Get Cooking With Tea

Here, courtesy of the Rishi Tea Web site, are a few recipes that make use of tea:

Chai Flan
Maghreb Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
Hazelnut Muffin with Cinnamon Plum Apple Jam

For an even more impressive selection of tea recipes, refer to Bigelow Tea's database, located here.

Last but not least, here are some of the previous posts about tea and cuisine at TGS.

Image: Rishi Tea

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Zenlet Green Tea Bracelets Captivate Hollywood

Zenlet Green Tea Bracelets Captivate Hollywood
(from a press release)

Zenlet Green Tea Bracelets were just one of the many gifts for the TBS Very Funny Comedy Festival and the American Music Awards this November. Anyone who is anyone in Hollywood is now sporting the all-natural Zenlet Green Tea Bracelet.

The Zen bracelets, or Zenlets, are unique in that they are made with green tea. The green tea and anti-oxidants absorb into your skin and body through a process called transdermal absorption. The bracelets are stylish, healthy and environmentally friendly.

Zenlet Green Tea bracelets are available online.

Image: Zenlet.com

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Amanzi Tea Introduces 'Financial Securi-Tea'

Amanzi Tea Reveals New Flavor of the Week, 'Financial Securi-Tea', to Overcome the Economic Downfall
(from a press release)

Amanzi Tea, a unique tea bar and retailer, opened its first NYC location this past weekend to rave reviews. After distributing free "flu shots" made of double strength, freshly brewed tea on Saturday, they're releasing their latest creation, "Financial Securi-Tea", this week. The new drink is made from a blend of green, mint, and chamomile tea -- the perfect mix to promote serenity during the turbulent times ahead.

Owner Raymond Levy states, "We designed 'Financial Securi-Tea' to calm nerves and lift the spirits of our fellow New Yorkers during the holiday season. This economic crisis we're in, it's putting a damper on the holidays. We at Amanzi wanted to design a drink that will not only boost one's immune system, but will raise one's spirits during these hard times!"

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Tea Master Training Slated for Ft. Lauderdale

Tea Master Training Slated for Ft. Lauderdale
(from a press release)

Aspiring tea aficionados will be gathering in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida in January to take part in the 13-Week Tea Mastery Certification Course. The two-part training program, offered by the American Tea Masters Association, includes an initial 5-Day Comprehensive Tea Mastery Course held on-site in Ft. Lauderdale followed by a 12-Week Tea Master TeleCourse involving home study, numerous tea evaluations, and weekly group teleconference calls.

The 5-Day Comprehensive Tea Mastery Course runs from January 12th to 16th at the Marriott Ft. Lauderdale North Hotel. The program offers the high level of focus and support needed to gain the competence and confidence to serve as a tea master or tea sommelier at any distinguished restaurant, hotel or tea court in the country, or start one's own successful enterprise. It contains all of the educational requirements an individual needs for achieving the association's prestigious Certified Tea Master designation and lapel pin once the training program and final examination are successfully completed.

American Tea Masters Association

Image: ATMA

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Product Review - Adagio Teas GraviTEA Water Purifier

GraviTEA Water Purifier
Adagio Teas

Though many people swear by the relative purity of their local water supplies - perhaps with good reason - for some years I've been in that camp who prefer to add their own post-tap purifications, for whatever it may be worth. My weapon of choice, thus far, has been one of Brita's pitcher-type filters.

Given that my Brita is an older clunkier model, I was keen to take Adagio's new GraviTEA model for a spin. The first thing one notices about it is its sleek, rather aesthetically pleasing design. And while there are surely only a limited number of bells and whistles one can add to one of these gadgets, the GraviTEA has a few. The "top-loading" feature, which allows for it to be filled without removing the lid, is handy, as is the flap over the pouring spout.

Other features and selling points include an indicator that let you know when its time to change the filter and a filtering "speed" supposedly twice that of comparable products.

More here.

Image: Adagio Teas

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Celebrate the Holidays With Bigelow Tea

Celebrate the Holidays With Bigelow Tea
Choose From a Wide Selection of Seasonal Delights
(from a press release)

Bigelow Tea, a family-owned business dedicated to providing customers with specialty teas for over 60 years, offers its 2008 Holiday Gift Collection. Whether they've been naughty or nice, 'tis the season to treat family and friends to some of the many teas, savory delights and gifts found in this year's Holiday catalog.

The holidays are all about giving. Bigelow Tea offers a wide selection of fun gifts to choose from, like Frosty's Bucket, a festive metal bucket filled with an assortment of cookies and holiday teas and Christmas Card Cookies and Tea, a colorful tin box containing six Christmas-themed shortbread cookies, a confectionery ink marker with labels for adding personalized messages, plus a box of Constant Comment tea. They make the perfect hostess gifts to bring when visiting friends and family over the holiday season.

Of course, one must never forget Santa. Santa's favorite treats have been lovingly packaged in What Santa Likes, a decorative bucket filled with an assortment of cookies, raspberry drops, candy sticks and seasonal teas or Santa's Holiday Tote, a red Santa suit tote bag overflowing with cookies, snack mix and holiday teas. A full collection of gifts can be found in Bigelow's 2008 Holiday online catalog here.

Image: Bigelow Tea

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Teabag Danglers, Presidential Tea & Love Your Mug

Teabag dangler - it's apparently the technical term for the little string and tag thingy that hangs off your teabag - or maybe it's not. Anyway, Boing Boing recently featured a few clever examples of teabag danglers.

What role has tea played in the presidency? Did you know that President McKinley's likeness was once used to sell tea? More of this sort of thing in a new book called Tea with Presidential Families. Here's a related article.

Last up, here's the lowdown on Love Your Mug, which its makers call "the ingenious new way to personalise a mug with your exact hot drink preferences so you never have to suffer a bad cuppa, ever again."

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Numi Rolls Out Organic Puerh Line

Numi Organic Tea Launches New Tea Category: Organic Puerh Tea
(from a press release)

Known for their innovative Flowering Tea and pure ingredient tea blends, Numi Organic Tea launches a new line and category of tea called Puerh. Although all teas come from the same plant, Camellia Sinensis, Puerh is made from a different variety that grows on wild 500 year old, tea trees, known as "broad leaf tea", found in the pristine Yunnan Mountains of Southwestern China. The maturity and special variety of these trees make it desired for the aging process that makes Puerh. The leaves undergo an unusual fermenting, ripening and aging process which results in Puerh's unique earthy flavor and special health properties. Chinese people have written about the health benefits of Puerh since ancient times.

Taste - Puerh processing is different from regular white, green, oolong or black tea. After the leaves are picked, they are piled into heaps, dampened frequently for a period of 60 days and rotated every 10 days during this time to ensure all the tea is fermented. The tea is then dried and ready to be compressed into bricks for aging, or left as loose tea which Numi uses in its tea bags. Different to black tea, Puerh can be steeped long for a smooth yet bold cup without the bitterness. Its taste is rich and smooth, slightly sweet with hints of malt. A straight Puerh such as Numi's Emperor's makes a great pairing with a French cheese plate and can also act as a digestif after a heavy meal.

Numi will launch 4 flavors of Puerh in both tea boxes as well as loose tea.

Emperor's Puerh - Organic Black Puerh tea: malty, rich & bold
Chocolate Puerh - Organic Black Puerh tea: velvety rich & vanilla
Magnolia Puerh - Organic Green Puerh tea blend: deep floral earthiness
Mint Puerh - Organic Green Puerh tea blend: pungent, smooth & sweet

Image: Numi Tea

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New Product Joins Award-Winning Teastick Family

New Product Joins Award-Winning Teastick Family
(from a press release)

Since 2005, the original Teastick has been winning fans and awards as the ultimate way to serve loose-leaf tea. Today, Gamila Company brings vivid color to the family with Teastick Gems.

Like the original Teastick, the new Gems Teastick is a one-cup, loose tea infuser. With its sleek 3-in-one design, it serves as a scoop, measuring device and infuser. Intended to entice a young market new to the world of tea, Gems come in two translucent colors and have a fine stainless steel mesh that is perfect for smaller teas and herbal infusions. The Gems will retail for about 35% less than the original stainless steel Teastick. (more)

Image: Gamila Company

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World Tea Expo Offers a Cure for Economic Flu

World Tea Expo Offers a Cure for Economic Flu
(from a press release)

The 2009 World Tea Expo is projecting record attendance - not despite the current economy, but, at least partially, because of it. Historically, economic downturns have inspired entrepreneurs to launch businesses in niche industries. With specialty tea offering a highly profitable and fast-growing opportunity in the United States, the World Tea Expo and the industry are preparing for a banner year.

Sales of specialty and premium tea in the U.S. are skyrocketing. Earlier this year, market research firm Packaged Facts forecasted that U.S. tea sales would double in five years, from $7.4 billion in 2007 to $15 billion by 2012. The firm further projected that, over the same period, the specialty tea segment of the market would grow to comprise more than half of these total sales, up from its current share of 36 percent. This translates into nearly $5 billion in new specialty tea sales each year for five years - more than double the growth of commercial grade tea.

World Tea Expo features nearly 400 leading companies in the specialty tea business from around the world, including producers from almost every major growing region. Alongside the Expo is a robust educational program, featuring a New Business Boot Camp, an Executive & Technical Series, Skill-Building Workshops and Focused Tastings - all in addition to the more than 40 sessions in the Core Conference Program.

Also held in conjunction with the event is the much anticipated second annual World Tea Championship, an independent evaluation of the top teas from around the world. The winners will be announced during the new awards ceremony at the Expo.

The World Tea Expo will be held May 2-4, 2009, at Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas.

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Tea Review 91 - Mellow Monk Green

Top Leaf Green Tea
Mellow Monk

A day without a top-quality Japanese green tea is like a day without sunshine - or something like that.

It's been a while since I've put together a mail order or received any samples from tea merchants. So for a good stretch I've been getting by with tea that I'd consider to be acceptable, but hardly stellar.

Which means that I was primed for some prime green tea, something along the lines of Mellow Monk's Top Leaf. Here's what Mellow Monk has to say about it:

"This is our top-of-the-line honcha, or traditional green tea. Top Leaf tea is specially pampered in its own separate corner of the tea orchard. Not only does this tea receive extra fertilizer (organic, of course) during the growing season, but at harvest time, the growers pick only the top layer of young tea leaves. The result is a distinctive, more subtle, gentler flavor. This tea is always first flush."

Works for me. The dry leaf is small and has a nice, dark green appearance. Unlike some greens, the aroma of the dry leaf is rather understated. The steeped tea has a nice pale golden color, with just a hint of green and the taste is rather subtle - as compared to some of the "fishy" Japanese greens - but quite satisfying nonetheless.

Highly recommended.

Image: Mellow Monk

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Automatic Tea Maker Patents

If you thought automatic tea-making gadgets like the Zarafina Tea Maker Suite or Adagio's TriniTEA were something new, have a look at these patents for tea makers from the files of the United States Patent Office (by way of Google Patents).

Beverage Making Device (1943)
Beverage Making Apparatus (1943)
Automatic Tea Maker (1958)
Continuous Tea Maker (1961)

Image: Zarafina

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Tea For Your Teeth

Drink Brewed Tea to Avoid Tooth Erosion
(from a press release)

Today, the average size soft drink is 20 ounces and contains 17 teaspoons of sugar. More startling is that some citric acids found in fruit drinks are more erosive than hydrochloric or sulfuric acid -- which is also known as battery acid. These refined sugars and acids found in soda and citrus juice promote tooth erosion, which wears away the hard part of the teeth, or the enamel. Once tooth enamel is lost, it's gone forever. There is a beverage that does not produce such irreversible results. When deciding between the many options available, the best thing to drink is brewed tea, according to a study in the July/August issue of General Dentistry, the clinical, peer-reviewed journal of the Academy of General Dentistry (AGD).

Apart from tasting good, brewed tea has many health benefits. Tea is loaded with natural antioxidants, which are thought to decrease incidence of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.

Mohamed A. Bassiouny, DMD, BDS, MSc, PhD, the lead author of the study, compared green and black tea to soda and orange juice in terms of their short- and long-term erosive effect on human teeth. The study found that the erosive effect of tea was similar to that of water, which has no erosive effect. And, when comparing green versus black, he discovered that there is a better option among those as well.

Dr. Bassiouny says that "when we look at tea and read about the benefits, it's amazing -- not because green tea is 'the in thing' -- but because there are advantages." He adds that much research done overseas, in countries such as Japan and Europe, found that green tea was identified to being superior over black due to its natural flavonoids (plant nutrients) and antioxidants.

But, if you do drink tea, experts suggest avoiding additives such as milk, lemon, or sugar because they combine with tea's natural flavonoids and decrease the benefits. In addition, stay away from prepackaged iced teas because they contain citric acid and high amounts of sugars. It does not matter whether the tea is warm or cold -- as long as it is home brewed without additives.

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Amanzi Tea Offers 'Flu Shots'

Amanzi Tea Offers Free, Natural 'Flu Shots' To New Yorkers
(from a press release)

Amanzi Tea, a unique tea bar and retailer, announced today that in celebration of its first Manhattan location opening Saturday, December 6th, it is offering free "amanzi tea flu shots" made of double strength, freshly brewed Green tea on Saturdays, December 6th, 13th and 20th from noon until four. This is a healthy and natural way to boost one's immune system with the onset of winter.

Amanzi Tea was founded in 2004 by a family from Zimbabwe who fled the oppressive regime for a better life in America. The opportunity to introduce teas from their native Africa including Rooibos, only found in South Africa, and other renowned black and herbal teas inspired them to open a pushcart in Miami and then build their first store in Greenville, SC. Amanzi sources teas from around the globe and retails in both stores and on the web. Amanzi is an African (Shona) word meaning water.

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