Tea Fact Friday - Fruit Infusion

Hello: Running a bit late today, it seems everyone I know needed to talk to me before noon today! Oh well, I am here now. Today's Tea Fact - Fruit Infusion: concoctions made without Camellia sinensis, caffeine and tannin-free. Many are blended on a base of hibiscus, rose hips and various other fruits, berries and flowers. Can be enjoyed hot or cold and frequently make exquisite iced drinks. They are ideal for people who are caffeine intolerant.

Thanks again to The Tea Dictionary by James Norwood Pratt, The Tea Society Press, San Francisco, CA 2010.

Tea Myth Tuesday - Green Tea is better than Black

Good Morning, again: Nice to greet you once again.
Today's myth is that green tea is better for you than black. This myth is about antioxidants and the way we are being manipulated by media groups with a specific agenda not necessarily related to tea.
This myth has several parts:
a) Antioxidants are removed by processing making green teas better than blacks. At this point there is no indication that processing removes ANY antioxidants. BUSTED
b) White tea has significantly higher antioxidants than green or black. Also not true. BUSTED
c) Black tea has far less antioxidants than Green Teas (see #a) NO. BUSTED
d) Milk wipes out the antioxidant benefits of tea - NOT AT NORMAL LEVELS. BUSTED
e) Green tea pill supplements are as good for you as drinking tea - NO - A pill provides only tea extract and a few cathecins but does not provide the full spectrum of elements that you receive in a cup of tea - whatever style. BUSTED

Thanks again to Nigel Melican at Teacraft for his inspiration and facts. He is curreently in Uganda and when he gets back I will regale you with more stats than you can imagine.

Please check my spelling!

See you Friday,
Julee

Tea Fact Fridays - Long in the mouth

Good Morning: Today's tea fact: Long in the mouth - a tasting term for "finish" or 'aftertaste". Tea aromas that linger in the back of the mouth and create a pleasant impression that remains after swallowing.

Thanks again to James Norwood Pratt's Tea Dictionary, 2010 printed in India, Tea Society Press, San Francisco, Calif.

Tea Myth Tuesday - decaffeinate tea in 30 seconds

Good Morning: I can see that I need to do a better proofing job before posting. Robert Fortune was in China in the 1840's. Sorry for the errors.

Today's Myth: You can decaffeinate tea by steeping 30 seconds, tossing the liquor and re-steeping. This is more complex, but it is essentially BUSTED!

You can, in fact, remove some caffeine by limited steeping, BUT, you also remove other things which provide flavor and some of the antioxidant benefits you may want. Specifically: epigallo catechin gallate or epcg. Here is what you get:

Steeping 30 seconds at 160: 14% caffeine and 13% epcg removed
Steeping 30 seconds at 185: 29% caffeine and 23% epcg removed
Steeping 30 seconds at 212: 27% caffeine and 24% epcg removed

Steeping 60 seconds at 160: 38% caffeine and 33% epcg removed
Steeping 60 seconds at 185: 53% caffeine and 42% epcg removed
Steeping 60 seconds at 212: 51% caffeine and 44% epcg removed

If one of the reasons you drink tea is for the antioxidants, it seems silly to take it out along with the flavor.

Thanks to Nigel Melican at Teacraft for the information.

See you Friday,
Julee

Tea Fact Friday - Tea Folk We All Need to Know

Good Morning, time for Tea Fact Friday:

Robert Fortune: one of the "Fathers' of Indian Tea", this Scots botanist and traveler was one of the first Europeans to penetrate Cnina in thea840's and 50's. He shipped more than 20,000 tea plants and seedlings from China to India, thus helping to establish the Indian Tea Industry.

Information found in James Norwood Pratt's Tea Dictionary, Tea Society Press, 2010 San Francisco, California. Printed in India

Tea Myth Tuesday - Factory Floor Sweepings

Hi:
Welcome to Tea Myth Tuesday - on Tuesday this time. Today's myth: Tea Factory floor sweepings are used to make teabags. This is an arithmetic problem:

• There are about 4000 tea factories in the world.


• Each of them produces about 4 tonnes of tea per year.


• Factory waste is 1-2% or about 15 tonnes of waste


• Total sweepings are 60,000 tonnes.


• 3 Trillion tea bags are produced each year! This would require 750,000 tonnes of sweepings! So, BUSTED.

As a side factoid of interest, most floor sweepings go back on the tea fields as fertilizer, and CTC tea is primarily used for tea bags.

Thanks to Nigel Melican at Teacraft for this information.

See you for Tea Fact Friday -

Happy Tasting

Julee

Hello, welcome to Tea Fact Friday - I will use this space to regale you with tidbits of tea information and lore for fun and fancy.

Today's fact is about the Robinson Tea Chest: On the morning of December 17, 1773, a young John Robinson collected a souvenir tea chest from the Boston Tea Party the night before. Passed down from generation to generation for over 200 years, the Robinson Tea Chest has endured as a symbol of American freedom and the birth of a nation. It is now in the Boston Tea Party Museum.

From: The Tea Dictionary by James Norwood Pratt, Tea Society Press, San Francisco, CA, 2010

See you Tuesday for Tea Myth Tuesday
Julee

Tea Myth Tuesday - On Wednesday

OK! Here it is! Tea Myth #1" Drinking Tea will help you lose weight. BUSTED!!!
While the components of tea canprpoduce a slight weight loss effect, 5 cups of tea will ONLY
burn 67 calories. Since a standard diet is about 3000 calories, that would be a lot of tea!

The ONLY way to lose weight is to take in less calories than you need to go about your daily events.

Sorry this is posting on Wednesday. The blogmaster and I are learning to deal with each other and I have not triumphed, YET!

See you Friday for Tea Fact Friday and really on Tuesday for Tea Myth Tuesday.

Julee

Just back from the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas (go figure!). I had a grand time seeing old friends and meeting new ones. One of the workshops I took was about Debunking Tea Myths and I have decided to share some of them with you. Watch this space for "Tea Myth Tuesday", starting Tuesday, July 5 for some interesting mythologizing.