The Ultimate Tea Crime

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

The Ultimate Tea Crime
By William I. Lengeman III

When it comes to tea, I have tried (for the most part) to practice tolerance. I won’t say I’ve always succeeded, but over the years I’ve come to realize that the world of tea is vast and there are many types of tea drinkers contained therein, each with their own way of doing things.

So, while I might cringe a bit at the notion of spoiling a good black tea with cream, milk, sugar, lemon, or whatever else it is that people want to dump in there, to be perfectly fair and evenhanded about things, people who drink their tea like this might rightly be horrified by the notion of drinking black tea with absolutely nothing in it.

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A Brief History of the Tea Chest

A Brief History of the Tea Chest
By William I. Lengeman III

What do you get for the person who has everything? According to one theory you could always get them something to put it in. Although if they truly have everything, that would presumably include a sufficient amount of storage containers – but I digress.

All of which is a somewhat roundabout way to emphasize the importance of packaging and to work our way around to the subject of the tea chest. It’s a topic that...

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What is High Mountain Oolong?

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

What is High Mountain Oolong?
By William I. Lengeman III

For many years now I’ve seen the term “high mountain oolong” being bandied about, but I never really gave it much thought. Until recently, when I started to wonder exactly what that meant.

Obviously, since I’m not completely dense (that’s my story and I’m sticking with it), I can pretty much deduce, based on the name, that this is a type of oolong tea that grows high in the mountains. No, duh. But wanting to verify this and to see if there was anything more to it, I decided that a little bit of research was called for...

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David Lee Hoffman: Tea Pioneer

Tea Guy Speaks Amazon Store

British Airways Introduces Tea Designed for Altitude

British Airways Introduces Tea Designed for Altitude
(from a press release)

British Airways and Twinings are promising to transform tea in the air with an innovative new blend of the drink, specifically designed to work at altitude. The British Airways signature blend tea will take to the skies from February 1, 2013 for customers in all cabins.

With research to prove that taste can be reduced by up to 30 percent at 35,000 feet, the airline commissioned Twinings to come up with a teabag that would taste as good in the sky as it does on the ground.

The new tea is a blend of Assam, Kenyan and high grown Ceylon tea: a classic combination giving body, strength, flavor and color. A bias towards the Assam produces a well-rounded, full-bodied blend, while the Kenyan gives it strength and lift and the Ceylon adds flavor.

The tea has been specially created for British Airways in three-pint bags to enable cabin crew to serve the new blend straight from the pot.

In First class, customers are also being treated to a selection of unique specialty teas from the Twinings Whole Leaf Silky Pyramids range which includes: English Breakfast; Earl Grey; Mint Humbug; Jasmine Pearls; Red Berry Fool and Honeycomb Camomile. In Club World, customers have a choice of Cranberry & Elderflower, Camomile and Peppermint infusions as well as Earl Grey, English Breakfast and Green Tea

Adagio Teas - Best Tea Online

Tea India Painter Commercial

Visit the Tea India web site here.



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Tea Business Spotlight 15 - Whittard of Chelsea

Welcome to the fifteenth of our Tea Business Spotlights, in which we allow tea people to share insights on running their business. If you're a tea business owner and you'd like to take part in an upcoming spotlight, please contact us.

Whittard of Chelsea
Witney, England

How long have you been in business?
Whittard of Chelsea was started over 125 years ago in 1886 in London.

What is the size/scope of your business?
We have over 60 stores in the UK and online shops in the UK, US, France, Italy and Germany and will be adding Japan. In addition, we wholesale in various countries too.

Why tea?
Our founder Walter H Whittard was passionate about tea.

How did you get the ball rolling on your venture?
Walter H Whittard was born in 1861 into a family of wealthy leather merchants. Not keen on joining the family business, Walter pursued his passion for tea spending five years as an apprentice, before founding his own company at the age of 25. He opened his first shop on busy Fleet Street in 1886. A talented businessman, Walter soon spotted that there were opportunities beyond tea and added coffee and cocoa to his range, creating exclusive blends from the finest ingredients. His store was full of gleaming tea caddies and brass weighing scales and he established a reputation for combining expert service with specialist teas, freshly roasted coffee and fine quality cocoa. Ahead of his time, Walter understood the need to tailor products to his customers – he watched the wigged occupants of the Inns of Court come and go and created a blend called ‘Barristers Refresher’ to tempt them in. Walter’s philosophy was always to ‘buy the best’ and this has been a guiding principle for Whittard of Chelsea ever since.

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your business?
We are passionate about tea and coffee, passionate about helping our customers explore and discover new and innovative blends and passionate about sharing our knowledge. We believe fine tea and coffee deserves to be valued, appreciated and enjoyed.

What were/are the biggest challenges of getting into/being in the tea business?
There are always new competitors and new products, so the challenge is to maintain quality but also continue to develop new and exciting products.

What would you do differently, if anything?
That’s a question for Walter and unfortunately he’s no longer around to answer …

How's business?
Business is good. We are constantly evolving our offering, while remaining faithful to our customers’ favourite products and always finding new ways to reach and interact with our customers. E-commerce and social media are playing a bigger role. Plus because we have lots of customers who loved our stores and products whilst visiting England, it’s great to be launching more international websites, so more and more people can buy our unique teas and coffees when they return home.

What advice would you give to someone who aspires to be in the tea business?
Be passionate about what you do and ensure you have a great quality product.

The Breville One-Touch Tea Maker

A Town Named Tea

Oh, to live in a town named Tea.

Tea, South Dakota, is a small town about ten miles south of Sioux Falls. It claims to be the fastest growing city in the state. According to census figures, it has surged from a population of 786 in 1990 to 4,100 today.

Tea will hold Teapot Days in June again this year. The annual fest features a teapot display and the crowning of Ma and Pa Teapot.

The interesting thing about Tea is that the name of the town has no real connection to tea - the plant or the beverage. According to a local historian, the community began life as the village of Byron. Around the turn of the century, the citizenry realized that there were too many towns named Byron (don't you hate when that happens?) and held a public meeting to come up with ten alternate names. By the time they got up to nine they were running out of ideas and everyone was ready to adjourn for a tea break and so some wit suggested that they add Tea to the list.

The rest, as the saying goes, was history.

Image: Tea Area Historical Society


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The Past and Present State of the Tea Trade of England

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

The Past and Present State
of the Tea Trade of England
By William I. Lengeman III

When setting out to pen a book on tea, writers of previous centuries didn’t really concern themselves much with coming up with a snappy title. I’ve written about a number of such tomes in the past here and the subject of this article is hardly no exception. Then again, perhaps a title like The Past and Present State of The Tea Trade of England, and of the Continents of Europe and America: and a Comparison Between the Consumption, Price of, and Revenue Derived From, Tea, Coffee, Sugar, Wine, Tobacco, Spirits was considered to be rather snappy back in the day.

In any event, the book was written in 1832, by one Robert Montgomery Martin, who apparently wrote a number of other books on commerce, history and whatnot. If you guessed that this one is not a real...

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Book Review - The Empire of Tea

Here's a book review from the archives.

The Empire of Tea: The Remarkable History of the Plant That Took Over the World
by Alan MacFarlane & Iris MacFarlane

You know you've read too many books on tea history when you find yourself getting weary of that quaint little myth about tea's origin. You know the one - the Chinese emperor who just happened to be boiling water...outside. A few tea leaves just happen to blow off of a conveniently located tree and land in the water. The emperor drinks it and voila, thousands of years later everyone's got their drawers in a pinch about how good this stuff is for you.

For a work of tea history that treads relatively little of this oh so familiar ground you might want to turn to Iris and Alan MacFarlane's, The Empire of Tea.

Iris MacFarlane opens the book with Memoirs of a Mesahib, a chapter in which she relates her time spent on a British tea plantation in the Assam region of India, one of the world's most productive tea growing areas. MacFarlane offers up a fascinating reminiscence from someone who gradually woke up to the sobering truth of what British colonial policies had wrought, in this case, specifically with regard to tea production.

Son Alan MacFarlane, a Cambridge professor, takes over for the rest of the book, presenting an unvarnished and often highly critical look at how the British essentially took over the tea industry from the Chinese by cultivating the plant on an enormous scale in Assam, as well as other regions of India and a few select other countries.

Highly recommended.

The Empire of Tea

Making Wine from Tea?

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

Making Wine from Tea?
By William I. Lengeman III

This is not the first time I’ve written about tea and alcohol and, more specifically, about those alcoholic beverages made or flavored with tea. Here’s a link to one of my most recent such articles, which has to do with beer and related beverages made with tea. Here’s a general look at various tea-related spirits and whatnot. On the flip side, an article on the connection between tea and temperance.

To the best of my recall, however, I haven’t run across much information on wines made with tea – until recently, that is...

read the full article here

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Does Green Tea Help Burn Fat?

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

Does Green Tea Help Burn Fat?
By William I. Lengeman III

Buyer beware. Don’t believe everything you read. Okay, they’re not the most original phrases, but when it comes to the marketing of tea and the many health benefits that it’s said to bestow on us, they’re appropriate maxims to keep in mind.

My standard disclaimer here. Yes, I do believe that tea can have some benefits to the health of those who drink it. There’s just too much evidence in favor of this notion to believe otherwise. On the other hand, I certainly don’t believe everything I read when it comes to this sort of thing, and I think there are plenty of people out there who are prone to exaggerate...

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PG Tips: Seahorses In The Tea

Tea Guy Speaks Amazon Store

Tea of the Month Clubs

Here's the latest update to our Tea of the Month Clubs page. A couple of the listings are lifted from Katrina's directories here and here at The Tea Pages, where you'll find more in-depth descriptions of each club. Feel free to add your club to the list.

Last Updated - 10/20/2012

Adagio Teas
Aqua Maestro (Water of the Month)
Art of Tea
Canton Tea Co.
Capital Teas
Culinary Teas
ESP Emporium
52teas.com
Golden Moon Tea
Handmade Tea
igourmet.com
In Pursuit of Tea
Jing Tea
Local Coffee & Tea
Mark T. Wendell Monthly Tea Tour
Matcha Source
Peet's Coffee & Tea
Silver Tips Tea
Tao of Tea
Tavalon
Tea Horse
Tea of the Month Club
The Tea Smith
Teatulia
Teavana
Twinings Tea Tasters
Verdant Tea
Yoko Tea
Zhi Tea

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Aldi Tea Commercial Voted Number One

Here's a commercial we featured some time ago. It was selected as the number one ad for 2011 by the Nielsen group. I'm assuming that's in Britain since this article refers to it as an advert.



Tea Guy Speaks Amazon Store

Tea in Strange Places – Hawaii

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

Tea in Strange Places – Hawaii
By William I. Lengeman III

With all due respect to the good people of our fiftieth state, most of us in the other forty-nine and likely much of the world at large probably think of it as a sun-drenched vacation spot whose main exports are pineapple, macadamia nuts, and a high grade of coffee known as Kona. But in recent years Hawaii has been making a name for itself, albeit in a modest way thus far, for producing another popular beverage. Yes, you know the one. Tea!

As I’ve noted in a number of articles in these very pages, the United States is not exactly what you’d call a hotbed of tea production. The longest standing effort in this arena...

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