusion is intense in flavor and slightly insipid, but the coating, fragrance and after-note is strong and pleasant. Add 15-20 seconds to each following brew. So this is it. I appreciate my 'Hilo' tea better than cookies, since it doesn't have calories and is pesticide free. Try and have fun with it. Also please let me know how your brews turns out.


http://www.fruitlovers.com/tea.html

[Ray]

From Bush to Cup: Making Tea

The tea bush belongs to the Camellia family, hence its Latin name Camellia Sinensis or Chinese shrub. The tea bush is a hardy evergreen and its leaves are shiny and pointed with a wonderfully fragrant aroma. The flowers of the tea bush resemble white buttercups. All the tea requires to flourish is acid soil and a warm wet climate with at least fifty inches of rainfall every year. Left to grow wild, the tea bush would blossom into a tree. However on commercial tea gardens the bushes are pruned to waist height for easy plucking. This is still performed by hand and is an extremely skilled process as only the bud and top two leaves from every branch are picked.


Where Tea is Grown
Tea is grown in around fifty countries worldwide from Russia to Argentina, Brazil to Mozambique. The tea bush thrives in mountainous regions bordering the tropics and can grow at heights of up to 7,000 feet above sea level.

India is the world’s largest producer and exporter of tea. Assam is a major growing area covering the Brahmaputra Valley, from the Himalayas down to the Bay of Bengal. Taylors Assam teas are robust flavored, bright with a smooth malt taste, perfect as the first cup of the day. They are best served with milk.

Darjeeling, with tea gardens up to 7,000 feet above sea level in the foothills of the Himalayas, produces smaller crops of excellent quality. Darjeeling is often referred to as “the champagne of teas” because of its quality and unique “Muscatel” winey flavor. Darjeeling is an ideal complement to dinner or as an afternoon tea, on its own or with milk or lemon.

Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, produces tea still referred to as Ceylon. The best quality teas are “high grown” on slopes above 4,000 feet. The most famous Ceylon teas come from the Dimbula Valley. Ceylon teas are strong but delicate, with a slight bitterness. They are good with milk but not as suited to lemon.

Kenya now grows some of the very best teas in the world. Taylors Kenyan High Mountain, grown nearly 7,000 feet above sea level, produces an intensely bright color and delicious aroma. Kenyan teas also contribute to the superb taste of Yorkshire teas.

China. Although most of its production is consumed at home, China is still famous for distinctive black, green and oolong teas. Lapsang Souchong has a distinct smokey and tarry taste, acquired through drying over pine wood fires. Keemun, the traditional tea of old Imperial China, is renowned for its orchid aroma and brilliant red liquor. Keemun is frequently used as the base for Scented Blends, the most popular of which is Earl Grey, scented with oil of bergamot.


Tea Manufacture
Once the tea is gathered, it is transported to the tea factory where the fresh green shoots are transformed into the black tea that we drink. The methods employed in different factories vary very little. Yet the teas are seldom the same. Most of the characteristics in a tea arise from the properties in the green leaf. Hence we have the familiar expression “tea is made in the field.”

Tea leaves are processed into three main types:

*

Green tea: If the leaves are dried quickly without fermentation, they become green tea. Green teas are highly favored by the Chinese and Japanese, and increasingly popular in the West because of their health benefits.
*

Oolong Tea is semi-fermented, falling between black and green. The most famous, Formosa Oolong, originates from Taiwan (formerly Formosa Island). It has a unique peachy flavor.
*

Black tea: If the leaves undergo the full fermentation process, they become black tea. Black tea is most popular form worldwide, accounting for 77% of the world’s production. Green teas represent 21% and oolong teas account for 2%.

Tea leaves plucked in the morning are normally produced and graded as black tea by the following early afternoon.

*

The tea is withered by spreading the tea leaves out on racks in a very warm room, thus removing much of the natural moisture from the leaves.
*

The leaves are rolled and cut by machines which crush and tear the tea. The orthodox process uses a conventional tea rolling machine which results in the larger leaf grades used in many loose teas. The CTC (cut-tear-curl) process results in smaller leaf grades which provide the faster infusions required for tea bags.
*

The leaves are fermented. This process begins naturally as soon as the leaves have been rolled or cut. At this stage the green tea turns a rich coppery color as the oxygen circulates around the crushed leaves, similar to the way a bitten apple turns brown when left for a while.
*

The tea is fired in very hot ovens. This stops the fermentation process and turns the leaves black, producing a tea with good keeping qualities.

The dried black tea is sorted into a number of grades of uniform particle size. The teas are divided into “leaf” grades and “broken” grades. The largest-sized leaf grade is Orange Pekoe (OP). (The term pekoe is derived from a Chinese word used in reference to the tips of young tea buds.) The same grade in India is known as Flowery Orange Pekoe. A smaller leaf grade is called Pekoe. Leaf grade Formosa Oolong is called Souchong. Broken Orange is smaller than leaf grade and is sought after for popular blends such as English Breakfast. Very small broken grades are graded as Fannings or Dust, both are popular for tea bags or instant teas because they infuse immediately.


The tea is finally packed into chests and shipped all over the world. Teas are sold by grade in the tea auctions or privately to traders or packers. Tea buyers value teas based on the basis of their black leaf appearance, infusion and liquoring properties. Buyers judge the infusions based on actual tastings, which allow for the description and evaluation of the various characteristics of an individual tea’s liquor: briskness, strength, color, body, quality, aroma and flavor.
http://www.globetrends.com/allabouttea/BushtoCup.htm

[The Chap]

homage

Tea is a subtle drink. This is the reason for my pref.:

Gunpowder Black
English Breakfast


Darjeeling is a wonderful tea as well. Also the best tea to "Irish" (no, I do not mean steal or add root veg.) Gin and lemon. Hot or iced. Perfect on a too hot humid morning (iced) in far away climes. Baby limes are even better.

For those who care I understand Fortums will deliver around the globe.

Earl grey can be mixed with a STRONG mohito for an equally delightful long drink. :)

The milk goes in first.

[Ray]

Tea is a subtle drink. This is the reason for my pref.:

Gunpowder Black
English Breakfast


Darjeeling is a wonderful tea as well. Also the best tea to "Irish" (no, I do not mean steal or add root veg.) Gin and lemon. Hot or iced. Perfect on a too hot humid morning (iced) in far away climes. Baby limes are even better.

For those who care I understand Fortums will deliver around the globe.

Earl grey can be mixed with a STRONG mohito for an equally delightful long drink. :)

The milk goes in first.

we'll need to play with a straight bat and watch out for fast balls.

[Ray]

Thank you for attending this initial discussion on the first cut of the Future Manoeuvre Nutrition Composition Paper. To avoid the chicken and egg scenario we should talk turkey here and perhaps get early visibility of the proposed generic framework so that we can get our ducks in a row. There is clearly room for a meeting of minds for a corporate approach to the overarching requirement of the main gate business case, as outlined on the pie chart, to give us the equities in this issue. We are all over the map on this one, so I am minded to give you a tasker. I want you to think out of the box and articulate a blue-skies vision which we can take forward as a think-piece in order to vector in on societal global paradigms. I know you are not sighted on this issue but we really need to leverage some coherence across the piece and engage with our pan-customer community to enable them to deliver some tangible and holistic outputs for this nutrition challenge against bestclass peers.

No names, no pack drill, but if the chips are down we can fight this one up the chain of command with a view to achieving interoperability and a commonality of standards. The big cheese may be a sandwich short of a picnic, but I don’t want a bun fight if the badgers come into the cake shop, so let’s pick the low hanging fruit and be prepared to move up country with this one – tamasha or no tamasha. We all know which way the cookie crumbles. However, before jumping into bed with the idea, we must push the envelope out as far as possible with a view to joining the party before they come over the hill in some numbers. I refer to that self-licking lollipop, “Disaggregation – a Case to Answer”; it’s fast becoming a dog’s breakfast. At this range I see a potential own goal on our hands and before we’re completely blown out of the water we should be prepared to go around the buoy again. A wholly synergistic approach is needed; after all, a results driven mindset might have us on a slippery slope if we go off-piste. We should probably take this to a ‘win-win’ situation and get the ticks in the boxes. At the end of the day, no one should be out of the loop and we should fast track a value-added bottom line. Our core business must remain with the movers and shakers and, if we hit the right buttons, we can flick their switch.

It is clear that we’re not dealing with a level playing field and the main effort must be to cross the start line with the pot of gold firmly in our grasp before someone moves the goal-posts. The knock on effect of touching base with lessons learnt from the big picture is to go the extra mile and play hardball.

There may be too much smoke and mirrors, so I suggest we park the first idea, go firm where we are on the second and surge with the third using some pretty fast footwork if we are to meet the aggressive timelines otherwise there will be nothing on the clock but the maker’s name. And no standing on the touchline just because it’s a sticky wicket. Thinking on the hoof, I am in the picture with the more bangs for the buck argument, but we must inform the debate in the grand scheme of things.

Run the idea up the flagpole and let’s see who salutes it – my ears tell me that we’re all reading from the same sheet of music here. Fast-forwarding slightly, I have lodged a fiver with the grown-ups, which means we’ll need a cradle to grave solution on the back burner otherwise we’ll run out of steam and end up throwing the baby out with the bath water and have to rely on the stove-piped legacy. As to the first idea, you will need to dine à la carte to capture the underpinning metrics, and also consider the force drivers so that this workstream informs our baseline position and facilitates some boiler-plated headline goals for the future. Naturally, by teasing out the air gaps you will produce the delta and square the circle.

I hear what you say but this is not a zero sum game and the actualité will need to be harmonized in order to ensure buy-in and the overall bespoke architecture. There is a basket of workstrands which will inform your chapeau-piece in the round and you must ramp these up, or down, as necessary – and don’t forget to prioritise the parameters. Fly kites if you must but we really need to test all sub-concepts to destruction, holding our stakeholders’ feet to the fire, while remaining alert to the mood music. As this must be a joined-up wake-up call, the taxonomy of our change management needs to be taken forward in a timely manner. We will therefore need to cut to the chase with this project to keep empowered.

I judge that an enhanced strawman might be handy, which could chime with the hooks exposed during our recent workshop. By all means optimize the overall granularity of the piece by drilling down and mapping across to other position papers, but cross-walk or flag-up any emerging arenas so that you continue to engage with our development agenda. I believe it is time to take ownership and display intellectual rigour by clearly articulating a road map which will, of course, require milestones and signposts to give a coherent direction of travel. I aim to close the loop with a sensitivity analysis. The first cut must reflect a seamless step-change by incentivising sub-optimal solutions for those going off-line. To avoid mission creep, an enduring and robust construct is required.

You may therefore need to weave in and populate a new value set. Close with the deliverables before the bar gets raised - but no quick ‘n’ dirty solutioneering or excursions: this would be counter- intuitive, when what is needed are enablers with the embedded fidelity to fill any lacuna.

Let me know when you are good to go with a tightly-nested capping paper, we need to get our dog into the fight asap. If you need to engage with me I’ll be getting traction on my maritime platform for the next 24/7 and no throwing the toys out of the cot just because it’s Friday afternoon or you’ll be swimming with the sharks.

[Vaman]

Interesting thing about tea and the brits: Apparently when tea was first introduced in Britain, it was marketed as a drink enjoyed by the Chinese emperor. It became a fad with the british aristocrats and they lined up to get some because it seemed to accord them the same status as the Chinese emperor!!
Well the fact that they were the only ones who could afford it also helped in making the aristocrats the early adopters of tea.
Its one of the reason that tea-drinking is associated with such pomp and ceremony with the brits.

Another tid-bit : Tea was discovered accidently by a chinese emperor who was a herbalist as well. The leaves he used came from the tree "Tcha", which is why the drink is known as "chai" in the east. The Brits simply shortened it to a "T". :)

[The Chap]

weekend

[QUOTE=Ray]for this

An absent breakfast owed. ;)

[pdf27]

I red something similar in Andy McNab's "Immediate Action". IIRC cansiter with tea is attached to vehicle rear, they call it "Norevegian". But it's also mentioned that after some time in the field that would be pretty tastelles lukewarm liquid, yet recognized as ambrosia by the soldiers. I was always asking myself which is exactly canister with the tea when looking at those British AFVs...

A Norwegian (usually shortened to "Norgy") is just an insulated container with a tap in the lid. They're pretty good - anything you put in them (tea, range stew, cold drinks, etc) will stay warm/cool for ages.

Some vehicles (the Challenger 2 for certain, not sure about the rest) have a dedicated "boiling vessel" built into the vehicle. Instant tea wherever you go, and the real reason that the Challenger 2 is the best tank in the world

[Jay]

also, another big difference is that most chinese look down upon using tea bags. this is because the leaves or bits of leaves they put in tea bags are of inferior quality, or simply the leftover broken leaves. instead, they prefer to use the whole leaf (yuan pian), and as a result they do not have to steep the tea for as long- 2, 3 minutes instead of the 4-5 otherwise noted.

Even in India, not all use tea bags. Infact, back in our home, we only use tea leaves freshly packed from the Niligris (Ooty for the un-initiated), but most of the tea shops/restaurants use blended tea powder.

About the Niligris..

Nilgiris teas have long suffered the place of a third cousin behind the popularity of Darjeelings and Assams. Nevertheless, this third cousin is beginning to play a major role in some of the most successful gourmet tea ventures in North America. Nilgiris teas have the right balance of strength, color and astringency to satisfy the needs of tea drinkers ranging from the layman to the connoisseur.

The Nilgiris Tea Growers Association has made great progress in changing the way Nilgiris teas are grown and manufactured and the way they are being used in the industry.

Nilgiris teas produce bright and brisk tea liquors and they do not cloud. The tea-drinking public has yet to discover this gem of a tea from the south of India. I, however, have tapped into this richness and have been offering superior quality Nilgiris for years. The cost of a Nilgiris of superior quality can be high but the gain in quality of product makes this worthwhile.

Nilgiris teas are grown throughout the year, unlike teas from Darjeeling or Assam. Nilgiris teas are often referred to as "The Fragrant One." The flavor and fragrance of a superior Nilgiris is the result of the high elevation at which it is grown. Nilgiris teas are grown among eucalyptus, blue gum and cypress plants and the tea tends to have a flavor hint of mint/lemon/eucalyptus.

Coonoor is the tea center of the Nilgiris auction centers where over one million pounds are sold each and every week. During the rainy season this amount doubles to over two million pounds. The key players in the international tea market are present at the auction center every week to do their buying.

Nilgiris teas from the estates of Tiger Hill, Corsley, Craigmore, Pascoes Woodlands, Colacumby, Nonsuch, Dunsandale, Chamraj, Parkside and Glendale are but a few of those which we have available, or will have available soon, to our customers. I take great pride in the Nilgiris which I offer and they are among my most favored teas.

http://community.webshots.com/album/73430087QlnULo

[kNikS]

A Norwegian (usually shortened to "Norgy") is just an insulated container with a tap in the lid. They're pretty good - anything you put in them (tea, range stew, cold drinks, etc) will stay warm/cool for ages.

Some vehicles (the Challenger 2 for certain, not sure about the rest) have a dedicated "boiling vessel" built into the vehicle. Instant tea wherever you go, and the real reason that the Challenger 2 is the best tank in the world

105% pure trooth. And if it has an infantry phone that's my favorite tank from now on.