Read the full article at English Tea Store Blog.

Follow TeaGuide on Twitter @TeaGuide1

Friend TeaGuide on Facebook

Contact us about reviewing your tea or tea-related product.

# # # #

Help! I’m a newcomer to the world of loose leaf tea. I’ve been drinking tea made with teabags and I’m ready to move on. What are your suggestions? Where do I start?

All tea lovers had to start somewhere, and it helps to have a little guidance as you start your journey through the many choices of high-quality loose leaf teas that are available.

Where to begin? One suggestion is to start within your “comfort zone:” look for teas of similar types to the commercial teas you’ve been drinking, and then branch out.

For example, if you drink iced teas made with black tea, try hot black teas. If you prefer fruit-flavoured iced teas, try hot fruit-flavoured teas. Do you sweeten your iced tea? Try sweetening your hot teas.

But don’t stop (or even linger) there. Next you’ll want to sample unsweetened and unflavoured hot teas.

If you’re drinking black tea made from commercial teabags, look for similar teas in loose leaf form. If you drink green tea from teabags, step up to a light green loose leaf tea that’s friendly to the palate.

But, you ask, how to choose from the seemingly endless variety of loose leaf teas on the market? Many drinkers of black tea find that the flavour and aroma of Ceylon teas most closely approximate the teas they are comfortable drinking. Or sample an English or Irish breakfast blend — these mixtures of mostly India teas produce a heartier cup that stands up to milk, lemon, or sweetener. The taste and aroma of a loose leaf tea will invariably be superior to that of commercial teabag teas, while at the same time there is some familiarity when you choose loose leaf tea that’s a variety similar to your teabag tea.

There are two teas recommended for new drinkers of loose leaf green tea. One is genmaicha, a Japanese blend of light green tea and roasted rice. The warm toasty flavour and aroma generally appeal to newly-developing tea palates. Another “newbie-friendly” green tea is Gunpowder Green, which may be sourced from Taiwan or China. The dry leaf is rolled up in a tight ball that opens into a full leaf when hot water is added. The gentle flavour and aroma won’t overpower your palate, and you’ll enjoy the visuals too.

These recommended “beginner” teas are widely available and reasonably priced.

When you’re ready to move on from these “comfort” teas, go ahead and try more exotic black teas, oolong teas, other green teas, and white teas. Maybe even a pouchong or a pu-erh. Try one type, see if it appeals to you, then try another. Continue drinking the teas you like. Move on as quickly or as slowly as you like when sampling new teas. There’s no rush, and there will always be good teas available when you’re ready for them.

How do you find high-quality teas? If you are lucky enough to have a good tea room or tea shop nearby, stop in and talk to the people who work there. Ask for their recommendations. See if you can taste samples before you buy. (For a comprehensive list of tea rooms and tea shops see TeaGuide Worldwide Tea Directory).

You can also shop online. A list of links to some of the best tea vendors’ websites can be found on our Favourite Links page.

Don’t be shy about calling tea companies on the telephone. Good tea merchants will always be willing to chat with you about what types of teas you might enjoy so they can steer you in the right direction.

Whenever possible, start by ordering sampler packages. Sample sizes are a good choice because they allow you to try a number of teas before making a big monetary investment. When you find the teas you like, order them in larger sizes. And if you don’t care for a particular tea, you won’t feel guilty about not using the remaining leaves if you haven’t spent much money. Most tea sellers offer sample sizes at very low prices, so you can choose several. Some merchants even offer sampler-sized “variety packages” of their teas at reasonable prices.

When you talk to tea sellers, either in person or by telephone, be sure to ask them for their suggestions on how to prepare the teas you purchase. Although everyone’s taste is different, they should be able to give you a few guidelines and thereby save you from too much trial and error — which often results in simply giving up in frustration.

If a vendor says “use three teaspoonsful and steep for 2-1/2 minutes in water just under a full boil,” remember it’s a recommendation, a jumping-off point, not engraved in stone. Start with their suggestion, then if necessary adjust the “recipe” to suit your own taste. Add more leaf to the pot, or maybe use less; increase or decrease steeping time or water temperature according to your individual preference.

Use your teas up as quickly as possible, especially sample sizes that may not be packed in airtight containers. Nothing turns a potential tea lover off teas as quickly as a pot of stale tea. Keep in mind the four “enemies” of tea: light, heat, moisture, and time. Store your tea in a cool, dark spot in an opaque airtight and watertight container such as a tea tin or in the airtight package it was in when you bought it. Keep teas far away from the stove or other heat sources. And don’t store tea near spices or other aromatics; tea is very absorbent, and will pick up flavours and aromas.

Don’t feel that you have to like every tea, or that there’s something wrong if you don’t like a tea that someone else recommends. Taste is a very personal issue. Whatever tea you enjoy is the right tea for you. Drink your teas English style with milk and sugar; Asian style with no additions; Russian style with jam mixed into the cup; or invent your own style!

The equipment you use to prepare your teas is just as important as the tea itself. Be sure to get yourself at least one good clay-based teapot — china, porcelain, or stoneware — preferably with a built-in filtering system. The most common complaint among newcomers to loose leaf tea is that it’s such a nuisance to clean out the teapot, and this type of teapot will make both steeping and cleaning much easier. After the tea is steeped, you simply lift the filter out of the teapot, dump the leaves in the garbage (or the garden), and rinse it off. There are a number of teapot styles available that come with built-in filter baskets. I personally prefer Chatsford teapots because the filter baskets are large enough for the tea leaves to move around in the water and infuse properly, but you may prefer Bee House, Stump, or some other type of teapot with a filter basket. The photo above shows a Chatsford teapot; that red thing sticking out under the lid on the right is the handle for the filter basket. Teapot, lid, and filter all fit together perfectly.

You can also purchase reusable tea filter baskets that fit into the teapots you already own. Many types of tea filter baskets are dishwasher safe. Most tea vendors stock a variety of teapots and filters.

Avoid those cute little dangly infusers on the end of a chain or shaped like a spoon. These are too small for loose leaf teas. Tea needs room to swirl around in the water in order to steep properly. Save these devices for herbal infusions or to hold a bouquet garni for cooking purposes.

Never prepare tea in any type of plastic teapot or mug unless you’re absolutely desperate; plastic does not hold heat well enough to maintain the temperature required to steep tea. And depending on the type of plastic, it may leach out into your tea, causing an odd, “off” taste (or worse). Porcelain, china, and stoneware are the best materials for teapots. Steel, silver, glass, and ceramic teapots are lower on the list. If you want to serve tea from your beautiful silver tea set, steep the tea in another teapot, then decant into the silver pot.

If possible, invest in at least two clay-based teapots of different sizes — perhaps a two-cup and a four-cup to start — and use each one when you want to prepare at least the specific quantity of tea it holds. Don’t use a four-cup teapot, for example, to prepare only two cups of tea; the extra air in the teapot cools the water down too quickly so the tea doesn’t steep properly. Always choose the right size teapot and fill it up. You can always make more, and you can always ice any leftovers. (Or add it to your cooking — we’ll be posting more recipes here for cooking and baking with tea.)

And don’t forget a nice, thick tea cozy that will keep your teapot — and your tea — warm. Choose a cozy that matches your teapot, your linens, or your mood. A good cozy will keep your tea hot for at least a half hour — plenty of time to finish the potful. But never use a cozy while there are tea leaves in the pot, because they’ll cook and stew, getting very bitter. Steep the tea, then remove all tea leaves before placing the cozy on your teapot.

Or keep your tea hot with a tea light teapot warmer. These devices, made of decorative metal, china, or glass, hold the teapot over a tea light candle, and cast a lovely glow on your tea table. The flame is just enough to keep your tea hot without singeing the bottom of the teapot. Be sure to remove the empty teapot from the warmer so it doesn’t crack. And do be mindful of the open flame around children and pets.

As you get more comfortable with different types of teas, you may want to try all kinds of interesting teapots and teacups: Japanese tetsubin or kyusu; Chinese Yixing; gaiwan or ceibei. Maybe a glass teapot, a samovar, or a Russian tea glass. And all different types of teas — not only from India, Taiwan, Japan, and China, but also from Nepal, Republic of Georgia, Kenya, Vietnam, or Korea. Be warned that you may find yourself spending a lot of time (and money!) shopping for new teas and “tea things.”

Once you get “into” fine loose leaf tea you will discover that there is an almost unlimited variety of teas and many, many ways to prepare and drink them. Your journey has just begun, and it will last a lifetime. Enjoy it!

If you have more questions about tea, or would like to chat about tea with other tea lovers, we invite you to join us at Teamail™ This posting is an update of an article originally published in Tea Digest.

Follow TeaGuide on Twitter @TeaGuide1

Friend TeaGuide on Facebook

Contact us about reviewing your tea or tea-related product.

# # # #

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here’s a variation on the traditional Blanc mange that I came up with when I had some leftover flavoured rooibos. When I created this recipe a number of years ago, hardly anyone had heard of rooibos, but now it has become so popular that most people are familiar with it. Rooibos is actually not a tea, but a tisane or infusion that is prepared from a unique South African plant. Rooibos contains high levels of protein, Vitamin C, flavanoids, minerals, and anti-oxidants — plus it’s low in tannins and completely caffeine-free. While it will never replace my favourite cuppa, I do enjoy rooibos as an evening beverage, and like to serve it to those who prefer to avoid caffeine. You can get this particular flavour of rooibos (as well as other flavours and unflavoured) from Simpson & Vail. You can also prepare this pudding with your favourite flavoured teas or a hearty English or Irish breakfast blend — nice as a light teatime treat. (Just a reminder: steeping strong tea or rooibos means using twice as much leaf, not extending the steeping time, as this will make the tea or tisane bitter.)

Vanilla Roo pudding
About 4 to 6 servings

1-1/2 cups strong-steeped Strawberry Almond Mint rooibos
1-1/2 cups vanilla-flavoured soy milk, lite or regular
1/4 cup sugar, Sucanat®, or other granulated sweetener
4 rounded Tablespoons cornstarch

Mix together in a saucepan the rooibos and milk, then whisk in the sugar, then the cornstarch, until smooth. Heat the mixture, preferably placing a heat diffuser under the pot (if you don’t use one, cook over a lower temperature and watch constantly so it doesn’t burn). Stir very frequently, scraping the solidifying curds from the sides and bottom and mixing them in. The mixture will eventually begin to bubble, making the surface look kinda bumpy. Keep cooking/stirring. As soon as the bubbles begin to break at the surface, the pudding is done. Pour the mixture into one big or four to six smaller serving dishes, and refrigerate until set. Please note: The amount of sweetener you use, and the type, is up to you — the milk is already sweetened so you might want to taste the mixture before you add too much additional sweetener.

Variation:

> If you prefer to use a liquid/syrup sweetener, add an additional 1 teaspoon of cornstarch.
> Reduce the amount of milk and rooibos or tea to 1-1/4 cups each and you’ll have a delicious filling for cakes, cupcakes, and pastries.

Follow TeaGuide on Twitter @TeaGuide1

Friend TeaGuide on Facebook

Contact us about reviewing your tea or tea-related product.

# # # #

This just in: Get free shipping with a simple click of your mouse!

CrafTea Designs needs only a few more followers to be able to officially claim their FaceBook name.

Help them out by visiting their FaceBook page and clicking Like — and they’ll give all of their followers free shipping on their next order of beauteaful gifts for tea lovers!

Yee Haw!

Follow TeaGuide on Twitter @TeaGuide1

Friend TeaGuide on Facebook

Contact us about reviewing your tea or tea-related product.

# # # #

Photos by the author and stock photos.

If somebody told me I could drink only one type of tea for the rest of my life, I’d probably choose Taiwan oolongs. Although I admit I’d miss Darjeelings and a whole lot of other teas, so I hope I never have to make the choice!

But if I did have to choose, I’d still find a fairly wide selection of teas. The good news for lovers of good oolongs is that the marketplace seems to be expanding. Every time I find a new favourite oolong merchant, another contender shows up. The Brits call this abundance “spoilt for choice.” And what a tasteful spoiling it is!

One serious contender is BodySoulandTea, a new (at least to me) direct importer of high-grown Taiwan oolongs. They recently sent me samples of the three teas they currently feature in their website catalogue.

I have to admit that the tea samples waited for over a week after I received them while I was fighting off an upper respiratory infection. Even so, these oolongs, from the winter 2010 harvest, have a very fresh aroma and flavour. All three were formed into beautiful rolled leaves, like tiny fists of tea, each giving off a subtle floral aroma. I prepared each sample the same way, in my oolongs-dedicated six-ounce clay teapot: filtered water brought to a full boil then allowed to cool for a moment to “fish-eye” temperature; a brief “rinse” of the leaves in the teapot; first infusion of about twenty to thirty seconds; second infusion about forty-five seconds. All were strained into a glass pitcher, then sipped from a glass handle-less Japanese teacup. I like to use glass tea ware whenever possible for full appreciation of the colour of the tea.

The first tea, Dong Ding (or Tung Ting), is one of my long-time favourite oolongs, and this one did not disappoint. There was a bluish cast to the rolled leaves — a characteristic that, in my experience, is an indicator of a higher-quality oolong. A lovely floral aroma, a light golden liquid, a smooth taste and texture without the slightest trace of astringency (the mark of a truly good oolong, IMNSHO), and a hint of carnations in the long finish. The second infusion coaxed out a tad more of the florals in the finish. A delightful cup!

The blue cast of the fist-like rolled leaves of the Golden Lily/Jin Shiuan foretold of another high-quality tea. A slightly more roasty flavour than the Dong Ding, although still smooth and clear. One reason I like Golden Lily oolongs is their subtle creamy texture — an inherent quality of the processing of the leaf, not something added. Perceived as just a slight coating that lingers on the tongue and palate. BodySoulAndTea‘s sample is a perfect representative of this quality — a quality that you have to taste, but only once, to understand.

The third sample was a ShanLinShi (or ShanLinXie, as I have seen it elsewhere — I’m not sure there is a standard spelling for Taiwan or China teas). I am less familiar with this type of oolong, but suspect I may have found a new favourite. Dry leaf “fists” a shiny blue-black colour. The made tea was light and smooth on the palate, a field of spring flowers in the nose, and greenish-gold in the cup. A wonderful sweetness that seems to intensify with each sip, and lingers on the tongue. This is a tea that I could drink every day and never grow tired of it. Second infusion produced less aroma while enhancing the flavour. Curious, but wonderful!

BodySoulandTea‘s website has a good deal of information about oolong tea, including clear, thorough, and well-illustrated instructions for preparing their teas. Tea newbies never believe me when I say that oolongs are probably the most forgiving of all teas if you don’t get the preparation just right. If you follow BodySoulandTea‘s instructions, you shouldn’t have any difficulty at all. They offer free shipping on orders over $50; order a package of each of these three teas and it will come to about $55.

Follow TeaGuide on Twitter @TeaGuide1

Friend TeaGuide on Facebook

Contact us about reviewing your tea or tea-related product.

# # # #

Seems like every tea (and coffee) merchant these days is pushing “green:” Fair Trade and organic. Sustainable sources. Recyclable (or recycled) packaging.

These are business people who, one presumes, want to make a living selling their products. So one must also presume that they are offering these “earth-friendly” items because that’s what their customers want to buy.

But is this what consumers really want? Is it a purely emotional issue, or is there hard evidence to back it up?

Recently a member of my Teamail group asked for my help polling members on this very subject. The member wanted some reliable statistics for an in-the-works book. It’s a timely and important topic, so I posted a poll with questions about “eco-friendly” tea, and invited members to respond. 89 of them did, and added to the 64 who responded to the aforementioned member via another venue, approximately 150 tea and coffee consumers expressed their opinions on the subject. Granted that this is not a huge sampling, but the participants represent a very targeted group. Here is a breakdown of the questions (each starts with an arrow –>), which represent a wide spectrum of perspective, and the responses, in percentages (%):

–> I am careful to buy Fair Trade and organic teas, and only in eco-friendly packaging or take-out cups, preferably in an environment created with green or recycled materials. These issues are very important to me and I’m happy that tea sellers finally “get it” — I’m even willing to pay extra for these amenities: 2%

–> I much prefer to buy Fair Trade and organic teas from an eco-friendly vendor. While these issues are important to me, they are not the sole criterion for my purchasing decisions: 21%

–> If I have a choice I prefer Fair Trade and organic tea from an eco-friendly seller, but these criteria are not as important to me as taste, quality, price, and good customer service: 21%

–> I buy tea based on taste, quality, price, and customer service. If the tea happens to be Fair Trade and organic, the packaging or environment are eco-friendly and made of sustainable materials, that’s a bonus: 38%

–> I buy tea based on taste, quality, price, and customer service. I don’t really care if the tea is Fair Trade and organic, or if the packaging or take-out cups are made from sustainable materials: 3%

–> I buy tea based on taste, quality, price, and customer service. Period. The rest of it really doesn’t matter to me: 11%

–> I have no idea (so I guess I really don’t care) what Fair Trade, organic, eco-friendly, and sustainable have to do with tea. I just buy what I like!: 2%

–> I buy tea based on taste, quality, price, and customer service. I avoid “eco-friendly” and “sustainable” stuff because they really add nothing to the tea except for increasing the price: 1%

–> I specifically do not buy Fair Trade, organic, green, eco-friendly, or “sustainable” tea or anything else. I think it’s all a scam, and that the people who “certify” these products need to get real jobs in the real world: 1%

So after eliminating the 2% with strong opinions on either end of the discussion, we have 80% of consumers expressing various levels of interest in “green” products — but who are not willing to go out of their way, or pay extra, for it. And another 16% for whom the topic is barely on the radar.

What does this mean for the tea industry — to owners of tea businesses, and to prospective owners? Is “eco” just a fad, part and parcel to the discredited “global warming” scares? Based on these numbers, it seems to me that a business’ capital would be better spent on teas that taste good and are competitively priced, and top-notch customer service, than on spoons made from corn or other “eco” hype.

From growers, wholesalers, and retailers, to packaging manufacturers, to marketers, the tea and coffee industries seem to have a lot invested in “eco,” and I imagine there will be plenty of readers with opinions about the information presented here. Obviously my conclusions and views are not the last words on the subject. You’re welcome to leave your comments — please keep them civil and non-commercial.

And to put any rumours to the contrary to rest, my family and I live in a house devoid of cathedral ceilings and hot tubs, use energy-saving appliances and thermal draperies, and always turn out the lights when we leave a room. We recycle everything our local recycling centre accepts. Additionally, we grow a large garden and orchard which we enrich with cow manure and kitchen wastes (especially eggshells and spent tea leaves); all uncultivated land is left to natural woods and native plant growth. And we feed and house birds, too. So there!

Follow TeaGuide on Twitter @TeaGuide1

Friend TeaGuide on Facebook

Contact us about reviewing your tea or tea-related product.

# # # #

Photo: CrafTea Designs

We’re excited to announce that our new Facebook page for CrafTea Designs is up and running. To celebrate, we’re giving away free gifts!

To enter our contest, just stop by our page, give us a “Like,” and accept our invitation to our virtual tea party.

Photo courtesy of Artisans Cup

You can win not one but two prizes: a beautiful tea-dyed scarf or tea shirt from CrafTea Designs, and your choice of custom-blended tea from Artisans Cup.

Don’t miss out, stop by today to enter!

Good luck and happy tea-ing!

Follow TeaGuide on Twitter @TeaGuide1

Friend TeaGuide on Facebook

Contact us about reviewing your tea or tea-related product.

# # # #

Photos by the author except as noted.

Stock photo

I recently received generous samples of three lovely teas from Obubu Tea of Kyoto, Japan. I generally prefer Japan greens over China greens — it’s a matter both of taste for the lighter, more vegetal teas of Japan, as well as choice: I generally do not buy edibles from China (or anything else if I can avoid it).

The first of these teas, Kabuse Sencha, was my favourite. This high-grown partially-shaded tea tastes almost like a light, grassy, springlike sencha was blended with a rich gyokuro. But this is not a blend — it’s the inherent quality of the tea itself. The dark leaves flecked with white and lighter green are quite beautiful, as you can see in the linked photo. A premium tea, very enjoyable, and well worth the above-average but not-unreasonable price. (When looking at Obubu’s prices, keep in mind that they include shipping.) The spent leaves were also quite good when added to a potful of rice pilaf in place of spinach.

The folks at Obubu sent me some of their Yanagi Bancha as a courtesy when I asked about how it was made. I’ve had a somewhat different tea from another source that they also call Yanagi. It was interesting to compare the two, and while this Yanagi is a pleasant enough cup for early evening because of its low caffeine content, it was an interesting but rather nondescript tea that simply didn’t measure up to the Kabuse or to the other Yanagi that I’m familiar with.

The third tea, Sakura Tea, is not really a tea at all but a tisane. This unusual (at least to me) cup is made from Japanese cherry blossom flowers that have been salt pickled. Evidently this is a highly popular tisane in Japan, but it seems to be an acquired taste for Western palates. While the aroma is exquisite — pumpkin pie spice and spring flowers in perfect balance — the taste is essentially salt water. Not quite what I’m normally looking for in my teacup. However …

When I sampled the Sakura, I paired it with Lindt Chocolate’s Fleur de Sel, a dark chocolate with a light sprinkling of salt. The creamy sweetness of the chocolate with its occasional surprise pop of a crunchy grain of salt, when joined on the tongue by a sip of smoothly salty Sakura, is a wonderful taste and sensory experience. I suppose I should mention here that when I make popcorn, I add a handful of dark chocolate chips to the hot popcorn — the chocolate melts and holds the salt, creating a complementary interplay of salt/crunchy with sweet/creamy. The combination of Sakura and Fleur de Sel created a similar yin/yang taste experience. I highly recommend that if you plan to sample either one of these, sample the other with it! (I found the chocolate in my local supermarket.)

What most impressed me about the Sakura tea is how beautiful it is in the cup — as you can see from these photos. Some more interesting information about Sakura tea can be found here.

Click the Partners navigational link on the Obubu Tea website for a list of retailers and for information about wholesale/resale.

Follow TeaGuide on Twitter @TeaGuide1

Friend TeaGuide on Facebook

Contact us about reviewing your tea or tea-related product.

# # # #

Going forward, each post will be shorter, allowing me to post more often. Today, for example …

Recently I read a couple of articles about a method for preventing dental plaque. The recommendation was to brush your teeth with water only — no toothpaste — on your brush for a minute or two each day. This was to be followed by another minute or two of brushing with toothpaste.

As I come from a long line of plaque collectors, I decided to give it a try. I have now been using this method for a few weeks, and have actually seen some subtle results.

Then, a couple of days ago, a friend who knows that I occasionally use tooth-whitening strips to deal with the tooth stains that plague tea drinkers remarked that I had obviously been using the strips recently because my teeth looked whiter.

Except that I hadn’t used them. The whitening effect was apparently from the water-brushing.

So I pass this along to you. It’s simple, it’s convenient, and it’s inexpensive. All you need is a soft-bristle toothbrush, some water, and a mirror. It’s good for teeth, gums, and appearance. What more could you ask for? (This anecdotal posting is not to be construed as dental or medical advice.)

Follow TeaGuide on Twitter @TeaGuide1

Friend TeaGuide on Facebook

Contact us about reviewing your tea or tea-related product.

# # # #

Tea photos courtesy of Boston Tea Company; additional stock photos

With summer drawing to a close, you might think it’s not the best time to talk about iced teas. Well, here in the Southlands it’s always iced tea season!

The “national beverage” of Southerners is sweet tea, a concoction of too much sugar and too little tea — but plenty of ice, which is probably the main component of its enduring popularity. As for myself, I simply do not drink the stuff. Yes, I’m the one you’ll always see in the restaurant or fast-food joint searching for the tiny jug of unsweet tea that they hide behind the containers of napkins and plastic cutlery. Too embarrassing, I guess, to put it out in the open!

And if you don’t drink iced tea in the coIder weather, let me point out that just about everyone drinks cold beverages all year ’round: soda pop, juice, energy drinks, white wine, beer, and even bottled iced teas. So why shouldn’t you drink home-steeped iced teas?

I make my own iced teas all year. But not sweet tea: I use tea and water and that’s it, the same way I make my hot teas.

I’ve been sampling a few teas from Boston Tea Company. Their headquarters are located in New Jersey near where we used to live, just outside New York City. In fact I used to buy some of their teas at a small shop in Queens where we’d go occasionally to pick up Romanian groceries.

Blueberry Kiwi White Tea

The first one I tried was their Blueberry-Kiwi White Tea. I’m not super-fond of fruity hot teas, but I do favour them when they’re chilled. This one really worked for me. Unlike many fruity teas that seem to be flavoured generically — they taste like fruit but not any specific fruit — this one was clearly blueberry. There is a background fruity flavour that doesn’t stand out as clearly which I’m presuming is the kiwi, but I’m fine with the intense blueberry-ness (I happen to like blueberries and huckleberries, their wild cousins, a lot). Best of all: I could actually taste the tea.

Too many flavoured teas are all about the flavouring. Probably because too many tea companies, maybe to cater to their clientele, maybe to make a quick buck, use low-grade teas as merely a “carrier” for their flavourings. But Boston Tea Company seems to use a higher grade of tea in their blends. Highly-flavoured tea does not appeal  to me at all. I mean, what’s the point of going to the trouble of making iced tea that doesn’t taste like tea? Why not save yourself the trouble and just make Kool-Aid? On the other hand, a good tea with the right amount of complementary flavourings can be quite nice, especially iced. And Boston seems to do it right.

Organic Peony White Tea

Although I usually fix my iced teas using a cold-steep method (place tea and water into jug, refrigerate for at least two hours or overnight), for the next three I wanted to sample them hot first. So I made a big teapotful of each, drank a cup or two from the pot, and chilled the rest.

The Organic Peony White Tea is exceptional both hot and cold. Like all the best white teas it is both delicate and flavourful. It also has a wonderful floral aroma — perhaps peony, but I couldn’t quite pinpoint it. Hot it’s an elegant cup that I find myself reaching for frequently in the morning; chilled it’s light but assertive, losing aroma but no flavour in the cooling process. The Coconut Joy was, I thought, quite good iced, actually better iced than hot — chilling seemed to bring out more of the flavour of the tea itself so it was matched evenly to the rich coconut. I should point out that I am unreasonably picky about coconut teas — my standard is still the sublime coconut tea from the late lamented Akbar’s Finest Teas, and I have no yet found its equal, although I do like Boston’s version. (Oh Dave and Carolen, where have you gone?)

Coconut Joy Black Tea

Now the Jasmine Green tea was a different story. I enjoyed this one iced but much preferred it hot. Many years ago, someone I respect as a true tea expert told me that the best jasmine teas do not contain flowers when they are sold to the consumer. Any flower particles are removed after scenting the tea; leaving in the flowers, I was told, is purely a visual gimmick. I’m sorry but I can’t quite agree with this viewpoint. If you have ever eaten flowers — a great delicacy in some restaurants — you know that they have a warm, spicy flavour to them. Boston’s version does have flowers in it, and you know what? I really like it! I like the subtle spiciness imparted by the flowers and the way it plays off the floral sweetness of the jasmine. I’m not likely to give up my flower-less jasmine teas, but to my taste this jasmine simply has more character than a lot of others. And again, the taste of the tea itself comes through.

Jasmine Green Tea

Boston sent me samples of a couple of types of teabag from Bentley’s, which I take it are not Boston’s proprietary teas and they resell them. I could be mistaken so don’t take my word for it. One was a Raspberry Green tea, and the other a Blackberry Black tea. I do like to use teabags for iced tea simply for convenience, so I fixed them both as cold-steeped iced teas. Both were very fresh-smelling and fresh-tasting, but the flavours overpowered the tea itself. Not something I’d try again, but if this is your cup of tea they’d be good for travel as each is individually foil-wrapped. Demerits, however, to the black tea for not opening easily (I had to cut the foil packages open — probably a one-off manufacturing issue). And to the teabags in general for the oddity of the way the string is wound up in the teabag — to steep it you pull the tag to release the string. A clever idea in theory, but I found that doing this even gently left a hole in the teabag paper that was large enough for small tea particles to pass through into the steeping jug.

As an added bonus, all of Boston’s teas are kosher-certified, both loose-leaf and teabags. Only a very few companies offer a full line of good kosher teas, so it’s very pleasant to discover a new one.

Boston Tea Company’s teas can be purchased at retail through their website and are also available at a number of retailers. Contact them for locations. They are currently in the process of setting up online wholesale ordering.

New! Follow TeaGuide on Facebook!

. . . . . .

Follow us on Twitter and join our Twibe!

. . . . . .

Contact us about reviewing your tea-related product or service.

# # # #