Yorkshire Gold

So I'm in the tea doldrums lately. Haven't had any great samples come my way, and the Tea Expo is still a while off. Just lazy I suppose but I've been drinking this totally boring Yorkshire Gold from Taylors of Harrogate. I picked it up at one of those wealthy-person supermarkets that usually have a good tea selection. It's loose tea, but it's machine farmed so a) it doesn't taste all that special, and b) the leaves have been chopped up to a uniformly small size so it brews up really strong and fast. That's probably the thing it's got going for it. The strength of a grizzly. The quickness of a puma. Anyway, here's a photo of the bag. I've positioned it next to a piece of tinfoil, a ball-point pen and a binder clip to show how easily it blends in with other ordinary things:



I just visited their website and they do seem like nice people, so now I feel kind of bad for saying that their tea is dull. Well, there's nothing wrong with being dull, in fact it is admirable to seek out beauty and goodness in the ordinary and the everyday, no?

Drink Up

Here's another great reason to load up on tea: It will protect your brain from the rest of your body. According to this story from the BBC, a new study indicates that caffeine helps protect the brain from the damaging effects of cholesterol in the bloodstream. Like we need scientists to tell us that caffeine is good for our brains. Sheesh.

Upton Tea Importers

You know who's awesome? Upton Tea Importers, that's who. This morning Mrs. Tea House discovered the base unit of the electric kettle we bought from them two years ago was smoldering. She sent them an email with the pic below and received this response almost immediately:

"We will be glad to replace the kettle base for you, at no charge. It will be mailed out to you today...We're going to forward your photo to our manufacturer so they may investigate what could be causing this to happen. We're very sorry that you experienced this and thank you for your patience."



That's just plain old, really good customer service in action. Also, I love their catalogs which always include a lengthy history lesson like this one about Tea and Horse Trading.

Bzzzzz

If you call me in the morning and I don't stop talking for about 20 minutes, then you'll know I'm working on my new perfect caffeine formulation. Sometimes a tea blogger just needs to wake up, and I'm no exception. You know I'm crazy about the high-end stuff but there are times when the tea bag is king. I take an ordinary bag of Tazo "Awake" and submerge it in hot water. After a while I drink the water. Once I'm done with that, I do the same with a Whole Foods 365 House Brand cheapie Organic Black Tea bag. Then I start talking. If you really want to know about the subtle differences between the Fall'79 and Spring '80 GD tours, call me at one of these times and I will tell you all about it. I will leave nothing out.

Obviously, there are so many great things to be said for unique and special orthodox teas but I will give this to their low-grade brethren: They are amazingly consistent. Real hardcore tea blenders wearing lab coats see to it that I get exactly the right amount of caffeine every single time.

Peppermint

Winter is dragging on here in the Mid-Atlantic region which means constant hot bevs. I have my limits with the caffeine, so at times I need a good herbal tea just to keep it rolling along nicely. Some people get bent out of shape when herbal tea is called "tea" since it's not really tea at all but I'm not one of those people. If it's a hot drink infused from some sort of leaf then what the hell, it can be tea. I'm all about pragmatic beverage classification.

One great thing about herbal teas is that they can only be so good. Kind of like soda, and unlike wine (not including bum wines), the difference between cheap and expensive can be hard to discern. In fact, the cheaper the better. One of my favorite herbals is straight up peppermint, and try as I might, I can find none better than Celestial Seasonings. They've recently changed their packaging but it's still the mintiest game in town.



Thought I'd spruce up the post by adding a picture of a model wearing a superhero cape holding a box of herbal tea. It's an old marketing trick.

Caribou

My office moved recently, so instead of a Starbucks downstairs there's a Caribou next door. I'm inclined to like them, not because I'm a Starbucks hater (I'm not), but because they seem to sort of give a crap about tea. They seem earnest, which is ironic since they play up this completely artificial lodge vibe that would be horrible if it came from California, but it's OK coming from the Twin Cities.

I bought a box of Irish Breakfast tea and inside I found these lovable little tea balls:



Don't tell me these aren't lovable, because they are. The tea is fine, not spectacular but better than Tazo bags. My one criticism is the balls are too small. I'm saying this with a straight face. Keep the same amount of tea in there, just make the balls bigger so the leaves have more room during the brewing process. Otherwise, go get 'em.

Sports Tea

It took years for Erik & me to figure out the obvious: If you're willing to fork over some cash, your humble dreams can come true! The last 'Skins game we went to was just cold enough for us to pioneer some tea in the stands, which has long been a dream of ours, albeit an humble one. Since tea isn't the the first beverage of choice for most football fans (in this country, at least) we had to take some initiative, show some sachet if you will. After an outlay of $8.00 for two cups of hot water we made some nice, manly Darjeeling with the little homemade baggies Erik brought. Worth every bit of $8.00.

Instead of Disease, Try This...

It's been a while since I posted so I figured why not reconvene with a little health news. We all love feeling great, and we all know that Green Tea is a healthy bev, right? Sure we do. Let's indulge ourselves, though, with this article which has the longest, most detailed list of health benefits I have ever seen. Seriously, there is nothing this tea won't do to keep you alive. Nothing.

Kanchanjangha

OK, my photographer appears to be on strike so I've got to go ahead without visuals here. I am nuts about this tea I have from Nepal! I got a pile of samples from a coop of Nepalese tea growers and each one just kicks ass. Nepal is nestled right in there geographically with some heavy duty tea regions but for some reason it just doesn't have the clout. I'm guessing politics, age-old hatred and the like are at play, but basically Darjeeling is relaxing poolside while Nepal is watching it from outside the fence. The result is a tea that tries harder. Also, they are so eager for people to buy their tea they are handing out really top-notch samples.

What I really like about these teas is they tend to be of a very high quality but with a twist to distinguish them from your standard awesome tea from India. Awesome-but-with-a-twist is the Andrews & Dunham way. I'm drinking one now from the Kanchanjangha Estate. it has the astringency of a Darjeeling, the earthy clay taste of a Chinese green, and the sweet grassy aroma of a Japanese Sencha. And a lot of caffeine. The other thing I really like about these teas has nothing to do with tea, but with the romantic associations I have with Nepal from listening to Rush albums, watching Indiana Jones movies and generally longing for far-away exotic places.

Balls Inspection

Trying out some of the great tea we got at the Expo. Today it's these little balls of Yunnan tea which we received as a result of one of our aforementioned halting conversations. You might have encountered those little green jasmine pearls at your local tea shoppe and these are just like them, except they are not green. No. They are black & gold and make a tea that looks like coffee. I'm on the 3rd infusion and it still looks/is stronger than most coffee.

I'm walking around the office, showing off my tea.