I’m not even sure what to call this. This is a beencha of pressed camellia sinensis flowers! Opening the wrapper I was greeted by an amazingly fresh, flowery fragrance. When steeped, the flowers basically re-blossom and release a sweet, slightly pungent and nutty liquor. Not sure how to steep this tea, I did a 1:30 [...]
read more »Just wanted to share a bunch of tea communities with you that I’ve been following over the years: Badger and Blade Forums http://badgerandblade.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=90 Leafbox Tea Forums: http://leafboxtea.com/forum Tea Subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/tea/ Tea-Mail http://groups.yahoo.com/group/teamail/ Rec.Food.Drink.Tea: http://groups.google.com/group/rec.food.drink.tea/topics Tea Chat: http://www.teachat.com/ Twitter: Using the hash-tag #tea http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23tea Steepster: http://steepster.com/discuss
read more »Camellia: Botanical genus to which the tea species and its varieties belong, named for Georg Josef Kamel, a German Jesuit missionary who lived in Japan during the latter half of the 1600s and classified the plants he found in Asia. The Camellia genus includes 81 different Camellia varieties besides tea, like the garden flower Camellia japonica. [...]
read more »Kamairi Cha: Special Japan green sometimes called “China green tea” by the Japanese because it is pan-fired and not steamed. After a short withering, the leaf is fired in hot iron pans at 300C with constant agitation to prevent scorching. Rolling techniques employed during firing can produce either leaf pellets or flat leaf. Best Kamairicha comes [...]
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I recently received a sample of shincha green tea from Stash Tea from Brazil. This is my first contact with Brazilian tea. Stash’s website says: “The Yamamotoyama Brazilian tea gardens are in two highland areas in the central part of the country at an elevation of 2,000-2,500 feet. The climate here is comparable to Japan [...]
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Korean Hwang Cha (Yellow Tea) TL;DR: All tea comes from the camellia sinensis plant. If you are drinking something that did not come from this plant (chamomile, mint, tulsi, rooibos, etc. it is not tea). White, Green, Oolong, Yellow, Black and Pu-erh teas all come from the varieties and cultivars of the camellia sinensis plant [...]
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It is believed that some tea-ware coming from China may contain lead. Especially pots supposedly made of Zisha clay from Yixing, China. A few years back there was a thread in TeaChat about this, no one found any lead when using home test kits. I tried it with the cheapest “yixing” pot I could find [...]
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Often times in life, an unfortunate situation will give rise to something positive. Thursday night at Samovar was no exception. Last June, a car crashed into the side of Samovar’s Sanchez Street location. No one was seriously hurt, though it was obviously a frightening day for everyone involved. The “re-birth” of Samovar’s original location was [...]
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Name: Nick Bastone Sex: Male Age: 22 Occupation: 4th Year History/Rhetoric Major at UC Berkeley Location: Berkeley, CA Do you drink tea at work?: Having some right now… Interests: Good tea, good conversation, surfing, golfing, writing. Favorite Tea Variety: Oolongs Favorite tea: Tieguanyin Light Roast, though I just had some Zealong Pure that was pretty [...]
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Name: Corey Cooper Sex: Male Age: 29 Occupation: Education Consulting, tea sourcing, tea blogging Location: Beijing, China Do you drink tea at work?: I like to drink green tea or black tea at work, as proper gong fu brewing is not as essential to the experience. Xi Hu Long Jing (西湖龙井) green tea as [...]
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