at January 11, 2006 12:01 PMI know I promised a review today, but I have had so many questions about teas in general, I am going to let this week’s review be a compendium of sorts about tea. The reviews will start next week.
First question most people ask me about tea is where I buy it - there isn’t one single place for me. I have bought good tea from Tom Thumb, Central Market, World Market, online - from all over. Most grocery stores are getting into the chai business these days and are beginning to stock more than the usual lipton iced tea.
Another question I frequently get is about the kinds of teas. Briefly, there are 4 broad categories -
Black Tea - this is the most common, most processed and the most caffeinated version of the teas. Pretty strong in tate and has the least amount of antoxidants.
Green Tea - this is also pretty common and this is processed a lot less than the black tea, so it retains a lot more antoxidants than black tea. This tea needs to be brewed carefully. Don’t ever use boling hot water to brew green tea. Instead, let the hot water cool for a minute before you put your tea bag or tea leaves in. Don’t overbrew this tea, since that will release the bitter tannins from the tea. Brew this tea about 3-4 minutes for optimal taste. Green tea is not quite as strong as black tea in taste and it’s taste can be enhanced by the subtle fragrance of jasmine flowers in it, a slice of lemon, a few drops of honey or all of them together.
White Tea - said to be the rarest of teas, this tea is made from the tea-leaf-buds and with minimal processing so as to preserve the antoxidants. This tea is extremely subltle in color and taste. The tea has a slightly sweet taste to it and is one of my favorites. This tea should also be brewed like the Green Tea.
Herbal Tea - technically speaking, this is not tea at all, but a brew of various herbs like licorice, lemon, ginger, chamomile, etc. with supposed medicinal properties. I love a blend of licorice and mint that has the minty freshness with the licorice after-taste adding a subtle sweetness that is out of this world.
Tip: Most teas, in tea bags and full-leaf can be rebrewed upto 3 or 4 times. This applies to the green tea and white tea even more, since you want to take the bag/leaves out of the water in 3-4 minutes while there is still some potency left.
Lastly, what is the difference between tea bags and tea leaves? Tea bags are most of the time, the powder left behind after the packing up of the full-leaf teas - I say most of the time, since there are also some full-leaf tea bags available. I always recommend full-leaf teas for the best and the cleanest taste. Well, ask me if there are any more questions and we will start on the tea journey few teas at a time starting next week.
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I have been experimenting with Tazo and am lovin it. I have about 15 of their flavors and love the herbal blends they have. Tazo has a Green Tea blend with lotus which is awesome. Also try their Earl grey which is flavored with bergamot. White Tea - Never heard of that but I am intrigued - any brands?
Posted by: Indianpad at January 11, 2006 11:57 AM
Indianpad, My favorites so far for white tea have been the Golden Moon varieties. I have never tried Tazo so far, but you just might have persuaded me to try some. The green tea with lotus sounds nice.
Posted by: shanti at January 11, 2006 12:01 PM
I did not know about White Tea, also I did not know that they had full leaf tea bags.
I like Tazo better than Lipton, as it does not get bitter that fast. In the instructions for Lipton they mention the steep time as 2 mins whereas for Tazo it is 3 - 4 mins.
Excellent post Shanti. Please do continue to enlighten us with more posts in this series.
Posted by: JK at January 11, 2006 12:08 PM
Thanks, JK :)
The Numi teas I bought at Tom Thumb (Safeway) are all full-leaf tea bags.
Posted by: shanti at January 11, 2006 12:18 PM
Very interesting post! I am a tea-lover - and one of the most beautiful moments in life for me is sitting and drinking good tea with a loved one.
There is a cool tea place in Bangalore, where I live - its called Infinitea. My introduction to most of the varieties of tea was here, at this place.
Will be back for more tea stories!
Posted by: Shruthi at January 12, 2006 4:19 AM
Thanks, Shruthi :)
Posted by: shanti at January 13, 2006 1:52 PM
What do you call TEA w/ honey? 8-)) Nice post!
I love my lemon honey tea. Slice of lemon with pure honey. Great on a cold winter day!
Posted by: Ali at January 16, 2006 9:30 PM
I came over from “funkyfresh’s” website. Thanks for the tea adice. I’m saddened to hear my tea bags are just the left oers for the good stuff! :( Do you know if green tea can be made “desi/english style” with milk and sugar or will it subvert the taste?
Posted by: Aisha at January 17, 2006 10:46 AM
Ali, surprisingly the best honey lemon tea I had was a Lipton teabag tea. It had the right mix of lemony tang, licorice and sweet honey so that none of the ingredients overwhelmed the others.
Aisha, Thanks. Green tea is best with lemon/honey if you don’t like it as it is. I think you can definitely try it with milk and sugar - Green tea icecreams and milkshakes are really tasty, so you might not taste as much of the green tea, but it will still be good overall.
Posted by: shanti at January 17, 2006 10:59 AM
I thought white tea had the most caffeine. Certainly the teas with the most caffeine are white.
Posted by: L at February 2, 2006 12:54 PM
L, according to the caffeinemeter on my tea box, on the average there are 100mg of caffeine per 8oz. cup in coffee, 50 mg in black tea, 35 in white and 30 in green tea. So I guess white tea does have more caffeine than green tea, but black tea has it beat in the caffeine department :)
Posted by: shanti at February 2, 2006 2:06 PM
Can anyone give some feedback for hot “Lipton lemon tea” ? I recently changed my job and in the new office we are served hot Lipton lemon tea. If I start taking it regularly (as I find it very tasty), will it has a positive or negative effect over my health?
Posted by: Priyanka at December 5, 2006 10:56 PM