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TEA TASTING AND BLENDING EVENT - 21 March 2009
Thirty five members and their friends joined an educational, entertaining and very flavoursome time under the expert eye of master tea-blender, Alex Probyn. Alex explained his career through training with Tetleys, travelling to 140 estates, and into running “Blends for Friends”. We also learned how tea is manufactured – all from essentially the same plant. Our timetable and the teas we tasted are listed here. We overran to 2.30pm due to the high level of interest and questions.
Cake Recipes in demand included: New Zealand Moist Carrot Cake as well as the delicious Lemon Drizzle Cake (now added to the Lynsted.com Cookery Book)
As we navigated white, green, and black teas and herbal infusions, we learned some surprising facts:
- The average UK person consumes 45,000 cups of tea in a lifetime (2.5 a day); Alex tastes over 1 million each year (and spits most of those out again for the sake of his bladder).
- China “invented” tea drinking 5,000 years ago (legend has it a herbalist monk, Shen Nung, sat under a Camellia sinensis tree when a leaf fell in his hot water); Japanese Buddhists joined in 1,500 years ago, when they realised tea helped keep their concentration up for meditation; the Dutch and Portuguese learned of tea in the 17th century and only when Charles II married Catherine of Braganza did the UK start. So rare were these teas that they were kept in locked boxes.
- Left alone to grow, Camellia sinensis grows to 50 feet tall and used to be harvested by trained monkeys! Trees tend now to be cut to waist level today.
- Although tea trees thrive best between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, there is a small Tea Estate at Tregothnern, Truro, Cornwall.
- Tea bags started life in 1940’s America as silk purses meant for transportation and delivery of samples – but people started to put tea leaves and silk bag into the hot water and our tea bag was born. Tetley introduced the tea bag to the UK in the 1950’s and now 98% of all tea we drink comes from a bag – but loose leaf tea is making a comeback with 3% more people each year giving up the tea bag and exploring better quality teas.
- Several of us were shocked at how tasty white and green teas are - if you don’t scorch the leaves with boiling water! 80 centigrade is the hottest you should use – put some cold water in the pot before adding the boiling water. Black tea can take boiling water. Herbal infusions = 90 centigrade (or lower if the herb is blended with white or green tea).
- To get the best nutrients and flavour – try brewing for 90 seconds (not the national average of 38 seconds!).
- Iced tea is best made with.... Argentinean tea, which is neutral in flavour.
- The difference between black, green, oolong (“blue”), and white tea is.... timing. To be black, the leaf has to oxidise for one hour; if you dry the leaf rapidly after a shorter time, it keeps a bit of greenness. There is actually very little difference in health-giving properties between each of these. But before you give up on green teas (if you thought they were healthier, try using water at 80C and you may just find green tea is really tasty!).
- If you are caffeine-intolerant, try Roibosh (Red Bush) herbal infusion from South Africa. We tasted it and it is a good alternative. Also, ‘decaffeination’ (of tea and coffee) is unnatural as it relies on solvents that also remove much of the flavour. For those worried about caffeine addiction – you would probably have to drink 30-40 cups a day for addiction to become a worry; personally I would worry about a whole lot of other things if I drank that much tea!
- Real “red tea” is very rare and is a specialised Chinese delicacy based on tea stored in caves for many years in cake form (“Puerh” tea). We were shown a cake of this tea that sells for around £120 each – Alex told us he has tasted a 75 year old version of this tea but would not recommend it at £46 per cup!
- Tea is not a diuretic – so does not help you slim. Green tea is no healthier than black tea in spite of what the marketing people might suggest. So, drink the tea you enjoy.
- The hardness of your water does affect the flavour of tea – over-boil your hard water to soften it a bit (but remember the advice about the temperature for more delicate teas).
- Milk first or last into the cup? Doesn’t really matter.
- We learned that “orange pekoe” is a leaf shape (long and wiry), not a quality standard.
If you want more interesting facts about the making of tea, its health-giving properties and much more – visit the UK Tea Council website
The Lynsted with Kingsdown Society Blend
Following our tasting of 15 leaf teas (including one that startled us by opening up as a cluster of three flowers in a glass teapot), we each wrote down what we imagined might be a blend that would have wide appeal. The paper lots were mixed up and three were randomly drawn to be blended for us all to taste and then vote on to decide which should carry the name of “Lynsted with Kingsdown Society Blend”. The three blends were:
- (David Bage) 30% Darjeeling; 30% Assam; 30% lapsang souchong; 10% Sri Lankan – Alex explained that this should taste like “Russian Caravan” tea.
- (Len Scott) 10% Darjeeling; 60% Assam; 30% Kenyan.
- And the winning blend was (Bob Baxter) 45% Assam; 45% Kenyan; 10% Chinese Yunnan – this is also the one that Alex liked the most as most likely to appeal to the widest audience.
So, at future Society events, we plan to use what is now our own Society Blend. We may also make bulk orders for resale at local events if there is the demand for it.
Overall, this event gave our taste buds and brains a real tour. Did I mention the lemon drizzle cake, Madeira cake and carrot cake? Washed down with a blend that Alex had rustled up for us for the tea-break. Heaven!
Nigel Heriz-Smith
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