Honest Tea

July 4, 2007

I’ve been eating at Whole Foods Market for lunch quite a bit lately, and each time I would have a bottle of Honest Tea with my meal. I like the “Just a tad sweet” flavors of Honest Tea because it’s not sugar water like most bottled teas, but it has just enough sugar to enhance the flavor. So far I’ve tried these, listed from favorite to least favorite:

1. Green Dragon Tea - My favorite because they didn’t mess with the original tea taste
2. Sublime Mate - The lime taste makes it good with food
3. Pomegranate Red Tea with Goji Berry - The sweetest of the series
4. Pearfect White Tea - Has a light sweet fruit pear taste
5. Mango White Tea with Açaí - Just like Pearfect, but with mango

I still have yet to try Lori’s Lemon Tea and Peach Oo-la-long.

Teapot is the healthiest option

June 3, 2007

Teapot ‘is the healthiest option’ - the traditional way of making tea in a pot is healthier than dunking a bag in a cup. The article basically says that tea is healthiest when brewed for 5 minutes. It does not say whether or not steeping tea bags for longer periods of time produces the same effect as making tea in a pot.

Tea Grades

June 3, 2007

Whole leaf orthodox black tea are traditionally graded with the following grades:

• OP (Orange Pekoe)
• FOP (Flowery Orange Pekoe)
• GFOP (Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe)
• TGFOP (Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe)
• FTGFOP (Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe)
• SFTGFOP (Super Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe)

These are the very basic grades. Tea Fountain has a more detailed explanation of the tea grading systems. The tea that comes in bags that are very popular in the United States don’t use the grading system above. Those teas were created using the Crush, Tear, and Curl (CTC) method.

Tea Education

May 19, 2007

I admit, I’m just a tea amateur right now, but I am a drink enthusiast. I’ve always been interested in delving deeper into the world of tea, so the first thing I need to do is get some basic tea education. Some good websites about tea that I’ve found so far are Wikipedia: tea, rec.food.drink.tea FAQ, and The Tea Man’s Tea Talk. So let’s all read up on tea, drink some tea, and I’ll post any interesting findings here.