Tea Blog - Learn All About Tea

When 17th Century master merchant Abu Taqiyya rose in the ranks of the Cairo elite, he witnessed what few people in Europe had seen. Various spices, medicines, coffee, and even ice traveled from the Eastern part of India to Europe and were sold along the Persian, Arab, Jewish, and Ottoman markets along the way. This lead to cultural differences in how life was documented and created a vast historical gap. Our record of life in the Indo-Persian-Muslim world is scarce compared to some others such as Western historians. Egypt came under Turkish, then Ottoman rule and in the 1800s, and the nation...

A relatively new health fad has hit the tea industry, and that health fad is turmeric.  Turmeric is a yellow spice which acts as a natural food coloring.  It is popular in India, as a major ingredient in many curries, and in Okinawa, an island of Japan, it is popular as a tea. Many people are interested in the fact that turmeric tea is such a popular drink in Okinawa, because Okinawans live unusually long lives.  The average lifespan of someone from Okinawa is 81.2 years.  When compared to a global average of 71.5 years, and the average in America,...

85% of tea consumed in the United States is consumed as iced tea, according to Wikipedia.  This is quite a departure from tea culture in the rest of the world.  Aside from America, Canada, and Thailand, the majority of the world drinks it’s tea hot.  In China, until recently, when Lipton broke into the market, tea is consumed hot, even in the summer.  In India, tea is traditionally served not only hot, but hot and spiced.  And in Japan, tea is served hot regardless of season.  Why, then, do American drink so much iced tea?  There are a few possible...

Terroir is a term used to describe the general conditions of a certain place, like the soil, climate, water, location and altitude, all which affect the final taste and aroma of wine.  The term can also be applied to the tea plant, Camellia sinensis. If you like wine, there is a big chance that you will like drinking loose leaf tea because of the complex flavors created by terroir. Rain is an important terroir factor that hugely influences the characteristics of tea and wine.  A rainy season may create large tea leaves and plump grapes, but with a much diluted flavor....