Golden Bi Luo from Chicago Tea Garden
My fellow tea blogger, Tony Gebely of World of Tea is starting Chicago Tea Garden, an online tea store that’s just days away from launching. He sent me samples of two of his teas a few weeks ago, one of which is this Golden Bi Luo, a rare black tea from Yunnan Province, China.
Golden Bi Luo is made in the style of Bi Luo Chun, a green tea that is the specialty of tea makers in Jiangsu Province. Like Bi Luo Chun, Golden Bi Luo is rolled into little balls, but it has a lovely golden tint. This tea scores very highly on the attractiveness scale. It’s beautiful to behold.
Copco 16-Ounce Stainless Steel Thermal Mug
Just a few weeks after I received the Travel Buddy tea mug for Sinterklaas, the folks at Copco sent me the latest addition to their Total Tea range: a stainless steel tea thermal mug.
There are a few things I really like about the Copco thermal tumbler, but there is one definite standout feature: the twist-to-stop steeping feature, a device that allows you to control how long your tea steeps for. It’s simple, intuitive and shows that Copco understand tea drinkers’ needs.
Keemun Panda #1 from Orange Tea Co.
Do you like my mug? It was a Father’s Day present — my first ever — from Benedict.
Of course, Father’s Day was way back in September, so why the recursion into the past? Truth be told, my camera has a flat battery, so I don’t have any photos of today’s tea. Instead, you’ll have to make do with some choice pictures of the almighty mug I drank it from.
Does Tea Hydrate or Dehydrate You?
Have you ever been told that tea dehydrates you? Whoever told you is wrong.
The claim that tea dehydrates is a long-standing myth. While tea does contain caffeine, and excess caffeine intake does have a diuretic effect, it takes 400mg of caffeine before that starts to happen. And considering the average cup of tea has less than 50mg of caffeine, even the most prolific tea drinkers should be pretty safe.
Menghai Aged Raw Pu-Erh from Bana Tea Company
When I first started drinking wine, one of the things that I most enjoyed was the feeling afterwards, once the wine had coursed through the throat and into the stomach. That warmth. It was amazing to me to feel how the body responded to the drink.
I had a similar experience this morning with tea. The tea is an aged pu-erh tea from Bana Tea Company, a Menghai factory raw (sheng) pu-erh that has been aging since 1996.
Valentine’s Day Giveaway for Australian Tea Lovers
Yesterday I met Verity, the blogger behind Joie de Tea. Between us, I’m pretty sure we’re the entire community of Melburnian tea bloggers. We chatted about tea, parenthood (her and her husband had their little son, Pippin, just three months ago), and the travails of Australian Customs over some lovely tea at the Oriental Tea House.
For those of you based in Australia, head on over to Verity’s blog and sign yourself up to go in the running for some free tea which she has blended herself. Be quick though — the competition ends tomorrow.
Big Savings on Tea at Amazon.com
Just a quick plug for those of you who need to replenish your tea stock: Amazon.com have up to 45% off their grocery products at the moment, which includes their big range of tea
Kabusecha Green Tea from O-Cha
Today’s tea is a kabusecha — a Japanese green tea that is 45% shade-grown for three weeks prior to harvest. That puts it halfway between sencha, which isn’t given any shade at all, and gyokuro, which is 100% shade-grown for the three weeks before harvest.