New Tea Exploration with Davids Teas

Now that I'm more "into" teas, I love looking at new tea types and eagerly buy more and different varieties. While I buy a lot of fine tea, pure camellia sinensis from tea estates, I also enjoy fun flavoured teas and tisanes. I truly believe you can love it all!

While looking through my timeline on Facebook I saw an ad for Davids Teas. Yes, Big Brother knows I'm a tea lover. If you read this blog, you know that Karen is a huge fan of Davids Teas, which is local to her, and has written several reviews. So I clicked on the link and was brought to their Honeycrisp Apple tea. The temperatures here are just starting to cool and I'm so looking forward to autumn, my favorite time of year.

From their website:

"Is there any activity more whole heartedly autumnal than apple picking? Not that we can think of. And when it comes to apples, the Honeycrisp is king. Juicy, sweet and full of flavour, it’s a fall treat we look forward to every year. And this refreshing, fruit-packed tea is just like biting into a fresh Honeycrisp straight off the tree. Whether you drink it straight up or spike it with a splash of bourbon, it’s the perfect way to bring the orchard home. Oh honey!"

OK, they had me at "spike it with a splash of bourbon"!

While Davids is a Canadian tea company, they do ship to all of North America, so I'm in luck. And, to get free shipping I plan on ordering more than just the Honeycrisp Apple. Perhaps some Pom Cider, keeping with that fall apple theme. I love grapes...and it is harvest time, so maybe some Grape Freeze. Or perhaps English Toffee...made with Pu'eh? That will probably make it in the basket. A more traditional tea, for me at any rate is the Wild Black Yunnan, no funky flavours here. And how could I possibly not try their Lapsang Souchong Star?

Do you order teas online? Have you tried Davids Teas? Are you adventurous when it comes to teas, or are you a purist?

Summer? Yes, please.

I live in the northeast US. We see snow. Lots of snow. We are legendary for snow. So when warm weather finally arrives, we make the most of it.

As much as I love hot tea of all kinds, I’m not exactly enthusiastic about a steaming cup of Constant Comment on a 90-degree day. Call me picky; I don’t mind.

Fortunately, there is a lovely concoction called sun tea. 

Plain tea will always be my favorite. Look at that deep, rich color. Nothing beats the tinkling of ice cubes in a tall glass as tea is poured over them. Add a sprig of mint or a lemon slice and you have heaven. Okay, half of heaven. For the other half, I recommend cookies. Or pie. Or Ice cream. 

Ice cream and summer. Mmm.

Where was I? *looks up at masthead* Oh, yes. Tea.

Now sometimes I want a drink with more substance than regular iced tea. Hello, blender! Because I’m all about the cooking, here are a few of my go-to tea smoothies.

First, brew a cup of tea the night before: black, green, peppermint, whatever you like, and let it cool in the fridge.

When you’re ready to kick back on the porch or deck or lawn, assemble your ingredients. I use vanilla ice cream because I don’t touch yogurt no way no how. But if you’re a yogurt fan, substitute it for the ice cream below and add a few ice cubes for heft.  

Morning tea smoothie:

Black tea

Vanilla ice cream

Peach or banana

A dash of ginger

1/3 cup milk

Sugar to taste

Anytime tea smoothie:

Green or black tea

Vanilla ice cream

Strawberries, raspberries, a peach, a mango, a plum—use blueberries for the healthiest choice!

1/3 cup milk

Sugar to taste

The Marriage of Tea and Orange Julius for the Sophisticated Palate:

Constant Comment tea

Vanilla ice cream

Orange sherbet

1/3 cup milk

Sugar to taste

Mojito tea smoothie for hot summer nights:

White tea

Vanilla ice cream

Fresh mint leaves

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp lime juice plus a bit of grated peel

1/2 oz of rum (or to taste)

Bonus tea anecdote: People often ask me how much my ex-nun sleuth is like me, her creator. I can tell you one way she is definitely not like me: Now that she’s pregnant and her coffee intake is limited, she’s trying herbal tea as a substitute. She hates every flavor she’s tried. I don’t understand that woman.

I Confess, I Spent the Weekend Drinking Coffee

O great and powerful tea gods, I come before you a humble supplicant. I have been unfaithful to your extraordinary powers of taste and refreshment.

I was at the Malice Domestic conference for mystery writers and fans last week. It’s super fun and super busy. We’re running around from 7 in the morning until past 11 at night. The Hyatt Regency in Bethesda, MD serves Starbucks coffee. Sometimes there’s not enough coffee in the world to keep a writer awake and perky (no pun intended). 

Coffee in our room. Coffee in the hospitality suite, where people relax and check out bookmarks and swag from the writers. Coffee at the bar. No, really! The bar serves coffee all day, even in the evening when they also serve booze. 

They offered real cream too! My first few cups need to be strong enough to stand up a spoon in it, but if I can get real cream (not milk, not half and half)—gimme!

However, my body lets me know when it’s had enough. 

Guess what else they serve? Tazo tea. Because not everyone (no, really) likes coffee. The hotel set out six different kinds of Tazo: Zen, Awake English Breakfast, Chamomile, Passion, Earl Grey, and Refresh Mint.

A lovely china dish with lemon slices and a wooden box with packets of every possible kind of sugar, sugar substitute, and plant-based sweeteners were set before the Tazo display as offerings to the tea gods. It was a worthy altar.

The coffee and tea in the hospitality suite were paid for by various publishers. We were so grateful!

Now all y’all will recoil from me in horror, but I don’t like Earl Grey tea. *stares through computer screen and sees a wave of readers recoiling* I know. But Earl Grey to me is like trying to drink perfume. Don’t ask me about rooibos tea, either. I tried three different kids. Not for me.

But Tazo Zen tea? More, please! I especially like how it doesn’t get bitter when I let it steep a long time. The mint and lemongrass combination is relaxation in a cup. Any moment of relaxation in a conference is a moment to treasure.

I love jasmine tea, but if I let it steep longer than three minutes—BITTER! The same with white tea. When I try to let it steep long enough to have enough taste for my palate—BITTER. 

Something in Tazo’s formulations differ from other brands of herbal tea. They’ve removed the bitter. So smooth. I can drink cup after cup. Which I did when my body OD’d on coffee.

Thus, O great and powerful tea gods, I beg your forgiveness for turning away from you for the conference weekend. 

(Nobody look at the travel cup of Starbucks French Roast at my elbow, okay?)

Black, Green, White, & Red

Black, green, white, and red. They're all types of tea, but what makes them different? And how are they the same.? As I started my study of tea, I was amazed to learn that black tea, green tea, and white tea all start the same! One tea bush can create all types of those teas!  All true teas come from the Camellia Sinensis plant. The leaf is the same, how it's processed makes the differences.

 Tea Bushes at the Jun Chiyabari Tea Garden

So what makes a tea black, green, or white? It's the oxidation of the leaf. Oxidation is the chemical reaction in a plant when exposed to oxygen. For example, when you cut an apple and it browns, that browning is evidence of oxidation! Oxidation begins in tea leaves when the leaves are "damaged", in other words after they are picked and are rolled and withered.

Black teas have the most processing done to them and are the most oxidized. Some will say that black tea is "fully oxidized", but that's not quite true. Black tea has reached the optimum oxidation, if it was fully oxidized it would be stale!


Pictured: Lapsang Souchong Black Tea

Green teas have no oxidation. The process is prevented by pan frying or steaming.


Pictured: Jade Mountain Green Tea

White teas are the least processed but have minimal oxidation.


Pictured: Himalayan White Tea.












 

What about red teas? Red tea is what they call Black tea in China! So red and black teas are the same thing!

 So, what do you think about oxidation? Do you have a preference for black, green, or white teas?

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I'd like to thank my friend, Niraj Lama, for verifying some of my information and also for the use of his pictures! I also used the following websites as references:

http://www.worldoftea.org/tea-leaves-oxidation/
http://www.eliteabar.com/blogs/tea-education/7564628-tea-oxidation
http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/26002/what-is-the-difference-between-green-white-and-black-tea

Tea and Reflexology

Karen here. I was not a tea drinker before 2009. I enjoyed my first cup of tea a green Jasmine tea while at a reflexology appointment and only drank it at the insistence of  my reflexology practitioner. I actually left that appointment went straight to the tea shop, bought a tea pot and some loose leaf Jasmine Tea, thus beginning my foray into the tea world.
Fast forward to 2016 and my appointment last Friday night. I treated myself to an hour long session which is a true indulgence and the effects I am still happily feeling today.

As I was letting my mind wander through the treatment I wondered why  I am always served tea at my appointment so I though I would ask and share that information with you. I honestly thought it was just my practitioner being hospitable, but with all the health wonders associated with green tea I wondered...

  "Chinese reflexology is a traditional Chinese form of medicine, which has been used for many centuries in China. Reflexology itself is a massage technique that focuses on the pressure points in the feet and hands. The Chinese and many others believe that by stimulating different points in the feet you can stimulate different parts of the body. The benefits of reflexology are improved circulation and a strengthened immune system.

Studies done on the science behind reflexology have also suggested that the technique can help decrease anxiety and depression. 

I find that when I sip the tea during my treatment I feel revitalized and as if I could run a marathon after treatment! When I asked my practitioner why they served Jasmine tea at our sessions he said it was "to improve circulation and encourage toxins to leave the body", 

Today I made myself a pot of Jasmine Tea With Flowers from The Granville Island Tea Company, this particular version of Jasmine tea is much more floral (hence the name) then the blend that my practitioner uses. I love adding a green tea to my daily tea routine  especially now that spring has arrived, There is a clean and crisp feeling I find with Jasmine Tea that makes me feel warm and refreshed just like spring it's self. 

To learn more about Reflexology please click here.

To learn more about my Jasmine Tea with Flowers from The Granville Island Tea Company please click here.  

Join me for tea daily at www.acupofteaandacozymystery.com