Tea Blog - Learn All About Tea

Because We Care About Quality Many of our customers ask us why we don’t carry bagged tea.  It’s easy and convenient, and they consider themselves to be too busy to make loose tea a part of their lives.  The short answer is that it’s because we care about our customers, and the quality of our tea.  Tea bags constrict the leaves, preventing them from fully opening, and from fully imparting their flavor.  This isn’t a problem for most bagged tea, though, because it is already ground to dust.  Whole, loose-leaf tea has to be harvested more carefully in order to avoid...

Do you have a favorite tea?  Something that you drink every day?  Something that people who really know you know is your tea?  A Lapsang Souchong to your Sherlock Holmes?  An Earl Grey to your Charles Grey?   If so, you may be interested in Yixing.  Yixing is a traditional porous Chinese clay, which has been used to make tea pots since the Song Dynasty.  The point of Western teaware, and ceramics in general, is that, when it is washed, all of the tea which was brewed in it is washed away.  Yixing absorbs some of the tea which is...

5 Blog Key Takeaways: 1. **Introduction to Yerba Mate**: Yerba Mate is a caffeinated drink from South America that is not coffee or tea, but a unique plant. It's popular in Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Brazil, and Uruguay and traditionally consumed from a gourd using a straw called a bombilla.2. **Brewing Yerba Mate**: While traditionally steeped in a gourd, Yerba Mate can also be brewed like tea using any mug and infuser. Unlike true tea, it cannot be oversteeped or burned by using hot water.3. **Caffeine Content and Acidity**: Yerba Mate contains caffeine levels comparable to coffee but is much less acidic....

Halloween is approaching, and so we ask a spooky question.  What if your favorite tea isn't tea at all, but an impostor? Blog Key Takeaways: Definition of True Tea: True tea is defined as a beverage made by brewing the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant in near-boiling water. This includes all types of tea such as black, green, white, and oolong. Rise of Herbal Infusions (Tisanes): Over time, teas began to be flavored with various ingredients like jasmine, bergamot, and other fruits and flowers. Eventually, some beverages were made entirely of these flavorings without any true tea leaves, known...