June 28, 2011
Red Bush Tea or as it is called in South Africa Rooibos Tea is a unique herbal tea only grown in the cape cederberg region of South Africa. It was discovered many many moons ago by the San people indigenous to this area, they were bush dwellers who lived off the land and subsistance farmed.
The red bush tea bush grows naturally in this area with its hot dry climate. The needles of the bush are fermented to produce a tea which is naturally caffeine free and rich in antioxidants and therefore has many health benefits, including anti-ageing and medicinal properties. It is also extremely safe and beneficial to drink during pregnancy or while breastfeeding or a wonderful calming drink for children.
South Africans have been enjoying the healthy benefits of bush tea for ages and have developed many derivatives of the tea like health/energy drinks, iced teas, and rooibos variations of coffee drinks like red espresso and lattes etc, as well as using it in skincare and household products.
Red Bush Tea is also available as an unfermented green tea variety or a high quality organic variety, Bush tea is therefore starting to gain popularity around the world and become known as a herbal tea with many health benefits in fact in Japan it is now called long life tea.
If you haven’t tried it yet you might want to check out your local store shelves grab a few bags and try it out, there is also lots of info online and online stores with may varieties to try out.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gav_B_Jones
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June 21, 2011
Have you ever wanted to plan a special tea party but just had no idea where to start? Well, there is no better time to get started than today. In this article I am going to share my simple secret for creating a breathtaking spring tea menu that will have your friends and family begging for more!
The first thing you need to know is that a tea party does not have to be difficult nor does it need to be perfect. Your guests will love that you took time from your busy schedule to do something special just for them. So take a deep breath and relax. Your event will be great.
Here’s what you need to do to get started:
First off, find a fun location. This could be the park, your backyard, a friend’s house or your living room. Make sure the area is clean with lots of light.
Next, decide how you want to serve your guests. Will you offer the food buffet style or on a tiered tray? If this is your first tea party you might want to consider setting the items up on a buffet simply because it gives you more freedom to enjoy your big day.
Cover your serving area with a tablecloth or sheet. Lay out your best dishware and dig out those old wedding gifts you have never used. A Spring Tea deserves your best.
Gather teacups and small plates for each guest. No, they do not have to match. If you don’t have teacups ask each of your guests to bring their own and be ready to tell the teacups story. This will make for easy clean up plus a fun icebreaker. Each of your friends can tell where they got their teacup and why it is special to them.
Now it’s time to choose your menu. This simple guide will help you pick all that you need. Once you have decided on the items simply look the recipes up online or buy items from your local grocery.
Choose one item in each category (and your tea party will be quick and easy:)
Flowers for Centerpiece: Daisies, Gerber, Cherry Blossoms, Dahlia’s
For Your First Course: Caesar salad, mixed greens with fresh strawberries or chilled cucumber soup
Last Course: Lemon Sorbet, Rainbow Sherbet, Mango Sorbet, Pineapple Sorbet, Orange Vanilla Ice Cream
Choose two items in each category:
Tea Sandwiches: Cucumber & Cream Cheese, Ham & Cheese, Chicken Salad, Tuna Salad, Bacon Cheddar
Breads: Cream Scone, Blueberry Scone, Lemon Tea Bread,, Banana Bread, Lemon Scone
Fruits: Strawberries, Grapes, Kiwi, Orange Slices, Apple Slices with Carmel, Peaches, Nectarines
Desserts: Chocolate Covered Strawberries, Lemon Tarts, Shortbread Cookies, Mini Cheesecakes, Bread Pudding, Mini Cupcakes
Tea: Ceylon, English Afternoon, Mango, Peach Ginger, Lemon Rooibos, Strawberry Kiwi Fruit, Yerba Chai
A tea menu can be as large or small as you want. Don’t feel obligated to do all of the items above. Your tea menu could easily consist of a salad and a scone with a small dish of sorbet at the end. Tea can be served hot or iced. The key is making sure it is plentiful!
Last but not least choose a small item to give your guests as a favor. The Dollar Store is a great place to find inexpensive treasures such as a martini glass you can fill with candy or a silk flower which you can tie a poem to.
Don’t forget to take photos and thank your guests for coming. I have no doubt this event will become an annual tradition.
Grab 52 Afternoon Tea Recipes for FREE at http://www.TeaPartyGirl.com
Dawnya Sasse is the owner of Tea Party Girl and loves to write about all things tea. She has been in the tea industry since 1997 and enjoys working with people all over the globe who have a passion for all things tea. For more information check out her website: http://www.TeaEvents.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dawnya_Sasse
Technorati Tags: great spring tea menu, special tea party, tea menu
June 14, 2011
My husband and I traveled to England several years ago. Everywhere we went we were offered tea or served tea in china cups or mugs and never in paper or plastic. The English are very serious about their tea so it is never compromised with stale leaves or tea bags and always carefully steeped and served from teapots into tea cups.
Tea drinking in England began as early as 1658, when a London merchant, Thomas Garraway, advertised the new product, “tee”, for sale in his shop. Two years later he published a lengthy advertisement listing the many health benefits of this drink. Then in 1662, King Charles II married Catharine of Braganza, a Portuguese princess, who brought a chest of tea with her as part of her dowry. She began to serve it to her Court and word began to spread of the new drink.
During the eighteenth century, tea became the most popular drink in Britain and ale and gin drinking declined. People drank this new drink at home and new Tea Gardens became very popular in London causing the established coffee houses to close down. The Tea Houses continued until the early nineteenth century when London rapidly expanded and people’s tastes in entertainment became more sophisticated and exciting.
Tea became the drink of all classes of British society and was drunk at all times of the day and especially after the main evening meal. Anna, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, introduced the “afternoon tea”, in the early nineteenth century, to satisfy her hunger between the light luncheon and the late evening meal. She began to invite her friends to share it with her and the custom became the British institution of afternoon tea.
Now there is high, low and cream tea. Low is the original afternoon tea which included small sandwiches, pastries, and tea served on low tables. High, or meat tea, is a meal of filling foods that was served after the working classes came home from work and served on high tables. Cream tea is served in the afternoon but consists only of sweets with clotted cream or jam to be spread on scones or sweet breads.
Now the British are the largest per capita tea drinkers in the world! They prefer black, always with milk, not cream, and sometimes sugar. For strong black tea they will use lots of milk and as much as two teaspoons of sugar per cup. The average working Brit will take tea in a mug and may have as many as six mugs a day, as employers make time for tea breaks during working hours for their employees. The formal afternoon teas are mainly for special events, royalty, tourists, and public officials.
I would love to travel to England again as I miss the assumption they make that everyone loves tea and takes time for tea. I wish it was more of a custom here in the US. There are more and more tea shops springing up across America as tea popularity continues to grow, so maybe we’ll get the hang of it yet!
Diane Aase
http://www.teapotmama.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Diane_Aase
Technorati Tags: drinking tea, English tea, Green Tea, Tea
June 6, 2011
Tea is the common name for the evergreen Camellia Sinensis plant, found widespread throughout Asia, as it has been for many thousands of years.
Tea has many forms, but the most widespread variation of tea is ‘Green Tea’, this is one of the least processed variations which gives a fresher beverage.
Although Green Tea is more widespread, western cultures adapted one called ‘Black Tea’ after Tea was introduced to the west in the 1800’s.
Black Tea
Black tea (while being a very popular drink) is the most highly processed form and thus has an overall lower quality.
Black Tea does have health benefits though, in fact almost all of the health benefits you can find about Green Tea are available in Black Tea, just in a diminished quantity which furthers lessens with the addition of milk.
In fact, a recent study completed just this year proved that (based on a sample size of more than 4,800 men and women over the age of 65 over a period of 14 years) people who regularly consume tea have a lower decline in cognitive function (tea drinkers will keep a healthier brain at later ages) when compared to non tea drinkers.
As one major comparison of the health differences between Green and Black Teas, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) currently lists Black tea as a Group 3 Carcinogen.
These days most people are aware that smoke, or rotting organic particles can have a negative effect on cancer, but many people also do not realise that Black tea is produced by oxidising tea leaves (that is, allowing them to rot for a period of time).
While it has not been proven in humans, Black Tea (in the form of a concentrated injection) has been shown to cause cancerous growths in mice.
This is nothing to worry about, as the amount you would need to consume would be extravagant in comparison to an injection in mice, but as a personal preference of mine – if it has any risk, steer clear.
Green Tea, you’re not always getting what you pay for at the supermarket.
Now what you have to be aware of, is that while a couple of pounds/dollars for a pack of 20 Green Tea Bags might be expensive compared to the common ‘160 Black teabags for a couple of pounds/dollars’, you are mostly paying for an inferior product.
Some people may argue against this, but the more well known Black Tea brands, who sell ‘Green’ tea in bag form are selling you an inferior product at an extortionate price.
Many supermarket brand teas source their Green Tea from China and to minimise the price the older and lower quality leaves are used.
To add to this, Black Tea is mixed in as a bulking agent, which results in a brown/yellow tea, sometimes with only a slight hint of green, or in other cases, not a hint of what you would expect from a ‘Green’ tea.
To get an idea of the quality differences try buying a packet of this supermarket grade stuff and see what it’s like – It’s as if you mixed old grass with common Black Tea right?
Ok, now go ahead and purchase a proper Tea, preferably from a brand you can’t find in the stores. For a guarantee of higher qualities you want to look for a Japanese Tea Store and pay a price of at least £4* per 100g (that’s right, but even then you’re more likely to pay £7* or more per 100g for higher qualities with better taste). * Or the equivalent in your currency.
Sencha is the most common type of tea in Japan and from personal experience I can vouch for the quality you get.
If you are thinking that you might buy Green Tea online (rather than buying in store) then you should research Japanese Sencha.
A high quality Green Tea product should result in a cloudy dark green colour, with a fresh taste and sweet aroma. If the end result is Yellow / Brown / Black, or tastes too bitter then one of two things have occurred:
Either the quality of the tea is not good, or you have tried to brew Green Tea as if it were Black Tea.
What’s the difference? Surely if they’re both Tea then you would brew them the same right?
No, the flavour produced from Black Tea can’t really ’spoil’ if you brew it incorrectly, whereas Green Tea can easily spoil.
Differences in brewing.
Black tea brewing would usually go like this:
- Boil the kettle
- Put the teabag into the cup
- Pour boiling water over the teabag
- Serve with milk / sugar
Sencha is a good example of what a Green Tea brewing session involves:
- Boil the kettle and leave for 30 seconds
- Pour the water into your cups and leave for 30 seconds
- Pour from the cups into the teapot and leave for 30 seconds
- Pour back into the cups
- While leaving the water in the cups for 1 minute 30 seconds (up to 2 minutes 30 seconds) add a heaping teaspoon of Sencha into the teapot, per cup
- Add water from the cups and leave to steep for 1 minute to 3 minutes (premium grade Sencha can take as little as 40 seconds)
This does the following things:
- Preheats both the cups and teapot before the tea starts to steep, meaning that there are no quick temperature changes which would otherwise spoil the taste.
- Cools down the temperature of the water, as boiling water will scald the leaves and result in a bitter yellow tea.
Upon first discovering Green Tea Bags ( to be more precise – Sencha Tea Bags) in my parent’s cupboard many years ago I proceeded to make many mistakes and wrong assumptions which I have mentioned above.
Although I would not recommend supermarket brand Green Tea, it is a good starting point for someone with an interest, or someone who can’t make a quick jump and needs a ‘transition phase’ from the taste of Black to Green.
Tea is one of the best drinks you can consume, especially if it’s Green Tea, why do you think it’s the second most consumed beverage behind water itself?
So why not give your body a treat and try out a good Japanese Green Tea instead of gorging on sodas and coffee.
For more information about Green Tea, the health benefits of Green tea, the Japanese Tea Ceremony or even Brewing information please visit the website at www.premiumgreentea.co.uk
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=James_Kinsella
Image Credit: slimmingteas.org.uk
Technorati Tags: black tea, Camellia sinensis, drinking tea, Green Tea, Health Benefits Of Tea, Kinds Of Tea, Tea
Red Bush Tea or as it is called in South Africa Rooibos Tea is a unique herbal tea only grown in the cape cederberg region of South Africa. It was discovered many many moons ago by the San people indigenous to this area, they were bush dwellers who lived off the land and subsistance farmed.
