TEA
Summer is upon us and it is the perfect time to enjoy cool, refreshing teas. Share your favorite drinks here!
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Summer is upon us and it is the perfect time to enjoy cool, refreshing teas. Share your favorite drinks here!
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Tea Terminology
First off, what is a decoction and an infusion?
-An Infusion is steeping a part of a plant (leaves, stems, roots, flowers, or fruit) in a liquid (water for making tea) for a certain period of time. The longer the time you infuse something the more concentrated it becomes. Things can also be infused in vinegar, oil, or alcohol such as vodka.
-A Decoction is boiling a plant part, usually the hard parts, to make a concentrated extract. This is much more stronger then infusions and often used to make medicinal teas.
What is a Tisane?
From Wikipedia:
"An herbal tea, tisane, or ptisan is an herbal infusion not made from the leaves of the tea bush (Camellia sinensis). (Varieties of "real" tea include black, oolong, green, yellow, and white tea.) Tisanes can be made with fresh or dried flowers, leaves, seeds or roots, generally by pouring boiling water over the plant parts and letting them steep for a few minutes. Seeds and roots can also be boiled on a stove. The tisane is then strained, sweetened if so desired, and served."
So it's any infusion of herbs with out the tea leaves.
Tea History:/u]
Types of Tea:
from cuisinenet:
There are 3 types of teas:
Black- To make black tea they let the juices from the leaves have contact with the air "oxidation" but this is called fermentation by tea makers . This darkens the tea. This process gives the tea a astingent, robust flavor and aroma. This process is short, it takes no longer then four hours. Once this is done the tea is "fired" over dry heat. When boiled or steeped the tea produces a reddish-amber color. Also called red tea for its color.
Green-Green tea is made by preventing the tea leaves from ever oxidizing at all. The leaves are steamed right after the withering stage, which destroys the enzymes that would otherwise cause the darkening. The steamed leaves are rolled and immediately fired. Thus, the dried tea leaves remain green, and the brewed tea, a pale green liquid, has a subtle, slightly bitter flavor, with grassy hints of the flavor of the fresh plant. Because the tannins do not go through the oxidizing process, which has a mellowing effect, green tea can be bitterer, more astringent than black, especially if it is steeped for a long time.
Oolong-Oolongs and pouchongs are "semi-fermented" teas. That is, they are processed the same way that black teas are, but they aren't allowed to oxidize fully. For pouchong tea, the oxidizing step is reduced to about one-quarter of the full length. Oolongs (which are more popular), ferment longer, about half as long as a black tea. Predictably, the flavor of a semi-fermented tea is somewhere in between black tea and green tea. Particularly good oolongs are supposed to have a peachy flavor and aroma. One of the best of these, Formosa Oolong, is produced on the island of Taiwan. The word Formosa comes from the name given to Taiwan by 16th-century Portuguese explorers. Ilha Formosa, they called it "Beautiful Island."
The Best Way To Make Tea:
Caffiene in Tea:
The Health Benefits of Tea:
More Drink info to come!
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My Favorite place to buy tea: Republic of Tea
