by Indigo Tea Co.

Iced tea is America’s contribution to world tea culture. Because making iced tea is so easy, why not do it right?
Already by the 19th century iced tea recipes began to appear in cookbooks. But iced tea really took off in popularity when the tea merchant Richard Blechynden, unable to sell tea during a heat wave at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, decided to serve his tea over ice. It was a hit with visitors, and summer’s haven’t been the same since.

Today, iced tea is the most popular tea in America. Forget about instant iced tea from a jar; it’s too sweet and lacks real tea flavor. Great iced tea can be made with any black tea as well as flavored teas, such as Peach Black Tea, Lemon Green Tea, or even Oolong or Japanese Sencha. If you like it sweet, try using superfine baking or bartender’s sugar (you can also make your own in a food processor). You can also mix up a sugar syrup on the stove with a 1:1 ration of sugar to water, simmer for a few minutes, cool, and keep in the fridge for up to two weeks. If you allow tea to cool down naturally before refrigerating, it won’t cloud or “cream down.”

Cold Steeping
In this method, just double the amount of dry tea leaf (2 heaping tsp or 2 tea bags per cup), place in any clean jug and add the proper amount of cold water. Let the infusion stand in the refrigerator overnight or for at least six hours. Strain the tea into a second jug or container. Add sugar or lemon to taste. This is similar to sun tea, which also works fine, but some experts fear bacterial growth may occur in sun tea. I doubt it, but you be the judge.

Hot Steeping
Method 1: Use half the hot water you would ordinarily use for hot tea (1 tsp per 6 oz cup), infuse for 3-5 minutes, and pour over a full 12 oz glass of ice. The rapid cooling gives you a crystal clear tea.

Method 2: Some recipes call for doubling the tea leaf amount, steeping for 3-5 minutes, and then pouring into a container with the equal amount of cold water. This dilutes the strong tea and chills it quickly.

Fruit Juice Iced Tea Strong tea concentrates are especially great when mixed in a 1:1 ratio with lemonade or other fruit juices. Just be sure the juice doesn’t overpower the tea flavor. If you shake this mix with some sugar in a cocktail shaker or in a blender, the aerated drink is wonderfully fresh and light tasting.

Recommended Iced Tea Blend: Tropical Black Tea (passionfruit, mango, peaches and black tea)

Water quality is very important to a good cup of tea.

Tap water should be filtered with a Brita or Everpure filter to avoid chemical or other bad flavors. Hard water makes bad tea, so if you are out camping, you might want to bring your own water. Soft water or pH 7 water is best for green teas, and pH 7.9 for most teas. Temperature
A rolling boil is usually needed to bring out the full flavor of teas, but lower temps are recommended for green teas to avoid bitterness. Sometimes you can allow boiling water to sit for a minute to cool down, or you can splash a little cold water into the kettle. Try using a thermometer to get a better understanding. After awhile, you’ll develop an innate feeling for when the water is ready.

Temperature Scale
(Based on Tang Dynasty tea scholar Lu Yu)

Fish Eyes: 160-180° F.
Tiny bubbles begin to float to the surface. Ideal for delicate green teas.

String of Pearls: 180-190° F.
Strings of bubbles connect bottom of kettle with surface. Good for most green teas.

Turbulent Waters: 190-210° F.
A rolling boil. Best for black and oolong teas.

Indigo Tea Company

Tea tasting, like wine tasting, pays attention to similar factors: sight, smell, taste and touch.

Usually, a tea tester works for a large tea factory or is involved in buying. They test several teas of the same type, such as Ceylon teas from the same estate. The tester looks at three things: the dry leaf (appearance and feel), the liquor (color, flavor and aroma), and the wet, freshly brewed tea leaf. At home, you can simplify tea tasting by comparing two Darjeelings. Or for fun, invite a friend or two and hold your own tasting. 1) Dry Leaf
You can tell a lot about a tea by first examining the dry leaves. Gently press some dry leaves in your hand. Most new teas are a little springier and less likely to crumble than an older teas. Look for fibers, dust or stalks and note the leaf size. With some experience, you will notice whether the leaf appears shiny and fresh, or dull and stale. Buy a good quality tea and pay attention to its dry appearance as well as its smell. Remember your impression.

2) Infuse & Examine Leaf
Measure a level teaspoon of each sample into infuser. Use white or clear cups to view the truest color. Begin your analysis of the infused leaves as the cups are filled. Smaller flat leaves will show more body than larger twisted leaves, which take longer to steep. Steep the teas for a fixed time, generally three to five minutes.

3) Color of Liquor
After steeping, take in the aroma of the tea and examine the infused leaves for color and evenness. Color does not necessarily indicate the strength or body of the liquor, but every tea has a unique look, taste, and feel peculiar to that tea.

4) Tasting
Now you’re ready to taste the tea. Take a spoonful of the liquid to your lower lip and slurp with force to ensure that the tea is sprayed over the entire tongue. Move the tea around in your mouth, sucking in more short bursts of air in order to release more delicate characteristics. This step is important since we taste bitterness at the back of the tongue, saltiness in the middle, sweetness in the front and sourness on the sides of the tongue. If you were working in a tea factory testing room, you would spit the tea into a waist-high spittoon and move on to the next tea.

It may be difficult to describe your findings at first, but after sampling many teas you will begin to notice similarities and differences in color, taste and smell. Many teas have a typical “character” or flavor profile. You may want to start a notebook to record your impressions.

Tea Vocabulary
Select a few words from the list below to expand your descriptive vocabulary of tea.

Dry Leaf (un-steeped tea)
Desirable characteristics: Curly, wiry, neat, blackish, bloom, clean, leafy, nose, tip, well twisted.

Undesirable characteristics: Mushy, ragged, grey, dull, light, uneven.

Infused Leaf
Desirable: bright, coppery, smooth, self drinking, full, rich, soothing, smokey.

Undesirable: dull, dark, tarry.

Liquor/Brew
Desirable: body (light, medium, or full), bright, brisk, character, point, pungent, quality, strength, flavor, full, mature, self-drinking (does not need to be blended with other teas)

Undesirable: baggy, bakey, bitter, brassy, burned, coarse, common, dry, dull, musty, plain, raw, soft, stewed, tainted, weedy, thin, earthy, empty, hard, harsh, heavy, lacking, green (referring to black tea).

Indigo Tea Company

Green tea can be stored longer than other teas and still keep its original taste. But here are some more tips to stretch the freshness even longer. The tea should be stored in a closed aluminum or tin cans. The cans should be placed in cool and dark place. Keep the tea away from any radiation, light, and heat source such as oven, heat, and microwaves. The light and the heat can possibly change the taste of your tea.

We usually think that heat goes with Dry. But actually heat goes with humidity. It’s cold that goes with dry. So if there is a excess amount of heat, the tea go moldy due to the moisture that is released into the air. The refrigerator is a cool place but it’s not a good place for storing green tea. Besides moisture, tea is also sensitive to the fragrances of other foods, like onions or other herbs.

When serving tea, be sure to clean and dry the spoon before you use it to scoop the tea. A little water could ruin the whole can.

A good idea may be to store your bulk tea in smaller containers so you don’t ruin your entire lot if something goes wrong in your storage or use.  You’ll thank yourself when you throw away the small container and still have the rest to use!

One last thing to keep in mind is to make sure the lid of the container you are using is tightly closed. It’s not a great feeling when you are cautious with everything else but find out later that the tea is still ruined because you forgot to close the lid…tightly.

Mr. Pham has great interest in tea, herbs, and their health benefits. He has created Nature Healthy Tea to share his knowledge on simple yet healthy tea drink.

By Jason Dalrymple
Name the five types of teas… Green, White, Oolong, Black, and Pu’erh. Now, what do these five teas all have in common? They all come from the Camelia Sinensis Plant and in fact, any drink that doesn’t come from the Camelia Sinensis plant is actually not considered tea, it would be considered a tisane or herbal infusion. Considering that tea is the second most popular beverage in the world, behind water, it’s surprising most people don’t know more about this amazing plant.

The Camelia Sinensis, or tea plant, is native to Asia but is grown commercially all around the world. It can grow anywhere with a tropical to sub tropical climate and altitudes from sea level to 7,000 feet. The plant prefers lots of sunlight, and a warm humid environment with plenty of rainfall.

When grown commercially, tea plants are placed close to each other with 1500 to 5500 being planted in an acre of land. These tea plant farms are often called estates or tea gardens and can be grown on plots of land as little as a quarter acre by a family or on hundreds of acres and maintained by a village of workers. The tea plants are typically ready to be harvested when they are five to seven years old and can be plucked for over 100 years.

Within this category of plant, Camelia Sinensis, there are different varietals that lend themselves to making tea. Within these varietals, there are two that are the most prevalent, Camelia Sinensis Sinensis and Camelis Sinensis Assamica. The first one, Camelis Sinensis Sinensis, has a smaller leaf and is indigenous to China while Camelia Sinensis Assamica has a larger leaf and was first found in the Assam district of India. Theoretically each of these varietals is able to make all five types of tea but certain varietals lend themselves to making a certain type.

Jason Dalrymple is a tea entrepreneur living in New York City. A recent graduate of Appalachian State University, his travels within China have inspired him to introduce premium loose leaf tea to American culture under a fun, innovative, and socially conscious brand, Teasy.

By Diane Watkins

Mint has been enjoyed as a tea for many years, both as a refreshment and as an herbal medicine. Since mint is a strong flavor, it can be used alone, or as a flavoring for tea or herbal teas. Mint is also often used as a garnish for tea, adding a fresh sprig to the top of the glass.

Peppermint is the most common mint used for tea, though spearmint and others are equally flavorful. Peppermint is known to relieve gas pains and is often used as a natural herbal cure for heartburn, stomach ache and nausea.

To use mint as a flavoring for green or black tea, add a few crushed leaves to the boiling water along with the tea and steep as usual. You can use fresh or dried leaves, and a little goes a long way. Too much mint will overpower the flavor of the tea.

You can use mint alone to make a mint tea by using dried mint leaves to brew your tea. Use a tablespoon of dried tea leaves per cup of boiling water and steep for 5 minutes. Sweeten with sugar or honey as desired. This tea is especially good for stomach upsets and soothing heartburn.

If you wish, you can grow and dry your own mint leaves for tea. Mint grows prolifically in a shady damp place. Most gardeners grow the mint in a container to prevent the mint from overtaking the garden.

Dry the leaves by hanging the sprigs, in bunches, upside down in a cool dry place for a few days, Harvest the dried leaves and enjoy.

Diane Watkins is an educator and cook. She writes about food and cooking at Easy Southern Cooking To learn more about tea varieties and brewing visit All About Tea - Brewing Tea Recipes for Mint Tea can be found at http://tea.easysoutherncooking.com/mint-tea.php