Tea in the box

Producing tea is very complex. The tea leave must go through several steps before it becomes a little tea bag that the consumer drops in a cup with hot water or a tea that we put in a filter using a tea spoon. And if the consumer can’t choose one of the tea, he just has to pick assorted teas to taste various kinds. The production process will follow after this short message of someone who has a lot on the heart.

Logic: I never understood why we must follow the alphabetical order. Today, let’s be crazy! Let’s just rewind a journey in the pants of a teacup instead of fast forwarding it.

Before we talk about how tea is made, we have to know that there is only one root of tea, but two species: Thea sinensis (China) and Thea assamica (India). The difference in taste lies in either the production method or by adding different flavors or aromas to make flavored tea (such as cinnamon or vanilla) or both of these reasons.

This kind of planting is probably one of the last agricultural products that is being harvested by hand, by the old school method. The quality of the tea is associated with the quality of the leave, which will be picked up by hand with love. It can also be done by machines, but they can decrease its quality.

Now, here are the steps of the production. Just imagine that you are a cup of tea and that you will rewind to the first second of your processing.

V: Before you buy your tea, it goes by the firing (or drying) step. It has to be under 3% of moisture. Your tea is not fired like coffee, it’s rather heated.
IV: The tea will go by an oxidation process. This step will be longer for darker teas (black teas) and much shorter for light teas (oolong). Oxidation makes the leaves darker because the chlorophyll (what makes the leaf green) is destroyed. It’s like when we leave an apple on the table, it turns to brown and some flies come and stay for 3 weeks, just because we forgot to put a piece of apple in the trash…
III: The third step is about rolling (not in the deep, here, unless you want to sing a song for tea processing!). Leaves are rolled, compacted to push out their water.
II: The leaves will start to wilt and wither (withering and wilting step, obviously…) outside under the sun.
I: It all starts with a picker who will choose, in early summer or late spring, the best leaves to harvest. He will take each leave with his thumb and his forefinger.
The IV step shows us why we can find aged teas (mostly black teas) which will be subject to the fermentation (a process that comes beside the oxidation).
And then, you will be able to buy your tea and enjoy your tea in peaceful surroundings, thinking about how hard it is to make tea.

There are several ways to enjoy tea offered to us. Preparing tea is mostly an art, but, for one time in your life, it’s an art which is accessible to everybody, including you! No need to have technical skills or an artistic talent.

A tea is not simply a beverage. You will notice – I do not have any doubt – that your sense of smell is well activated when you are preparing it. What comes to your nose is what we call the “aroma”. Smelling tea is a part of the process. You can’t miss this step. Plus, you will be able to admire its color, which can be dark or pale, depending on what tea you chose. For example, a Pu-erh tea will be a lot darker than a Darjeeling tea.

And, obviously, what you have in your cup not only serves to be observed, you have to taste it! And now, you can find it sour, bitter, tart, aromatic, complex, spicy, raw, strong, fresh, soft, biting, nervous, creamy, soft, sustained… I would have 1000 other qualifiers to tell you, but I’m already out of breath just by thinking about it. I suggest you to choose the qualifier you find yourself, feel inspired.

The first way consist in using a bowl that will receive the tea from a serrated cup with a lid. This set is used to prepare Darjeeling, but also for tasting teas before choosing one of them in the industry.

The second method is the “kyusu”. It is a kind of teapot employed to make green tea. It is made of clay or porcelain. It possesses a handle (to lift it, obviously, this is not rocket science) and a metallic grid to prevent that your Sencha organic tea, infused, is found in your cup and that your tea get more spicy.
Finally, the last but not least way, is to use the “zhong”, most commonly called “gaiwan”. It’s similar to the cup used in the “kyusu”, but it’s only a cup with a lid. We use it for infusions and teas. This method allows us to see the tea leaves changing from the first second to the last one.

Even if we learned some manners to prepare a tea, it’s not only about it. We have to follow several rules.

1. Used water must be low mineral and with high-standard (spring water would be perfect).
2. Never use boiling water. All teas have their own temperature.
3. Wash the teapot with boiling water (you now know that you have to throw it away if you read the rule number 2).
4. The dosage is made according to personal taste.
5. The infusion time should be respected.

Enjoying tea is an extraordinary moment that combines all our senses. We should take more time to do this. But, be careful to not burn your lips, tongue and mouth… We all know that it’s very annoying and long to heal. Now, enjoy your tea time!

Rejuvenate, age better, be healthy? These things are aspects of society right now. Many people dream of "eternal" life, or at least live as late as possible with the youngest possible body. It is not necessary to go over the operating table to rejuvenate. Traditional natural medicine is back in strength and teas will make you appreciate this way of doing things: rather than hurting your body with cosmetic surgeries, prevent aging in strength with tea!

They have antioxidants: polyphenols (the main or catechins and others a little less important). They help prevent cardiovascular disease and prevent certain cancers and other diseases caused by aging.

Green tea contains a lot of catechins (antioxidants). On the other hand, it should be known that, if you like black tea latte, the absorption of this molecule would be diminished. You will receive more, but you will get a lot less!

Black and green teas have lesser sources that will help prevent cardiovascular disease and cancer (which is a very good thing, considering that we are all in touch with someone who suffers from one or the other).

I have a tip to suggest that the benefits remain inside your tea and that it does not evaporate with the steam of boiling water: the longer the tea is infused, the more it will overflow with antioxidants. You should also know that in green tea, there are twice as many antioxidants as black.

Tea can also offer neuroprotection, meaning that when you get older, if you take 2 cups (or more, never too much) of green tea, the cognitive deterioration will be clearly lower (It will be easier for the person to orient and remember things) You have to be careful here: it's GREEN tea, not black or oolong. We can always hope that drinking eventually leads to benefits in the prevention of Alzheimer's. This hypothesis is not yet studied.

Finally, as if it were not enough, older women who drink tea every day would have better bone density (if it can help women avoid osteoporosis, that would be perfect, we talk about it so much at home. television…)

Do not forget: there are a multitude of other benefits that you can extract from tea: reduction of dental caries, help with the immune system, skin care, etc. In addition to aging more slowly and staying young, you can lose weight slowly with green tea (so a good reason to turn to this drink and learn to love it!)

So, do not hesitate to take a tea subscription that will offer you the opportunity to test several effects of tea, you will not be disappointed (e)!

Nous connaissons tous les sachets de thé qu’on achète simplement en magasins. Maintenant, les thés sont à la réforme : on peut aussi les prendre en pots, avec des sachets à côté et nos petites théières ou tasses de voyage. Oui, ça sert à aller plus vite le matin (ou à prendre bien son temps avec un petit service à thé), MAIS c’est très utile pour ajouter plusieurs autres ingrédients et inventer des thés !

Faisons un tour d’horizon sur certains thés spéciaux. Il faut savoir que beaucoup de thés sont très classiques (thé vert, thé chai, etc.), mais il y en a qui sont plus amusants, plus originaux.

Tout d’abord, on ne peut pas vous cacher que le thé se marie merveilleusement bien avec le chocolat (on s’excuse encore une fois les filles, encore une autre chose qui est bonne avec du chocolat…!) On le retrouve donc avec plusieurs autres saveurs (ou seulement au chocolat) comme la menthe, l’orange, la noix de coco, etc. Ce peut être un thé rooibos, un thé noir, un thé vert, et bien d’autres sortes. Il suffit de trouver ce qui vous charme le plus, de goûter et de tester. Les thés chocolatés sont aussi assez simples à faire : tu auras besoin de thé (tu t’en serais sûrement douté) de sucre, d’eau et de chocolat noir (du noir, pas du chocolat au lait, n’oublie pas).

Ensuite, pour ceux qui ne sont pas de fidèles amoureux du chocolat, il existe d’autres façons de déguster un bon thé, moins sucré : les thés aux fruits. On associe souvent le thé aux agrumes (citron, lime et autres), mais on peut aussi en trouver aux petites baies sauvages (ou aux fruits, simplement). Donc, tu l’auras deviné, on peut se créer une multitude de boissons différentes, sans craindre de rater celles-ci. Je pense que tu peux laisser s’exprimer ton âme et y mettre ce que tu désires le plus. Que tes fruits soient en purée, entiers ou en morceaux, ajoute-les à ton thé !

Tranche de vie : J’imagine que tu as remarqué que beaucoup de gens ont commencé à prendre de l’eau et y incorporer des fruits pour que les saveurs s’y propagent.

Laisse-moi te dire un petit secret : ils ont juste oublié d’ajouter du thé pour rehausser les saveurs et relever leur goût. Peu de gens le savent, mais, ajouter du thé à cette eau est une solution idéale pour boire quelque chose de génial !

Ainsi, tu auras un thé aux fraises, un thé aux bleuets ou un thé aux framboises à ta propre image. Tu veux mettre des fruits rouges comme tu en as envie ? À ta guise. Tu peux inventer ton propre breuvage. N’hésite pas à tester, à faire des erreurs, mais aussi à créer des chefs d’œuvre. N’aie pas peur de laisser aller le cuisinier en toi, ajoute les herbes qui pourraient rendre ton thé exceptionnel !

Fais comme tu le désires, écoute ton cœur et ton thé sera parfait.

At first, we all know that tea is a hot beverage, but when it’s too hot outside, when we can’t stop sweating and when we only have one thing in our mind – cool down – it seems that this option is not really the best. We opt for a beverage very cold instead of this: iced tea.

What is perfect with iced tea is that there is the possibility to have several flavours, most of the time these are fruits, which remind us of these hot days of summer. So, don’t forget that you can use herbs and fruits (we usually see lime or lemon, but if you want to put strawberries or cranberries in it, feel free) to mix them with the tea, if there are not yet. Iced tea means two different things: a cooled tea or a tea with ice.

We can also add, just to make it funnier and to give a sweet taste to iced tea, things that we call iced tea sweeteners. These sweeteners can be found as syrups or sticks. You can bring your sticks everywhere you want. That’s a simple way to add some happiness in your life!

Iced tea has now covered a big part of the planet, from west to east, in almost all countries, and, obviously, every culture puts his two cents in his recipe. At some places, this one is sweetened, but it can be carbonated (or not), flavored (or not), etc.

A lot of brand marks developed their own recipe (Lipton, Nestle, Brisk, Coca-cola and a lot more…) All these companies are fighting (oh yes, they are, always, they want more notoriety) and they wish they make happy the greater amount of palates all around the world, as in everything.

Surprisingly, iced tea successfully reached Asian cultures. For everybody, it is simple, efficient and quick: we can bring this beverage everywhere, because you find it most of the time in bottles. It’s also simple to do it. So, get your pitcher!

Wait, there are some rules to follow if you want to have a perfect iced tea:
1. Don’t be stingy on tea.
2. Don’t infuse too much (use more tea).
3. Add sugar when it’s hot (or use syrup/sticks)
4. Wait so it cool down a little bit before refrigerating.
5. Do it yourself even if bottled ones are good!

Now, you need your imagination. First, you have to infuse the tea leaves, no matter which you chose (but, you have to make sure they stay in water for the proper time) in water at room temperature for 30 minutes or more (until a full night).

Here, you will have to think about what you love. Use your fantasy: add herbs and fruits, and ice (of course… I know you knew). Everything is going to be perfect, trust yourself.

Get your cups on the table, enjoy the sun with a cooling beverage! Don’t be shy to do it when it’s snowy or when it’s cold outside, it’s always refreshing.