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Monkey Picked Black?! I need to try this.New tea blend. MateVana, JavaVana and Monkey Picked Black. #nofilter #tea #drink #instahealth (Taken with instagram)
This is an abomination. You don’t blend good tea. I know it’s teavana and horrible. But if it’s their top shelf stuff, arguably still shitty as all hell, why, why would you drown it in all this other shit.
To celebrate the arrival of the 2012 spring harvest of teas we decided to update all of our images on the driftwood tea website.
Tea essentially is a product to be consumed however, selling it online there are obviously some limitations to trying it before purchase. Every tea I select for driftwood I have done so because I believe it tastes fantastic. While I try to describe them as honestly as possible - and seek different opinions on each to check others agree with me - one of the first things I remember being taught at Le Cordon Bleu was that as humans we are visual creatures, consuming with our eyes before our mouths.
Over the course of my career, firstly as a personal chef and then more recently in the media, I’ve been fortunate to work with some outstanding food stylists and photographers. I’ve always been astonished at how creatively they can present dishes.
When it comes to photographing tea there’s a fine line tread by all online retailers as we try to show our teas in their best light without too heavily stylising and misrepresenting them. I really hope an honest representation of our teas is something we’ve managed to achieve with our new naturally light images. By photographing them this way the white tea remains white without being artificial. The same with our green teas and oolongs, we feel we’ve captured their natural beauty, and that now they look as good as they taste.
James
Tea Picking:
I was heading half way down the mountain from Darjeeling to the town of Kurseong, where I would be exploring the growing and making of tea a bit further at the Makaibari Tea Estate, the oldest in Darjeeling.
First on the agenda was to check in to my accommodation, a home stay with the estates pharmacist Sheila and her family. I was put up with yet more fleecy blankets and running water as well as a fully-comp set of lunch, breakfast and dinner. Sheila and the family were lovely, hardy types who could not have been more welcoming.
But I had tea to make, so was shown round the expansive fields of tea bushes by Danna. We met the ladies who spend 8 hours a day picking the tops of the leaves for, well, pittance. They get paid Rs 90 (£1.10) a day if they pick 8kg. If they pick less than 7 they get fined. If they pick more than 10kg, they get a small bonus. It is certainly not much compensation for the back breaking work of toiling the steep fields all day, 6 days a week.
2 Danish medical students are also staying with families around the estate and they have seen the abundance of back and neck problems in the clinic. Holding up 8kg of tea on your forehead is no good for your long term posture.
At lunch and dinner the ladies return to the factory to submit their harvest and the large factory gears into action. Drying, rolling and sorting were all in action during my visit. All of them playing a part in extracting the flavour so popular with the British.
And my most interesting fact from the day: during the sorting all the leaves are classified. The category which makes its way into standard tea bags is labelled by the factory as “dust”.
Be warned. I might be a tea snob from here on in.
The Chinese Tea Ceremony
If you ever feel hipster enough to want to perform this for your guests or for any occasion you host, this ceremony will make you the “cool tea enthusiast kid.”
Timing and Decor:
Even if your occasion has a different theme, using this ceremony to unwind or bring up deeper conversations is a great way to have thought-provoking conversation. If you even have a theme, try to incorporate some Chinese trinkets. You don’t need all the Chinese gods, but you also don’t want to use old Chinese food cartons (unless you can turn it into your own original art with the fortune cookies being a dragon that’s trying to find the phoenix).
What Tea do I use?
Best tea to use would be oolong, but green, white, or Darjeeling is perfectly ok. Oolong teas are a Chinese sport. The Oolong artist that makes the best tasting Oolong is a renown achievement. Now there are a few flavors of Oolong, but for me the buttery-sweet is the best taste.
The Tools You’ll Need:
- brewing vessel, Yixing teapot, porcelain teapot, or a covered bowl gaiwan.
- tea pitcher (chahai), or any matching size decanting vessel, used to ensure the consistency of the flavor of the tea (Chinese: 公道杯, Pinyin: gōng dào bēi)
- hot water kettle, e.g. an electric kettle
- brewing tray, or a deep, flat bottom porcelain plate to hold spills (there will be spills)
- tea towel or tea cloth, usually dark-colored
- tea spoon (tea pick) for clearing the teapot spout, and clearing tea leaves etc.
- tea cups (traditionally 3 cups are used in most instances), matching size
- timer
- strainer, a tea strainer (Chinese: 漏斗, Pinyin: lòu dŏu) sometimes built into the tea pitchers
- tea holder, tea leaf holder for weighing and dispensing, or a wooden tea spoon to measure the amount of tea leaves required (Chinese: 茶匙, Pinyin: chá chí)
- optional: tea basin, bowl as the receptacle for used tea leaves and refuse water
- optional: scale
- optional: kitchen thermometer
- optional: scent cup (snifter cup) used to appreciate the tea’s aroma (Chinese: traditional聞香杯, simplified 闻香杯, Pinyin wén xiāng bēi)
- optional: A pair of tongs called “Jiā” (Chinese: 挾) or “Giab” in both the Chao Zhou and Min Nan dialects.
Source for Tools: Wikipedia
General Suggestions:
The tray under the set is a nice tool to catch the flowing water, but hey budgets are tight these days so my suggestion is to find a cloth that’s pretty and yet you don’t mind if it’s soiled.
Buy a “dull” Yixing pot like the one in the video. Brown or gray or black. Fancy is fine, there isn’t anything wrong with it, but by choosing the simple pot you can drink tea like the Chinese farmers do, with pride in the simple aspects of life.
If your friends think you’re weird, an Asian-wannabe, or have had bad experiences with tea, tell them that by sitting down and at least trying a cup they may see otherwise. If they don’t then at least you got them to sit down and have this serious discussion about why they think you’re weird.
Brought to you by TeaHeez.
