Organic Iced Tea From Rishi

Organic Iced Teas featuring Sustainable Packaging by Rishi Tea
(from a press release)

Rishi Tea’s Organic Iced Teas are made with premium teas and herbs, hand-blended in small batches to impart deep, complex flavor and freshness. The Organic Fair Trade Certified line exemplifies Rishi’s commitment to direct trade with farmers at origin, guaranteeing fair prices in exchange for goods, safe labor conditions, and investment in community development and environmental stewardship.

The eight varieties of refreshing organic iced tea include naturally caffeine-free antioxidant rich blends like Peach Rooibos, Mint Rooibos, Blueberry Red and Tropical Crimson. Caffeinated iced teas include Summer Lemon, Classic Citrus and the two World Tea Expo award-winners Citron Green and Pure.

Iced tea boxes include 5 all-natural quart pouches. Each pouch makes 32 ounces of iced tea, or 1 quart. Available direct at Rishi or through specialty retailers nationwide including Whole Foods Markets.

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Tea Video Contest & New Issue of The Leaf

Aspiring filmmakers, take heed. The third incarnation of the Tea Council of the USA's Calm-A-Sutra of Tea video contest is now underway. Submissions must be in no later than May 31, 2009. Get the lowdown at the contest site, here.

It's time for another dose of The Leaf, a fine online-only publication that recently rolled out its fifth installment. The focus, once again, is on Chinese tea and tea culture and as always it's worth a look.

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Snapple White Tea Commercial

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World of Tea 8

T Ching continues their exploration of tea-growing regions of India with host James Norwood Pratt. This time around, a three-part journey into the famed Darjeeling region. Check it out here, here and here.

Speaking of great tea-growing regions, here's an update from some of the Rishi guys regarding their visit to Yunnan, China.

If you're like me and you spend every moment of every day tracking the ups and downs of flash-in-the-pan celebrities you'll probably already know that singer Amy Winehouse demands a supply of Yorkshire Tea whenever she performs. Also needed, a sizable stash of tequila and 500 popsicles. And don't you dare try to sneak in any brown M&Ms. More here.

Stay tuned for more World of Tea, an occasional feature that gathers tea-related dispatches from around the globe.

Image: Rishi Tea

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Video: Tea Fight

Oh, no. Not another tea-themed Japanese action movie. Haven't we had enough of those? More insight from this thread at the TeaChat forum.



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Tea Memories Anthology Project

Katrina at The Tea Pages recently put out a call for essays for a new project she's working on. More on Tea Memories here.

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Pu-erh Tea How-To Video

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World of Tea 7

Stop the presses! Tea prices are likely to rise, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Read about this alarming development here.

More on India's great tea-producing regions, from James Norwood Pratt, via the T Ching site. This time around it's a look at Assam.

Also from T Ching, part two of Maria Uspenski's Make Room For Russian Tea.

Speaking of Russian tea, here's an interesting tale of samovars and surveillance, courtesy of Gongfu Girl.

Yerba mate merchants Guayaki recently introduced the first-ever fair trade certified yerba mate. Read more about it in the press release.

Stay tuned for more World of Tea, an occasional feature that gathers tea-related dispatches from around the globe.

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Tea Is Healthy...Except When It's Not

So there's good news and there's bad news. Which do you want first?

Let's start with the good news. A cup of green tea daily may help prevent gum disease, say a bunch of grant money recipients in Japan. More of that here.

However, according to a group of Iranian researchers, who weighed in with their thoughts recently, drinking steaming hot tea may be linked to an increased risk of cancer of the esophagus.

As always, in such potentially befuddling situations, I encourage you to stop worrying about your gums and esophagus and have a cup of tea.

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Tea Review 97 - Narien China Black Teas

Keemun Imperial
Yunnan Golden Tips
Narien Teas

In the great rush to tout the merits of green tea, white tea and puerh, a lot of people seem to forget that a cup of really good black tea - no, don't bother looking for it in your supermarket - is worthy of their time. Though I'm something of a cheerleader for Assam, in particular, I'm always willing to give other black teas a whirl.

Such as Yunnan, for example, one of China's best-known black teas and one that takes its name from the region in which it's grown. I can't recall ever being disappointed by a Yunnan and Narien's Yunnan Golden Tips was no exception. I did find it to be a little smokier than most, but not so much that it spoiled the party for me.

The Keemun Imperial, however, was another story. Now don't get me wrong. This is a great tea, very flavorful and worthy of a few of your tea-buying dollars - if you like smoky teas. I don't, so I'm not the target audience for this one. I did like mixing a dab of it with some other black teas and making iced tea out of the whole mess but as a hot tea it just wasn't my...well, you know.

Recommended on both counts, with the above-mentioned caveat for the Keemun Imperial.

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How To Grow Your Own Tea

Grow your own tea - can you do that? The short answer is yes. All tea comes from the same plant (Camellia sinensis) and you can grow your own, if you're so inclined. Now, if you have visions of popping some seeds in the dirt, picking tea leaves a few months later, steeping them and kicking back to marvel at your skill, hold on a minute. It's not quite that simple.



If you're going to make a serious commitment to growing tea with the intention of one day harvesting and drinking it, there are a few things to consider. First and foremost is that harvest day - assuming everything goes well - is not likely to arrive for a few years.

The other important point to consider is location, location, location or perhaps more specifically - climate, climate, climate. Tea is being grown on a modest scale in North America, most notably at the Charleston Tea Plantation in South Carolina, but tea plants thrive better in some climates than others. According to many tea seed and plant suppliers, the best climate zones for tea planting are parts of 6 and 7, 8 and 9.

If you'd like to take a crack at growing tea plants from seed, look here and here for supplies. For a complete kit that includes tea (and coffee) seeds and growing supplies, look here. If you'd prefer to get the jump on growing tea from seeds, order tea plants here.

For some more pointers on growing your own tea plants, refer to the Hawaii Tea Society, whose members have been growing tea on the islands for a number of years. For more on Lindsey "Vee" Goodwin's experiments with growing tea, start with her posts at the VeeTea blog, here and here.

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Video: Typhoo Tea Commercial

Is tea the best way to start your day? Sure beats some of the other options shown in this commercial for Typhoo.



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Tea Action Video

An unlikely mix of tea and fisticuffs:



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