Valentine’s Day conjures up images of chocolate and flowers, but what about tea? Herbal potions, balms and other assorted plants and flowers have been used for centuries in connection with the pursuit of romance.  So why not go old school and spice up your Valentine’s Day with some tea. Of course, you can always complement the gift with flowers and chocolate if necessary. We have 5 Valentine’s Day tips to share.

#1   Throw a Tea Party 

Create your own tea party for two by pairing tea with fun and playful teaware. Our Matryoshka Tea Set for Two with stackable Russian doll tea cups is the perfect place to start. The teapot will put a smile on their face everytime they see it in the kitchen. If you make some sweets or sandwhiches to accompany the tea party, it will be an event to remember.

#2 Morning Tea in Bed

Start the special day off by preparing your loved one with morning tea in bed. Wake them up with our Organic Earl Grey, Vanilla Bean or Orange Dulce. Add some pastries, some sweets, fruit and, of course, lighting some candles can never hurt. Throw in the morning paper and the surprise is complete.

 #3 Spa Treatment

Be good to someone you love and pamper them with a spa tea gift designed to soothe, restore and delight mind and body. Choose from our unique selection including our Matcha Clay Mask , a Spa Tea Book or our Oasia TeaFusion Spa Bath Pouches. For a unique twist, instead of using cucumbers on the eyes to reduce stress and tension, try using our tea pouches.

#4  Chocolate Truffle Tea

Satisfy their urge for chocolate with a healthy and flavorful chocolate truffle tea alternative. Made from the finest tea, chocolate, fruits and spices, our truffle teas make an indulgent and memorable gift.

#5 Tea Cocktails

Shake  it up on Valentine’s Day with  a new tea twist on cocktails. Serve up their favorite champagne, gin, vodka, sake or other spirits blended with our versatile tea infused Aperi-Tea mixers. Awaken and refresh with Chamomile Citrus Berry, Green Tea Tropical and Orange Jasmine Mango.

Of course, you can also make cocktails using our tea pouches or loose tea infusions as mixers for your favorite celebratory beverage. Check out this video on how to brew tea cocktails along with some tasty new recipes.

Happy Valentines Day All!

“Tea Making Tips” is a short film released in 1941 and sponsored by the Empire Tea Bureau of England. A classic video that demonstrates in detail methods of storing and preparing tea, it imparts that one should not waste a drop of tea because of carelessness. Watch and get your fill of crisp white tea cups, tea pots, classic tea chests and more. The Empire Tea Bureau also published a booklet during the war titled “Tea Will Help”. The Montreal Gazette said that it’s aim was to “be of practical assistance to any groups or individuals engaged in voluntary war work.”  I also enjoyed the headline from the newspaper which included that ”Tea in Wartime Held More Useful Institution Than in Peacetime”. Cozy up with your favorite cuppa and enjoy this oldie, but goodie.

Traditional methods and new technologies alike provide unique ways for tea fans to determine the correct temperature when boiling water for tea. From the shape and size of bubbles to electric tea kettles with built-in precision gauges, we will explore the nuances of measuring water temperature.   This includes a cooling your water down technique for green tea, thermometers, electric tea kettles, hot water dispensers and the traditional Chinese method of examining water bubble size.  Let’s get ready to boil!

Modern Methods:

Cooling Your Water Down: For many simply bringing water to a boil is the easiest  and most practical way to brew water for black, oolong or pu-erh teas. Opinions on whether to bring your water to a full or rolling boil  (212 °F) do vary.  Many recommend  a lower temperature of around 205°F because  at 212 °F water becomes stale and deoxygenated.  The more oxygen water has, the more taste and smoothness you will find.  If you think about, it’s recommended  that when you taste wine, you swish the liquid around in your mouth like mouthwash.  This adds oxygen to the wine and helps bring out its full flavor.  Professional tea tasters slurp their tea to do the same.

Regardless of your approach to the boiling issue, the question then is what to do about getting the water temperature right for green teas.  One method is to bring water to a boil and then wait 2 minutes or so for the water to cool to around 180°-190°F.   This certainly isn’t perfect since the time it takes for water to cool to this temperature can vary depending upon how much water is used to begin with, the room’s temperature and the brewing device size. 

Thermometers: A cooking thermometer provides a useful and precise way to measure your water temperature.  As the water boils, you insert the thermometer into the tea kettle and take it off the stove when the correct temperature is reached.  If you don’t have a tea kettle, note that a pot from the kitchen works just fine for boiling water.

Electric Tea Kettles: A variety of eletric tea kettles are produced that allow you to choose the relevant temperature setting for your desired tea.   One fine example made of stainless steel is the Breville Variable Temperature kettle.  It provides you with 5 pre-set brewing temperatures for Green, White Tea, Oolong, Black and French Press for coffee.  Cuisinart offers a tea kettle, the PerfecTemp Tea Kettle that that sits right on the stove and has a built-in thermometer. Other companies like Bodum and C,apresso make electric water kettles without temperature settings.  While convenient for boiling water at your desk for example, they are lacking the precision of the preset water temperatures.

Hot Water Dispensers with Temperature Settings: Hot water dispensers are available that allow you program in preset water temperatures for a variety of teas.  Zoojirushi of Japan makes many different types of these dispensers including the Zojirushi Hybrid Water Boiler and Warmer in Stainless Steel.  These dispensers are handy in that you can keep larger quantity of water hot for periods of time at your desired temperature.   There is nothing like having hot water on demand for tea.  We use Zojirushi machines at Mighty Leaf when we cup teas for tastings.

Traditional Chinese Method: The Chinese traditionally distinguish five stages of how water can come to boil for tea. James Norwood Pratt in his ‘The  New Tea Lover’s Treasury” says: “The Chinese distinguish five stages of tea water as the boiling point is approached: “shrimp eyes,” the first tiny bubbles that start to appear on the surface of the kettle water, “crab eyes,” the secondary, larger bubbles, then “fish eyes,” followed by “rope of pearls,” and finally “raging torrent.”  If you have a glass tea kettle you can watch the bubbles through the glass and if a standard kettle, take a peek by opening the lid.    The kind of bubbles correspond with the following types of teas and their appropriate brewing temperature:

Shrimp Eyes: Tiny bubbles the size of a pin head that resemble shrimp eyes begin to rise to the surface and pop.  A slow and gentle vapor of steam will show.  At 155°-174°F  this temperature is ideal for delicate green teas.

Crab Eyes: Water that gets hotter will then produce larger growing bubbles about the size of crab eyes.  Vertical streams of steam rise up during this stage.  At around 175°F this temperature is perfect for brewing white, delicate green and greener oolong teas.

Fish Eyes: Bubbles resembling fish eyes (about the size of an average pearl) rise to the top of the kettle as the water heats up.  More steam is present moving in thick columns than in the Crab Eyes stage and the kettle will make louder noises.  At 175°-180°F this temperature is ideal for green tea or white teas.  However, remember that if your green tea tastes bitter, the water is too hot.

Rope of Pearls: At 195°-205°F, a steady stream of large pearl size bubbles stream to the water’s surface.   This temperature is ideal for black, some oolong and pu-erh teas.

Raging Torrent: Water that sounds like a raging torrent with swirling and rolling bubbles is called ‘ruined water’.  At 212°F this is considered to be de-oxgyenated and flat or what is traditionally called ‘old man water’.   Please note though that 212°F or a full boil is recommended for herbal tisanes to bring out the herb’s full flavor. Exceptions to do exist though.

Remember, regardless of what method you choose, the key is that you enjoy the process and the flavor of your tea.   Let us know what your preferred method is or what your daily boiling ritual looks like? Happy boiling!

Sweet summer is here with bountiful heat.  Iced tea is always perfect for chilling out.  But we also invite you to explore other ways of incorporating tea into summer thirst quenchers.  A renaissance is occurring in the culinary world where tea is showing up for summer in unexpected places like on restaurant menus in cocktails or food .  We decided to put a spin on sangria for summer and developed a  Sangria Tea Collection with a variety of recipes to please any palate.

Enjoy our White Tea Sangria recipe below.  And be sure to check out our Sangria Tea Collection for more sangria tea recipes (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic) that also include Red Tea and Chamomile Citrus Sangria.

White Tea Sangria

1 750-ml Bottle Dry White Wine

3/4 cup Peach Schnapps

18 oz. Brewed Mighty Leaf White Orchard Tea (2 Tea Pouches)

1/4 cup sugar

4 Peaches, cubed

1/2 Honeydew, cubed

Stir first 4 ingredients in large pitcher until sugar dissolves.  Add peaches and honeydew.  Chill for a couple of hours.  Serve in wine glasses and spoon fruit over sangria in each glass.

-Serves 7 wine glasses.

We often hear from customers who are first time tea drinkers that they are intimidated by the thought of preparing loose tea.  Making loose tea does not have to be challenging or time consuming.  With a wide variety of tea accessories now available you can enjoy loose tea whenever, whether a full pot or single-serving with minimal preparation and effort.

Single-Serve Tea Infuser:  I often make a single-serving of loose tea while at work.  It allows me to sample a wider variety of loose teas versus drinking only flavors available in tea pouch or tea bag form.  Using a tea infuser makes preparing a single-serving convenient and quick without having to prep a whole teapot.   I heat my water using an electric kettle, and add the appropriate amount of loose tea to the infuser resting in my cup.

Within minutes I am sipping on a freshly steeped cup of loose tea.   You can find infusers available in a variety of  styles and sizes,  including stainless steel infusers, mesh tea balls, tea infuser spoons, plastic infusers, tea wands and more.  Clean up only requires washing your infuser and cup.

Gaiwan or Handless Cup with Lid and Saucer:  The gaiwan or small handless cup with lid and saucer is a popular method in China and Taiwan for quick and simple  loose tea preparation.   Tea leaves are added to the cup followed by hot water.

After several minutes of steeping, while holding the saucer on the bottom, the liquid is poured into smaller tasting vessels as the lid is tilted back on the cup to strain out the tea leaves.  It’s reminiscent of straining the water out of pasta.  The saucer effectively insulates the bottom of the cup allowing you to handle while hot.  Alternatively, the tea can be drunk right out of the gaiwan by using the lid to hold back the leaves while sipping the steeped liquid.

Paper Filter Bags:  If you want to avoid dealing with a strainer or infuser all together, then you can utilize paper filter bags.  Unbleached and chlorine-free and  available in cup size or teapot sizes, the t-sac loose tea filter bag is a beautiful thing – it allows you to make your own teabag.   Add the appropriate amount of loose tea into the bag (depending on size and how strong you like your tea), place it in your cup, and add hot water.

Teapots:  After thousands of years, the traditional teapot still brews up a perfect cup. Here are some secrets for preparing the highest quality tea using a teapot.

Teapots for tea types:  We recommend that you dedicate one teapot for only one type of tea: one for black, green and herbals.  Pots can become seasoned by black teas and if you prepare other styles of tea, like green, in the same pot, it may affect the flavor.

Teapot serving size:  Other factors to consider when thinking about tea preparation is how many cups you will be serving. It is best to have both a small and large teapot – a small one for single cup and a larger one for multiple cup servings.

Teapots are made out of a variety of materials including cast-iron, clay, glass, porcelain, silver and earthenware.  Whether it is tea culture in China, Japan or other countries, each respective tradition involves preparing and drinking tea in distinctive way, including the kind of teapot used.  Enhance your loose tea drinking experience by building up a collection of teapots and use to compliment different settings or moods.

As you can see, many options exist for quick and easy loose tea brewing.  So, pick your tool, and start infusing.  Happy steeping!