Love4Teas Tea Blog

Now, you may be wondering why their is a picture of a smoggy and polluted Chinese city under a post about “Rinsing Tea”. Well, as we all know, many teas are grown in china. From the plethora of Chinese green teas to the expensive and aged pu’erhs, there are a whole lot of Chinese tea.

With the Olympics in China being pretty soon, I have started to hear a lot about all the pollution in China. Things about acid rain and dust just settling all over the streets.

The uncleanliness of China (due to all the factories, and other factors) has made me think about whether my Chinese tea is clean. Some Chinese teas are laid in the sun while the oxidation process occurs, and it is easily possible for dust dirt etc. to settle on them.

I have never heard of anyone getting sick or something like that from their tea leaves, but I don’t think it would be a bad idea to rinse your tea leaves in water before actually using them to brew your cup of tea. Besides the pollution factor, just thinking about how many times tea may change hands before one buys it really makes me think that washing / rinsing tea is a good idea. I mean, what if a worker in a tea store spills some tea on the ground; he might just pick up the leaves with his hands and put it back in the tea container, and then go on to selling it to you. Things like this really make me feel like rinsing tea leaves is not a bad idea.

Rinsing tea leaves is not an exact science, and some people do it while others do not. I personally just pour some hot water over my tea leaves for around 10 seconds, prior to using them for brewing my tea. When I do this I really don’t taste too much of a change in the taste of the tea. Some people say that this actually loosens up the tea and makes it taste better. Also, if you want the tea to lose some of its caffeine, then you can leave the tea in hot water for 30 seconds to one minute prior to use.

Although I rinse my tea, some people argue that rinsing tea makes tea lose some of its flavor. Many people say this for green and white teas, which are usually only infused once. I still like to rinse these teas for a few seconds though, to get dust etc. off (if it does exist, who knows…). I guess no one will really know if rinsing tea leaves actually does anything, but for me, it really doesn’t sound like a bad idea.

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Tea, in all its varieties, has many complex flavors. To fully taste and experience the flavor of a cup of tea it is necessary that the tea touches all parts of your mouth.

The reason why the tea must encounter all the parts of your tongue and mouth is because there are 4 major types of tastes and different parts of your mouth taste different things. The 4 tastes are sweet, bitter, salt, and sour. Bitterness is tasted at the back of the tongue, and sweetness is experienced at the front part of the tongue. Sourness is tasted by the back of the tongue and saltiness at the front.

So, if the tea you are drinking only touches certain parts of your tongue and mouth you will not experience the full flavor of that tea. For this reason, professional tea tasters actually slurp up tea and make sure the different flavors and tastes are experienced by all the parts of the mouth.

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Good water is very important for a good cup of tea. Considering that a cup of tea is nearly 100% water, it is obvious that good water is very important for a good tasting cup of tea. I think that bottled water, or very well filtered tap water is best for making tea. Never use water that you would not drink by itself.

 I found it very interesting how  Tao of Tea says that some waters are actually designed for specific tea.

 ”Dragon Well tea, is considered best when brewed with water from the famous Tiger-Run Spring. “. and “Ancient tea masters would even have fresh water from renowned springs carried many miles in stone containers to ensure they had the best water for their tea.”.

This shows how important good water is for the best cup of tea. I guarantee you will taste a big difference between a cup of tea brewed with hose water, compared to tea from a bottle, or compared to water from a fresh spring.

Apparently, water is so important in tea because, “subtle variations in the pH (acidity, alkalinity) and mineral content (Total Dissolved Solids, or TDS) of the water can affect the taste”. So science even backs up the tremendous impact of good water for tea. Although I doubt that many of us are able to hike up to a mountain spring for fresh water, good bottled water is usually the best option for tea.

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Recent research at Dundee University is showing that ordinary black tea (not green for once!) may have a previously unknown health benefit. Studies are indicating that black tea may have the potential to help fight type two diabetes. The results of the study show that some of the ingredients in black tea actually mimic insulin, and this helps fight diabetes. When a person has diabetes, the insulin produced in their bodies is insufficient or does not work properly, and the chemicals in black tea (theaflavins and thearubigins) are able to play the role of insulin in the body. This article from news.scotsman.com goes into more detail on the subject of black tea and diabetes.

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Many people begin drinking tea for the many health benefits they have heard of. For this reason many do not care to much about the taste and just want to find the tea which is going to be the most healthy for them. At the Teamoods blog, there is an article about this very issue. It states how green tea has more catechin antioxidants than black tea, white tea has the most antioxidents, freshly brewed teas have more polyphenol antioxidants than bottled or instant teas, etc.

In my opinion, one should just drink the type of tea that he or she likes best. All teas have numerous health benefits, and I really think it is hard to say whether black, green, or white tea is healthier (despite all the current media praise of green tea). I think it may be ok to argue that the real camelia sinensis teas are healthier than herbal teas, but in between black, green, and white it is hard to say. All these teas are very healthy (unless of course you are drinking a sugar loaded bottled tea), and one should just drink the type of tea he or she enjoys the best. No scientist will ever be able to tell you whether drinking that green or black tea will make you not have a heart attack, or prevent alsheimer’s  for you, etc. So just drink the tea you like, and just think about any of those extra health benefits as just an added good thing…at least that is my opinion.

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The Tea Companion is a nice little book for the begginer tea connoiseur. The book is only one hundred something pages long but it is packed with a lot of good information for those who are new to tea. The book starts off with a nice little history of tea, then goes into how different teas are produced and teaware, and ultimately ends with a guide to the teas of the world. I thought that the tea history was the perfect length, and easy to read. Also the tea guide at the end of the book can be very useful for someone who is new to tea, and is buying tea online. For example, if someone is looking online and trying to decide on what kind of Chinese green tea they want to buy, then they can just flip to page 129-131 to learn about the different types of chinese green teas and how they taste.

Overall, I think this is a nice little book that is good for someone who is new to tea. Maybe a little shorth though, considering back when I read it the first time it only took me one day. The Tea Companion is available on amazon, but for some reason the book cover is different than on the one I got.

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I was recently reading the teamoods blog and came across an interesting Article about tea and calories. Although, I mostly just drink tea because it tastes really good, some people drink tea because they think it is  a healthy no calorie beverage and want to lose weight. Well, while this is true for just plain tea, as stated in the previous article…

“Many consumers who’ve taken to popular bottled teas and the hot Chai served at coffee houses have the mistaken notion that they are low calorie and good for you.”

I have known people who buy a bottled green tea and think that it is very healthy for them. However…most of these bottled tea beverages are loaded with high fructose corn syrup and are loaded with calories. So at that point, you might as well just drink a can of Coca Cola. I think it is just important for people to remember that all these bottled teas and Chai teas are not zero-calorie beverages, and can still contribute to weight gain. However, iced teas that do not have any calorie filled additives still are very good for you. I have made my self some delicious iced teas that still have zero calories. By mizing puerh tea, kuamwuats, lemon, and mint sprigs, etc. (all sorts of combinations), I have created my own zero calorie great tasting iced teas.

So just remember, tea is not always healthy. If your drinking tea for health benefits it is better not to buy most of those high fructose iced teas from the market, or Chai teas.

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I really enjoy brewing my loose leaf tea, but between heating the water, steeping the leaves, etc., etc., it sometimes takes quite a long time. Early in the morning, when I typically do not have much time to spend, I sometimes skip drinking tea all together because I don’t have time to brew my tea. So I found a nice solution to my problem at Adagio.com

Product: Trinitea
Maker: Adagio
Price: $99
Rating: 4.5/5

The Adagio Trintea has basically allowed me to easily brew loose leaf tea when I don’t have much time. The Trinitea basically does for tea, what a coffee maker does for coffee. This device has three chambers. The first heats the water, the second steeps the tea leaves, and then the completely brewed tea is poured into a glass tea pot (third chamber)  that is kept hot by a heating plate.

 What I like:

Probably my favorite thing about the Adagio Trinitea is how it does all the water heating for you. I drink a lot of green tea and it is very hard to heat the water to that exact 180 degrees. Before I bought the trinitea I had to use a thermometer, and this thermometer did not measure the exact temperature, so the same tea would often taste different because it was improperly brewed. The Adagio trinitea basically makes this easy and heats the water to the perfect temperature (either 180 degrees for green and white or boiling for oolong and black), for a consistently good cup of tea every time.

Another nice feature of the trinitea is that after it brews the tea it keeps your tea warm all day. A hot plate keeps the tea hot as long as it is turned on.

I also like that the price is not too high for the trinitea.

My Dislikes:

I sometimes feel like the trinitea is not built all too well. It is built with a lot of plastic and parts of the machine sometimes sag down (hard to explain, I have to push up on parts to push in the steeping chamber), because of all the plastic.

Sometimes I kinda wish I could make more than two cups…

Conclusion:

Despite its few flaws, I really enjoy the Adagio Trinitea. Although it is fun to actually brew tea with all the teapots, brewing vessels, etc.; the trinitea simplifies this process for when you don’t have too much time to make your tea. And considering how much tea pots, brewing vessels, etc. can cost, I think that $99 is a very fair price for this device. I definately reccomend the Adagio Trinitea.

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Here at love4teas.com we really love tea. However, our journey into tea has just begun, and we are pretty far away from being tea experts (although we do try to provide all sorts of tea information while we are on road to discovering tea). And I have decided that whenever I come across any great tea resources they will be posted at love4teas.com .

So, I recently came across a great resource, for those of us who  are still novices in the tea world an wish to increase our tea knowledge. Tea-leaf.org . This magazine is free, available online only, and so far has 2 issues out. I have only read a few articles from the site so far, but have really learned a lot from the “tea masters” who have written the articles. The magazine is really written well, and after reading just one article I was inspired to start buying organic tea, among other things. I really think this is just a great resource, and I hope they come out with some new issues soon!

The-leaf.org, check it out, and get educated (tea-wise).

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There is really a ton of stuff you can do with tea. I just learned that it can help fight dry skin, stop bleeding, tenderize meat, and polish furniture. I keep coming across more and more of these uses for tea. Take a look at this tea article.

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