Slashfood

Tea Company Spotlight - Tea Frog

Brandice Schnabel — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 10:01:00 EST

Filed under: Teas, Business, North America

This is the first interview in a series of interviews called Tea Company Spotlight that I'd like to do with tea owners from all the tea companies around the world.

My first interview is with Mike Morton, the owner and founder of TeaFrog, founded in 2006 and based online out of Oakville, Ontario with distributors throughout Canada. I've spoken with Mike through reviewing many of his teas for the STeaP podcast since late 2007, and he was all too happy to answer a few questions about his company.

BRANDICE: Tell us a bit about starting your company.

MIKE: I have been a tea drinker for all of my life, and until about 4 years ago, the only tea I knew was Orange Pekoe Tetley Teabags. :) My daughter visited Japan in 2004 and the family that she stayed with sent back a gift package of good green tea. At the time I had no idea how to brew it, taste it, etc, and we could not even read the packaging because it was all in Japanese! We figured out how to make it eventually, and were surprised at how amazing it was compared to the teabag store bought that we had been drinking. As I started to research and explore tea, I grew a passion for finding good tea, and sharing what I knew with friends and family. As I grew evermore - lets say, *obsessed* with it, I started to notice that tea was getting more popular, but the outlets for different varieties and flavors for experimenting with were limited. I just naturally took what I knew about business from previous experience, paired it with a passion, and lo and behold, TeaFrog was born! :)

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Tavalon Tea - Tea Soda

Brandice Schnabel — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:01:00 EST

Filed under: Teas, How To, Boiling, Soda, Sugar

Chris Cason is Tavalon's tea sommelier, and in this clip, he explains out to create simple syrup infused with tea, which can then be turned into a tea soda that sounds really quite tasty! I'm looking forward to trying this out on my own at some point. Have any of you created a unique beverage with tea?

[Source: Tavalon at Viddler]

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Coffee to Tea Convert Contest

Brandice Schnabel — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:01:00 EST

Filed under: Teas, America, Summer

Are you a writer who also enjoys tea? There's a contest going on over at Felicitea that offers an opportunity to showcase your writing talents for free tea and other prizes. There's only about a week left, so don't waste any time if you read about the contest and want to participate!

Here's the overview, straight from Felicitea's site:

Write: We're looking for poetry, prose, whatever you like. Feel free to haiku or make up a limerick, or write out a concise little paragraph. Just write about tea and it's relationship to you, your friend, or your last cup of coffee.

We want to connect new drinkers to tea, convert a coffee drinker (or other non-tea drinking people) or two over (at least get them to try good tea!) and reconnect tea lovers with what it is they love about tea.

Tea drinkers it is your responsibility to help the coffee drinkers of the world. You are charged with helping them understand the joy of tea. If you are a convert tell your story. If you love tea, but still enjoy an occasional cup of coffee it's okay, but what about the tea keeps you coming back to the pot all day? Share with the Internets why they should kick that coffee habit. If you have a friend you're nominating, be specific.

Coffee/Non-tea drinkers this is your chance to tell us why you drink coffee (or something else) instead of tea. This is your chance to tell all us tea drinkers what it is that makes you go for the espresso instead of the Earl Grey. Did you have a bad tea bag experience? Convinced all green tea is bitter? Are you willing to give it a shot but don't know where to start?

For the detailed rules and the prizes, click to read on!

Continue reading Coffee to Tea Convert Contest

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Weekly Tea Bits: Rishi, memory, gimhae & gongfu

Brandice Schnabel — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:01:00 EST

Filed under: Teas, On the Blogs, Lists, Food News

Rishi is putting Milwaukee on the world tea map

Rishi took home seven first place awards at the recent World Tea Expo. They are definitely doing something right, and I personally recommend their Jade Cloud tea.

Cup of tea may ease memory problems

It turns out that the flavinoids in tea may actually help ease symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases, and there seems to the possibility that flavinoids in tea may help repair the damage, not just stop it.

A test in the art of gimhae style tea bowls

Teaware geeks will enjoy this write up by MattCha about Korean style gimhae tea bowls, complete with a brief history of this teaware style and several pictures of some very nice bowls.

32 Gongfu Tea Tables

This is a great article on gongfu tea tables, with in-depth comparisons that you really won't find anywhere else. It's very cool of the author to share all the info collected while on his own quest for hte perfect gongfu tea table. Bookmark this one if you ever want to get into gongfu tea preparation!

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Water for tea: Temperature matters

Brandice Schnabel — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:01:00 EST

Filed under: Teas, How To, America

When I first began to dabble in green tea, I absolutely hated it. It was bitter, drying to the mouth, wretched taste, and I was left for a long time feeling that green tea just wasn't for me. Many people I knew who drank black tea felt the same way, so I concluded that green tea was for the few who had the palette for it.

Of course, this was during a time when the only other tea drinkers I knew were buying Bigelow or Lipton bags and, like myself, just throwing them in some boiling hot water and coming back whenever we remembered to take the bag out, squeezing the bag thoroughly to get the last drops into the cup.

I shudder these days when I think about how badly I was scalding my first attempts at green tea, and I marvel that I enjoyed any tea at all, considering the way in which I was preparing it. This is a predicament many novice tea drinkers find themselves when it comes to anything other than black tea: you're scalding (and probably over-steeping it).

Continue reading Water for tea: Temperature matters

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Why you should read 101 Wines

Brandice Schnabel — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:01:00 EST

Filed under: Tastings, Wine, Lunch, Dinner, Books, America, Celebrities

If you're a Vayniac, you already know that Gary Vaynerchuk came out with a book called 101 Wines Guara nteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder to Your World. Marisa announced the book here at Slashfood about a month and a half ago, and I just got my hands on a copy a few weeks ago.

I didn't put it down until I had at least looked at every single wine on the list. It's Gary first list of favorite and recommended wines, and it's chock full of enthusiasm, energy, and genuinely great recommendations.

Here are some ways this book can be useful for you:

Exploring wine if you've never really tried wine before and have no idea where to start.

Choosing great wines for specific occasions from Gary's very cleverly organized and insightful lists for any event.

Finding the best wine for that flavor profile you really like (best dry Reisling, best "fruit bomb" red, etc.).

Learning how you can become better at recognizing what you like about wine and what wines you're passionate about (hint: drink more wine!).

Understanding that wine can be fun, and that it doesn't have to be serious or snobby.

What I really love about this book is the genuine authenticity that just reverberates from everything that Gary has to say. Each individual wine write-up is like getting to read an episode of Wine Library TV, chock full of enthusiasm, honesty, and insightful wine wisdom. The only thing I would change about the book is that, for a truly ignorant wine novice like myself, it's hard to tell which wines are white or red, etc., which is important for me since I have a hard time really enjoying reds and wanted to go through and pick out all of the wines that I knew I would want to try right off of the bat. A quick cheat sheet or wine primer at the beginning of the book (Petite Sirah is red, Reislings are white, etc.) would have been really helpful for me.

Overall, the book is well written, very straightforward in Gary's typical style, and I think it has potential to really help the everyday wine enthusiast reach a level of immersion in the wine world that many of us don't think we can reach. It can be expensive to start out in wine and buy a bottle of everything, especially if you're back at square one when the wine isn't a quality example of the genre you're trying to explore. This book makes jumping into every corner of the wine world a real possibility for every wine drinker, and that is something really worth sharing. Keep a copy handy for your own trips to the liquor store, and give a copy to a wine-loving (or wine-curious) friend!

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Rooibos 101 - South Africa's red tea

Brandice Schnabel — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:01:00 EST

Filed under: Teas, South Africa, Did you know?

There are a lot of ways that tea blenders use rooibos (sometimes called "red tea") these days, whether it's in a straight herbal tea (tisane) or blended with real teas to add flavor to the blend. A quick glance at Wikipedia shows that one common way to describe its flavor is "sweet (without sugar added) and slightly nutty" and I find this to be true. Sometimes I find myself mistaking a rooibos flavor for adding vanilla in a blend, only slightest earthier.

What is rooibos? When I started STeaP with my co-host Joe, I asked the same question of Joe and was told that it's a tree bark, but have since learned that rooibos is a bush-like plant that belongs to the legume family. It's native to South Africa, specifically the Western Cape region. Rooibos is completely caffeine-free, so it's a healthy alternative for those who avoid caffeine.

Preparation of a straight rooibos is the same as that of a black tea (boiling water temperature, additives such as milk and sugar can add to the experience), and processing of the rooibos plant is also similar, involving oxidation (which is often inaccurately referred to by the tea world as "fermentation"). There is an unoxidized form of rooibos (commonly called "green rooibos" as opposed to red), but it's less commonly used and more expensive than the typical "red tea." When preparing a tea with rooibos, remember to keep in mind that rooibos is very, very fine and dust can often slip through tea balls and other infusers. Use a very fine mesh infuser to make your rooibos, such as the Finum brewing basket.

Rooibos is used by almost every tea company I frequent, many creating blends that focus on the rooibos as a primary component, while some add rooibos more as an added flavor to a traditional tea. I've seen very creative uses, such as rooibos chai, rooibos earl grey, and in South Africa, there is a company that has patented a red espresso. I personally recommend Adagio's Foxtrot tea (it's actually a tisane), which is my favorite way to enjoy rooibos. What's your favorite way to enjoy rooibos?

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Iced tea: Tips and the new Tea-Over-Ice

Brandice Schnabel — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:01:00 EST

Quality iced tea (i.e. iced tea made from quality loose leaf tea) can be confusing because it's made in different ways by different people. I've been reviewing teas for several months now, and even I haven't been sure of the best way to make iced tea until very recently, when I finally decided (through necessity of the hot weather) to try it on my own.

The first thing you should know is that you should not make sun tea. This is a long-used method of throwing the tea in a pitch of water and then letting that pitcher of water sit out in the sun... at exactly the perfect temperature to breed bacteria and potentially make you sick.

Yes, your grandmother's made it since you were a kid or your mother says it's fine, but trust me. Sun tea is a bad idea, and even if it weren't, there is very popular method of making iced tea that eliminates any need to leave your tea in a jar out in your yard all day.

Continue reading Iced tea: Tips and the new Tea-Over-Ice

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Tea samples: Inexpensively expand your horizons

Brandice Schnabel — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Teas, Stores & Shopping, Lists

When getting into high quality tea, the options can be a bit overwhelming. You can read all the right information about tea preparation, teaware, and all the different types of tea, but knowing what flavors you like and what teas you'll lean toward is an ongoing process that can get pricey if you're buying high quality tea and buying it four or more ounces at a time (typical purchase quantities).

The answer to this dilemma is something that I have a lot of fun with: tea samples. They're relatively cheap (allowing for great varety for the same price), they're a small commitment (low guilt if you just pitch the ones you don't like), they don't take up a lot of space (I have a drawer full of them), and they're easy to mail (if you don't like a tea, cheap postage will send it on to another tea drinker!).

In fact, they're so convenient that I still buy samples of tea that I do like, because I drink through my tea supply slowly (due to the huge variety of tea I have) and the unopened packets stay fresh. I also frequently send samples of my favorite teas to friends (a bundle of tea samples makes a nice gift).

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Tea and kids

Brandice Schnabel — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:01:00 EST

Filed under: Parties, Teas, America, North America

Looking to start your kids on tea early?

Mlive.com has some great tips for hosting a tea and garden party for children. From the kid-friendly peanut butter or cheese filling for finger sandwiches, to the cupcake decoration station and the small kid-sized gardening projects, this sounds exactly like something I would have loved as a child.

The article mentions having caffeine-free teas for children, and I think this is an excellent idea as well. When having a party for children, it's generally not a good idea to pump the kids full of anything that's going to very suddenly make life stressful for you as the host, and caffeine-free is usually a good policy for kids in general. Fruit or mint-flavored tisanes (herbal teas) would be an obvious choice for refreshing flavors that won't be too far outside a younger child's typical flavor palette

I also think that for kids, painting their own personalized tea cups at a place like Color Me Mine (most of you probably have a similar "paint your own pottery" studio in your local area) would make a tea party a lot of extra fun. Most kids love an art project, and then they can all drink their tea while showing off their one-of-a-kind painted tea cups. Keep in mind that the pottery takes time to complete after being painted, so remember to plan two separate afternoons: one for painting and one for drinking tea out the finished artwork.

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Dabbling in tea blending

Brandice Schnabel — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 12:01:00 EST

Filed under: Teas, Coffee, America

Are you looking to get into making loose leaf tea blends, but don't want to spend the money buying large quantities of numerous teas and then blending everything on your own? There are a few companies these days that are willing to do the work for you.

Adagio.com and Design a Tea currently have the most well-know options for creating your own custom blends online. They arrive at your door already blended, labeled, and ready to steep, but you should keep in mind that while you're getting a custom blend without all of the work a custom tea blender has to do, you're sacrificing some of the advantages. These companies will offer a limited number of teas to choose from, you can only blend a certain number of teas, and you won't know until you've paid for and received the tea if it's a success or not (and tweaking the blend will involve an additional purchase each time a change is made).

Keeping those things in mind, making your own custom blends can be a lot of fun. The differences between the two companies I've mentioned would be quantity, price, and options. Adagio allows you create a unique tea tin label with your own image, they award Adagio points if anyone else buys your custom blend (redeemable for a certain dollar amount toward tea!), they allow up to three teas in each blend (allowing you to choose the proportions), and you receive a 4 oz. tin of your tea. Design a Tea allows one choice of tea with up to two added flavorings, there is an option for customized label text, and they provide more options in terms of size and quantity (they will also package your blend in tea bags for you).

If tea isn't your thing, I also stumbled across JL Hufford Build-Your-Own Espresso. Looks like fun for coffee drinkers!

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Matcha fruit smoothies

Brandice Schnabel — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:31:00 EST

Filed under: Teas, Snacks, Recipes, How To, Summer

Are you an avid tea drinker looking for a different way to enjoy your tea this summer? A lot of tea drinkers go iced in the warm summer months, some even adding lemonade to their iced tea, but there is an even colder way to enjoy your tea in the summer months if you enjoy green tea: smoothies!

Below you will find the recipe for my personal summer tea concoction, which will require matcha (powdered green tea). Matcha is high in caffeine content compared to regular steeped tea, so you may not want to indulge in one of these smoothies too late in the day.

INGREDIENTS
1 tsp matcha (powdered green tea)
4 oz. cup of fruit-flavored yogurt (Light 'n Fit works well, low in sugar)
frozen strawberries (or other desired fruit)
frozen peach slices (or other desired fruit)
apple juice

Continue reading Matcha fruit smoothies

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Teaware 101: Leaving tea bags behind

Brandice Schnabel — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:05:00 EST

Filed under: Teas, How To, America

Even the more casual tea drinkers know these days that loose leaf teas provide a better quality cup of tea, lacking in that "paper bag" taste that can often be experienced when drinking bagged tea. More and more companies are providing nylon mesh tea bags that impart less of that flavor, but there is still the issue of the tea leaves having little room to unfurl.

One of the most common excuses for not jumping into the realm of loose leaf tea is that most people who've been making bagged tea for the entire span of their tea-drinking existence don't know how to conveniently and easily make a cup of loose leaf tea, which is all about knowing what equipment you need.

Traditional teaware varies, depending on the type of tea, but basic teaware to start off a journey into quality tea is less complicated. Many start with a tea infuser (often called a tea ball or sometimes a tea egg), but really, the typical tea infuser is still quite small and confining, and will likely hinder the proper diffusion of the tea leaves as they try to properly expand in the hot water.

Continue reading Teaware 101: Leaving tea bags behind

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