Ben Fogel Typhoo Tea Commercial

I'm not sure who Ben Fogle is but if you're in the UK I guess you have a better idea. Here he is in a brief commercial for Typhoo, complete with peppy tea drinkers and bouncy music.

Teas Hope - Tea Shop

Arty Kusmi Tea Commercial IV

Teas Hope - Tea Shop

Arty Kusmi Tea Commercial III

Teas Hope - Tea Shop

Arty Kusmi Tea Commercial II

Another in a series of artistic commercials from the good people at Kusmi Tea.

Teas Hope - Tea Shop

Arty Kusmi Tea Commercial

In the category of arty tea commercials, this one for Kusmi Tea is certainly worth a mention. It's apparently part of a series of four similar tea commercials for their various blends.

Teas Hope - Tea Shop

What You Need to Know About Expensive Tea

Much of my tea writing these days appears at The English Tea Store blog. Here's an article I wrote for them recently.

What You Need to Know About Expensive Tea
By William I. Lengeman III

Fabulously expensive stuff, whether it be tea, shoes, cars, or jeweled doggy dishes, makes for good press and you can curse or envy (or both, if you’d like) the people who can afford such items, depending on your inclination. The topic came to mind recently when I found an article that claimed to list the Top 5 Most Expensive Teas In The World. Maybe they are and maybe not, but they are expensive.

Tea economics is a topic I’ve discoursed on before, but it’s one that’s important enough to revisit from time to time. For my money there are basically two guiding principles when it comes to tea economics, each of which I offer with a caveat attached.

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Teas Hope - Tea Shop

How to Become a Tea Sommelier

Much of my tea writing these days appears at The English Tea Store blog. Here's one of the recent articles I wrote for them.

How to Become a Tea Sommelier
By William I. Lengeman III

So, what about this whole tea sommelier thing anyway? It’s a relatively new concept and one that we’ve talked about previously in these pages, including this article by our Esteemed Editor. Obviously taking a cue from the more established profession of wine sommelier, tea sommeliers are looking to raise the bar for tea consumption, oftentimes in places where fine dining is committed. But it’s still a burgeoning field and one that’s relatively wide open.

If you had the right mindset and a little bit of luck on your side, I’d wager that you could set yourself up as a tea sommelier simply by saying that you are one – assuming that you know tea well enough. But of course, like most other vocations and avocations, it certainly doesn’t hurt your cause if you have some sort of validation for your claims.

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The Breville One-Touch Tea Maker

Tea & Hangovers

When it comes to hangovers, Robert Benchley said it best, "the only cure for a real hangover is death."

So where does tea fit into this picture? Can it cure a hangover? Probably not. Can it ease the ill effects that are part and parcel of the hangover experience? Perhaps. Puerh, in particular, is thought by some to be helpful in taming a hangover, thought it's unclear if there's any actual research to back up this assertion.

Despite those savvy marketers who want us to believe otherwise, there probably is no such thing as a hangover cure. Researchers can’t quite agree about what causes a hangover, but there are steps you can take to make them a little less painful.

Most notably - remain hydrated, consuming other liquids (like tea) before, during and after your revelry. This is particularly important, since alcohol consumption tends to lead to dehydration. Some have also suggested that the caffeine and theanine in tea may help with that morning after fuzziness.

For general info on hangovers, look here and here.

For more on the curious malady known as tea drunkenness, look here and here.

The Breville One-Touch Tea Maker

Hangover Tea

Here's some info on an alleged hangover cure that mixes Japanese kukicha tea, umeboshi plums and soy sauce. Which doesn't sound so appealing but then neither does a hangover.



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