Tea from Sri Lanka (Ceylon)

Five black teas from Sri Lanka is what we are cupping this week along with the 5 green teas from Japan covered previously.  I definitely enjoy green teas over black teas, but as I'm learning more about teas, and trying all these different varieties, I am developing an appreciation for all types of teas.

The teas we are tasting are broken down by region:  Kandy, Dimbula, Nuwara Elia, Uva and Ruhuna.  This is the order that they appear in the attached photo.  All the teas were steeped with boiling water for 4 min.

Kandy is located 2000-4000 feet above sea level.  It is the ancient capital of Sri Lanka, and geographically it lies in more of the centre of the island.  These are full bodied teas with strong bold flavours, but very sweet.  I really enjoyed this tea, it was full bodied with a very sweet flavour.  The dry leaves are very dark which translates to one of the darker coloured liquors in the flight.  The wet leaves turn the typical redish brown colour of a black tea.

Dimbula lies 3500-5000 feet above sea level and is located in the mountains.  The region relies heavily on the monsoon rains.  The flavours of the tea produced here range from full bodied to light and delicate and fragrant.  On my cupping I couldn't really capture these flavours on my palette.  What I could determine was that there was an astringency to this tea, and that is about all I noticed.  I am not really a fan of the astringent teas.  at least not yet anyways.  I brewed it a second time, so it was quite a bit lighter in flavour, and the astringency didn't take over and I could taste more of the floral delicate flavours they talked about.  Maybe my tea measuring was out!?

Nuwara Elia is also high in the mountains at 6240 feet above sea level.  This tea has been referred to as the champagne of tea.  These teas are typically fragrant and light with distinctive flavours.  The dry leaves of Dimbula and Nuwara Elia are very similar, but Nuwara Elia has more golden tips included.  They are both a lighter brown color than Kandy which translates to a lighter liquor and a lighter body.  They are tightly rolled and smaller than kandy, and the wet leaves are a mixture of light brown and green in colour.  I had the same issue with this tea.  The first go around was very astringent and couldn't make out much else.  On the second time around I could taste more without being overpowered by the astringency.  It was very enjoyable.  

Uva also lies around 3000-5000 feet above sea level and is located in the eastern slopes of the central  mountains.  These teas are typically used mainly for blending and have a relatively pungent flavour.  The dry leaves are very small and dark.  I didn't care much for this tea.  It was bitter tasting to me.  The tasting notes said to expect a menthol eucalyptus flavour to come thru.  I didn't get that.  So I gave it a second go around I still couldn't taste it - Now I'm starting to get nervous for my blind cupping at the end of this module!!

Ruhuna lies right along the coast and only at a maximum height of 2000 feet above sea level.  The dried leaves are very dark which translates to a dark liquor and full body.  I enjoyed this tea as it also has a honey sweetness about it that I enjoy.

My favourite would be the tea from the Kandy region.  In case you haven't noticed yet I love sweet stuff!!!  Next week is India - more black teas - Yikes!!

Where do YOU buy your tea?

Where do you buy your tea?  Do you order it on-line from retailers outside of your own community?  Do you buy it from retailers in your community?  Are those retailers large corporate stores such as Teavana or David's Tea?  Or do you support your local independent retailer?  Perhaps you shop at numerous locations and have identified favourites at each location.

In my community we have a Teavana in our shopping mall.  We also had, until about one month ago another chain type in the same mall.  It was called Tea Desire.  Tea Desire is a Canadian corporate store, that has not expanded as quickly as David's Tea (also Canadian).  The pressure from having a Teavana open up in the same mall I am suspecting lead to the closure of Tea Desire.  Now I hear that David's Tea is going to be opening up in the mall in the old Tea Desire store, and going head to head with Teavana.  Yes Davids Tea has a significantly larger following than Tea Desire has, but at the end of the day our community is only about 100,000 strong, maybe 160,000 if you include the outlying areas.

We also have two independent loose leaf stores in town.  I'm not sure how successful they are but my feeling is that they may just be 'making it', or worse managing to 'hang on' despite the facts.  Up until about 6 months ago we had another independent tea and spice store.  I think it had a store front for about 1 to 1.5 years before they also closed their doors.  All the reviews that I read on this store were good.

Just for the heck of it I roughly counted about 25 coffee shops in my town.  11 of them are Starbucks.  Not that there is anything wrong with Starbucks, I go there sometimes myself, but I also make a point of frequenting our local independent stores and services.  Downtown there is a Starbucks, a Blenz and an independent coffee shop all within close proximity to each other.  It bothers me that when I do the walk by, Starbucks has a line-up out the door, and both Blenz and the independent shop have available seating.  Especially if you do a side by side taste test, Starbucks does not necessarily come out on top.  But we seem to be pre-conditioned to follow trends.  Maybe we desire acceptance?  I'm not really sure why we all flock together. . .

Some of the best teas and coffees come from the local independent stores, and not from the large corporate organizations.  The corporate stores come with the fancy store fronts, and the fancy names and I think the fancy prices, for some of the really not so fancy teas.  Their tea descriptions tantalize, and make the tea sound better then they could ever really be, and we all buy into it.

I'm not saying don't ever buy tea from the large corporate store.  I do and have found some teas there that I love.  But I also give the local independent guy a chance to show me what he has.  Usually their knowledge is better, and the teas are more honest.  This post is simply a reminder to give the local guys in your community a chance.  It's good to shop local, and that includes all products, not just tea!!

Tea from Japan

This week in my tea course we are reviewing tea from Japan.  Today I performed my preliminary tea tastings of 5 teas from Japan.  They are all green teas as that is what is predominately manufactured in Japan, and what they are most well known for.  The teas we tasted were: Sencha, Genmaicha, Hoji Cha, Gyokuro and Matcha.  Here is a photo of the dry leaves, are presented in the order of the list from top left to right and then bottom left to right.

Here is a photo of the tea liquor:

If you start with the big bowl, that is the Matcha, and if we rotate in a clockwise direction we have Gyokuro, Sencha, Genmaicha, and Hoji Cha.  All teas were steeped in water heated to 80 degree celcius for 3 minutes.

Sencha:  The most popular tea in Japan, has a light slightly vegetal aroma, and tastes similar.  I really enjoyed this tea, for it's light flavour.

Genmaicha:  I loved the toasted rice popcorn flavoured coupled with the fresh vegetal flavour of the green tea.  This is one tea that once you taste it you will easily recognize it every time.

Hoji Cha:  This tea is roasted in a procelain pot over charcoal and has a sweet nuttiness to its flavour.  The leaves are roasted until they are brown, and the liquor also has a brown colour to it.  I quite liked it.

Gyokuro:  The dry leaves of this tea are exceptionally green in colour.  The dry leaves have a soft silky feel to them and they already promise a high quality tea.  This tea is grown in the shade, as opposed to Sencha that is grown in the full sun.  I loved this tea.  It has a full see weedy/kelpy flavour to that is somehow still light on the pallet.

Matcha:  Apparently this was the ceremonial grade that we tried.  It had a bitterness to it, and was a bit grainy to drink due the powdered leaves not dissolving in the water.  The health benefits of Matcha are numerous, and I will definitely continue to drink this tea.  I hope I enjoy it more in the future!!

What are my top picks?  It's hard to say as I think green tea is one of my favourites all around.  For just green tea without any special roastings or flavourings I love the gyokuro.  It has such an amazing kelpy flavour that is strong yet subtle.  Bit I also really like the genmaicha for its roasted rice flavourings, and I liked the Hoji Cha for its sweet nuttiness.  Sencha is a great all around green tea that won't break the bank.  As for the Matcha - I will drink this and hope will soon learn to enjoy it more, but the health benefits from this superfood are far to great to ignore it!!

  This was just a quick synopsis of the teas I tasted this week.  As it turns out we are also covering the Teas from Sri Lanka this week so I'll have to get back to work shortly.  The Sri Lanka teas will be 5 black teas.

Coffee OR Tea . . .

I've noticed that there seems to be a big competition between tea and coffee.  It's like there is a constant struggle over what to drink.  Not many claim to be a fan of both.  It seems to be an either or proposition.  Does anybody else notice this?

I suppose from a marketing and sales perspective the two beverages are different, and they may even cater to completely different markets.  I feel people that generally consume tea, are different from those that generally consume coffee.  My perspective is also a west coast perspective, where coffee has historically always dominated over tea.

What's odd is that 'west coasters' (of Canada and the US) are said to be 'laid back'.  We like the outdoors, and are into 'saving the enviornment'.  We recycle, do yoga, perform all sorts of outdoor activities.  We meditate, and seek out mindfulness.  Essentially we are tea drinkers.  But yet most of drink coffee!!

I have been a coffee drinker since my early 20's.  I loved, and still love coffee.  Up unil about 4 months ago, I only ever really drank the occasional green tea, and herb teas.  Since learning about tea, thru The Tea Association of Canada and am learning about the different types of teas, and how to brew them properly, and reading up on the health benefits of tea I have converted some of my coffee consumption to tea and couldn't be happier!

Coffee fits because it gives me the morning kick start that I need at 5:00 am when I get up.  Tea fits because I drink it during the day.  I used to feel somehow not that well in my body when I drank to much coffee and now I actually feel great since I've introduced tea.  It keeps me alert and calm at work.  I love it!!

I think there is room to be a consumer of both.  But hands down tea fits the 'west coast' lifestyle, and coffee still gets you going in the morning.

Meditate with Tea

The activity of preparing tea, tasting tea, and relaxing is a form of meditation.  If you focus on the art of the brew, and pay specific attention to the various steps in preparing the tea, you will notice that you are being very intentional in what you are doing.  Block everything from your mind and focus on the tea.

Similar to a Chinese tea ceremony, you can create your own ceremony.  A very simple procedure is as follows:

• Bring the water to temperature and pour into a heated teapot.  
• While the water is heating up, measure the tea that you will be using, and set it aside.  
• Find a spot that envelops you in a sense of peace and beauty.  You can create your own spot by adding a few items like a table cloth, candles, comfy chair etc, or perhaps you already have a spot like this.  In the summer my spot is outside on our deck.  It's quiet and the view is nice, and relaxing.
• Set out the brewing pot, cup, tea, timer, temperature gauge (if you use one), hot water.
• Inspect the dry leaf, really look at it and describe it to yourself.  Smell it, feel it, and enjoy your senses at work. 
• Once the water is at the correct temperature, add the leaves and the water to the brewing pot and set your timer.  A clear glass brewing pot is great for this because you can watch the leaves unfurl as the taste infuses into the water and colours the liquor.
• Once the timer indicates the tea is ready, remove the tea leaves from the pot and pour into your favourite tea vessel.
• Before you take your first sip, enjoy the colour and aroma of the tea liquor.
• Sit back, relax, and take your first sip.  What do you taste?  What flavours can you make out?  Focus on the tea, be aware of the moment you are in and let go of your daily stresses.  You can get back to all of that soon enough!!

You can create a ritual out of anything that you like to do.  But because there are so many steps and little things to focus on, it creates an easy atmosphere to be successful in your quest for being intentional.  Tea is also associated with being intentional.  Buddhist monks and other scholars have long been using tea in this manner.  

Today, find that spot where you can relax, make it your own and create your own tea ceremony.  Let me know how you found it.  Was it relaxing?  We're you able to focus on the tea and not think about everything else in your life?  How long did it take?  Would you do this ritual on a regular basis?

Tea from China - History

Just finished my Skype session with the instructor and other class participants.  WOW!!  Is there ever a lot to know in this module.  The book is like three times the size as the Tea 101 materials and of course the tea list is huge!!  I'm going to summarize here the history of tea in China.

China is the birthplace of tea.  It was discovered in 2737 by Emporer Shen Nong.  He was sitting in the shade of a tree and boiling some water when a breeze came up and blew some of the leaves from the tree into his pot of boiling water.  Instead of dumping it out he drank it and found it to be delish!!  Tea was born, as the tree he was sitting under was a tea tree.

The Chinese also have an answer for how the tea trees came to be:  It was because Bodhidharma, the first patriarch of Zen decided that he was going to sit in front of the Shaolin Temple in China and meditate for 9 years.  Unfortunately he dosed off a little and was so upset with himself (Doesn't seem very Zen like) that he sliced off his eyelids and threw them to the ground.  From those eyelids grew the first tea bush!!

Tea was first brewed by boiling it to death.  This resulted in, as you can imagine a very strong and bitter liquor that was used primarily for medicinal purposes.  It must have worked because they started to cultivate it due to the demand for its medicinal uses.  The first cultivation of tea started in the Szechwan province.  by the mid 4th century.  The imperial court even put a levy on the tea called a 'tea tribute' - the first form of tax on tea.  The unfortunate reality was that the tea tribute was so important that the peasants had to focus on tea growing, and little to no focus on growing food, and for the poor in China it meant many people died of famine.  (Every country's history has something to this effect in their history - how can we be so unjust to each other?).

The first teas were pressed into cakes and then roasted until hard and red in color.  Tea was traded.  The Tibetans traded war horses for tea, and was such as sought after commodity that they used the hardened tea bricks as currency.  They also used tea in their meals as a flavour additive.

The Tang Dynasty in China 618 - 907 was a period of aesthetic quality - it was refined and sophisticated.  Tea was brought to a whole new level.  The brewing, and cultivating and the manufacturing of teas began to be turned into an art.  Fruit juices were being added to sweeten the flavours, and more attention was given to brewing a tea that had distinctive aromas and flavours.

LuYu - the patron saint of tea writes the first book about tea, its origins, methods and tools used for plucking and processing, preparing and serving.  He documented how it should be prepared, served and appreciated.  He was the first to document tea.

Now in China independent privately owned coops share local resources for labour, harvest, processing and distribution.  The government regulates much of the tea and still typically harvests and operates large scale farms.  China has a significant portion of the worlds tea gardens-about50%, but only produces about 20% of the world output.

Tea builds relationships

Part of this blog is also to discuss how tea has made me more intentional, and how it has  had a positive impact on my life.  Something that I am very excited about was the communication that opened up between my partner's daughter and myself over the last month since I have started the tea course.  She is  17 years old and heading off to university this fall.  Things have never really been great, but over time I think we've both started to give each other a break and try harder to communicate and have more of a relationship.

It's really been years of miscommunication, hurt feelings and a clashing of wills that has built up.  We don't have a lot in common either, but tea is something that she took an interest in about a year ago, and it's still going strong.  I have to say that she had taken on the passion of tea before I did.  But now we have something in common.  We have something to share and talk about.

My desire to learn about tea started because of a trip I took last year to Nepal.  Yes, I drank a lot of tea while I was trekking in Nepal.  In the mountains they don't have much in the way of a good cup of java, so I relinquished the morning ritual and took on tea.  I didn't miss coffee, but I do really love to have my morning coffee, so it wasn't a change in my ritual that drove me to learn about tea.

I was really trying to think of a way that I could start a business that involved importing product from Nepal.  They grow coffee and they grow tea.  I researched and decided that tea might be a good way to go.  I'll get into all of this in another post later on.  I decided that I needed to lean about tea if I wanted to import tea and start a business involving tea.  So that is how I ended up in the Tea Sommelier course.

I've only completed the first course - I just got my marks from my exam and overall I walked away with 95.5%!!  I'm thrilled about that!!  What I've learned and read about tea fascinates me.  I love the flavours, the human connections that are created over tea, and the ability to relax and focus on the tea when I am doing my tastings, and not be interrupted by the daily stresses and interruptions that seem to be able to creep in everywhere else.  The course also has a forum where you can leave posts and have discussions with other course participants.  I have met some wonderful people here as well.  One of the girls has a Facebook page Les Thes Laha-Nia  She posts some beautiful photos, tea industry news articles etc.  Please follow the link and like her page!!  The pages main lingo is in French, but pictures need to words, most of the news links etc are in english, and you can use translator to read the posts in English.

I am so very thankful to find a common thread with my boyfriend's daughter.  It 's been just over 8 years and finally it feels like we've caught a break.  Thank you tea for nurturing this connection and allowing for it to happen!!