August 31st, 2010 . Posted in Black Tea, Brewing Tea, Ceylon tea, Indian Tea, Tea Ceremony, Uncategorized, tea culture | No Comments »
Tags: pulled tea, tea in Malaysia, Thai iced tea
It is claimed that the Mamak community in Malaysia invented tehtarik, which translates as “pulled tea”. The Mamak are the descendants of Indian and Malay marriages. The other day I was watching Anthony Bourdain in his No Reservations show, this time in South India, and he was served pulled tea. So my thought is that pulled tea was taken from India to Malaysia with migration. Pulled tea is also popular in coutries which border Malaysia, namely Singapore and Brunei.
Frothy Pulled Tea
- Pulling Tea
So what on earth is pulled tea? In Malaysia and surroundings it’s a bittersweet brew of strong Ceylon tea and sweetened condensed milk that is “pulled”. This “pulling” consists of moving the tea from one container to another by pouring it in a thin stream from some height. There are four good reasons I could find for doing this: 1) It thoroughly blends the tea and condensed milk together. 2) It cools the tea to drinking temperature. 3) It makes the tea frothy like a cappuccino. 4) It makes for a show. Though I don’t recall the ingredients anymore that were used in the pulled tea on Bourdain’s show, my guess is that in India regular sweetened milk is probably used, instead of condensed milk, as in masala chai.
If the marriage of strong tea and sweetened condensed milk sounds familiar, you might be thinking of a cold version from another neighboring country: Thai iced tea.
Roland at Tea & Treasure
August 13th, 2010 . Posted in Black Tea, English Tea, Uncategorized, afternoon tea | No Comments »
Tags: afternoon tea, Clotted Cream, cream tea, Devonshire Tea, Russian Tea, Tea & Jam
In Russia, it’s not uncommon to sweeten tea with a spoonful of jam instead of sugar, and in Greece, I believe, a spoonful of jam accompanies tea (or is it coffee?) that guests are welcomed with upon entering a home. Although tea and jam are a classic pairing, the Russian and Greek ways would be very foreign concepts in England, where the jam tops the scones that are served alongside the tea. In Devonshire, clotted cream is spread on scones and the jam tops the cream, and according to Wickipedia it’s been done this way since it was originated by Benedictine monks in Tavistock in the 11th century. Back then, though, black tea hadn’t even been invented yet, much less reached English shores, so the tea of choice for Benedictine cream tea may have been catnip. Personally, I prefer the Cornish method of cream tea where the jam is spread on the scone and the cream is dolloped over the jam. In either case, butter is not used, as clotted and Devonshire creams are the densest, most luscious fats ever to enhance jams!
Roland at Tea & Treasure
Cream Tea
August 4th, 2010 . Posted in Tea Accesories, Tea Party, Uncategorized, afternoon tea | No Comments »
Tags: tea accessory, tea cozies, Tea Party
Tea Cozies by Carol
Carol's Cozies
A number of customers over the past year have enquired about tea cozies. The main supplier of my British tea has tea cozies on their wholesale price list but every time I enquired I was told that they were out. I finally gave up asking. Then I met a local Coupeville lady who makes tea cozies and sells them during the summer at the Saturday farmers market. I expressed interest in carrying some cozies at the store but nothing materialized. So my sister contacted a friend of hers in Arizona, telling her of our tea cozy dilema, and to our surprise a box of Carol’s hand made cozies arrived in the mail the other day. That resourceful lady had got hold of a pattern and some nice material and taught herself to make tea cozies. She even made a couple of masculine ones for the guys who are secure enough with their manhood to want their tea to be cozy too. On the nice card that comes with each cozy Carol had printed, “Unscientific testing showed only a 10 degree cooling after 30 minutes.” Of course, that’s in Arizona! But yes, a cozy will keep the tea in the tea pot warmer, and it’s also a nice accessory for your tea party.
Roland at Tea & Treasure
August 1st, 2010 . Posted in Black Tea, Chinese Tea, Green Tea, Health, Tea Diet, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags: black tea, diet tea, green tea, losing weight, tea for health
Don't fall for it like she did!
When I opened my tea store, I continued on with my unhealthy lifestyle as usual. As the months went by I started to accumulate tea which, for one reason or another, I couldn’t sell, so I started drinking it. Pretty soon I was averaging a half dozen or so cups a day and thoroughly enjoying it. I don’t wear jeans very often, so one day, when I put them on, I realized they were a size too big for me. When next I decided to wear them, they were about two sizes too big and the belt needed another hole punched through it. I’ve been overweight for a decade or so, and here I am losing weight on my regular diet of cheese and wine. Only one thing has changed: my tea consumption. So I checked my trusty Tea for Health book, by The Tea Research Institute of Sri Lanka, but nothing could I find on losing weight. The Internet was a different story: a myriad of companies are touting their special and expensive diet teas, and Oprah is in on the act, too. What I found, though, by reading an excellent article by Steven Van Solkema, is that all tea raises metabolism. In my case, I drink a variety of teas in a variety of ways: green tea, oolong tea, black tea, sometimes with sugar and sometimes with sugar and cream, and it’s working (and I’m not getting the jitters asscociated with coffee). So drink more tea, any tea, and happy dieting.
Roland at Tea & Treasure
July 29th, 2010 . Posted in Black Tea, Brewing Tea, Chinese Tea, Green Tea, Tea Accesories, Turkish Tea, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags: brewing tea in glassware, colors of tea, glass teaware
While iced tea is usually served in glasses, the Turks
Glass Teaware & Flowering Tea
drink their hot tea from glasses in order to enjoy the fiery orange color of tea grown in Turkey. Personally, I enjoy the many different colors and shades of all teas that you don’t mix with milk or cream. Green teas give liquors ranging from very pale green to yellow to quite green. Black teas do shades of orange, red, and brown. In glass tea pots you can watch the leaves unfurl and the color seep into the water. In a glass cup you can appreciate the color of the tea from all angles, even holding it up to the light and looking through it. There is one type of tea for which glass is indispensable: flowering teas. These are balls of hand woven green tea with dried flowers inside. When sunk into hot water they put on quite a show, slowly unfurling to reveal a beautiful plant with colorful flower and green leaves. The tea is drinkable and then the “flower” can be topped with cold water and can be shown off, in its glass pot or cup, for a couple days or so before it starts to “wilt”. Glass is non-reactive and not porous so it won’t compromise the flavor of the tea. Also, many glass teapots and tea mugs come with glass inserts for easy and entertaining brewing.
Roland at Tea & Treasure
July 26th, 2010 . Posted in Black Tea, Brewing Tea, Ceylon tea, Flavored Tea, Uncategorized, iced tea | No Comments »
Tags: black tea, brewing iced tea, green tea, iced tea
There are three main methods for brewing iced tea:
1) Brew strong hot tea, strain (unless using tea bags), cool, and pour over ice.
2) Put tea and water in a glass jar and set out in the sun. 3) Put tea and water in a pitcher and place in the refrigerator.
For this last method, the packers of the tea will often put the steeping times on the packages. One of my flavored looseleaf suppliers recommends 2-3 hours of fridge steeping for black tea blends and 30-40 minutes for green tea blends. These teas have intense flavors. The supplier of my award winning Ceylon 
iced tea blends recommends steeping the tea in the refrigerator overnight. These teas have more subtle flavors added. For sun tea, I recommend experimenting: when you like the color, taste the tea. As for sweetening, that can be dissolved into the hot tea, if using that method, but I like simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water brought to a boil and then cooled). Simple syrup will blend into cold liquids, and serving it on the side allows each person to sweeten their iced tea to their taste.
Roland at Tea & Treasure
July 22nd, 2010 . Posted in Black Tea, Ceylon tea, Chinese Tea, Uncategorized, afternoon tea, jasmine tea, tea art, tea culture | No Comments »
Tags: afternoon tea, black tea, Chinese tea, Coupeville WA, green tea, tea art
Helen Vladykina
Stefania Ferri
The annual Coupeville Arts & Crafts Festival will be held on August 14 & 15 this year. I thought about how to participate in Coupeville’s biggest event of the year, and I decided simply to slash prices on the tea art that adorns the walls here at Tea & Treasure. This art garners a lot of interest from customers but this has not translated itself into sales. A substantial discount may help out.
I have a set of four 12″X12″ mounted posters by artist Stefania Ferri representing Ceylon Tea, Assam Tea, Jasmine Green Tea, and Oolong Tea. The Assam and Jasmine are represented by tea pots and the Ceylon and Oolong by tea cups. The colors are pastel with backgrounds of bamboo or blossoms.
I have a set of three 12″X12″ mounted posters by artist Helen Vladykina representing Russian Caravan Tea (with samovar and tea glass), Moroccan Mint Tea (with copper tea pot), and Jasmine Green Tea (with a unique tea pot that looks to me like a pumpkin). Helen’s colors are vibrant.
Also on the walls are two mounted posters of ladies taking their tea by Chinese artist T.C. Chiu, a fine framed print of a Japanese geisha holding a ceremonial tea tray, and various mounted photos, including Mt. Fuji from a Shizuoka Tea Plantation and Afternoon Tea at Buchart Gardens.
Like all things tea, I find tea art to be aesthetic, pleasing, and interesting.
Roland at Tea & Treasure
July 20th, 2010 . Posted in Black Tea, Tea & Politics, Tea Party, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags: black tea, Boston Harbour Tea, Tea Party
Boston Harbor
Boston Harbour Tea
Who supplied the tea that ended up being brewed in the waters of Boston’s harbor in 1773 and 1774? It was Davison Newman & Co LTD of 52-58 Weston Street, London, SE1 3QJ. This piece of trivia is proudly announced on the foil wrapper for each teabag of Boston Harbour Tea, whose registered trade mark is “Bawstonaba”. Even though it’s imported from England and harbor is spelled English style, harbour, this tea is definitely blended for the American taste. (As well it should be; after all, it would be a public relations nightmare for Davison Newman if their tea ended up in the harbor yet again.) This tea is light, not the strong English brew that demands milk and sugar.
So who is this company marketing to? American patriots who have forgiven them? Less patriotic Americans who regret that the tea went into the sea? Tourists to the harbor? History buffs? In any case, I seriously doubt that this blend in the tea bags is even close to what was actually tossed overboard. But it’s cute.
Roland at Tea & Treasure
July 19th, 2010 . Posted in Chinese Tea, Health, Tea & Travel, Tea Gardens, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags: Chinese tea, non-polluted tea plantation, polluted tea
"Farmers pick spring tea in a non-polluted tea plantation"
The company that supplies me with Chinese teas has an ominous warning on their packages: “Please be reminded that you should always rinse the tea first before consuming it.” When confronted about this by me they referred me to their website where they talk about rinsing the tea in order to get rid of dust. Their Indian teas, however, don’t come with the warning. Why are Chinese teas dusty while Indian teas aren’t? Furthermore, I figure that most dust on tea is tea dust, a perfectly consumable by-product of the tea manufacturing process. In the Gong Fu style of tea drinking popular in China, the tea is indeed rinsed. Like lead in children’s toys, do the Chinese know something about their tea that they aren’t disclosing? Individuals have come into my tea store and declared that they avoid Chinese tea, so suspicions have been aroused.
I think I can explain the Gong Fu style of tea drinking without having to admit that the tea is dusty or polluted. The tea is rinsed by pouring water over it and then pouring it almost right away into cups. That first brew is then thrown out. It’s called “rinsing the tea and scenting the cup”. If the tea was polluted, scenting the cups would probably be done with the second brew, wouldn’t it? Also, the Chinese drink a lot of tea, and rinsing the tea has practical value in that it gets rid of some of the caffeine.
Now for the part that has me worried: I was on the Chinese governments official English website (english.gov.cn) when I came across some beautiful photos of tea plantations in southern China. The photos were captioned, “Farmers pick spring tea in a non-polluted tea plantation…..” This is either a clumsy way of saying “organic” or there are polluted tea plantations in China. An article on the same site entitled “China intensifies crackdown on illegal cooking oil in restaurants” did nothing to put my mind at ease.
So is it reasonable to be cautious of Chinese tea or is it paranoia?
Roland at Tea & Treasure
July 17th, 2010 . Posted in Black Tea, Polish Tea, Tea & Travel, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags: black tea, Polish Tea, Tea Experience, tea with rum
It was the early 80s and I was in Quetzaltenango, the second city and cultural capital of Guatemala. It’s a lovely colonial town but an unlikely place for my introduction to herbata z rumem, Polish rum tea. This is black tea, sweetened to taste, with a jigger of rum in it and traditionally served in a glass. Some add a squeeze of lemon to it.
Guatemalan food isn’t bad at all, but I’d been travelling a while and so I was easily lured into a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant advertising polish sausage. It was run by an ancient looking woman who didn’t look Guatemalan, but she did speak Spanish fluently. I was delighted to find tea with rum on the menu, and pretty soon the two of us were in conversation. She was indeed Polish, but she’d come to Guatemala as a young woman. She’d raised a family, her husband had died, and here she was, as a grandmother, running this little nostalgic taste of home.
I returned the next day, before leaving Quetzaltenango, for another tasty herbata z rumem. Some years later I was in Quetzaltenango again, hoping for a glass of rum tea, but that little slice of Poland was gone.
Roland at Tea & Treasure
