Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum

In addition to publishing Tea Guy Speaks, I'm a regular contributor to The English Tea Store blog. Here's an article I recently wrote for them. Click the link to read the full article.

Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum
By William I. Lengeman III

There are tea parties and there are tea parties, but of course for those of us living in the United States the granddaddy of all tea parties is the one that took place in Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773. This is not the time or place for a history lesson, and besides most of us probably got the Tea Party overview in elementary school. But it’s worth pointing out that you can now bring some of this history to life by visiting the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum.

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Book Review: The Gunpowder Gardens

In addition to publishing Tea Guy Speaks, I'm a regular contributor to The English Tea Store blog. Here's an article I recently wrote for them. Click the link to read the full article.

Book Review: The Gunpowder Gardens
By William I. Lengeman III

Over the course of the years that I’ve been writing about tea I’ve had the good fortune to review quite a few books on the topic. While many of them were very entertaining and informative, with a few notable exceptions they weren’t necessarily the kind of page turners that you’d be likely to sit down and read from cover to cover.

One of those exceptions would be Jason Goodwin’s The Gunpowder Gardens: Travels through India and China in Search of Tea...

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Indonesian Tea Production, Circa 1937

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Yorkshire Tea from Taylors of Harrogate

In addition to publishing Tea Guy Speaks, I'm a regular contributor to The English Tea Store blog. Here's an article I recently wrote for them. Click the link to read the full article.

Yorkshire Tea from Taylors of Harrogate
By William I. Lengeman III

At just about a century and a quarter, British tea company Taylors of Harrogate could be considered a relative youngster, especially when you consider that there are British tea merchants who have been doing their thing for more than 300 years. Things got underway for Taylors of Harrogate in 1886, when brothers Charles and Llewellyn Taylor went into the business of importing coffee and tea. The popular Yorkshire Tea brand came along in the 1970s, and these days the company claims that British tea drinkers consume more than ten million cups of that beloved brand daily.

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Will U.S. Tea Sales Ever Top Coffee?

In addition to publishing Tea Guy Speaks, I'm a regular contributor to The English Tea Store blog. Here's an article I recently wrote for them. Click the link to read the full article.

Will U.S. Tea Sales Ever Top Coffee?
By William I. Lengeman III

In the United States, the land that spawned that beverage behemoth known as Starbucks, we’re obviously known more for our consumption of coffee than of tea. But if the truth be told, we actually rank relatively low on the list of coffee gluttons, tied for about 20th place with the Macedonians, who also consume about 4.2 kilograms per person annually. It’s interesting to note that the cold, dark countries of Finland, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Netherlands and Sweden dominate the top six spots on the list, but I digress.

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Tea Blog List - Latest Update

Here are the latest additions to the Tea Blog List. As always, you can find the full list here. Feel free to add your tea blog to the list and please consider linking back to us.

Breakaway Matcha
Darjeeling Darlings
Erin's Tea
Leaf, Sheaf, and Berry
Si's Hip Hop Tea Shop
Silk Road Tea Blog
Sip-by-Sip
SOKO Tea House
Sommelier En Thé Japonais (French)
Tea Foodie
Tea For Me Please
Tea For Today
Teasing Leaves

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A Debate Between Tea and Beer

In addition to publishing Tea Guy Speaks, I'm a regular contributor to The English Tea Store blog. Here's an article I recently wrote for them. Click the link to read the full article.

A Debate Between Tea and Beer
By William I. Lengeman III

One of the great things about the digital revolution is the whopping number of old books and documents — including many on tea — that are now just a mouse click away. If that’s not exciting enough, then consider that many such books are free.

But though it might seem that every bit of printed matter in the known universe has now been digitized, that’s not quite true — at least not yet. Take, for example, the ancient Chinese text...

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Tea & Teapot Museum List

Here's an updated listing of tea and teapot musuems. If you know of any others, please leave a comment.

Updated 07/20/2012

United States

Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum (Boston)
J’s Tea-rific Teapot Museum (South Carolina)
Trenton Teapot Collection (Tennessee)

World

National Tea Museum (China)
Teapot Island (Kent, England)
Twining Teapot Gallery (Norfolk, England)
Flagstaff House Museum of Teaware (Hong Kong)
Tocklai Experimental Station (India)
Cutty Sark (London)
Pinglin Tea Industry Museum (Taiwan)

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Splendid Table Clip - 20-Pound Tea Log

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Tea, North African Style

In addition to publishing Tea Guy Speaks, I'm a regular contributor to The English Tea Store blog. Here's an article I recently wrote for them. Click the link to read the full article.

Tea, North African Style
By William I. Lengeman III

What comes to mind when you think of drinking tea probably has a lot to do with how and where you were brought up. For those of us here in the United States “tea” is as likely as not to conjure up an image of a sweetened black preparation in a tall glass with ice cubes. If you’re from the United Kingdom, then tea is likely to be the black stuff again, but served hot and in a proper tea cup with sugar and milk or cream. If you’re from China then your preferred way of consuming tea may be a green, oolong or puerh variety prepared gongfu style in a gaiwan and served in little wee cups.

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Burl Ives Luzianne vs Lipton Tea Commercial

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Arcane Tea Terms: Bohea

In addition to publishing Tea Guy Speaks, I'm a regular contributor to The English Tea Store blog. Here's an article I recently wrote for them. Click the link to read the full article.

Arcane Tea Terms: Bohea
By William I. Lengeman III

Though it’s mainly a term used in days of yore, there are actually a few scattered merchants these days who offer something known as Bohea tea. Over the years there has been some mild confusion regarding its point of origin, but Bohea was (and is) most commonly used to describe a type of tea from China’s Wu-Yi Mountains, which the Chinese apparently pronounced more along the lines of bu-yi or bu-i. In 1852 tea pioneer Robert Fortune published his account of traveling to various tea regions of China, including one that was referred to as the Bohea Hills.

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Typhoo Two Thumbs Fresh Commercial

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Tea Review 142- Mountain Rose Herbs Darjeeling

Darjeeling Tea (1st Flush)
Mountain Rose Herbs

As much as I like black tea I have to confess that Darjeeling is not typically one of my favorites. As a general rule they tend to be a bit too thin for me and I find that they tend toward bitterness rather easily.

This first flush, Fair Trade Darjeeling from Mountain Rose Herbs was a little different than most of the others I've sampled. It seemed to me to have a fuller taste than many and some flavor notes that were faintly reminiscent of chocolate/cocoa. While I probably wouldn't put it at the top of my black tea list I certainly found it quite drinkable.

Here's what Mountain Rose has to say about this one:

A true unblended Darjeeling tea from fresh, green, subtle leaves. Darjeeling is one of the most sought after tea beverages for its astringent qualities and its ability to indulge the taste buds. Has a wonderfully grounding aftertaste, and is complex in characteristics. From the Northern Himalayas in India comes this exquisite tea fit for the most occasions. Our Darjeeling tea is Fair Trade certified and contains caffeine.

Image: Mountain Rose Herbs

Sample provided by Mountain Rose Herbs
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A Cup a Day Helps Keep Heart Disease Away?

In addition to publishing Tea Guy Speaks, I'm a regular contributor to The English Tea Store blog. Here's an article I recently wrote for them. Click the link to read the full article.

A Cup a Day Helps Keep Heart Disease Away?
By William I. Lengeman III

As most of us are probably aware, heart disease is no small problem nowadays. Here in the United States alone the facts regarding this condition are rather eye-opening. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) heart disease is the leading cause of death for both American men and women and was responsible for one in four deaths, or a total of 616,000 deaths in all, in 2008. In 2010, the overall cost of heart disease to Americans was expected to be in the neighborhood of $108.9 billion.

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Tea, Exercise, and Hydration

In addition to publishing Tea Guy Speaks, I'm a regular contributor to The English Tea Store blog. Here's an article I recently wrote for them. Click the link to read the full article.

Tea, Exercise, and Hydration
By William I. Lengeman III

You don’t need to be an expert in human biology to understand the importance of staying hydrated while you’re exercising. Of course, it’s important to stay hydrated all the time, but that’s especially the case when you’re exercising. As the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) notes, body weight can decrease anywhere from one to three percent in cases of minimal dehydration and up to five percent in serious cases. Needless to say, that’s a bad thing.

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Typhoo's Perfect Cup Of Tea Commercial

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Bringing Tea to Darjeeling

In addition to publishing Tea Guy Speaks, I'm a regular contributor to The English Tea Store blog. Here's an article I recently wrote for them. Click the link to read the full article.

Bringing Tea to Darjeeling
By William I. Lengeman III

As far as I’m aware the Darjeeling tea industry doesn’t have a slogan, but if they did, perhaps something along the lines of “quality, not quantity” would be suitable. The total output of tea produced in this region of India is pretty much a drop in the bucket when stacked up against India’s other great growing region, Assam, but the quality is typically high enough that Darjeeling is one of the more coveted varieties among tea connoisseurs.

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Aroha Green Tea Commercial (Pakistan)

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Tea Pioneers: Horniman’s Tea

In addition to publishing Tea Guy Speaks, I'm a regular contributor to The English Tea Store blog. Here's an article I recently wrote for them. Click the link to read the full article.

Tea Pioneers: Horniman’s Tea
By William I. Lengeman III

Tea companies come and tea companies go, though it’s worth noting that there are several such firms that measure their age in centuries rather than merely in years. If you’d been drinking tea in the nineteenth century, chances are you’d have been aware of Horniman’s Tea. Though they only got started in the early nineteenth century, according to some accounts by the end of that century they were the world’s largest tea trading company.

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A Narrative of the Conduct of the Tea-Dealers

In addition to publishing Tea Guy Speaks, I'm a regular contributor to The English Tea Store blog. Here's an article I recently wrote for them. Click the link to read the full article.

A Narrative of the Conduct of the Tea-Dealers
By William I. Lengeman III

There are those tea merchants who pride themselves in cutting out the middlemen and dealing directly with the people who grow tea. But there are probably more cases in which tea goes through at least one of those middlemen before it gets into the hands of the people who sell it to us, the consumers.

Which has been a common practice in the tea industry for many centuries now, as evidenced by a moldy old volume that’s been rescued from oblivion by digitization...

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Boston Tea Party Inspired Tea Blend

Tea Master Bruce Richardson discusses the Boston Tea Party inspired Abigails Blend.



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How Tea Became Hip

In addition to publishing Tea Guy Speaks, I'm a regular contributor to The English Tea Store blog. Here's an article I recently wrote for them. Click the link to read the full article.

How Tea Became Hip
By William I. Lengeman III

How did tea become hip? Hold on a minute. Things have improved in recent years or perhaps even decades, but one could still argue that tea is suffering from an image problem. You know the one – staid tea rooms frequented by ladies of a certain age, neatly trimmed crustless sandwiches, and so on. Not to mention that for many people tea still conjures up visions of black dust crammed into ultra-cheap tea bags, resulting in a beverage that leaves much to be desired.

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Modern Marvels - History of Tea Clip

From a Modern Marvels episode from a few years back, here's a 10-minute segment on the history of tea.



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