Drink Tea

5 Tea Myths Busted

By Sam | Published: May 18, 2013

Tea: the second most consumed drink in the world after water, yet most of the people on the planet are unsure of what they’re drinking. Some of us drink it because it’s that been in our lives since the times when we only had two minutes in the television ad brakes to boil the kettle and make a pot. Some of us force ourselves to drink it because of the ’health benefits’. And others are sold on its ability to create ‘zen’ and calm. Whatever the reason, don’t drink it for the wrong ones and whatever you do, don’t deny yourself that all important brew before you know the facts:

1. Different teas come from different plant species.

Tea comes from the plant Camellia sinensis. This plant makes all of the different types of tea: black, green, oolong and white tea. Depending on how the plant is processed creates the different types of tea: black tea leaves are left in the open to allow them to oxidise and green teas are less processed to capture the delicate flavour. There aren’t different species for different flavours, they’re just treated differently to make tastes to suit everyone.

2. Black tea has more caffeine than green tea.

It is often thought that green tea has much less caffeine than black tea. Since they’re all from the same plant, this isn’t true either. The length of time you brew your tea for, affects how much caffeine you will consume but other than that, differences are negligible and even decaffeinated tea isn’t completely free.

3. Herbal tea is tea

Fruit teas are made from dried fruits, other flavours can be made from the bark or leaves of other plants and rooibos is made from the seed from a South African Bush. To be technically classed as tea, the leaves must come from the Camellia sinensis plant and herbal teas don’t.

4. Tea will dehydrate you.

It is recommended that we drink eight glasses of water a day, and more in warmer weather or when exercising a lot. Many people believe that tea doesn’t contribute to this intake and think that the caffeine content cancels out the liquid you consume as it makes you need the bathroom more often. FALSE! Water is water. And whatever you drink, it’ll find its way to the u-bend sooner or later.

5. Drinking green tea will help you lose weight.

Scientists have found that caffeine and other antioxidants found in tea can help with fat absorption, but the results are so minor that any efforts you make will be swiftly taken away with a rich tea biscuit. It’s obvious that adding sugar or sweetener to you tea won’t help your diet but all tea on its own contains zero calories, so drink away.

Teapigs Review

By Sam | Published: May 14, 2013

Teapigs.co.uk is a site dedicated to provide quality tea. Not just good quality, but the very highest quality tea they can. They love tea just as much as we do, and aim to please the tea-lover in all of us. They produce a small, handpicked range of tea that meets exacting standards of taste, flavour and quality of leaf. Today, I’m taking a look at four of their teas; two traditional, two a little bit more exotic, and weighing in on whether you should be convert to enjoying your tannin the porcine way.

Everyday Brew (English Breakfast)

This is Teapigs’ signature blend, a real builder’s brew blended from three distinct types of tea to make a delicious cuppa for your everyday needs. This whole leaf rainforest certified brew is made of a mixture of Assam, Ceylon and Rwandan black teas. This is a real gutsy tea, with a malty aroma and a clear and complex taste. It’s a strong and fortifying tea for those moments when your energy is low and you feel like you’re sagging a bit around the edges. Drinking a cup of this tea is 100% guaranteed to make you feel like you’ve had a smashing holiday in the middle of a tough working day. This is the tea you should be drinking when you’ve got the first chance to sit down in ten hours, finally, with a chocolate biscuit and a trashy magazine in hand. It’s the tea to wake you up and the tea to get you through the day. It’s a zesty hug in your cup.

Chamomile Tea

If you’re not a caffeine addict, then the chances are you prefer a mellower brew. Teapigs’ Chamomile Flowers is one of the best blends around. Why? Because the best chamomile tea comes from brewing the whole flowers and the teapigs blend has only the whole flowers of the chamomile bush. So not only does it make a sweet and juicy tea (with no need to add honey) you get a beautiful cup of yellow flowers to enjoy – a feast for the eyes as well as the mouth. This is a pleasant cup of yellow sunshine for a grim and grey day, with a surprisingly juicy taste and a wonderful effect on the mind. This is a great brew to have before curling up under a warm duvet with a good book on a long winter’s night.

Chilli Chai

This blend twists the usual chai recipe with a little extra kick – flakes of real chilli. This is an assam with whole cardamom pods, chunks of ginger, a small sprinkling of vanilla and a generous helping of spicy chilli bits. It’s a surprisingly delicious and warm drink with a bit of a kick to it – but not enough to make your throat feel dragonish at all. The blend is warm without being overpowering, with a smokey aroma and tangy taste. The mild spiciness and kaboom of flavour will clear the head and the senses. This is definitely for those in need of a little fire during the day – so, in the immortal words of The Spice Girls, ‘spice up your life!’

Rooibos Crème Caramel

Rooibos is what most of us would know as ‘red bush tea’, a caffeine free variety from South Africa. This tea has it all. It is the queen of teas. Not only is this blend rich in antioxidants and nutrients, but this has a delicious caramel flavour making this a healthy, yet scrumptious, dessert! Some of the bags contain chunks of real caramel, but teapigs can’t guarantee you’ll get the sweetness jackpot. This tea has a warm and fluffy aroma with a plummy richness. It tastes rich and creamy with a delicious caramel aftertaste – the caramel is not sickly sweet, but subtle, leaving a lovely lingering aftertaste. It’s a good balance of subtle sweetness and nutty rooibos. This tea is like the nicest of puddings, only without the worry of calories or overindulging. A real treat for any tea drinker.

Teapigs is an online brand but there are plenty of offline stockists. The site carries a list of all businesses which stock their brands and you can search for your nearest supplier with your postcode. Their teas are sourced directly to the supplier, making them top quality and totally scrummy.

Posted in Tea Reviews | Tagged black tea, blended tea, Ceylon, chai, health, tea flowers, tea reviews | Leave a comment

Cooking With Tea

By Heather | Published: April 11, 2013

Tea is full of flavour and variety. From flower-filled notes, spicy streaks to smoky tones; tea can add a new dimension to your cooking. I’ve already introduced you to the magical world of tea ice cream and tea cupcakes, but tea’s culinary uses do in fact stretch a lot further.

The easiest and most effective way of using tea in your cooking is as the base for your sauces and when braising meats. When using this method brew the tea at room temperature for a softer, less bitter flavor. Leaving the leaves for around half an hour will allow a full but gentle taste to develop and spring water also helps it brew better than tap water at the lower heat. Black tea can be used to braise chicken; simply brew the tea in spring water at room temperature for twenty minutes, add sautéed onions and garlic, sugar and tomatoes, then bake the chicken in the mixture for 60 to 90 minutes. For fish, particularly non-fishy tasting white fish and salmon, white tea is light enough to not smother the taste of the dish.

Tea can also be added to the water when steaming or boiling your vegetables – a method applied in the East to add a subtle fragrance to rice when cooking. Sweet dishes can benefit as much as savoury; try poaching fruits in light fruity teas such as Jasmine or Ginger for a delicious dessert. And it’s not just flavour that tea can add. When boiling eggs, crack the shell towards the end of cooking and then place in water with added tea and the whites of your eggs will be adorned with a marble effect – a technique popular in China.

Marbled tea eggs – weird but wonderful

Another method of using tea in sweet dishes is to infuse the butter before baking. Simply melt butter with the tea leaves of your choice in it, sieve the leaves out, chill to harden the butter and then keep for use in your baking. Of course this butter can also be used in savoury dishes (both baked and fried) but is a particularly good method for adding more flavour to your sweet dishes. Earl grey for example gives a great sweet, zesty tang to shortbread. Dried fruits can be soaked overnight in tea before baking, to help make the perfect teacake with that special secret ingredient.

Cooking with tea doesn’t have to involve tea in liquid form – dried leaves add flavour and crunch as a garnish during and after cooking on meat, poultry and fish. The Chinese use oolong leaves to stuff fish before steaming, as well as adding to the wood (or substituting the wood altogether) while smoking duck for a traditional tasting recipe.

With all these methods, choosing which type of leaf you use is essential to adding the right taste to your cooking: sweet, herbal teas are great in salads and seafood; the strong, earthy flavour of Pu’er tea goes well with chicken; and tea from West Africa complements desserts and sweet pastes for white meat. The choices are wide; earthy, grassy, herby, bitter, spicy, sweet and smoky – the possibilities are as rich and varied as the delicious teas available. If you’re unsure just think about how flavours sit with one another – would you sip the tea with the meal? Do the tastes work well together? Trust your instincts and your sense of smell.

Using tea in your cooking may feel unusual, but just as the novice chef may feel strange adding unfamiliar herbs and spices to their dishes, so tea can add another layer to your cooking. All the enjoyment, flavours and variety of your favourite hot drink can now enhance your table.

Posted in Brewing Thoughts | Tagged black tea, Earl Grey tea, Jasmine tea, pu-erh tea, tea leaves, tea recipes, white tea | Leave a comment

A Guide to White Tea

By Heather | Published: April 4, 2013

White tea, like green and black tea, comes from the Camellia Sinensis plant. Unlike black and green tea however, white tea is harvested from the unopened buds and selected younger leaves of the tea plant. This means that white tea is less processed (less oxidised) than other types of tea, with the added side-effect of retaining a greater proportion of tea’s health benefits such as decreased risks in cancer and cardiovascular diseases. China’s Fujian province produces most of the world’s white tea, but Sri Lanka, Thailand and Taiwan have also started to produce it in recent times. White tea is so named due to the white hairs on the buds.

Silver Needle White Tea

White tea is often considered a delicacy, and this is most certainly reflected in its price. While it is often more expensive than other types of tea, many would say the taste is worth the price. White Hair Silver Needle, known as Baihao Yinzhen in Chinese, is one such example. This type of tea is plucked on a sunny morning (so as to ensure there is no moisture on the buds) between late March and early April, during the tea plants’ early flushes. When brewed and poured, some of the white hairs from the tea plant should be seen in the cup. Other examples include Bai Mudan tea, which is made from one leaf shoot and two tea leaves, and Sri Lanka’s Adams Peak White Tea.

The taste of white tea is similar to green tea in some respects, but it does still have its own unique flavours. White tea is less “grassy”, less bitter and leaves less of an after taste in comparison to green tea. The differences between white tea and green tea become more prominent, however, the further upmarket you decide to go. Adams Peak White Tea has a light copper colour and tastes of honey and pine, while White Hair Silver Needle has an apricot colour and tastes rather sweet and floral. Bai Mudan tea is fuller-flavoured and stronger-tasting as it includes young tea leaves and not just the buds.

A well-brewed cup of white tea – refreshing

Luckily, like most teas, white tea isn’t too difficult to brew up. All you need is a teapot, 1-2 teaspoons (not much is needed, and 2 teaspoons will probably be enough for 3 – 4 cups) of good quality white tea and water boiled to a temperature of 75-80 degrees Celsius. The water must not be too hot (or indeed cold), as this will scorch the tea and result in an astringent, bitter tea. Ideally, white tea should not be brewed for longer than 1-2 minutes, but White Hair Silver Needle can be brewed for longer at 3-5 minutes. If brewed properly, you should get a light copper/brown/yellow tea. Strain the tea leaves so as to prevent stewing, and you’ll be rewarded with a sweet, delicate and highly drinkable cup of tea. Almost every serious tea drinker will be impressed by the taste and scent of a well-brewed white tea.

Due to the delicate taste of white tea it is best without accompaniments, and probably best drunk after a main meal. If you are going to have it with a meal, make it rice-based, or perhaps a light noodle soup.

Posted in All About tea | Tagged Chinese tea, health, loose-leaf tea, tea facts, white tea | Leave a comment

How to Fake it as a Tea Connoisseur

By Heather | Published: March 27, 2013

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the British love their tea. Furthermore, it is possible for tea to be as tasted and respected as fine wines; a nice brew can be analysed for depths of flavour and vintage as much as a Sauvignon Blanc. But wait! How do you bluff your way through an in-depth conversation on the finer points of a cup of Tetley? Here’s a handy how-to guide on how to sound incredibly intellectual about all manner of teas.

Know your tea like a connoisseur

“A bold tea with hints of caramel and black cherries”

All types and flavours of tea derive from one plant, the Camellia Sinensis. There are four main types – black, green, white and oolong – but these are broken down further.

Black tea is the most common tea worldwide. It’s fermented, with a strong taste and has a high concentration of caffeine.

White tea is unfermented and made with the buds of the tea plant; if your white tea comes with leaves, it’s poor quality. White teas are sweet and creamy flavoured.

Green tea is pretty similar to white tea but has more leaves. The leaves give it a fresh flavour and green tea, when brewed correctly, is a strong antioxidant.

Oolong tea is the most expensive tea. This tea is semi-fermented and sweet, with a floral or fruity flavour.

Pu-erh tea, a form of black tea, is oxidized twice. During this long process a layer of mould forms giving this tea a strong flavour.

Chai tea is usually made from a mix of black tea and herbs and spices.

Flavoured teas and blends are very popular. Because tea absorbs other flavours, you can purchase almost any flavour of tea imaginable.

Buy your tea like a connoisseur

You’re going to need to buy some high-end, classy teas; no PG or Typhoo for you budding connoisseurs! Ditch tea bags and only brew loose leaf tea. Start shopping around for places which offer loose leaf brews. There are plenty of online stores who make excellent and interesting blends; www.leafshop.co.uk, www.bettys.co.uk, or tea emporium Adagio, which features independent sellers producing their own blends and flavours for purchase. There are plenty of tea merchants in the UK, and the staff at these shops will offer you advice and guidance (and potential free samples) on which types of tea to try. Taylors of Harrogate have 98 different types of tea, and if you want to try before you buy a blend, sister company Bettys of Harrogate are reintroducing the world to the delight of afternoon tea. You might even want to try tea at a traditional establishment such as Claridge’s, The Ritz, and Fortnum & Mason. If taking tea in London isn’t your cup of, well, tea, then Twinings has a great range of loose leaf offerings.

Brew your tea like a connoisseur

Keep your tea leaves fresh by storing them in a sealed jar or tin to avoid spoiling the flavour. Do not reuse your tea leaves; it will ruin the flavour of your tea, and lessen your sophistication.
Oxygen helps the flavour of tea develop, so boil fresh water each and every time you fancy a cup.
Make sure your teapot is clean, as a grimy build up will spoil the taste. And yes, use a teapot. A teapot allows for greater infusion of the flavour of the tea leaf into the water, and improves the flavour considerably. This explanation will help you sound more like an expert.
Warm the teapot first by swirling a little hot water around the inside to keep your tea warmer for longer.
Use one teaspoon of loose tea per person.
Brew the tea for three to five minutes and stir once before pouring. Less time is needed for loose green tea (two to three minutes) and loose white tea (one minute).
Milk in first or second? The ‘milk first’ rule comes from the eighteenth century when people wanted to protect their fine bone china from being damaged by scalding water. Go with whichever you prefer, it’s not going to affect the taste.

How to drink your tea like a connoisseur

To taste tea and appreciate the flavours of the blend, you should take a table-spoonful of your tea, drink it with a loud slurp and swill around your mouth before swallowing.

Most importantly, remember that the key to enjoying tea as a connoisseur is simply enjoying tea. Take ten minutes from your day to sit back and relax with a decent cuppa.

Posted in All About tea | Tagged Adagio Tea, black tea, green tea, pu-erh tea, tea tasting, white tea | Leave a comment

A Guide to Pu-Erh Tea

By Heather | Published: March 20, 2013

Ask a tea expert for advice in your search for the finer teas of the world and you may hear them express their disgust for the drink with a noise followed by the word tea. But as you walk away in confusion, you may want to question why someone would become a tea expert if they hated the drink that much, before going back to clarify what they just said. As it turns out, Pu-erh is not just a noise but is in fact the name of a sort-of rare tea and they actually have rather good, if slightly difficult, tastes. This is all hypothetical and I’m not sure where a tea expert can be found, but I imagine them to be wise old men with long wispy beards who sit on piles of fancy cushions as their disciples queue up to ask for their wisdom.

Tastes better than it looks

I am not one of these tea experts, but merely a tea enthusiast, and while I have not tried it myself yet, I can enlighten you as to what Pu-erh tea is. Go to the cupboard and take out your supermarket teabags, look at them and you will not see Pu-erh tea. That was a pointless exercise, sorry.

Now go to Yunnan in China – it’s ok, I’ll wait – climb the mountains and seek the ancient tea tree groves, apologising to the Bulang, Dai and Hani tribes as you disrupt their harvesting. These trees, which can be as old as 1700 years, yield a very special type of tea leaf: Pu-erh, and no, you can’t have it, it’s far too valuable to give away. You can probably order a cheap imitation online but the real things costs a little more. This is one for the real connoisseurs and is comparable to a fine wine – if you dip a biscuit in this it better be an expensive one.

Pu-erh tea is very unique in that its flavour actually changes and improves over time, a process that was discovered by accident way back in the Tang Dynasty (you know, the one that lasted from 618-907 AD. Honestly, keep up!) when compressed bricks of tea were transported over long distances. Back then a journey like that would take months, during which a fermentation process would take place with a little help from microbes in the tea, resulting in a rich and smooth flavour that people went crazy for.

Even now, the best Pu-erh tea is not packaged up in cardboard and cellophane but wrapped in natural fibres and bamboo leaves to aid the fermentation process. It can be bought loose or in compressed brick form and the flavour change in a variety of ways, depending on the storage conditions during the fermentation period. This means the same brick of Pu-erh can provide a lot of different flavoured drinks, depending on when you brew it, what kind of environment it is stored in and what the conditions are like. One day it could be fruity, the next it could be earthy.

You can either buy raw or ripe Pu-erh, each one having been prepared a different way. While raw tea does not undergo any further processing, it is aged naturally, which can last between 20 and 30 years. For this reason, connoisseurs favour this type the most. Initially it has a fruity, floral flavour but after aging it develops a smoother but more complex taste. Ripe on the other hand undergoes an artificial aging process to speed up fermentation, which takes just a few months. Ripe Pu-erh has a more earthy taste but as it ages it gets sweeter.

When it comes to brewing the tea you need to do things properly. It takes a little more care than just throwing the tea into a teapot with boiling water. First you have to rinse the tea you are using with boiling water, partly to clean it, but also to loosen the leaves and prepare them for brewing. Whether you have loose leaves or a compressed brick, you need to be using around one teaspoon of it, or 5 to 8 grams.

Now you can brew it. Ideally you should use filtered water as tap water may contain minerals that react with the leaves and ruin the taste. Brewing time is very short as the flavour will be too strong otherwise – 10-15 seconds should be enough for the first infusion, however Pu-erh leaves can be used up to 10 times, each infusion lasting a little longer than the previous one. The water also needs to be at the right temperature. Raw Pu-erh should be brewed in water no hotter than 85°C if it has been aged for less than 5 years. But ripe tea and older raw tea brews better with boiling water.

As well as its distinctive flavours, Pu-erh tea is also known for its health benefits. While it shares all the positive attributes of green, black, white and oolong tea, it also encourages microbial activities that give it more medicinal qualities. Although solid, conclusive results have yet to be presented, many studies have found possible evidence that Pu-erh tea encourages weight loss by lowering the effects of lipids, as well as preventing heart disease, among other things. In addition to that, it is also a great stress reliever.

So that’s Pu-erh tea, a mysterious, magical beverage that could stop all wars if we all drank it, maybe. If you do wish to try some I would recommend just buying it rather than trekking all the way to China, although you might have a good time over there. Just be sure to shop around and make sure you get the real deal.

Posted in All About tea | Tagged Chinese tea, diet tea, health, pu-erh tea, tea facts | Leave a comment

Top 5 Must-Have Tea Accessories

By Heather | Published: March 12, 2013

Hello, teople (that means tea-people, although teaple is also an acceptable spelling. It’ll catch on.) and welcome back to the awesome blog that celebrates all things tea-related. Tea-lated? No, that doesn’t sound right, I’ll come back to that one. Relatead! Maybe not.

Anyway, I have been searching for those accessories that all teanthusiasts should have and my findings have ranged from the obvious and indispensable, to the creatively awesome ones that you may not necessarily need as such, but will certainly want. So without further ado, I present to you five basic essential accessories and five others that get in purely on the strength of being awesome.

Here are five basic essentials for making that perfect cup of tea:

5. A Kettle

Step one: boil water

Pretty obvious here, whether you choose the easy option of an electric kettle or go old-fashioned and heat up a classic whistling kettle instead, you need some kind of method of heating the water sufficiently. If you are really stuck you could use a saucepan, although you might scald yourself when it comes to pouring it, those things are awkward. I once made tea in a wok – it did not go well.

4. A Teapot

Less compulsory than a kettle admittedly but when it comes to brewing loose tea, this is arguably the best way to go about it. While infusers are all well and good in a cup, if you are brewing in a teapot, it is best to let the leaves swim wild and free so the flavour can really spread. Additionally, you should make sure it is the right size in terms of how much tea you are making. Any empty space in the teapot will allow air in, which cools the tea quicker than you may like and can also affect the taste.

3. A Timer

For those who want to be really specific about it a timer will help you steep that tea properly. This is not always necessary but specific types of tea require different steeping times to get the best flavour out of them and while it doesn’t need to be to the exact second, it helps to have a timer guide you.

2. A Strainer

You’ve boiled your water, treated your burns, brewed your tea and allowed it to steep for as long as it needs and now it is time to pour it. “But wait a minute, Mr. Teanthusiast, how do I avoid pouring the loose leaves into my cup?” I hear you ask. Well, my answer to you is to acquire a strainer, which will catch any leaves as you pour your cup of tea and leave your beverage completely leafless. Honestly, you teople.

1. A Storage Container

Well it was either this or a cup but I’m 97% certain you figured that much out for yourselves. Those of you who are now horribly burnt after trying to drink it straight from the teapot or wok, once your wounds heal you will be a better person for the experience. But moving on, one of the most important elements to making the perfect cup of tea is correct storage, especially when it is loose, which of course is the only way to make the perfect cup. It needs to be airtight and kept in a cool, dry place out of the sun and away from anything with a strong taste or smell as it may absorb it over time.

So now you have your perfect cup of tea, would you like a little awesome with that? Of course you would, how could anyone not want these?

5. The Lazy Tea Pot

This one removes the burden of having to lift up a teapot and then tilt it slightly in order to make tea come out of it. Finally! In addition to that it has a temperature dial on the back so you can regulate the temperature of your tea. Once you are satisfied, it is just a simple matter of tilting it forwards on its stand to pour your tea. No longer will we have to worry about injuries resulting from the weight of a teapot. This truly is the future.

4. The Teastick

If you want to brew loose tea but only know how to brew teabags then the Teastick is your answer. It holds enough to brew one cup and you just have to dip it in the cup like a teabag. You can even stir with it, saving you the trouble of having to wash a spoon afterwards. Or at least rinse it like I do. Hey, it’s only tea.

3. My Cuppa Mug

It can be hard to get your tea exactly the way you want it without years of practise and studying. Fortunately, this mug comes with a built in colour chart, making it easier to mix it exactly the way you like it.

2. Penguin Tea Timer

Everyone loves penguins, at least they did in 2006 when no fewer than 47 of the year’s highest grossing films were about penguins. Who can forget Happy Feet, The Da Vinci Penguin, P for Penguin, Penguin of Men or March of the… well, I forget the name, but penguins were big. Anyway, that time has passed and no one cares anymore but this is still an awesome accessory. A penguin holds your teabag and pulls it out of the cup when it has brewed long enough, what’s not to like?

1. The Self-Stirring Tea Cup

This is it, we have arrived teople. While the French aren’t known for their tea, it turns out they really know how to stir it with products like this. This rather cool glass cup has a ceramic ball in the bottom that spins around the base when you swirl your cup, mixing it for you. You may not like the idea of drinking tea out of a glass but you can’t deny it’s a pretty cool idea. I bet it’s a pain to wash though.

Posted in Tea Things | Tagged tea accessories, tea pot | Leave a comment

A Guide to Green Tea

By Heather | Published: January 28, 2013

Hello, tea-lovers, tea-likers, tea-toleraters and tea-haters who inexplicably like reading about tea (you are also welcome here, I suppose, but your views make me hate you), I hope you are well. If you’re not then a nice cup of tea might make you feel better, unless you are allergic to tea and if that is the case I don’t know what you’re doing here. Having said that, if you are looking for a healthy drink and have not been cursed with the annoying hindrance of your throat closing up when you drink tea, then today’s subject may be of interest to you because I am going to be telling you about the rather healthy green tea.

What is green tea?

Green tea is tea that is green. Moving on.

Ok, so there’s more to it than that. Green tea comes from the leaves of Camellia sinensis, a species of plant that can actually yield different kinds of tea but it is the processing method that separates green tea from the others. The key to green tea is to process it in such a way that it does not oxidise, which involves heating it either with steam heat or dry heat, such as pan firing it. Heating it in this way preserves all the antioxidants and vitamins that give its healthy edge over other teas, and they’re not bad for you at all so you know this must be good. In fact while green tea is more popular overseas in eastern countries like Japan and China, it is growing in popularity in the west and now everyone on a health kick is drinking it, but I’ll get to that later.

Buying green tea

You can buy green tea pretty much anywhere. Go to any supermarket or corner shop and chances are they will have green teabags but if you extend that search further there are other forms. Tea purists who like to brew their own from scratch should look in more specialised shops for a wider choice. There are different varieties of green tea based on how and where the leaves were grown and it can come in dried leaf form or as a powder, like Matcha. Alternatively you can just go to the magical online realm and pick and choose from there at will.

Brewing green tea

If you have cheap green teabags then throw them in boiled water and there you go. However more care should be taken when brewing it properly. If you pour boiling water on the leaves then it will impair the taste somewhat so it is better to let it cool to a little below boiling before pouring. When it comes to steeping the general rule is the longer you steep, the stronger it tastes, but I wouldn’t advise a strong cup of green tea as it can get pretty bitter. Around 30 seconds is normally sufficient but times and temperature can vary with different types so it is best to read up on your specific tea for brewing times. If you add milk and sugar then you should stop reading now and never return to this site. Seriously, it’s just wrong and insulting to an ancient culture somewhere, maybe. Like the Mayans, I dunno.

Flavour

Green tea tends to have a subtle, bitter and slightly grassy taste but again, this varies depending on the type. Supermarket green teabags are always bitter but proper green teas can be bittersweet, nutty, earthy or swampy. Except, you know, in a good way. This may all sound unappetising but while it is an acquired taste, it is actually very refreshing.

Full of swampy goodness!

Health benefits

One reason green tea is getting so popular is because health fanatics and readers of those cheap magazines you find in the canteen at work or in doctors’ waiting rooms have found out about its health benefits and think it will make them stop aging. You know the magazines I mean, every single workplace stocks up on them to lower morale. A smiling woman on the cover gives you false sense of security that makes you ignore the sensationalist headlines on the cover. But then you open it and all you see are stories about a woman who gave birth to a swarm of bees and the tragic story of a woman who didn’t realise her husband was just a pillow and a few Sudoku puzzles. Why are people encouraged to read all this on their tea breaks? (I appear to be digressing so I’ll reel it in) Those magazines may be unhealthy but you know what isn’t? Green tea! Thanks to its antioxidants it has a general cleansing quality that will make you feel awesome if you drink it regularly.

Here are some other things research suggests it may be able to do for you:

It helps prevent gum disease
It boosts your immune system
It may help prevent cancer (at the very least it doesn’t seem to cause cancer like everything else apparently does)
It reduces the risk of heart disease
It helps lower cholesterol
It speeds up your metabolism and aids weight loss (it helps, it doesn’t do the work for you, green tea cakes will not make you thinner)

So there we have it. Green tea is a nice, refreshing drink and it might just make you a healthier person so what are you waiting for? Get out there and drink some green tea.

Posted in All About tea | Tagged green tea, health, loose-leaf tea, tea bags | Leave a comment

Great Tea Cupcake Recipes

By Heather | Published: October 7, 2012

Another National Cupcake Week has come and gone, in which we drop everything we are doing to celebrate the almighty cake of cups and everything related to it – you know, like icing. This year I saw some interesting and creative recipes, such as a savoury korma cupcake and, my personal favourite because it happens to be my favourite cocktail, the too good to be true white Russian cupcake.

But awesome alcoholic cakes aside (seriously, what a great combination!), the one that caught this blogger’s eye was the rather classy Her Ladyship’s Tea Cake, which included 8 Lady Grey tea bags in the recipe. Look at it, isn’t it beautiful? It got me thinking, if Lady Grey makes a good cupcake then other kinds of tea should too, after all it makes a pretty good cooking ingredient, so with that in mind, here are three more tea cupcake recipes.

Earl Grey Tea Cupcakes

This is a nice versatile recipe that also works well with herbal and fruit tea if that’s the edge you want to give it. But for now let’s stick with Earl Grey. Here is what you need:

3 Earl Grey teabags
3 tablespoons of just-boiled water
80g butter
280g caster sugar
240g plain flour
1 tablespoon of baking powder
A pinch of salt
200ml whole milk
2 large eggs

Also, if you wish to add icing you will also need:

50ml whole milk
500g icing sugar
160g butter

Put the teabags in a bowl with the boiled water and let it brew for half an hour.
Preheat the oven to 190°C and fill a muffin tin with muffin cases.
Mix the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl, using a low setting if you have an electric whisk.
In a separate jug whisk the milk and eggs together.
Add the brewed tea to the jug, making sure to squeeze every drop from the teabags. You will need to keep the teabags if you wish to make icing.
Pour three quarters of the milk mixture into the bowl and mix them together. Combine them slowly first, then mix more quickly until it is smooth.
Pour in the rest of the mixture and mix it all thoroughly into a nice smooth cupcakey goo.
Spoon the mixture into the cases and then put them in the oven for around 20 minutes, keeping an eye on them in case they burn or spill over.
Once they are pleasingly firm and springy bring them out to cool.
For the icing, put the squeezed out teabags into a bowl with the milk for half an hour then remove them. Again, squeeze out everything you can into the bowl, before throwing them away.
In a separate bowl whisk the sugar and butter together, then add the milky tea mixture and whisk it into a nice fluffy icing.

Green Tea Cupcakes

Green tea desserts are popular in Japan and when you try these it is easy to see why. As well as a refreshing and healthy drink, green tea also makes a rather good cupcake. You need:

4 green tea teabags
2-3 teaspoons of green tea powder (also known as matcha)
110g butter
225g sugar
125g self-raising flour
120g plain flour
150g milk
2 large eggs

And for the icing:

115g butter
60ml milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
500g icing sugar
1 teaspoon of green tea powder

Heat the milk slowly and bring to the boil.
Remove it from the heat, add the teabags and cover for at least half an hour, but the longer you leave it the more flavour there will be so it is entirely up to you.
Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a tray with muffin cases.
Remove the teabags from the milk, squeezing them out completely, and add the powder, stirring it in.
Mix the butter and sugar together in a bowl until smooth.
Add the eggs to the bowl and mix them in.
Sift the flours together in a separate bowl and stir them in together. Add a third of this mix to the other bowl and mix well.
Add a third of the milk/tea mix to this bowl and mix it in. repeat until all the flour and milk has been added and mixed in.
Spoon the cake mix into the cases and bake for around 25 minutes.
When they are ready they should be golden brown with a nice green tinge. Let them cool then ice them.
For the icing mix the butter, milk, vanilla and half of the icing sugar into a smooth paste.
Gradually add the rest of the icing sugar mixing it in as you go, along with the green tea powder.
Mix it all up and your icing is ready to go.

Chai Tea Cupcakes

If you are feeling a bit more adventurous and want to try a more exotic, spicy tea cupcake then this recipe is an interesting one. You need:

3 chai teabags
40g butter
140g sugar
120g plain flour
1½ teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
120ml whole milk
1 egg

And if you really want to do it properly, the following spices can be used in place of the teabags and they certainly give it a kick.

2 teaspoons of ground ginger
1 tablespoon of ground cardamom
2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons fennel
2 teaspoons of cloves

If you are using teabags, soak them in the milk for two hours so the flavour can infuse them properly. If you are using spices then make sure they are all ground up together.
Preheat the oven to 170°C and prepare the cupcake cases on a tray.
In a bowl mix the butter, sugar, flower and baking powder together.
Next remove the teabags, squeeze them out and add the milk to the bowl, mixing it all in thoroughly.
Once this is done, add the egg and mix.
If you chose to use spices instead of teabags, add the ground mixture last and blend it all in with the rest of the mix.
If you really want to go all the way you could use teabags and spices together although I have no idea how that would taste.
Spoon the mixture into the cases and bake for around 20 minutes.
Allow them to cool.

Of course any tea can be used in cooking. If it’s good to drink it’s good to eat so experiment and see what combinations you can come up with. Maybe you’ll be the next National Cupcake Champion in 2013…

Posted in Brewing Thoughts | Tagged chai, Earl Grey tea, green tea, tea bags, tea recipes | Leave a comment

10 ways to reuse your teabags

By Heather | Published: September 28, 2012

I’ve always tried to recycle as much as possible but I often seem to have one too many old teabags filling my rubbish bin. Tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world after water, and it worried me slightly at the sheer amount of teabags I was throwing away, not to mentions the billions of other people doing the same thing. I started to look at ways I could get more use out of a teabag and found that they have amazing qualities that can help in many ways around the house, before you send them off to the landfill site.

1. The eyelid trick

I always knew that you could pop them over your eyes once they have cooled but never knew why. It has been proven that the tannins in teabags reduce swelling and placing one over each eye for just 15 minutes or so can reduce puffy, tired eyes. Do warn people before you do this though – the shock of walking in on someone with old Lady Grey’s on their eyelids can be quite disconcerting.

Think before you throw! Do you have smelly feet?

2. As an anti-inflammatory

The tannic acid in teabags has anti-inflammatory properties and can be used on different skin irritations: insect bites, shaving rashes, sunburn, and they can even help reduce the appearance of a wart or a sty. A cool tea compress for around 15 minutes can work wonders.

3. A watched pot never boils

They can also be used to drain a boil or an abscess without any pain. You will have to leave the compress on the affected area for a little longer, but it’ll be worth it.

4. Bath time brew

Antioxidants in tea, especially green tea, are great for hydrating your skin. Run your bath water over a few used teabags and you’ll benefit from softer skin. Plus you can always drink the bath water after (only joking!).

Ahem

5. Because you’re worth it

Tea also makes your hair softer and easier to manage. Brew a few old teabags for a second time in boiling water and when it cools pour over your hair for an environmentally friendly conditioner.

6. Smelly feet be gone!

Tannins also tackle odours, so tea leaves are great at getting rid of all those bad smells. Brew your old teabags again in boiling water and, when it’s cool enough, soak your feet for about 20 minutes. The tea will get rid of any bad feet smells.

7. Smelly kitchens be gone!

You can also get rid of kitchen smells with old teabags too. Put a used teabag in the fridge and it’ll soak up any unwanted food smells: when it stops working, just change the bag. You can even rinse your hands with a teabag and warm water to get rid of the smell of onions from your fingers.

8. Smelly carpets be gone!

You can also remove odours from carpets and rugs by sprinkling damp tea leaves from your used teabags over the area, leave for an hour or so and then vacuum. Although I’ve never tried it myself, and would hate to cause any undue damage to your carpet, apparently this works. Mind you, I wouldn’t recommend this for a cream or pale carpet, but an old tea bag is certainly much cheaper than some other products on the market.

9. A bed of roses

Put used tea leaves into the compost: they speed up the process and are great at helping acid loving plants to grow such as roses and ferns.

10. Tea chaser

Straight after your morning brew, brew another pot and put it in the fridge for a refreshing afternoon hit with less oomph than you need in the morning.

Posted in All About tea | Tagged loose-leaf tea, recyling tea, tea bags, tea facts, top 10 | Leave a comment

- Follow us on Twitter
- Subscribe by RSS
Search
Pages
Categories
Blogroll
- Tea Guy Speaks
- The SW Food Blog
Archives
Meta
- Log in

Search

Pages

Categories

Blogroll

Archives

Meta