What better day to talk about all things green than on St Patrick’s Day!

You needn’t be Irish to celebrate St Patty’s Day, nor do you need the luck of the Irish to reap the healthy benefits of green tea. Luckily there is a lot of research these days which verifies what people have known for centuries – that green tea is good for your health and your health is worth its weight in gold!

Did you know that green tea can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, help prevent cancer and liver disease, assist in protecting against tooth decay, improve metabolic rates to support healthy weight loss, and increase clarity and focus?

And for those who did opt for green beer instead of green tea, you may want to take a page from The Kissa Yojoki (Book of Tea), written by Zen priest Eisai in 1191. It describes how drinking green tea can have a positive effect on the five vital organs, especially the heart. The book discusses tea’s medicinal qualities, which include easing the effects of alcohol. For even better hangover results, find a green tea with either peppermint and/or ginger. Both of these herbs are known to sooth the stomach, decrease nausea and generally help the body feel revived and refreshed.

Try Your Luck at Finding the Right Green Tea For You!

Gunpowder – tightly rolled green tea leaves which have a distinctive nutty or woody taste and a dark green color to the tea.

Ceylon Green – satisfying green tea with all the subtle character of a full-bodied black ceylon.

Sencha – the most common green tea in Japan. Light and smooth in taste with a gentle golden green color.

Jasmine Green: is one of my favorite teas that combines little hand rolled pearls of early harvested green tea leaves with Jasmine flowers.

Now to reap the many benefits of green tea, it should be noted that one cup by itself is not a cup of magic. Increase your luck by drinking 3-4 cups of tea a day, every day. That should be equivalent to a pot of tea – the pot of tea at the end of rainbow.

I once followed a rainbow to its end, but I didn’t find a pot of gold. Nope, I wound up smack dab in the middle of Madam Potts’ blog, Mad Pots of Tea! Seriously!

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Drinking tea and hopping would not, at first glance, seem like two activities that could be engaged in simultaneously.

So what is an Easter Teatime Hop-Along? What kind of event could possibly combine the normally gentile activity of teatime with the lively and possibly even raucous activity of hopping? First, there is no actual hopping involved. (Phew! That’s a relief!) Rather, it’s sort of like a dance à la the 1950s (where the Bunny Hop and other dances reigned) with tea as the beverage of choice and classic Easter-themed elements in the décor. Appropriate attire is also expected. Bobby socks, poodle skirts, and other vintage fashions, along with vintage hairstyles like the beehive and ponytails for women, and the pompadour and ducktail for men, will help set the mood.

The tea drinking, I should mention here, takes place in-between the dancing. Now, you may think that’s obvious, but there are so many things that seem obvious yet are required to be put on labels on a lot of the products we buy that it seemed in line with this inanity to mention the obvious here. Think I’m kidding? Check the labels on a few items around your house, such as those on the electrical cords of new appliances. They say things like “Caution, electrical shock could result from misuse of this product.” Really? I always thought that shock was just a cheap way of curling my naturally straight hair.

The venue is also important. In line with the 1950s theme, might I suggest the gymnasium of your local high school. Of course, I’m assuming that you have lots of friends and acquaintances to join in the festivities. If your guest list is too short for that, seek out a local restaurant that has a party room separate from the main dining area where you can play music to fit the theme. For something more intimate, your own dining room or family room, complete with colorful streamers, balloons, and table decorations, will serve nicely. Don’t forget the Easter bunnies and dyed eggs. Gallons of fresh-steeped tea served in colorful teapots and drunk from just as colorful teacup and saucers add the “teatime” aspect, quite essential (oops! — there I go being obvious again).

Living in an age where YouTube videos, Twitpics, and Facebook photo albums are burgeoning with everything from musical performances and tea steeping demonstrations, to rantings on the events of the day (ranging from very amateur or on-the-sly offerings to rather professional productions), your event could wind up being one of them. (You might want to do your guests the courtesy of getting their permission first or at least include in your invitation that this is a possibility.)

As for hubby and me, we’re putting a guest list together and selecting the perfect teas to serve. Better hurry before Spring is over. Time to get hopping!

Don’t forget to check out A.C.’s blog, Tea Time with A.C. Cargill!

What is White Tea?:

Types of White Tea

Silver Needle: Silver needle is the original white tea, and is made up entirely of white, fuzzy buds. This tea should be prepared with relatively cool water (I usually go with water between 165-170F), ideally in a glass teapot (the buds stand on end after being infused for awhile, which is great fun to watch).  The flavor is usually extremely subtle: It may even taste like you are drinking plain hot water at first. Pay attention, though. The sweet, delicate flavor of the tea will eventually emerge.

White Peony: White peony is a new-style white tea comprised of the top two leaves and a bud. White peony dry leaf tends to be very beautiful, with a variety of colors, and its liquor is richer in flavor than silver needle, oftentimes with some sweet and even fruity notes.

Shou Mei: Shou Mei means “Longevity Eyebrow” in English. This is another new-style Chinese white tea, and is made from both buds and larger tea leaves. The liquor is darker and stronger flavored than other white teas. I really enjoy shou mei as an iced tea and find that it pairs well with lemongrass.

Flowering Teas: Many flowering teas use white tea buds as a base. The buds are sewn together with other flowers so that when infused, the tea and flowers open up into a lovely bouquet. Since flowering teas are made with real flowers, the flavor of these teas tends to be dominated by whatever flower is stitched up with the buds.

Drinking White Tea

Good White Tea Food Pairings: The more delicate white teas, such as Silver Needle, are extremely subtle in flavor, and should be drunk on their own. The heartier white teas, such as Shou Mei, can go great with lighter foods, such as fish.

Sipping Tips: Try sipping a white tea first thing in the morning as an alternative to super-intense black tea. White teas help you wake up gradually and make for a more gentle start to a new day.

Find out what else Lainie’s sipping on over at her blog, Lainie Sips!

Korean Garden

With no offense intended to Korea, its tea industry or culture, let’s admit that it’s not one of the first countries that comes to mind when the subject of tea is mentioned. Though it stands in the shadows of tea-producing powerhouses like China, India and Japan, tea in Korea is worth taking a closer look at, nonetheless.

As noted in an article by tea expert Diana Rosen, tea is believed to have migrated to Korea from China in or around the sixth century. For more in-depth information about Korean tea, as mentioned in Rosen’s article, refer to this Web site from Brother Anthony (An Sonjae), co-author of The Korean Way of Tea: An Introductory Guide.

For even more information about Korean tea culture refer to The Book of Korean Tea, by Yang-Seok (Fred) Yoo. It’s published by the Myung Won Cultural Foundation and is described as “a pioneering and excellent cultural guide about Korea, Korean tea and Korean tea ceremonies. The history, culture, philosophy, tea and tea ceremony are marvelously woven together to capture the true spirit of the Korean tea culture.” Mr. Yoo is a contributing writer for The World of Tea, a top tea culture magazine in Korea.

Yoo is also a Senior Advisor to Korea’s Myung Won Cultural Foundation. This organization “strives to preserve, restores and promotes Korean traditional tea culture and ceremonies.” Myung Won was responsible for the restoration of the 2000-year-old Korean tea ceremony.

For some thoughts about Korean tea from a blogger who has written frequently on the topic, refer to MattCha’s Blog. Among the more noteworthy posts here on Korea and tea are Four Origin Stories of Tea in Korea and Making Green Tea the Traditional Korean Way. If 1,000-year-old Korean tea sounds like it’s right up your alley, check out this article from the Korean press.

Head over to Tea Guy Speaks to find out what else William’s talking about.

Spring is in the air, and the need for bright colors after the dullness of Winter leads me to seek out British Candies.

While chocolates reign supreme during Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Easter, fruity sweets like Nestlé’s Rowntree Fruit Pastilles and Fruit Gums, Bassett’s Fruit Allsorts, and Maynards’ Wine Gums (non-alcoholic) bring true fruit taste (nothing artificial) to your sweet tooth indulgence Springtime event. Chewy, sweet, fruity, and naturally flavored — characteristics sure to please.

For the chocoholics among you (and I include myself as one of them), Nestlé makes a version of candies similar to M&Ms. They’re called Smarties and have a colorful candy coating over milk chocolate. Of course, you can also go for chocolates in colorful wrappers, such as Cadbury’s Roses Chocolates, and get two benefits: bright hues for your sweet treat occasion and lots of that tasty, creamy British chocolate (with 14 different fillings) to keep the chocolate loving kid inside you — not to mention those around you — happy for hours (okay, maybe just a few minutes, just long enough to unwrap them, savor for a few seconds, and gobble them down).

A bit of Turkish Delight (also called “Lokum”) candy is another option. At a glance, this confection looks a bit like rock candy, but it’s soft, sugarcoated, and gummy-chewy. As the name indicates, the candy was first invented in Turkey (called “Istanbul” at that time) by a famous confectioner Bekir Effendi. This was in 1777, a year after our country, just a collection of colonies at that time, declared they would no longer recognize the sovereignty of the British throne and Parliament over them. (Yes, it was an exciting time in the world: people declaring their independence and a new candy being invented.) The original shop has lasted through five generations and is still there today. Hop on a plane, fly on over, and pick up a pound or two. Better yet, place your order online and have the candy come to you. Flavors include fruits (strawberry, pineapple, orange, lemon, and bergamot), traditionals (vanilla, cinnamon, honey, chocolate, and mint), plus a few exotics (clotted cream and rose).

With so many choices, the only problem now is deciding which to have. Some system is going to have to be devised, to be sure. How about assigning each candy to a day of the week? Okay, it’s Monday, so that means I get some Smarties. Tuesday is Cadbury’s Roses. Wednesday is for Nestlé’s Rowntree Fruit Pastilles… You get the idea.

Here’s wishing you a colorful and sweet life.

If you’re in the mood for some colorful tea commentary, head over to A.C.’s blog, Tea Time with A.C. Cargill.

The number of tearooms and tea houses in the United States alone has swelled at least ten times over in about the last decade. But North American culture is still dominated to a large part by the other hot drink – you know the one. If you’re not close to a tearoom or if you don’t have time to partake, it’s still possible to make sure that your tea experiences on the road are good ones.

There are a few obstacles you’ll need to surmount in order to drink good tea on the road. You’ll need to find a good source of water, a means to make it hot and a method whereby you can steep the tea without too much mess or fuss. These problems can easily be solved at home, but on the road they tend to become a little bit more problematic.

Seeking out good water while you’re on the road might be the easiest part of this process. If you don’t want to use hotel tap water, bottled water should be good for your needs. Heating water for tea could be accomplished by using the coffee pot provided in most hotel rooms, though you could end up with tea with hints of coffee flavor. If you’re really committed to road tea, an electric tea kettle is another great solution, one that comes in a variety of shapes, sizes and prices.

For steeping tea, the easiest solution is probably the tried and true tea bag. These days there are quite a few merchants who sell quality tea in gourmet pyramid bags. You can also buy a supply of empty pyramid bags and pack them with loose-leaf tea for when you travel. And, of course, there are any number of travel mugs, portable tea presses and whatnot that allow traveling tea consumers to handle this part of the prep tasks with a minimum amount of hassle.

Next time you hit the road, make sure to stop by William’s blog, Tea Guy Speaks!

This Wednesday is St. Patrick’s Day, that green-tinted day upon which all Americans have a bit of Irish blood in them no matter which continent their ancestors hailed from.

A shamrock tea party. The idea was inspired by a miniature tea set my grandmother gave me, hand-painted with shamrocks. While it always has a home in our china cabinet, this is the week that it moves to more prominent display. (Just for complete disclosure, I have not a drop of Irish blood, but my husband is a quarter Irish). And I started thinking that a tea would be an alternative to the pub crawls so popular around here.

Of course for tea, one would have to serve Irish Breakfast, prepared so strong that a mouse could trot on it, with a lot of cream and sugar. I think a combination of sweets and savories would be best. Some good Irish cheddar, perhaps, and Irish Soda Bread served with Kerry Gold butter. Scones of course would have their own place on the table, perhaps dusted with green sugar to add a festive note.

You can’t celebrate leprechauns and green without a bit of Irish music in the background. If Celtic music isn’t usually your thing, try some so-called Celtic Rock, like Gaelic Storm or Carbon Leaf. You also might try out some Great Big Sea. Trust me, it doesn’t mean you have to start kicking your legs like you’re in Riverdance. (Although try it, you might have fun).

However you spend the day, remember that in this country, it’s not much of a saint’s day, just an occasion to celebrate one of our many cultural ingredients in our melting pot.

Check out Stephanie’s blog, The Tea Scoop. It’s the best blog in the world!

Imperial Formosa Oolong

With so many extravagant claims for weight loss products, a good rule of thumb to abide by is buyer beware. Keeping that in mind, however, there is some evidence indicating that tea might play a role in weight loss.

If you want to lose weight, one of the best ways you can use tea to help is by using it as a substitute for sweetened beverages. Freshly brewed tea without milk or sweetener has no calories and modest amounts of various additives rarely contribute more than a small amount of calories. On the other hand, a 16-ounce Starbucks Frappucino might contain up to 470 calories while eight ounces of Coca-Cola contains 97 calories.

There are also studies that indicate that tea itself might play a role in weight loss. A 2005 study examined 35 Japanese men over a period of three months. Some were given bottled oolong tea with a green tea extract that contained 690 milligrams of catechins and some were given oolong tea containing 22 milligrams of catechins. Diets were similar, but the first group lost an average of 5.3 pounds, in comparison to the latter’s 2.9 pounds. The men who were given higher doses of catechins also experienced greater decreases in body mass index, waist size, total body fat and undesirable LDL cholesterol.

In research conducted at the University of Connecticut over six weeks, lean and obese mice were fed green tea extract (GTE), in varying amounts. The study found that the extract might aid in warding off fatty liver disease. GTE might also aid in weight loss as well as lowering cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

A study from 1999 investigated whether green tea extract might increase energy expenditure and fat oxidation in humans. Another study, results of which were also published in 1999, examined possible anti-obesity actions of oolong tea. A study from 2000 measured the effectiveness of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) derived from green tea leaves in reducing appetite and contributing to weight loss in rats.

Visit William’s blog, Tea Guy Speaks, for more information on all things tea!

Let me say instantly, for those who like to get to the point: I really like Ntingwe Kwazulu tea from Taylors of Harrogate and recommend it highly.

That said, you might like to know a bit more about who is doing the recommending and the tea itself.

I come at this tea-choosing business from the eye of a seasoned woman who wants, quite simply, a good cup of tea that will not break the bank. I prefer black tea, straight and pure, enjoying sweetener and lemon on rare occasions, milk or flavorings rarer still. I want to be able to easily purchase the tea. I can be mildly influenced by tins and fancy packaging, but I have learned the truth of the old saying, “One man’s tea is another’s poison.” It really is opinion, and opinions, to put it politely, are a penny a dozen in this modern world of social media.

The Ntingwe Kwazulu tea is grown in Kwazulu Natal province of South Africa, a land often called the garden province, where the tea industry has been on the rise for the past ten years. The Ntingwe estate tea has been called, “One of the five finest teas in the world,” but from what I was able to discover, this claim was first made by the buyer from Taylors and Harrogate, who certainly has a vested interest, then picked up and used for promotion all over the place. Still, the tea has taken off in popularity in Britain and around the world, so many people share a favorable opinion of it.

Ntingwe also met a supreme and unexpected personal test. I had just come in from an hour of running around a play-park with my three year old grandson, when I found the delivery of my tea on my front porch. I was exhausted and expected dear grandson to at least have his energy trimmed and be ready to play with Thomas the Train long enough for me to enjoy a sit-down and cuppa of the new tea.

I eagerly opened the package, and was met by what appeared to be grounds. It is that fine. This caused my heart to sink. But keeping an open mind, I brewed a mug full, too tired to go for my little pot.

I was just inspecting the lovely color—rich and tending to red—when I heard, “Nana…what’cha doin’? Come play train…put my track back to-geth-er.”

Thinking I surely had chosen a poor time for tea tasting, I lifted the cup and took a sip. My eyes flew wide. I took another sip and let the tea linger on my tongue. I looked at my dear grandson looking back up at me, and grinned.

I finished the tea while answering a dozen questions and demands of a small boy, which continued as I brewed another cup in my small pot. Later, I savored an after dinner cup sweetened with a bit of honey. I found the tea both relaxing and reviving to keep me going until said small boy went home.

Ntingwe Kwazulu tea passed a very unique and important test, and for me, it is one of the five finest teas of the world.

It may be hard to pronounce the name “Ntingwe Kwazulu,” but it’s certainly not hard to enjoy one of CurtissAnn’s novels! Visit her site, CurtissAnnMatlock.com, to learn more!

One of the first commentators on the critical relationship between tea and water was Lu Yu (733-804). His book, The Classic of Tea, is one of the first books written about tea.

Regarding water, Lu Yu summarized thusly, “water from the mountains is the best, then river water, and finally well water…water from slow-running streams, lakes with stony beds, or milk-white springs is the best mountain water.” Which can be problematic to the majority of tea drinkers in modern times, who probably lack ready access to mountain, river or well water.

For a more contemporary look at water and tea, consider some advice from Michael Mascha, publisher of the FineWaters Web site and author of Fine Waters: A Connoisseur’s Guide to the World’s Most Distinctive Bottled Waters.

According to Mascha, a cheap home filtration device can produce water on a par with a low-end bottled water, either of which are suitable for tea. Mascha uses soft water for rooibos herbal tea and says rainwater-sourced bottled water, which has a low mineral content, can be a good choice for tea. When it comes to specific brands that would be suitable for tea drinkers, Mascha points to Fuji as a good place to start.

For tea (or coffee) made with water whose purity may be unparalleled, try Butler’s By the Sea, a Newfoundland bed and breakfast that uses iceberg water. If Newfoundland is too far off the beaten path you might be able to locate iceberg water marketed by Canada’s Original Iceberg Water Corporation. The firm is also based in St. Johns, Newfoundland. They sell their product in 500 ml and one-liter sizes and also make Iceberg Vodka.

For water specifically geared to tea and coffee drinking, consider Cirqua Customized Water. Their products are directed more to tea and coffee houses and other businesses but they offer filtration systems and The Formula, a brand of bottled water especially formulated for tea of coffee.

Iceberg water and rainwater will certainly deliver a great result, but tea drinkers looking for something simpler should have good luck with any soft (low in mineral content) water. Unpleasant aromas and flavors can often be removed from tap water with an inexpensive water-filtering device.

William’s writing style is a lot like some of the water discussed in this post. It flows from the mountains in clear, clean streams of awesomeness. Check out his blog, Tea Guy Speaks, to see what I mean.