NEWSLETTERS
NEWSLETTER Nov 2006
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
Our Gift Section has been spruced up ready for the festive season – lots of new tea goodies. You are sure to find the perfect gift from the world of tea.
We introduce new teas for the autumn including Rose Marzipan [FB14], Almond [FB15] and our exciting new origin White Teas from Malawi, see this edition’s Tea Talk for more information. Also the return of our winter favourites White Christmas [FX02] and Yuletide Spirit [FX01].
If you visit our Accessories section you will find tea pots, cups and saucers, personal fillable teabags (so you can have your favourite loose teas on the move), our popular magic filter, rock sugars, sugar sticks and even tea sweets!
World Tea Expo
This speciality tea showcase exhibition, now in its fourth year and growing strongly, took place in Las Vegas in March 2006 with over 300 stands and 4,000 attendees. Nothing But Teas’ MD was invited to present a seminar on what actually happens during tea manufacture.
OUR CURRENT BESTSELLERS
- Pai Mu Tan WC01
- Red Lychee Balls EC12
- Temple Of Heaven GC05
- Silver Needle WC04
- Ti Kuan Yin OC01
Pai Mu Tan from China is still our long term best seller and in the past six months all five best sellers come from China – an Oolong, a Green, an Exotic display tea and two White Teas:
White teas are becoming so very popular that we are now featuring a unique range from Malawi.
TEA TALK:African White Teas
Satemwa Tea Estate in Thyolo, Malawi, is the smallest commercial tea garden in Malawi; it has been in the same family for three generations and makes some of the best black teas that Malawi sells. Technical collaboration between Satemwa and our associate company Teacraft Ltd has resulted in the perfection of a range of natural White Teas that are unique in flavour and to our knowledge are the only White Teas being produced in the whole of Africa.
White Teas traditionally come from China. When we first discussed hand made white teas with the Satemwa’s General Manager we didn’t know if it could be done or, if it could whether it would even taste of tea, and if it did whether we could teach the art of white tea making in the Dark Continent. Now we know the answer to each question is Yes! – and we let the teas speak for themselves.
White tea making begins in the field – hand plucking single buds (for Needles) and fine tender two leaves and a bud (for Peony). This is hard work and needs nimble fingers and great patience but white tea cannot be made from tough old leaf.
We are plucking leaf from a range of cultivars – bushes with local names of Zomba, Chilwa, Salima and Mulanje – each cultivar showing its own distinctive flavour and colour when the teas are finished.
White teas are minimally processed and are never made using machinery as are conventional green, black and oolong teas – everything is done by hand. First the plucked leaves are laid out to wither on a tray in a shady place – this gives slow loss of field moisture while, within the leaf, the finished flavour and aroma is generated. Depending on ambient conditions withering can take up to two days during which time the leaf is turned over – carefully to avoid bruising it - and inspected many times.
When the withered leaf is ready it is moved to a dry airy place, sometimes in the sun, sometimes in a breeze, depending on the local weather, to encourage drying. This process can take another two days before the leaf is crisp and dry – sufficient to keep it stable during storage. Before packing all Malawi White Tea leaf is carefully inspected again and sorted into grades.
At present we are selling six types of Malawi White Teas – all exclusive to Nothing But Tea and in small amounts only - and trials continue in Malawi so different tastes and types may be available soon. We suggest you steep your Malawi White Teas at 75°C (170°F) for five to six minutes – but do experiment to discover what suits your personal taste. And we find that multiple steeping gives a wonderful spectrum of flavours with rosy floral and spicy notes becoming more marked in successive steeps while the pale apricot hue of the liquor remains constant.
If your tap water is hard or chlorinated we recommend, for best results, using filtered water – our Bellima cellulose filters that soften hard water as you boil your kettle are ideal [AC30]. The Malawi wild crafted White Teas are available as single bud Needles – equivalent to Chinese Yin Zhen Needles, and young tippy Peony – equivalent to Chinese Pai Mu Dan - made from fine two leaf and a bud shoots. The colours, tastes, and aromas are not at all like standard China White Teas – but the delicacy and sweetness are similar.
A particularly pleasurable feature of these teas is the distinctive floral aroma on the infusion (the wet leaves) best enjoyed by separating leaf from liquor using an infuser or better still try our professional tea tasting set [AC03] – sniffing the warm infusion from beneath the lid offers a galaxy of changing aromas.
Now experience the world of African White Teas, try - Zomba Peony [WM01], Salima Peony [WM02], Zomba Needles [WM03], Salima Needles [WM04], Chilwa Needles [WM05] and Mulanje Needles [WM06].
DID YOU KNOW?
That Darjeeling’s unique “muscatel” flavour develops best when the bushes are infested with aphids?
That the first Instant Tea was produced back in 1885?
That the round tea bag uses just as much filter paper as the square one?
That in Orthodox black tea manufacture nothing is added, and only water is taken away? – the process is 100% natural.
That 1 kilogram of dry tea will make 40-50 gallons of hot tea to drink?
TEA MYTH & MYSTERY
There’s a whole lot of myths surrounding tea, many shrouded in the mists of time and others due to the ignorance of “common knowledge” – some we have heard recently are: tea is diuretic and dehydrates you; Orange Pekoe should taste of oranges; some teas will make you slim; green teas are healthier than black teas; tea bags are filled with floor sweepings; the English really know their tea; tea can be home-decaffeinated by a 30 second steep in hot water; monkeys were trained to pluck rare teas in old China . . . and so on. Occasionally in this Newsletter we will try to present the rational case for or against such misconceptions.
Right, to begin with then – did monkeys ever get trained to pluck tea leaves in China? Certainly the tea bushes were very much taller in the old times in China: without the constant pruning to maintain an easily accessed plucking table, as tea bushes are now managed, the bushes grew into small trees that could easily be 20 feet tall. Most of the tea garden tending in China was undertaken by Buddhist monks, and in pictures they always look old and venerable, hardly the types to climb up trees themselves. Furthermore there are any number of monkeys to be found in the parts of China where the tea grows. And certainly many China teas have Mao – Monkey – in their name. Consequently we fall easily into the myth that the Chinese monks trained local monkeys to pluck tea leaves from these tall tea trees. Seeking evidence to the contrary is not easy – but we find that the story is not a new one. A botanist Robert Fortune was sent to China by the London Horticultural Society to seek new plants, and returned there in 1848 on behalf of the British East India Company to visit tea factories and bring back tea seeds. John Fortune spent a considerable time in China and recorded his travels in a book entitled, with a simplicity that disguises the vast depth of tea knowledge he had acquired, “Visit to the Tea Districts of China and India” (publ. 1859). John Fortune also came across the trained monkey syndrome and commented dryly:
“The tea shrub is cultivated everywhere, and often in the most inaccessible situations, such as on the summits and ledges of precipitous rocks. Mr Ball <another contemporary tea author> states that chains are said to be used in collecting the leaves of shrubs growing in such places; and I have even heard it asserted that monkeys are employed for the same purpose, and in the following manner:- These animals, it seems, do not like work, and would not gather the leaves willingly; but when they are seen up amongst the rocks where the tea bushes are growing, the Chinese throw stones at them; the monkeys get very angry, and commence breaking off the branches of the tea shrubs, which they throw down at their assailants!
I should not like to assert that no tea is gathered on these hills by the agency of chains and monkeys but <if it is> I think it may be safely affirmed that the quantity procured in such ways is exceedingly small”
As John Fortune notes, monkeys are not so easily trained to undertake hard work and, with the exception of the long running Brooke Bond chimps have nothing to do with tea. I think, on balance, that the case for monkey plucked tea leaves is unproven and will vote this one as MYTH.
Chrissie Greetham
Nothing But Tea 2006
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
