NEWSLETTERS
NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2004
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
Here at Nothing But Tea I would really like get our fast growing customer base involved to find out what people really think of our teas. What I would like is for you to send in a consumer review of one or more of our teas, so if you feel like a tea taster waiting to get recognised, put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboards!) and send me your reviews. The best two that I receive between each newsletter will be featured next time and the writers will receive a starter set of their choice. We may also use the reviews to add to the online store descriptions of our teas – if the writer agrees.
We have some great new teas being added to the store shortly. These include Temple of Heaven Gunpowder, Green Pu Erh, Lychee White tea, Baked Apple Rooibos, and Green Rooibos Lemon Myrtle.
For those of you who are fans of our very popular Old Lady Georgian tea (made by Natela) please note - we have just received a shipment of Old Gentleman tea, similar in character to the Old Lady but with a slightly different taste and as the name suggests hand made by Iuri, a Georgian gentleman from another village.
COMING SOON
We have lots of new and exciting plans for the next twelve months. We plan to launch a limited edition range of different flavoured teas, each new flavour will have very limited stock and only be available for a short time.
You may have noticed that recently we have run out of some of the Choice Teas (particularly the Liquorice Peppermint). Unfortunately we will not be able to restock these teas, however due to the popularity we are working on a loose leaf Liquorice Peppermint version which we hope to have ready for sale by March 2005 – initial tastings are very well received by our panel.
Also don’t forget our Birthday sale when for one week only we reduce many of prices to celebrate our second birthday. Our Birthday celebrations will start on Monday 29th November until Sunday the 5th of December; all orders placed during that week will receive a free Nothing But Tea porcelain mug (made in Sri Lanka close to the tea fields).
With the festive season round the corner we have thought of some gift ideas for those who love tea. We have tea bags specially for the bath; the popular Indian Panorama chestlet containing five Indian teas (and makes a perfect pencil box when empty); plus the return of our Oolong Starter set (to which we have added an extra special oolong); the return of the large flowers gift set, and the tea lovers collection. With prices from £4 to £40 why not surprise and delight a special someone the gift of tea.
We will have a very small amount of a the really special tea Tongue of Bird Mao Feng green tea hand made from bushes grown in the valleys of the Yellow Mountains of Xi County in Anhui Province. Mao Feng means fur tipped and Tongue of Bird (EC21) is the tiniest most exclusive of the Mao Feng teas – judged to be one of the top three China greens – bright emerald green tips the size of a lark’s tongue – and a crystal clear liquor with a sweet chestnut taste.
The very, very best Tongue of Bird is reserved for diplomatic use only and not sold commercially, so unless our supplier has made a mistake, ours is the next grade – the best that you can find outside the Chinese diplomatic service.
We have only a limited amount available so orders will be filled strictly on a first come first served basis – after that we will try for some more but cannot guarantee it.
OUR CURRENT BESTSELLERS
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Pai Mu Tan
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Georgian Old Lady
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Choice Liquorice Peppermint
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Value Bag: Liquorice Peppermint
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Darjeeling 1st Flush Margaret’s Hope
TEA TALK - OOLONG TEA
Oolong is a semi oxidised tea traditionally from south east China, though now some excellent oolongs are also produced in Taiwan (Formosa). Ooolong combines the clarity and fragrance of green tea with the refreshing strength of black tea, and has a natural lingering aroma of its own.
The process method can vary dramatically between different oolongs – just as with black teas. We describe here the production of premium Phoenix Oolong from the Phoenix Mountains of northern Guangdong in Fujian Province where the warm moist Pacific air and the high elevation combine to make ideal conditions for high quality tea plantations.
The tea bushes grow at around 1,300 to 1,500 metres in damp air and mist, in soil that rarely dries out. Many of the bushes are propagated from very old trees that have been famed over the years for producing high quality teas. Some even can be traced back to the Sung Dynasty of 600 years ago, when oolong was first manufactured.
The best Phoenix tea is made in small village factories by tea masters - traditionally skilled craftsmen, each of whom guards his secret methods. Bushes are plucked around mid day when the leaf surface has lost its dew coating, unlike premium green teas where cool damp early morning leaves are preferred. Plucking at noon allows a couple of afternoon hours for the harvested leaf to be spread in thin layers and withered in the sun – an essential step for developing oolong character. Leaves are turned several times during sun wither to ensure that all are equally exposed to the hot sun light. Then the leaves are collected and cooled, and spread in the shade. During that evening and through the night the tea master will fluff and rub the leaves briefly by hand for a five minute period every 1 to 2 hours. Each time the massaging is done with more vigour so that, by the end of fermentation each leaf margin is reddish, while the leaf centre is green. During this stage essential volatiles are produced that give the oolong liquor its characteristic taste and aroma. Judging the extent and timing of fermentation demands great skill as it is affected by weather conditions before and after plucking and by the plucked leaf quality. The fermentation is halted by roasting the leaf in a large wok, traditionally charcoal fired but now more often electrically heated. This end of this brief drying process is judged by smell and it makes the leaf soft and pliable, ready for twisting. Exceptional quality oolongs are still hand twisted, but many villages have introduced small rolling machines. Phoenix oolong is a hard twisted leaf that liquors slowly and retains is flavour through several brewings.
Final drying is done in baking basket over wood charcoal, for five to ten minutes with a rest time of one or two hours in-between when the tea master will check progress.
This long and painstaking manufacture is typical of the very best village manufactured oolongs, but many fine oolongs are also made in larger tea factories in Fujian. All are a living link with the Sung Dynasty.
Now is the time, if you haven’t tasted it yet, to try our Phoenix Dancong (OC02)http://www.nbtea.co.uk/acatalog/Oolong_Tea.html
DID YOU KNOW?
1. Sri Lanka, famed for fine Ceylon tea and number one exporter of tea in the world, was developed by the British as a coffee growing country. In the mid 1860’s the fungal disease Coffee Rust wiped out hundreds of thousands of acres of coffee and bankrupted British planters: in desperation tea was introduced, and the rest, as they say, is history.
2. Although the English are world famed for tea drinking it is the Irish who consume most tea per head per year – the average Paddy brews up 2.78 kg, Turks each get through 2.69 kg, Libyans 2.63 kg, and the Brits come in at number 4 with 2.46 kg.
3. Little independent Black Sea state Georgia used to supply 95% of the total Soviet tea requirement. Production declined catastrophically from 200,000 tonnes per annum in 1990, just before the break up of the USSR, to just 8,000 tonnes per annum in 2002. Bushes, factories, and workers are now all idle.
Footnote
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
