Lies, damned lies and the coffee lobby
Fact and fiction should contrast as dramatically as black and white. Strangely that truth does not seem to hold anymore as the world enters a state of altered reality reminiscent of that which George Orwell described in 1949. In this dimension, it is not the State that is Big Brother, but something far worse. The...
One tea, two personalities
Two mugs of tea, made using the same Dilmah Single Origin Pure Ceylon teabag, brewed for the same time in identical porcelain mugs and tasted seconds apart in the same conditions – yet entirely different. One has brightness, depth and strength, with the wonderful balance of richness and flavour that is the hallmark of Ceylon’s...
The Teaman’s solution to the global economic crisis
Tea is a perfect beverage to soothe us through these troubled times and yet its 5,000 year history is punctuated more by conflict than calm. The Opium Wars of the 1800s, the ‘Tea Party Rebellions’ in the US in 1773 and their modern day equivalent in 2009, have all given tea an undeservedly dramatic heritage....
Not quite white …
Lenin wrote that ‘a lie told often enough becomes the truth.’ Generations of politicians before and after him have relied on this wisdom. Corporations have followed suit, and even tea has not been spared its vile influence. White Tea, is in many ways a most refined form of tea. Nurturing real white tea – such...
It’s not size that really matters …
Mastering the art of tea can take a lifetime, but understanding a few simple but important aspects of tea can be crucial to the appreciation of tea. Some of the ‘tea masters’ who have tasked themselves with educating tea drinkers about tea have unfortunately perpetuated some of the myths about tea. Chief amongst these is...
Knowledge, Education, Quality – Tea Sommelier
Putting on the kettle and brewing up a cuppa sounds simple doesn’t it. It’s not – not because it is complicated – but because most people just don’t take the simple precautions to get it right. Like selecting garden fresh, origin packed tea and brewing black tea for at least 3 minutes to get the...
Quality in the age of cost cutting
Fears of global recession have corporate planners scurrying to improve their financial prospects, mainly by cutting costs. The snappily titled programmes that are the outcome of these are obviously intended for the consumption of Wall Street, but are they fair on consumers and the worker?
The beauty in the leaf
Here’s where it all starts, the two tender leaves and the bud. Picking tea by hand, as we do in Sri Lanka, ensures that we use just these two leaves and bud, not the third and fourth leaves which introduce coarse, undesirable characteristics to the tea. Antioxidants in tea are concentrated in the bud, making...
Coffee & tea
Terry Durack, the Independent newspaper’s (UK) restaurant critic and gourmet wrote some years ago in his Food for Thought column: Coffee and tea measure our lives. As youngsters, most of us start with tea, then we leave its safer pleasures behind for the racy glamour of espresso as we venture out into the world. Later...
Tea Conspiracy
Tea, in the late 1700s and early 1800s was surrounded by intrigue, conspiracy and even war, although not so now. Or so we thought until a few years ago, ‘white tea’ seemed to take on a new shine, for the major tea brands. Nothing ominous in that I hear you say, but what was ominous...
Two leaves and a bud
The art in tea starts here, with the tender shoots at the extremes of the evergreen shrub, Camellia Sinensis. Flavour and natural antioxidants are concentrated in the two leaves and bud; harvesting it is art because the men and women that pick these need to ensure they pinch off the bush only the two leaves and...
Is it in the bag?
There is a misconception that tea in bags is somehow below par. True, the fact that the tea in bags brews through a filter paper bag, does take away some of the brightness and character of the tea that is within but this influence is no more than around 5%. The fact is that teabags got a...
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