‘T’ is for Tea!
When a beverage turns in to a lifestyle
After reading Katie’s recent post on tea, it reminded me how little I know about tea but how much I enjoy it. So, I wanted to blog about the tea I usually drink every day.
I don’t remember when I became a tea fanatic, but I think it was around the same time I became a chocolate snob (ah, but I will save that story for later). While I was in college, I was mostly a coffee drinker. Getting hot tea at a restaurant or brewing a bag in my room never excited me. Sometimes if I was at home eating my mom’s biscotti, I would make a cup to dip it in (I think coffee overwhelms biscotti and should be used to dip in only when the biscotti isn’t as good as my mom’s ;)
It all started sometime before Mark bought me my first tin of Taylors of Harrogate loose green tea pearls. (I imagine I had an interest in tea before this otherwise I wouldn’t have been so excited about getting loose tea). The difference in quality, aroma, and color of the tea compared to the crushed, dried tea in tea bags was astonishing, I never turned back. For a while, if I ran out of quality tea I could go back to a generic Lipton green tea bag, but now I really have no taste for it.
Now, if you look in my kitchen, you’ll see boxes upon canisters of herbal, black, white, and green teas. Tea has become my primary source of hydration. I drink tea from the time I wake up to the time I go to bed, only consuming water if I run out of tea at work or too thirsty to wait for tea to brew.
I have two tea pots: one small clay pot (~6oz) and a large iron pot (~12oz). On the weekends I’ll steep a large pot of tea when I wake up and drink it for the rest of the afternoon. I have a tea basket and a tin of tea at work, as well as an ample stock of brewed, bottled tea in the fridge. I am extremely picky about ‘tea’ flavored foods and check the ingredients to be sure that it is actually made with tea and not ‘tea flavoring’.
By far I prefer steeping my own tea, however sometimes the situation doesnt allow the luxury of a pot and strainer. To make do instead of without, I’ve found a few brands of tea which provide bags of whole tea leaves which are preserved in foil wrappers to preserve freshness. But nothing beats a post of freshly steeped tea. What I am looking for now is a nice Gaiwan cup (covered tea cup) to try loose steeping.
Although there is a variety of herbal, black, white, and green teas that I drink, I prefer green and white teas. Here are three of the teas which are regularly replenished in my collection:
Honest Tea
Honest Tea is a local company (Bethesda, Md.) which brews, packages and distrubes organically grown tea in various forms. I forget how I found them, but it was while I was on the impossible quest to find a brewed and bottled tea with no high-fructose corn syrup, with very little sweetness. This tea is it. As you can see from their website, they have a huge variety of tea, all of them very low in sweetness and many of them with no honey or sugar cane added.
Keep in mind that one teaspoon of sugar (~4g) is 15 calories. To me, a teaspoon of sugar is plenty if not too much sweetness, and most ‘tea’ beverages contain around 20 grams of sugar, and thats on the low end!
Their tea is available in both glass and plastic bottles, however I think the plastic tastes different than the tea in the glass (the original packaging). I actually asked them about this, and they said its the same recipe, however the tea for the plastic bottles is brewed slightly different. Both are still good.
It was only recently I tried their tea bags. I was very impressed with the quality of tea in the foil-sealed bags. The tea was fairly whole and the bags were large to allow the leaves to move around in the water.
My favorite tea in both bottle and bag form is the Moroccan Mint Green (green tea, peppermint, spearamint).
Novus Tea
Novus tea is a company who wanted to preserve the tradition of brewing tea but make it more available for a modern lifestyle. They provide a minimal selection of excellent teas which are uniquely packaged. The tea is whole-leaf and in a nylon, pyramid-shaped bag. This open bag allows the tea to move around while steeping. This method is very similar to steeping loose tea in a strainer.
You can buy a box of 12 individually foil-wrapped bags on their site for $6.50, so it isn’t very moderatly priced for a ‘bagged’ tea.
My favorite Novus tea is Pai Mu Tan, a delicate and fragrant white tea.
Rishi Tea
Rishi tea is organic and fair trade tea company which has tea available by the ounce online and in many stores including Whole Foods. They have beautiful and fragrant teas of many varieties, and their website provides beautiful sample pictures of their teas. This is probably one of the best loose teas I have been able to find in a supermarket (specialty tea stores can afford to provide higher-quality/higher-priced teas).
My favorite Rishi tea is the Jasmine Pearl green tea, although the Silver Needle white tea is also very good.
Yay for tea. :)
Moroccan Mint Green is my favorite Honest Tea flavor, too. I go through a lot of that in the summer, but not so much in the winter. I haven’t tried their tea bags yet.
I find it convenient to have an electronic hot water pot in my office; I just have to fill it up with cold water every so often, but otherwise I’ve continually got hot water ready for tea.
Along another tangent, it used to be that Paper Street Teas let you design your own custom blend of tea. I think it would be hard to come up with a blend that’s different from what they already offer and tastes good, though.
Last week Whole Foods had cases of the Moroccan Mint Green (glass bottles) on sale for $13. Tonight is grocery night so I hope they still have it!
Rishi’s Chai Masala is amazing, but you have to grind it like coffee. I think, I’ve never figured it out, but it’s a potent flavour, true to the Indian version (so said my Indian office mates)
I like tea, Earl Grey, hot.