How to Measure Your Tea

This may seem a strange, or perhaps a boring, topic, but to me it is essential to making the perfect cup of tea. 

Those of you who buy loose leaf tea, and I dearly hope that includes EVERYONE, will notice you purchase your tea not by volume, but by weight. In the US you purchase by ounce (oz) and in Canada by gram (g). 

Any credible source on tea will tell you that to make a great cup of tea you should be WEIGHING your tea for your cup or pot, not scooping it by volume, ie; using a spoon for every type of tea equally. A good rule of thumb is 2-5 g of tea per cup. 

But seriously, who wants to get out a tiny, precise kitchen scale and weigh out their tea every time they want to steep a cup. I sure don't. A spoon is a lot easier, even though it measures volume. So here are my tricks!

Firstly, see how big your bag of tea is compared to other bags by the same mass. Some weightier teas hardly take up any room at all! See below. Pineapple Orange Cooler, a Fruit Tea, is much smaller at 100g than Fine and Dandy, an Herbal Infusion of the same mass. 

So what?

Plainly, this means you should not be scooping so much of the weightier tea into your cup as you should the tea that takes up more room. 

Therefore, using your spoon, scoop out LESS of the weightier/denser teas for a cup; scoop out MORE of the puffier, less dense teas. BECAUSE THAT'S HOW THEY COMPARE BY EQUAL WEIGHT. 

So unless you want to weigh your teas, or unless you want to measure by volume, this is a great and easy shortcut. It will also help you get the most bang for your buck, and those denser teas will last longer. 

Happy Sipping!!

Steeped Tea Serendipity Set

Okay, I admit it, I freaked out when I found out that Steeped Tea was selling FINE BONE CHINA!!!! and immediately I had to find out what it would look like and how I could get my hands on it. 

It was a motivating factor in me signing up, to be honest. 

I ordered my Serendipity teapot and teacup last week and have them to show off for you...but first, here's the promotion:

If you host a party (even your own catalogue or Facebook party) and it ends up over $300, you can choose either the set of SIX teacups and saucers OR the teapot to purchase at a vastly discounted price. 

If your party if over $500, you can purchase BOTH!!! (Plus you get to enjoy all your hostess dollars, half price items and free shipping!)

I was THRILLED at the quality of these china pieces. And I'm hard to impress. 

Here are mine!

The first thing you need to do is condition your teapot. Make a big pot of strong black tea and let it sit for several hours. After that, you're ready to go!

I was pleased to discover that the infuser basket for the Mod Pot (that comes in the Starter Kit) fits perfectly in the beautiful teapot. (Sans Lid)

My first cuppa was Bluest Blueberry Black tea! And it was DELICIOUS in this beautiful fine china tea cup!

Contact me for details if you would like to get your hands on this lovely set. 

http://www.mysteepedtea.com/teawithbecci/

Happy Sipping!

Steeped Tea Launch Party #1!

In case you missed it, I made the announcement in my last blog post that I recently joined Steeped Tea Inc. as a Consultant! I had my first launch party and decided to share the experience with all of you!

I recently inherited a full set of Old Country Roses china by Royal Albert and decided this was a perfect opportunity to show off my china and all my beautiful new teas. I bought two dozen roses at Costco and placed them in teacups around the kitchen, dining room and living room for decoration. I also added a bouquet of roses and carnations to my Old Country Roses teapot. 

I had so much fun decorating!

Next I had fun laying out all my teas and fun Steeped Tea items. 

I only had three guests show up and felt a little disappointed. But they were SO EXCITED and supportive! They were two of my dearest friends and my daughter in law. And of course my upline showed up, who's my fave BFF in all the world. We had such a lovely time talking tea, temperature (yes, I lectured a bit), smelling and tasting. 

I started out by serving some hot Peaches and Cream White Tea. Everybody had really positive feedback. Next I served Earl Grey de la Creme. One of the gals didn't even want to try it - the smell put her off. She's not an Earl Grey fan. The other two really liked it. Finally we ended up with iced Berry Mania - two of the three liked it. 

For food I served the Caramel Apple Cheeseball with graham crackers - WOW. We had a cracker and cheese plate, and my husband surprised us by making chicken salad sandwiches with TEA-yaki rub on naan bread! It was all a hit! Followed by sweets from Costco. 

Since there was such a small group we decided to have some fun - and also because this was my training party. We smelled as many teas as we felt like and made any we wanted - included Macchiato Dream, English Breakfast and two of my ST matchas. English Breakfast turned out to be quite a hit - much to my surprise, I find it a bit boring - and two customers ordered it!

All three customers placed orders and I am well on my way to earning my Success Start. Two of them are having parties next month. I am thrilled. 

My second party is this weekend and I'm really looking forward to it. 

I now have samples ready to go, and my Serendipity Teapot and Teacup have arrived - more on that later!

Exciting Announcement!

As you may have seen on my Youtube Channel, I have decided to become a Steeped Tea Consultant.

Steeped Tea is a Canadian company that has recently unfurled their tea leaves in the States as well. They are an MLM, or Multi-Level Marketing company. This means they don't pay for advertising or placement in big box stores, but rather, all the proceeds go to the consultants who work the business. 

I decided to join because...well...I spend a lot of money on looseleaf tea, and I thought a.) it would be great to get a 25% discount on my own product and b.) it would be fun to be in a business that I am passionate about! So why the heck not!

The Starter Kit is AWESOME. Here in Canada it is only $99 plus S&H and Taxes. I will post my unboxing video below for your amusement. 

Here are some photos of the kit. 

My kit included everything needed to start in the business, and everything needed to sample these delectable teas! INCLUDING:

BUSINESS SUPPLIES:

30 Current Catalogues

1 Presentation Folder

1 Fundraiser Introduction

1 Welcome Envelope

5 Host Envelopes

1 Success Start Card

50 Order Forms

10 OpportuniTEA Brochures

FOOD PRODUCTS:

Smoky Tea-yaki Rub

Caramel Apple Cheeseball Mix

ACCESSORIES:

Stainless Steel Mod Pot (1.4 L)

100 Steeping Sacks

Purple Teapot Cozy

1 Pot Of Steeped Tea Spoon

1 ParTEA Carafe (Bonus for August Sign Up!!)

TEAS:

Earl Grey De La Creme - 50 g

Matcha - 25 g

Peaches and Cream - 50 g

Peppy Peppermint - 50 g

Don't Worry Be Happy - 50 g

English Breakfast - 50 g

Pineapple Orange Cooler - 50 g

Cocoa Mint - 50 g

Pina Colada - 50 g

Macchiato Dream - 50 g

Berry Mania - 50 g

I am THRILLED with my kit contents and can't wait to share more with you in the future!

My new Steeped Tea Website is

http://www.mysteepedtea.com/teawithbecci/

Here's our Youtube Video!

(Josh guest stars)

Creamy Earl Grey Competition...And the Winner Is....

I recently had my first Teavana experience. 

I only bought Earl Grey Creme at Teavana. My tea stash is large enough and I wanted to compare it to my other favourite Creamy Earl Greys: one by DAVIDsTEA and one by T by Daniel.

So let me start the comparison and then announce which is my favourite! It might surprise you!

Firstly, I was really pleased with the price point of Earl Grey Creme at Teavana. It was $4.50 for 50g. I thought, hey, if I could get behind this tea I'd be saving a pretty penny! It smells nice, but the "creamy vanilla finish" promised didn't really come through the nose. 

I steeped it as recommended, at 96 degrees C for 3 minutes. It made a very pleasant black tea but I was underwhelmed with the whole experience. One might even say disappointed. My husband really liked it as a simple black tea. 

The next one I will talk about is Organic Cream of Earl Grey by DAVIDsTEA! My traditional favourite! This was my first foray into Creamy Earl Greys and has absolutely blown my mind. It has prominent sweet vanilla notes and does not disappoint. It's $6.98 per 50 g, but you can stock up when you belong to the Summer Steeper club and save 20%, bringing it down to $5.58 per 50g. 

This tea is delicious, smooth and, when steeped properly (yes, I will ALWAYS preach about that!) is never astringent or tart). 

Although I had been drinking Organic Cream of Earl Grey for months, after discovering T by Daniel I decided to try THEIR version of Creamy Earl Grey, aptly called Canadian Eh. This tea promises a maple flavouring, along with the traditional vanilla and bergamot. It's $7.00 per 50 g, and they often have sales, sometimes even 40-50% off. (Join the T by Daniel Fan page on FB for more information on upcoming sales!)

HOLD. THE. PHONE. 

This one has CHANGED MY LIFE. I don't know how they did it but it really DOES have maple notes in it. And vanilla. And bergamot. And yet, it's beautifully simple. I iced it the other day for the first time and squealed. Yes, I actually squealed. It's just that good. 

Keep in mind, I drink my hot teas plain - no milk or sugar. So they have to be very impressive. THIS ONE IS IMPRESSIVE.  

CANADIAN EH IS THE WINNER!!!!!!

Clockwise from Top Left: Canadian Eh, Organic Cream of Earl Grey, Earl Grey Creme

Congratulations, T by Daniel, on putting out yet another mind-blowing tea. (SLURRRRRRRP). Not only is it smooth and delicious, living up to the description, it's patriotic. I love it. 

Beloved Black Tea

Black tea is the most popular tea in North America and Britain. It is used in iced teas and popular blends such as "English Breakfast", "Irish Breakfast", and scented teas like  "Earl Grey". 

Black tea is traditionally steeped in boiling water until the pot runs dry! DON'T DO THIS, PLEASE!!!! You are missing out on the true aromas and flavours of this wonderful tea if you are simply pouring boiling water over your tea bags and leaving them sit until you drink it all up! Read on. 

Black tea is a real tea made from the C. sinensis plant. It is produced in India, China, Sri Lanka and Africa and more. It's very flavourful and aromatic and does well with a touch of milk, honey, lemon, sugar or sweetener. It is the only tea that is fully oxidized. 

Black tea is referred to as 'normal' tea in Britain and 'red tea' in China!

The processing of black tea can be quick: as quick as one day. The raw leaves are withered, then rolled by hand or machine. This begins the oxidation process. PLEASE NOTE: some sources mistakenly call this process 'fermentation'. It is NOT fermentation. Fermentation involves the action of micro-organisms. Pu-erh tea is fermented. Black tea is not. It is oxidized. (Heiss & Heiss)

If rolled, this is called the 'orthodox' method. Higher quality teas come from this method because the buds don't break. This can be done by hand or machine. The finest leaves are picked first for this method.

The CTC method, or Cut-Tear-Curl method is a sub-par method of processing tea, and it is used for tea in tea bags. The lower quality tea leaves are pressed through a roller with teeth, cutting and rolling the tea at the same time. This type of tea has great surface area, allowing a fast steep time. Certainly this is more convenient for a person on the run. CTC teas count for about 90% of the black teas produced in today's market, and much of Africa's teas go to this production. 

After being rolled or put through the CTC method, the leaves are allowed to rest. This rest releases the enzymes that hold flavour and aroma.  They are then dried in ovens, halting the oxidation method and sealing in those wonderful flavours and aromas! 

Black teas should be steeped at just under boiling point, at about 96 degrees Celsius. They steep at the highest of all the teas. They should steep for about 3-5 minutes. THEY DO NOT STEEP WELL THE SECOND TIME since tannins have been released. (Although some sources, Cheadle and Kilby included, say black teas only contain tannin 'like' substances. Nonetheless, they all agree on a single steep.)

The liquor of black tea is a coppery, reddish brown. Steeped too long and it becomes astringent and you will have the 'puckery' feeling in your mouth. Black teas pair well with many foods, including meats, breads, chocolates and sweets! (Keating & Long)

The only tea that does NOT take milk well is the "champagne of teas", Darjeeling. This is a very unique black tea grown in the northeastern foothills of India, in the Himalayan Mountains. It is a pungent, crisp, muscatel tea. Steep at a lower temperature, between 80-90 degrees Celsius, and for only 3 minutes, and do not add milk. Heiss & Heiss recommend tasting the tea soon after steeping as the flavour may 'bolt'. 

Some popular black teas:

ASSAM

 - from NE India, the Assam Valley

 - grows C. Sinensis var. assamica

 - in most breakfast blends

 - very strong tea

 - can be processed both Orthodox and CTC

 - CTC Assam that is famously British

CEYLON

 - grown in Sri Lanka (previously named Ceylon)

 - strong and tart

 - aromatic

 - teas here are classified by altitude

NILGIRI

 - SE India, from the 'Blue Mountains' of Nilgiri

 - brisk and fragrant

 - often used in blends

YUNNAN

 - SW China

 - rich and peppery

 - has been produced for over 1700 years!

BLENDED BLACK TEAS:

 - ENGLISH BREAKFAST:

  - has Assam in it

  - takes milk and sugar well

  - ironically developed in Scotland, but Queen Victoria loved it when she summered at Balmoral

 - IRISH BREAKFAST

  - has Assam and Ceylon

  - hearty, tart

  - is famously strong

There are many more types of black tea. My favourite is a scented black tea: EARL GREY!!! I have done a previous post on it. You can read it here. 

The Tea Association of the USA says three or more cups of black tea a day can decrease your risk of heart disease and stroke! So enjoy your cuppa - guilt free! What's your favourite black tea?

Works Cited:

The Little Black Book of Tea - Heneberry

The Tea Book: All Things Tea - Cheadle and Kilby

The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook - Heiss & Heiss

How to Make Tea: The Science Behind The Leaf - Keating & Long

The Wonders of White Tea

I remember trying my first white tea years ago, before I was introduced to loose leaf tea. I believe it was a ginger pear white tea, and it tasted like water. Maybe. It was a bagged tea from the grocery store. After that I was completely uninterested in white tea until I tried White Nectarine from DAVIDsTEA. Oh my. The flavour in this tea completely blew my mind. It was mild and gentle but completely...THERE. White nectarines are my favourite fruit and so to taste a tea that captured the taste so perfectly was amazing. I was sold. 

White tea is a real 'tea'. It comes from the Camellia sinensis plant, the sinensis variety (as opposed to the assam variety). Upon tasting it, however, one might think it's an herbal tea! It's that gentle and mild. It is picked early in spring, only from the very tips of the tea plant. "Authentic" white tea, according to Heiss & Heiss, only comes from the Fuijan province of China. Other sources agree, saying even though other countries grow and pluck white tea, it simply isn't the quality as found in the mountainous region of Fuijan. 

White tea is called "White" not because of the colour of the liquor, which is often a light yellow, but because the buds have a soft, downy white fuzz on them that is a silvery white colour, as seen below. 

There are two main types of white tea: Silver Needle and White Peony. They will be discussed in further detail below. There are two more rare types of white tea, also from Fuijan: Gong Mei and Shou Mei. They are not uniform in colour or appearance. Blooming flower teas are often made with white teas since they expand so much in water. Below you can see a small experiment I conducted with Buddha's Blend from DAVIDsTEA. The left shows the one teaspoon of tea without water, the right shows the expansion with just two tablespoons of water!

White tea can also take on added flavours and scents beautifully and often is part of high quality jasmine scented teas. 

White tea is the least processed of all the real teas. Cheadle and Kilby call it a 'basically unprocessed' tea. It is plucked by hand and left to dry. Therefore it undergoes minimal oxidation, unlike every other type of tea. According to Heneberry, it really is a type of green tea but without the rolling or breaking of the leaves. The leaves are left to dry in the sun. Even rain can cause severe damage, and since plucking season only lasts two weeks of the year, one can understand how this tea can be expensive and sought after!

The tea liquor itself is often a light yellow colour. Heneberry cites that it has the least caffeine of all the teas, but Keating & Long say recent studies found some white teas may have comparable levels of caffeine to other teas. All sources I looked at agree that white tea has large amounts of phenolic compounds, which are antioxidants. Some white teas may, in fact, have the highest antioxidant content of any teas! Why is this so? The reason again comes to how it is picked and plucked and processed. Only the tip of the tea plant is picked and plucked for white tea, and only at the first sign of spring. This part of the plant, at this time of its development, contains the highest concentration of nutrients, volatile oils, chlorophyll and flavour! BUT IT IS ALL DONE BY HAND. 

White tea has a light, sweet taste and hardly any astringency. Still, because it is a real tea, you can oversteep it. As stated, the liquor is pale yellow to pale green. It often has a mild, honey like flavour. Heiss & Heiss state that white tea has "a full body, clean, short-finished, soft and sweet" taste. 

Silver Needle is the finest, top grade of white teas. It consists of just the shoots and a single tip. It is the most expensive. It is sweet like a honeysuckle and has a clear liquor. Silver Needle is barely oxidized, at about a 5% rate. 

White Peony white teas bloom when steeped. White Peony consists of two leaves and a bud. It still has the silver needle but ALSO has two lower leaves. This actually contributes to a more complex, melon like flavour. It can be oxidized between 5-12%. It is less expensive and has a stronger flavour. It takes on added flavours well. 

Heiss & Heiss offer a caution: Bai Hao Yin Zhen is the true, original white tea from Fuijan, China, made from large, succulent buds. Other places in China and elsewhere in the world are attempting to make white teas but the non-Fuijanese bud white teas are just not up to par. However, even Heiss & Heiss say these less-than-desirable teas can be quite tasty. 

Some of my favourite white teas are:

Buddha's Blend from DAVIDsTEA

White Nectarine from DAVIDsTEA and

Vanilla Coco Loco from T By Daniel

(pictured below, counterclockwise from top)

DAVIDsTEA recommends steeping white teas at 90 degrees Celsius for 4-7 minutes. 

T by Daniel recommends steeping white teas at 80 degrees Celsius for 3-5 minutes. 

The Mighty Timer App recommend steeping white teas at 85 degrees Celsius for 4 minutes. 

My personal experience recommends steeping white teas at 80 degrees Celsius for 4 minutes. 

I have found white tea very weak for resteeping, but you may have more luck than me. 

Keating & Long recommend pairing white teas with such delightful foods as brie cheeses, delicate pastries and any lighter faire. Yum!!

If you've never tried white tea, give it a try. I would highly recommend jumping right to the looseleaf type, since the grocery store version is so disappointing. Not only can white tea be beneficial for your health, but it can also be a really tasty treat. 

Happy Steeping!

Works Cited

The Little Black Book of Tea M. Heneberry
The Tea Book: All Things Tea Cheadle and Kilby
How to Make Tea: The Science Behind the Leaf Keating and Long
The Simple Guide To Tea C Scott
The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook Heiss and Heiss
DAVIDsTEA.com
TbyDaniel.com
Personal Experience