NEWSLETTERS

NEWSLETTER May 2007

Welcome to 'The world of tea', the Nothing But Tea's bi-annual newsletter, in which we keep you up to date with all the news from Nothing But Tea and the fast growing tea world.

NEW

There have been lots of changes here and more nice ones to come. We upgraded our shopping cart software over the New Year so we could implement some improvements to the site.

The first of these is our new loyalty scheme operating from 1st of April. The scheme will run quarterly and will give customers a 5% cash back on their quarterly purchases rounded up to the nearest whole £1.

The second will be the relaunch of the Tea Buffs Club. When registered, Tea Buffs will have a separate area on the website to which only they can gain access. Here the Tea Buffs will find special offers, and new special or rare limited availability teas that are only available to them. Our roving tea man brings back tea from all over the world and he will be making this available to the Club.

To take advantage of both schemes customers will need to have a ‘log on’ for the shopping cart system. To create an account please email your name and postcode to chrissie@nbtea.co.uk

As ever we have added some exciting new teas. Including some new Ceylons: Uva Highlands and a Dimbula, a new Kenya black tea, a new oolong origin from Vietnam, a new yellow tea, the wonderful fiery Mexican Mango - a punchy blend of Mango, black tea and chilli. Lemon pepper rooibos, a Violet flavoured green tea and some new tisanes.

 

World Tea Expo

Nothing but Tea will be attending this year’s World Tea Expo in Atlanta, Georgia from the 9-11th June. We will be showing our handmade Malawi White and Georgian teas and some Inuit tisanes which we may have as guest teas later this year. If you happen to be in the area why not pop in? or at least click on www.worldteaexpo.com

OUR CURRENT BESTSELLERS

Pai Mu Tan returns to number one slot, and a few minty surprises enter the list!

1. 1. Pai Mu Tan WC01
2. Jasmine Phoenix Eyes EC14
3. Personal Tea Bags AC17
4. Spearmint TH08
5. Moroccan Mint FG04
   

 

TEA TALK:

Withering

When plucked fresh in the field tea leaves are crisp and if rolled in the hand will break up into flakes. Rolling machinery in the tea factory needs a soft pliable material to form into the stylish curled and twisted shapes that are typical of premium teas. Withering, at least in the sense that a teaman uses the word, means gently losing moisture from the fresh leaf until the resulting withered leaf is limp and ready for the rolling stage. This means losing some 25 to 50% of the weight of the fresh leaf as evaporated water, and the process takes around 18 hours.

Before we consider exactly what happens in withering we should be clear which teas do and don’t need withering to develop their character.

Green Teas – no wither. Pliable leaf is achieved by steaming (Japanese green teas) or by parching – dry heating in a wok (China green teas)

All other teas require withering, but the style of this varies.

White Teas – very slow and gentle wither often initially in sunlight and then under shade, in thin layers, for up to three days.

Oolong Teas – also begin with 1 or 2 hours of sun withering, then into shade for 16 hours during which time the leaf is “fluffed” many times by hand to gently bruise it.

Black Teas – leaf for these used to be thinly spread on tats (banks of mesh trays) but now it receives 16 to 18 hours of drying on special troughs that allow warmed air to be blown through the bed of leaf until the correct moisture content is achieved.

Fresh leaf photosynthesizes in sunlight and produces glucose. Further biosynthesis produces a range of compounds that are temporarily stored in the leaf cells as starch and proteins and fats. Loss of water during withering causes the leaf to mobilize its stored reserves converting them to sugars amino acids and lipids – all of which are essential for the development of aroma volatiles and flavours during the rolling and oxidation processes.

This electron microscope photograph of two chloroplasts in a tea leaf cell after 1 hour of withering clearly shows large white starch grains – stored carbohydrate which will be fully solubilized into sugar within 8 or 10 hours. There are about 200 tiny chloroplasts in each leaf cell and each one is a biochemical powerhouse.

After 13 hours withering the chloroplast shows no starch grains but dark staining lipid globules can be seen as the leaf’s fat reserves are also solubilized.

At this stage the leaf is almost ready biochemically for oxidation, but withering usually continues to around 16-18 hours to ensure that the leaf is physically ready for rolling or cutting.

The amount of moisture lost from the leaf determines to a great extent the type of tea that will be produced:

Soft wither – little water loss – strong pungent and coloury black CTC teas of Assam and Africa

Medium wither – moderate water loss – orthodox black teas of Assam and Ceylon low country teas with more aroma than CTC teas

Hard wither – much water loss – Ceylon high grown teas with pronounced aroma and flavour

Very hard wither – extreme water loss to the point where some leaf is too dry to oxidize and remains green in the made tea – Darjeelings and Nepals with world famous aroma

Tea tasters can tell just by looking at and tasting the finished tea whether the withering process has been carried out correctly in the factory. Some of the clues to bad withering are:

Harsh metallic taste – wither too short, not enough moisture loss

Flakey leaf – if black and flakey then wither too short (too soft) and if green and flakey then wither too long or too hard

Acid fruity aroma and taste – often due to bacterial growth when rain wetted leaf is withered too slowly or not dried before withering

Plain tasting tea grey in the cup – over long or over hot wither

 

DID YOU KNOW?

Earl Grey Tea – tea legend has it that this ever popular flavoured tea was named after Charles Grey, the second earl in his line. He was Prime Minister to King William IV in the early 19th Century. The story is that the Earl was given the recipe by a Chinese mandarin with whom he was friends, and whose life he had saved. However the facts are that the Second Earl Grey never visited China and the Chinese, not being black tea drinkers are unlikely to have had a recipe to give, and to add to the confusion Bergamot trees (that yield the essential Earl Grey flavour) do not grow in China.

First word of tea in English – though well known in Chinese writings from 222 AD and Japanese from 805 AD the first inkling of tea in England was in 1597 in a translation of Dutch navigator Jan Hugo van Lin-Schooten’s Travels. He called the beverage Chaa.

British tea taxation – by 1684 tea was selling in Holland for less than a shilling a pound (5 pence a kilogram) but in England the import duty alone was 5 shillings a pound which encouraged widespread smuggling – more illegal tea was consumed than lawful. Eventually muddled English tea taxation led to the East India Company having seven years’ unsold tea stock in their London warehouse; to the Boston Tea Party, and to the American War of Independence.

 

 

 

Chrissie Greetham
Nothing But Tea 2007

Foot Note

We are always looking for ways to improve our site and our service. If you have any comments or feedback, or anything you would like to see here, please write to chrissie@nbtea.co.uk