Tea Blog - Learn All About Tea — Black Tea

Tea is remarkably prominent in Russian culture.  This is largely due to the fact that tea is hot, and Russia is cold.  Thus, tea there, as it is consumed in most places in the world, is consumed hot.  It was introduced to Russia in the mid-1600’s, but by the 1800’s, it was being imported in such large quantities that it became accessible to most Russians, rather than just the wealthy.  Some tea has been grown in Russia, but it isn’t exactly a thriving industry, because Russia is, again, cold. Russian teas tend to be known for their smoky flavor.  The...

You may be familiar with tannins from wine.  They give it a dry, astringent flavor.  They do much the same thing for tea as they do for wine, giving it a drier taste and fuller body.  Tannins got their name from their use in tanning leather.  The tannins from oak trees are traditionally used to tan animal hides.  Therefore, if you’re looking for that classy leather-bag, understands wine, and has taste in tea aesthetic, tannins pretty much rule your life. Tannins are made by all of these plants as a means to deter predators.  They are especially prevalent in unripe...

The moment I started drinking tea, my mother immediately began calling me “the British child.”  I am of the opinion that, if you’re going to attach cultural stereotypes to things, you might as well do it correctly.  The first thing to know about British tea is that, if you’re drinking tea with biscuits in the afternoon, regardless of how fancy it is, it is not called high tea.  High tea was a meal which originated in the working class, when labor laws didn’t exist, and lunch breaks were therefore a luxury which most people did not have access to.  It...

Books and tea go together like peanut butter and jelly, or warm afternoons and sleeping outside in the grass.  As such, we’ve decided to run a quick series on famous authors, and the types of tea which they likely drank, starting first and foremost with the queen of the books and tea trope- Jane Austen. Austen lived from 1775- 1817, in England.  She was an extremely important figure in 19th century literature, and a contemporary of the Bröntes.  Because of where and when she lived, we can also assume a great deal about what she drank, and how she drank...