I stopped by Denong for a tasting and got a bonus sample of their 2019 black tea. One of the aspects that makes this extra interesting is that this is tea from a drought year (2017 was a drought year too). This was harsh for tea farmers in drought regions because of reduced yield. Sadly, even robust old trees died in fires in Yunnan impacting puerh and Kenyan tea growers were only operating for half the week because there was not enough tea to harvest. This is why you’ll see less product and higher prices.

It saddens me that these beautiful tea plants and the people in the industry have suffered. Nature has a way of creating beauty out of chaos though. The drought causes the plants to work harder and results in more concentrated flavor. The leaf becomes very small and flat (as opposed to in a monsoon or rainy season where it plumps up) and because of that you get deeper, richer flavor.

The Leaves

The dry leaves are dark and twig like. The wet leaves smell rich and deep like hot fresh biscuits and a little bit of walking in the forest with moss on the ground minus the damp or mildew smell. 

The Steeps

First Steep

The first steep was light, like a briefly dunked tea biscuit. It had a bit of sweet syrup taste a little bit like maple syrup. I steeped for only 30 seconds with minimal tannin bitterness.

Second Steep

The second steep smelled even sweeter, coated my tongue, and reminded me of how some books smell. I'm not talking about the extremely new ones, or the ones that have gotten old and musty, but the in-between, well-read, well-kept books. Perhaps it's where the books are stored or the type of paper they're made of, but that's what this tea reminded me of on the second steep. Tea and books - they go well together. (So do tea and cats, but if a tea smelled like a cat I'd be concerned.)

Third Steep

The third step was the thickest and most flavorful yet. 
 
Fourth Steep

As this was a black tea sample I wasn't sure if it was going to stand up to a fourth steeping, but I thought I'd give it a shot. It held up. The flavor did start to back away and say goodbye, but it was still present. The tea coated my tongue for another round adding onto the previous rounds for a satisfying mouthfeel and taste. This fourth steep was still very soft and mild from a tannin standpoint. A little less sweet and biscuit-like than previous steeps, but worth doing.
 
I’m always amazed at how much work and how many people are involved in bringing me my cup of tea. I respect all of that coordinated effort. If you are interested in trying a tea from a drought year, bear in mind the smaller yield which may be reflected in the price. If you have had one of these teas, let the tea community know on Tea Deviant Facebook or Twitter which tea you’ve had and what you thought of it. 
 
This is just touching on the impact of drought. I may go further into this subject and how it changes things for the industry and the consumer, if there is interest.

For more on making a great cup of tea check out these posts:
Does your Tea Taste Like Crap? We can Fix That
Are You Having a Tea Crisis?

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The Look:

This set is a glazed, textured pottery in natural brown and green colors. It has a historic look, like something you would find in a museum. Every piece nests one in the other, kind of like Russian dolls, with a simple fabric drawstring carry pouch.

There are 2 cups of different size/shape. The inside of the cups is a natural brown with a sandy texture. (If you prefer white interiors or glass to see the tea color, they have travel tea sets like that too).
​

This is not a Yes that's makeup. I was inspired by a beautiful illustration of a Chinese dragon to turn myself into one for Tea Halloween style. My bandmate Philip and my friend Elexis also let me get creative with their lovely faces and you can see the results in the gallery below.

I love the creativity of Halloween time. To me every day is Halloween in that way, but it is great to have so many more people join in - the costumes (especially the creative mash ups), the decorations and the Halloween inspired tea settings! It is also the time for warming spices, the flavors of fall. 

I did a simple scones and tea for my friend Elexis and I. I had some leftover pumpkin puree from another recipe and wanted a scone that used that.  Seek and ye shall find upon the internet! I found this cool recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction. It has some great, specific baking tips in it like freezing and grating the butter which results in deliciously flaky scones (if you don't overwork the dough, easy does it). 

I was feeling my inner child and gave these scones a Halloween twist with a coffin cookie cutter and some red icing for fun. Kind of reminded me of the first short story I ever wrote when I was nine. A vampire story of course. I still remember how hilarious it was acting it out in front of the class.

​Have you enjoyed a Halloween Tea yet? Share your pictures with us on Facebook and Twitter. And show us your costumes so we can celebrate your creative spark!!!

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Tea. To many it still conjures images of ladies in floral dresses and big hats or zen masters pondering the mysteries of the universe as in the case of Thor: Ragnarok. When Doctor Strange offers Thor tea he responds:

 
Then a huge magically refilling beer glass appears in Thor’s hand because everyone clearly knows that beer is a more appropriate drink for a man who calls himself the God of Thunder. Ahem. (great fun film, by the way)  Now, I love beer. I have nothing against it, but ‘back in the day’ tea had a dark, criminal underbelly. Yes, the nobility and the wealthy drank it first, but as with anything perceived as exclusive everyone started to want it. So demand gave rise to everything from substandard knockoffs to black market trade.
 
Let’s look back to the 18th century. Britain became ravenous for tea more than any other western country of size. 
 
“Recorded imports into Britain rose from 13,082 lbs. in 1699 to 1,241,629 lbs. in 1721. By 1750 the total was 4,727,992 lbs.” 1  
 
But that is only the legal recorded amounts. The cost of tea was too much for most households to afford, especially with the duties imposed by the government and the East India Company monopoly on the tea trade. This unmet demand resulted in violent, prolific, smuggling. Some gangs that engaged in the tea smuggling trade went so far as torturing and killing informants and customs workers who tried to bring them down.

Yeesh. It’s like that spoof of “Breaking Bad” that some of the cast of “Downton Abbey” did on Colbert called “Breaking Abbey” where tea replaced meth. It is hilarious, but when you realize how like the drug trade parts of tea history are it is…slightly less hilarious.  If I saw a biker gang drink tea now I would not think it strange (Sons of Anarch-tea?  Yeah, that’s an image. )
 
The general public wanted tea but were against the cost of the legal version of it so millions were complicit in the smuggling trade 2.  The cheaper tea was often not much real tea at all. To keep the cost down it was often cut with anything from leaves of other plants, used tea leaves purchased from servants and even sheep’s dung 3.

Even dangerous dyes were used, like copper dyes in inferior green tea, which may have added to the British switch from green tea to more black tea. A fine was imposed for such adulterations but it was difficult to impose on tea sold under the radar. It kind of makes that Versace knockoff you got from a NYC street vendor seem mild by comparison. Unless you intend to eat it, of course. I suggest you don’t. You don’t know where that thing has been.
 
In 1747 there was a large drop in the tax on tea which caused legal imports to Britain to roughly triple and smuggling to shrink. But by the 1770s smuggling swelled with large armed ships with large crews running the game.  During this time historians estimate that 4-7.5 million lbs. of tea was smuggled in exceeding the recorded 4-5 million legal lbs 4.
 
Americans in the colonies were digging tea too and demand was increasing. As they were still under British rule the tea came through Britain for the first half of the 18th century. This tea came with heavy cost as the import duties paid in Britain were passed on to the cost in America. Because of this it is estimated that ¾ of all the tea imported to the colonies in 1760 was smuggled in 5.
 
Then it got even more interesting. In 1767 there was a law passed that let the import duty on tea sent to America to be repaid which slowed smuggling for a time 6. Then in 1773 the East India Company was allowed to export straight to the colonies and would include a threepenny tax per lb.

As Britain had already taxed American newspapers, bills and legal docs prior and then initiated taxes on lead, paint, paper, glass and now tea 7 it is fair to say America was getting tetchy. It was the Tea Act of 1773 that began the rumblings which would lead to the infamous Boston Tea Party. It was felt that Britain was attempting to secure greater and greater power over American interests.

Customs officers had to be guarded by British troops. Apparently a man died and protests erupted when troops fired into a mob in Boston in 17708 (sound familiar?). The people began to organize preventing ships from docking and attacking tea warehouses. It was like tea had become a symbol of the establishment that the angry public wanted to bring down.
 
In the book there is an interesting log entry from the journal of a mate named Alexander Hodgdon who served on the ship the Dartmouth which arrived in Boston:
 
“Between six and seven o’clock this evening came down to the wharf a body of about one thousand people. Among them were a number dressed and whooping like Indians. They came on board the ship, and after warning myself and the Customs-House Officer to get out of the way, they unlaid the hatches and went down into the hold, where there were eighty whole and thirty-four half chests of tea, which they hoisted on deck, cut the chests to pieces, and hove the tea all overboard, where it was damaged and lost.” 9
 
This was the Boston Tea Party, which resulted in the destruction of all tea on three ships that had arrived in Boston. The tea that had arrived in Charleston was left to rot and tea that had been sent to Philly and NYC was sent back to London. It was Boston that took the biscuit, though, sending a strong message to Britain who responded with closing Boston harbor and attempts to exert control that resulted in the war that led to American independence. No wonder coffee gained a foothold here. Tea was somewhat demonized for a time as a traitor’s drink.
 
Quite a ride for a beverage sipped in some of the West’s most opulent hotels and enjoyed around the table of many a common home today.  
 
Tea - there is a world of history in your cup.
 
 
The source for this post is an interesting book written by a man who began his work in the tea trade at the age of 21 in 1960. The book is: Tea: Addiction, Exploitation and Empire, by Roy Moxham. This post touches on just a piece of what the book covers. If you are interested in tea history I recommend it.  Here are the pages I drew from:
 
Moxham, Roy (2003) Tea: Addiction, Exploitation and Empire, New York, Carroll & Graf
 
1 pg 24, 2 pg 25, 3 pg 29, 4 pg 26-27, 5 pg 46, 6 pg 46, 7 pg 47, 8 pg 47, 9 pg 49

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by Cassandra Vincent

No matter our knowledge or passion sometimes things go awry – best intentions and all that – resulting in a tea travesty. Have you ever…
 

1. …poured the water to steep your tea and forgot to put the tea in?
2. …left tea to brew and forgot it?
3. …let a perfectly good cup of tea cool to the point of tepid blech?
4. …ripped open the outer tea packet and ripped the teabag as well?
5. …put sweetener in your tea having forgot that you already did?
   
6. …mistook the salt for the sugar?
7. …poured milk in before making sure it was still good resulting in sour or curdled grossness?
8. …accidentally dropped something in your tea that rendered it undrinkable?
9. …put sugar and milk in before realizing you never took the bag out?
10. …forgot to use the strainer when pouring steeped loose leaf?
11. …forgot to hold the lid of a non-locking teapot while pouring causing it to either fall into your cup or crash to the floor and crack?
12. …tried to put your mug back down on the table without looking and missed?
13. …used water too cold for black tea and created muddy water?
14. …used water too hot for green tea and made it a bitter beast?
15. …forgot to clean the leaves out of your teapot which then grows mold and you don’t tell anyone because that’s gross and if you’re writing a blog encouraging quality tea use how could you do something like that (this happened to a friend of mine)

 
We have all been there, luvvies and we will all live to tea another day;)

Car accidents are interesting things. The everything-is-moving-smoothly-then-out-of-nowhere BAM! is shocking, to say the least. I was a passenger in a car that got T-boned by someone running a red light and though my life didn’t exactly flash before me I am very happy to still have the privilege of breathing. I appreciate every cup of tea I have (unless it accidentally oversteeps and it gets gross, then I just toss it away and start again) but that first cup I was able to get after all the craziness was so sweet – like a warm hug of deliciousness. There are various statements about tea being the cure for everything, especially with the British. Though it may not cure everything, tea is another reason to be happy to be alive – to taste something soothing and delicious and full of life energy.  This is just a short post to relay the cause of the silence. I hope that you find many reasons to be glad to be alive today and I’ll soon be sharing more adventures in tea. - Cassandra

by Cassandra Vincent

Oh Tea…you are not who I thought you were…
 
Does a tea you once loved suddenly taste lackluster to you? Are you afraid that you’ve lost your love of tea? Are you afraid to talk about it? It may not be you, it may be your tea…or at least how it is stored.
 
I was at my bandmate Philip's place and we made a pot of tea from a loose leaf black blend he had. The first sip was uninspiring and I mentioned that the tea tasted flat like it had lost its character. He was so relieved that it wasn’t just him. He thought that maybe he was going off tea or that he was somehow making it wrong. I looked at the bag it was stored in: not airtight resealable – there was quite a bit of air in there and no tight closure. I asked him how long he had had it and he said months. It’s not that tea can’t last that long, especially black tea, but when it is stored such that air or light or moisture (or heat or odors) can get in and wreak havoc the glorious flavors have a much shortened life span.
 
There are a myriad of opinions and articles on tea storage but here’s what works well for me and I hope it helps keep your relationship with your favorite tea in a good place:

1. Opaque resealable bags – My favorite are the multi-ply ones that have what looks like a foil inner layer. If you press the air out prior to resealing these will do a good job at protecting your tea from light, air and odors. Your wise placement of them in a cool dry place will keep heat and moisture at bay too. Avoid clear plastic bags for obvious light reasons but also sandwich bags and the like are not meant for any long term storage and they can imbue the tea with a plastic essence. Blech! Save yourself from that disappointment.
2. Canisters and tins – These are great if you use your tea quickly or if they have a vacuum packing design whereby you can ‘suck’ the air out. A regular tin leaves room for air to be stored with the tea. Air and tea don’t make good roommates. I have found filling the gap with baking parchment paper to be helpful but only on a shorter term basis. Similar to placing wax paper atop ice cream prevents ice build up the air isn’t directly touching the tea and seems to help retain the tea’s character a bit longer. Another option if your loose leaf tea comes in a bag that doesn’t reseal well is to press the air out of the bag and put the whole thing into a tin. I tend to keep smaller tins also. I love the beauty they lend to my tea area – beautiful tea deserves beautiful storage.
   
3. Glass and ceramic canisters with gaskets – If these are opaque they are similar to metal tins in usage. It is best having a gasket with these, especially a good food grade silicone one, for keeping air out.  Clear glass canisters need to be in a dark place to be effective, and if they are pretty it seems a bit counterintuitive to hide them so leave those for the quickly eaten biscuits:) Otherwise, as with metal canisters, leaving the tea in the bag it came in and sticking the whole thing into the glass canister is an option too.
   
4. Refrigeration – I only refrigerate matcha and not for very long if it is opened. Matcha degrades quicker than any other tea I have had and it doesn’t just become a ghost of itself. It metamorphoses into a gross bitter beast of a thing.  So, just don’t ignore your matcha. It gets mean.
5. Buy only what you can consume quickly – This is my main mantra for having really fresh tasty tea on hand. I am lucky I have a tea shop in walking distance that is owned by an importer. So I tend to get my mainstays in small amounts weekly. It really works. But ordering online can give you a similar effect. Joining a monthly tea subscription is another idea. It can give you both freshness and an opportunity to explore new teas.
6. High quality loose leaf lasts longer than broken bagged tea – The fuller and more twisted or rolled the leaf the longer it appears to maintain its character. It makes sense: less surface area for air, light etc. to work on means slower degradation. If you do love your bagged tea, especially a classic like PG Tips for example where each bag is not separately air tight sealed, you would benefit from moving it to airtight, opaque storage after opening.
7. Store tea away from other strong odors – I’m not accusing anyone of storing tea with dirty laundry or in the cat box, but even places with pleasing odors are not a friend to tea. The main culprit being the spice cabinet. Spices are wonderful, but not when they enter your tea uninvited. A good air tight container will prevent this but anything less and you’ll be sipping your tea with a side note of oregano.

 
So there you go. Like Philip you may have a better palate than you realize and if your favorite tea tastes ‘off’ to you, it may be worth your while to rethink your storage. After all good relationships take care and attention. I hope that you and your tea bae have a long, satisfying, delicious relationship.