Lyons Tea Natural Commercial

From the gang at Lyons Tea, one of Ireland's most popular brands.

The Breville One-Touch Tea Maker

Tea Review 148 - Luhse Tea Assam

Assam
Luhse Tea

Over the years I've made no secret of my fondness for black tea and specifically Assam, although lately I've been developing a marked fondness for Yunnan black tea as well. Lushe Tea doesn't really elaborate on the origins of their Assam or whether it's a single-estate variety, but I suspect that it's probably not. I wouldn't rank this one at the top of the Assam heap, but by the same token it wasn't so shabby either. I wouldn't have any objection to drinking it on a regular basis.

Luhse doesn't have a lot to say about this one, but here it is:

No explanation needed for this founding father, revolutionizer of the 19th century. Bold, brisk, malty, strong and bright.

Image: Luhse Tea
Sample provided by Luhse Tea
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The History of the Tea-Cup

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

The History of the Tea-Cup,
by Rev. G.R. Wedgwood
By William I. Lengeman III

You might not stop to think about the history of a relatively mundane object such as a tea cup but it has a history nonetheless, a history that was explored in an 1878 volume appropriately titled The History of the Tea-Cup. It’s not completely clear if the author of this book, Rev. G. R. Wedgwood, was a member of the famous Wedgwood family but it seems oddly coincidental that he should write such a volume if he wasn’t.

In any event, the book is...

read the full article here

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6 Things I’ve Learned About Tea

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

6 Things I’ve Learned About Tea
By William I. Lengeman III

It’s taken a while but I’ve come to a point where I’ve been writing about tea just about long enough to realize how little I know about tea. In spite of all that I’ve managed to pick up a few nuggets of something like wisdom along the way.

Here they are...

read the full article here

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Artists and Tea

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

Artists and Tea
By William I. Lengeman III

Every now and then I run across an article that promises to reveal some number of alternative uses for tea. I rarely pay much attention to these since my only real interest in tea is drinking it. But I have to admit that, if you’re going to do something else with tea, you might as well use it as a medium for creating art.

Which is exactly what a number of artists have aspired to do...

read the full article here

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The Other Tea Parties

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

The Other Tea Parties
By William I. Lengeman III

Recent political movements aside, there’s no question that the mother of all tea parties was the one that took place in Boston a few centuries ago. That was on December 16, 1773, to be precise. As noted in this article a little while back, it’s an event that recently gained its own spiffy new tourist attraction – the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum.

Some of us tea lovers may cringe a bit at the notion of so much tea wasted...

read the full article here

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Good Tea Bad Tea TV Commericals

From the people at McAlister's Deli, who apparently want the world to know that their iced tea falls into the former category.

Adagio Teas - Best Tea Online

Stash Tea and Me

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

Stash Tea and Me
By William I. Lengeman III

I came to tea rather late in life, having discovered its many and varied charms less than a decade ago. But back in the good old days, when I was just beginning to make my acquaintance with this beverage, I experimented with quite a number of varieties from the good people at Stash Tea. Some of the ones I was particularly fond of were their Premium Green and Peppermint varieties. Yes, the latter is technically a tisane rather than a tea, but to this day I still like a peppermint “tea” that’s lively enough to scorch your sinuses, and Stash Peppermint fits the bill.

read the full article here

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Tea Business Spotlight 12 - Tealet

Tealet
Honolulu, Hawaii

Welcome to the twelfth 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.

How long have you been in business?
Tealet went live in May 2012.

What is the size/scope of your business?
We are a grassroots global corporation that facilitates relationships between tea growers and tea drinkers. We are a two-sided marketplace between tea growers from over ten different countries and will initially focus on marketing to the US market, although we do ship tea to customers internationally.

Why tea?
My professional background is in food science and technology and I was never really satisfied working in the food industry until I began working for a RTD green tea manufacturer. I was introduced to the unique qualities of tea and the healthy benefits it can bring for people. I was reintroduced to tea from the perspective of the grower during my time as a Japan MBA student at the University of Hawaii. I studied the market feasibility for Hawaii Grown Tea and then did a four month long internship in Kyoto, Japan at Obubu Tea Plantations. I think the US tea market is growing, the consumer is becoming more conscious, and tea growers are prepared to supply the world with the best quality tea.

How did you get the ball rolling on your venture?
After I finished an internship in Kyoto, Japan I returned to Hawaii and participated in a Startup Weekend event. At the event individuals pitch business ideas and teams are formed to build the business in 52 hours. My idea of "tea-commerce", now Tealet, was selected and my team won second place. Since then I have continued to work on the business idea and now we are in a business accelerator in Silicon Valley talking with investors about growth of the business.

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your business?
Our biggest strength is personal relationships we have with tea growers around the world. We hope that we can build a product that can extend this relationship with the tea drinker.

What were/are the biggest challenges of getting into/being in the tea business?
Like any business it is difficult to get the right partners together and to do the jobs of 10 people. The tea business is a relatively straight forward business, but there is much competition so it is very challenging to find the thing that separates you from everyone else.

What would you do differently, if anything?
I would have started studying Japanese earlier. I work with many Japanese farmers that don't speak English and we sometimes have difficulties communicating. I am practicing my Japanese now, but I wish I was fluent in speaking and writing so I could quickly do business with my partners.

How's business?
Business is growing quickly. Our customers are enjoying our tea and we are excited to try new things and take our customers on an exploration with us.

What advice would you give to someone who aspires to be in the tea business?
If you want to get in the tea business the best way to start is to network and build a community within the tea industry. Find out what's going in the ecosystem and try to build a solution that will help everyone including yourself. Make friends and find ways that you can work together. There is a lot of opportunity in the tea market right now, so there is much room for synergy.

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Tea Review Sites

Here's the latest version of the Tea Review Sites list. Some sites don't appear to be active but I've left them on the list for reference purposes. If you know of a site I've missed please leave a comment.

Daily Tea Reviews
Hudin - Tea Reviews
RateTea.com
SororiTea Sisters
STeaP TV
Steepster
The Tea Pages Reviews
Tea Reflections – A Tea Blog
The Tea Review Blog
Teaviews
TGFOP Tea Reviews
Walker Tea Review

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Green Tea Aids Memory?

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

Green Tea Aids Memory?
By William I. Lengeman III

The litany of potential health benefits for green tea continues. For anyone who might have missed it, the latest in this multitude of possible benefits is the notion that green tea might help enhance memory. For more on how tea can help other brain functions, refer to this article from a few years ago. It looked at potential benefits in the area of spatial learning, memory, cognitive capability, and learning ability, as well referencing a study on the calming effects of theanine, a compound found in tea.

read the full article here

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The Romance of Tea, by Yan Phou Lee

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

The Romance of Tea, by Yan Phou Lee
By William I. Lengeman III

I can’t quite put my finger on what it is but there’s something about tea that sometimes inspires its fans to flights of literary and poetic fancy. This is something that’s been going on for quite some time now.

I’ve written about a number of rather epic pieces of English verse about tea dating back as far as the early eighteenth century and I’d wager that Chinese poets were tackling this topic much earlier than that...

read the full article here

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Finding Tea in Martin Yan’s Hidden China

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

Finding Tea in Martin Yan’s Hidden China
By William I. Lengeman III

I wasn’t very familiar with Martin Chan until I recently ran across a TV show called Martin Yan’s Hidden China. For anyone else who might have been living under a rock, suffice to say that Yan has been the host of the PBS show, Yan Can Cook, since 1982 and has also hosted various other cooking shows, as well as appearing on popular shows like Iron Chef America.

As the name suggests, Martin Yan’s Hidden China finds the host traveling to...

read the full article here

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Tea Review 148 - Canton Tea Co. Green Twirl

Green Twirl
Canton Tea Co.

The first thing I typically do with a sample of tea I haven't tried is to open the package and smell it. It's not a foolproof method for judging the contents of said package but in the case of a tea like Canton's Green Twirl there was no doubt that I had a winner on my hands.

Oddly enough, I didn't bother to read the packaging materials until after I'd actually tried this tea. I don't have a wide experience of tea from India's Nilgiri region but those few I've encountered haven't impressed me. Ditto for green tea from India, which to the best of my knowledge is a pretty sparsely populated tea category.

I'd give this one my highest recommendation, especially if you're a fan of Chinese green tea. There's nothing in that category that I can make a direct comparison to but I'd say that Green Twirl is in the same ballpark as Bi Lo Chun with perhaps a little bit of Long Jing (Dragonwell) in there. Interesting to note, by the way, that Canton bills themselves as "The China Tea Specialist."

This one came to me by way of Canton's Tea Club, which has taken on the daunting task of delivering a new tea every week for 52 weeks. It'll be hard to top this one in the green category but if the quality is this high throughout I'm looking forward to seeing what the future brings. Read more about the club and this particular tea at Canton's blog.

Image: Canton Tea Co.
Sample provided by Canton Tea Co.
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Scotland and Tea

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

Scotland and Tea
By William I. Lengeman III

Is it a coincidence that a number of key figures from tea history hail from Scotland? Perhaps so and perhaps not, but it’s true. Take for instance the man who gave the tea world what might be one of its most recognizable names – Sir Thomas Lipton.

Several decades before Lipton became a household name another pair of Scotsmen...

read the full article here

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