As a self proclaimed “tea snob” sometimes its hard to wrap my hands around a trendy blend. Especially some that are just… the oddest of concoctions. I’ll refrain from mentioning anything specific, but one that comes to mind is a tea with so much strawberry in it I dumped it out immediately. It wasnt tea, it was Strawberry Quick!
We don’t sell “crazy blends.” I like a blended tea that keeps with the integrity and mission of the company which is to: source and sell the best leaf with the best flavor. Quite simply: I like quality. Recently, a fellow TeaPeep & tea merchant strongly recommended I give chocolate tea a try. Here is what happened:
I loved it.
With just a touch of local honey (buy local!) to boost the chocolate flavor – you’ve got yourself one of the best secrets out there! Rich, smooth and creamy it reminded me of sitting fireside in Vail … watching everyone ski and snowboard into each other.
Do you have a chocolate addiction? Consider yourself a choco-holic? Like a chocolate-y snack around midnight? Try chocolate tea to satisfy the craving. I highly recommend this wonderful, surpising tea as a way of enjoying chocolate and tea without… consequence. (ie: calories).
*** If you contact me directly (info@pearlteas.com), I’ll send the first 10 TeaPeeps a sample of our newest member to the tea family: “TeaChocolatte”.
In the subject line put: “TeaChocolatte, please!” and let me know if you found us via Twitter or the TeaLove Blog! and don’t forget your mailing address!
Any news about ceylon tea is going to catch my attention. So when an article by Steve A. Morrell popped up in my email box this morning about ceylon tea sales it caught my attention.
According to Russel Tennekoone, Director of the Ceylon Tea Brokers, Ltd., “there is serious concerns that the market has dropped.” Mostly because of what is happening in the Dubai port of Jebel Ali. Apparently, there is congestion with cargo movement which is restricting the flow of goods and services. Tea being one of the major categories affected. The other issue was that Dubai has introduced a “Quality Certification” not just for tea coming out of Columbo but for other seller origins. From what I can gather from the article, the bottom line is that growers were going to have to work harder to produce teas of high quality. In an auction last week by Quantum, 6.2 million kilos of tea was sold. “Good teas were sold, bad teas were discounted.”
What countries are the largest buyers of Ceylon tea? According to the Tea Market Update, Volume 4 No. 2, UAE (United Arab Emirates) beat out Russia by the end of the first half of 2008 with imports of 23.5 million kgs of Ceylon accounting for 16% of total tea exports from Sri Lanka. Russia showed a minor drop from 24.6 to 23.2 million kgs. Iraq, Jordan and UAE are among the top 10 destinations.
Top 10 main destinations of Ceylon Tea:
1. UAE
2. Russian
3. Iran
4. Syria
5. Turkey
6. Jordan
7. Iraq
8. Japan
9. Saudi Arabia
10. Chile
At the end of the article Mr. Morrell also reports on interesting news related to tea and health which I found most important:
“There was an interesting news piece in the tea market report of Ceylon Tea Brokers. ‘A single cuppa contains 200 milligrams of flavonoids. Drinking three cups a day, would increase flavonoids in the blood by approximately 25 %. Flavonoids help fight pre-mature aging,heart decease, and some types of cancer.”
I’ve heard that steeping tea between 3-5 minutes brings out the most flavonoids. Admittedly, I sometimes prefer my black teas around 2 minutes, but will go to 3 minutes with a fabulous ceylon. For me, ceylon tea is smooth, complex and lacks bitterness. I often say that ceylon tea is the Pinot Noir of the tea industry. At least according to my taste buds.
Our ceylon this year comes from the Shawlands tea estate which is located in an altitude of 1,173 mts. with a tea growing area of approx. 295 hectares. Tangy tea straight from the UVA district.
TeaLove® Blog 
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