Novelty Tea Bags Revisited

Here's another article I recently wrote for The English Tea Store blog.

Novelty Tea Bags Revisited
By William I. Lengeman III

Say what you want about tea bags, but don’t say that there aren’t plenty of offbeat novelty ones to be found in the files of the US Patent Office (and probably other patent offices, but that’s another article). Our first look at this topic was an article that ran earlier this year. But since that didn’t exhaust the many possibilities, it’s time for another round.

To start with one of the more peculiar of the bunch, here’s a look at a Tab for a Tea Bag, which was patented in 1993 and which is just a graphic of a swami-type guy...

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Growing Tea in Britain

Here's another article I recently wrote for The English Tea Store blog.

Growing Tea in Britain
By William I. Lengeman III

If the tea-loving British were only able to drink tea that had been grown on their own soil, they’d be out of luck. They currently drink about fourteen pounds of tea per person per year but there is only one producer there of any significance – Tregothnan Estate, in Cornwall. While they turn out a respectable amount for a small grower who only got into the tea business about a decade ago, Tregothnan’s estimated harvest of about ten tons a year is but a miniscule drop in the bucket when stacked up against the nation’s impressive tea consumption...

read the full article here

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Even More Tea Gadgets & Offbeat News

Here's another article I recently wrote for The English Tea Store blog.

Even More Tea Gadgets & Offbeat News
By William I. Lengeman III

Did you hear the one about 900-year old cup of tea recently found in the southeastern United States? Well, don’t get too excited. First of all, it’s not an actual cup of tea – spillage and/or evaporation presumably saw to that. Second, as near as anyone can tell, none of the natives living here at the time had access to real tea, as in the beverage made from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant. But “tea” is a malleable word for most people, and in this case it’s one that can be used to describe a beverage brewed from the shrub Ilex vomitoria, a species of holly, which produces a concoction known as the black drink.

read the full article here

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Teajay Teas Preacher Commercial

More tea-inspired silliness from the people at Teajay.

The Breville One-Touch Tea Maker

Types of Japanese Tea

Here's another article I recently wrote for The English Tea Store blog.

Types of Japanese Tea
By William I. Lengeman III

With the exception of China, which grows pretty much every major type of tea, there are tea growing regions of the world that are associated with certain types of tea. You might find other types of tea in Africa, India and Ceylon, but they’re best known for black tea. By the same token the vast majority of the tea grown in Japan is green.

Tea is thought to have come to Japan from China in the eighth century. To this day they produce almost exclusively...

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Tea Review 146 - Peony Tea S. Huangshan Furry Peak

Huangshan Furry Peak
Peony Tea S.

As a general rule I've found that Japanese green tea tends to be more boldly flavored, while Chinese green tea is more subtle. I'm sure there are exceptions but if you need any evidence for the latter you might want to consider Huangshan Furry Peak, by Peony Tea S.

At first I found this to be so subtly flavored that I wasn't sure I was going to like it. But after I adjusted my palate (which is conditioned to quite a lot of heavy black tea) I found that I liked it quite a bit. I know that some people who are new to green tea have trouble with the lighter varieties and they obviously wouldn't be the best customers for this tea. But anyone who's conditioned to this sort of thing might want to give it a shot.

Here's what Peony Tea S. has to say about this one:

Perpetually shrouded in cloud and mist, the beautiful Huangshan which is translated literally as ‘Yellow Mountain’ is the origin of one of the most beloved and well-known green tea in China- the Huangshan Furry Peak. Just like its place of origin, this delightful green tea is truly a work of art, simultaneously soothing and exciting the drinker. Green teas are considered in Traditional Chinese Medicine terminology as ‘cooling’ so instead of reaching for your soda, try this sugarless all natural alternative instead. The recurring sweetness will fill your throat long after your last drop.

Image: Peony Tea S.
Sample provided by Peony Tea S.
Peony Tea S. is a former advertiser at Tea Guy Speaks
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The Curious (Court) Case of He-No Tea

Here's another article I recently wrote for The English Tea Store blog.

The Curious (Court) Case of He-No Tea
By William I. Lengeman III

Tea sellers are probably not all that different from merchants seeking to push any other kind of product. There are the good, the bad and the ugly, though in the case of tea, I can safely say that the majority of those I’ve run across appear to fall into the former category.

But not all of them. If you doubt that there are unscrupulous types out there looking to make a buck off of tea...

read the full article here

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Teajay Tea's Mime Commercial

The Breville One-Touch Tea Maker

Tasting Tea with an Electronic Tongue

Here's another article I recently wrote for The English Tea Store blog.

Tasting Tea with an Electronic Tongue
By William I. Lengeman III

I used to read a lot of science fiction but, of all of the fantastic forward-looking gadgets that were predicted in the pages of those books and stories, I’m pretty sure that the electronic tongue was not among them. Which just goes to show that truth is apparently sometimes stranger than science fiction. An electronic tongue, by the way, is not a fancy prosthetic device for people whose tongues are missing or malfunctioning, but rather it’s a gadget that aids in the analysis of flavor compounds in foods and beverages.

read the full article here

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Discourses on Tea and More

Here's another article I recently wrote for The English Tea Store blog.

Discourses on Tea and More
By William I. Lengeman III

Tea was still relatively new to England in 1750, when Thomas Short wrote about it. It was not yet the runaway hit it would later become, but tea‘s popularity was already experiencing a marked upswing. With a title like Discourses on Tea, Sugar, Milk, Made-wines, Spirits, Punch, Tobacco: With Plain and Useful Rules for Gouty People, Short’s book is obviously not going to make for gripping beach reading and to be perfectly honest it’s more useful for its historical interest than anything else.

read the full article here

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Tea Review 145 - Tea Gallerie English Breakfast

English Breakfast
Tea Gallerie

I'll get right to the point. This was probably the best English Breakfast tea I've had the good fortune to sample. I'd have no problems drinking it on a regular basis. I'm not sure what the blend is but I'd guess that it's mostly a good Assam vareity, with a little bit of Ceylon thrown in for good measure. Not too many more words to waste on it. It's great. That's all.

Image: Tea Gallerie
Sample provided by Tea Gallerie
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Tea vs. Terrorism

Here's another article I recently wrote for The English Tea Store blog.

Tea vs. Terrorism
By William I. Lengeman III

To say that tea can help fight against terrorism is perhaps not completely accurate. But over the course of the years there have been several studies that have found that tea can be of some use in fighting against one of the more unpleasant manifestations of terrorism – chemical and biological weapons.

Most recently, scientists at Cardiff University’s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, in Wales, found that a compound in tea...

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Great Tea Races of Yesteryear

Here's an article I recently wrote for The English Tea Store blog.

Great Tea Races of Yesteryear
By William I. Lengeman III

As a non-smoker, I wouldn’t walk a mile for a Camel, as the old ad slogan goes. But a cup of tea, that’s another story entirely. If the prize were a pound of tea, I might even consider entering a race for it.

Which is a not so graceful way of steering the discourse to an historical event I saw discussed in a few places on the Web recently. If the notion of an “old woman’s race for a pound of tea” brings to mind a Monty Python sketch, you’re not alone. But this was actually a bonafide event...

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PG Tips Chimp Commercial (1971)

In which the lovable little fellers drink tea and engage in hijinks while moving a piano.

The Breville One-Touch Tea Maker

Ineeka Tea Ambootia Tea Estate

Here's a brief visit to a Darjeeling tea field, courtesy of the good people at Ineeka.

Ineeka Tea Ambootia Tea Estate from Ineeka Tea on Vimeo.

The Breville One-Touch Tea Maker

Get Pinterested in Tea

Here's an article I recently wrote for The English Tea Store blog.

Get Pinterested in Tea
By William I. Lengeman III

Where do you draw the line when it comes to social media? There are only 24 hours in each day, and if you sign on to every one of the zillion or so sites coming down the pike, you’d probably use most of those hours on social media. But every now and then there’s a phenomenon that catches on in a way that’s kind of hard to ignore – or resist. If you tend (like me) to often be a step or two behind the curve when it comes to social media, an introduction to one of the latest phenoms – Pinterest – might be in order.

read the full article here

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The Ultimate Tea Gadget

Here's an article I recently wrote for The English Tea Store blog.

The Ultimate Tea Gadget
By William I. Lengeman III

There are tea gadgets and then there are tea gadgets. If you follow this site regularly, you’ll notice that we tend to comment on the latest batch of these gizmos at least once every few weeks, if not more often. While it might be going out on a limb to declare that there’s such a thing as the Ultimate Tea Gadget, a strong contender for the title appeared in London not so long ago, just in time for the Olympics. The timing for the debut of the Universal Tea Machine was no coincidence, mind you. As its designers put it, it was “part of the capital’s city-wide celebration of culture and sports during the London 2012 Olympics.”

read the full article here

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Harvesting & Processing Tea in Mauritius

Here's a video that takes a look at tea harvesting and processing in the African country of Mauritius. Brought to you by ProjectExplorer.org

Harvesting Tea from ProjectExplorer.org's Mauritius Series

Adagio Teas - Best Tea Online

Tea Review 144 - Peony Tea S. Oolong

Dong Ding Oolong
Peony Tea S.

After sampling a number of oolongs that didn't quite do it for me, I finally ran across one that did - this Dong Ding from Peony Tea S. As for those oolongs I didn't like, it's not that there was anything wrong with them. It's just that I don't like the more heavily processed varieties, of which this is most certainly not.

This one didn't have quite as much of that fruity, slightly perfumey thing that you often get with the lighter oolongs. Which I don't mind, by the way - floral and perfumey are just fine by me. While there were some floral notes here there was something else that I couldn't quite put a finger on it. The merchant claims there are some caramel notes as well, but I didn't get that.

In any event, I found this one quite drinkable. Here's what Peony Tea had to say about it:

Cost per cup (150 ml): $0.34
Hanyu Pinyin: dong ding wu long
Production area: Lugu, Nantou, Taiwan
Harvest time: Spring 2012

Summary: If you like depth and character in your tea, Dong Ding Oolong is a good choice for you. As you taste it, you can slowly uncover so many layers in this multi-faceted experience. Best of all- after you have consumed every delectable drop, your throat beams with approval at the remarkable aftertaste.

Slowly breathe in the deep aroma and enjoy the lingering floral and caramel scent.

Image: Peony Tea S.
Sample provided by Peony Tea S.
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