Caffeine and Camellia Sinensis

A lot of people who drink or study tea ask how much caffeine is in their cup.
Now, of course, this would vary from tea type to tea type and heavily depends also on the strength and size of your cup. But yes, there is caffeine in tea.
Another question which commonly comes up is, what is the difference between caffeine and theine?
Well, chemically speaking, they are both alkaloids. But, the way they affect us can be quite different.
This is because the antioxidants found in tea - which are known as polyphenols - can join forces with caffeine and change our body's experience of it. This partnership is called theine.
Caffeine mostly affects our cardiovascular systems and theine mostly affects our nervous system.
That explains why coffee, which is without tea's polyphenols, gives us that lift - and subsequently can let us down with a thump.
Tea, on the other hand, gives us a gentler, more mild lift and also the ability to calmly focus over long periods of time.

Tea Terminology

In the world of tea there are many different words and interesting terminology.
If you intend on pursuing tea as an interest or a profession then learning the basic terms will set you on your way.
Agony of the leaves: This is a term used to describe the unfurling of the leaves after boiling water has been added to the vessel holding the tea. A more romantic expression is "ecstasy of the leaves".
Body: Body is used to describe the fullness and strength of a liquor. If the liquor is described as thin then it has little body and is somewhat watery.
Coarse: Coarse is used to describe the tea liquor when it has unfavourable characteristics. It is also used to describe the metallic, unpleasant taste which can come from irregular firing.
Dull: Dull is used to describe liquor which is not clear and bright in colour.
Earthy: Earthy is used to describe the liquor from tea that has been stored in damp conditions. It can be found in aged teas that have not been fermented properly.
Full: Full-bodied is strong flavoured tea where the liquor is not bitter and has good colour and substance.

White on White

During the Song Dynasty in China an Emperor named Hui Zhong said that white tea was the coming together of all that is elegant.

White teas are the first flush pick of the spring. Their liquor is fresh, slightly sweet and very subtle.
White teas were once reserved for the privileged elite and they are recognisable by their luminous straw-coloured liquor.
Traditionally they come from the Fujian Province. It was here that the style of tea has developed into what it is today.
There is a growing movement of tea drinkers who favour the subtle and delicate brew of white tea.
It is now produced in other areas of China and elsewhere, including in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka as well as other nations.
You may wonder why white tea is considered so special. It is because its harvest season is so short - just a few days.
The leaves are handpicked from special areas and plants and then closely processed with extra time and care. For this reason, there is only a tiny amount of white tea produced in the world, so enjoy every sip.

'Umami' or More

You know when something is moreish; you go back for another sip or bite or lick.
Well, tea has that special taste property that keeps us keen, and it is called 'umami'.
Umami is a Japanese word which translates roughly to mean "delicious" or "savouriness" and is used to describe a taste which leaves you wanting more.
The other tastes we can decipher on our palates are sweet, salty, sour and bitter, but umami is elusive and is worth explaining.
Umami was a term used as early as the 13th Century but was not classified properly in the Western world until the early 1900s.
Bitterness is the main flavour of tea but this is balanced by the other flavours.
Now, bitterness is something that we don't usually get in our diet - which is why tea is thought to be an important addition to a healthy, balanced diet.
The taste of bitterness is felt at the back of the tongue.
This is why tea tasters slurp their tea, so it hits the back of their mouth and tongue, giving them the maximum taste experience.
Umami, though, is felt all over the tongue, explaining why one cup is never enough.

Tea Lovers Unite!

We here at Australian Tea Masters are so excited about the upcoming World Tea Expo in Las Vegas. Woo hoo!
The expo will be held at the Las Vegas Convention Centre from June 7 to 9, and it is set to be the biggest and best yet.
As we tea drinkers know, interest in tea just keeps on growing. The wide world is catching on to what we've known for years: tea is epic.
Some wise folk have even said that we can expect to see a 50 per cent growth in retail tea sales tea by 2016. That's huge!
Not to mention, there are more tea tools and types on offer than ever before. You'll get a chance to see them all at the expo, which is the world's biggest annual tea trade event, celebrating all that's good about the beverage.
This year the expo is co-located with the Healthy Beverage Expo so if you are in drinks market, then it's right up your alley.
We're going. Are you?

And.... for some more exciting news:

Australian Tea Masters is offering its Certified Tea Blending Course in lovely Las Vegas from June 4 to 6 in the lead-up to the World Tea Expo.

Professional trainers and Tea Masters, Sharyn Johnston (founder of Australian Tea Masters) and Sylvana Levesque (founder of Canadian Tea Masters) will run the three-day course at Marriott's Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel, which will blow your tea-loving mind!
These two specialist trainers will unveil the secrets and mysteries of tea blending and show you professional techniques for developing traditional blends and signature formulas.
It will blow your tea-loving mind!
For more information visit the Australian Tea Masters or American Tea Masters website.

Drink to Health

Tea is a natural product from a renewable foundation.

It also has no sodium, fat, carbonation, or sugar; it is virtually calorie-free and keeps you hydrated.

Tea contains flavonoids: compounds that have antioxidant properties. Antioxidants neutralise free radicals, helping us maintain our youth.

New findings from scientific studies continue to support the belief in tea’s health properties and benefits.

Research has explored the potential health attributes of drinking green and black tea, both of which are made from the camellia sinensis plant, and results reveal that both these drinks do similar good things to our insides.

Studies show that tea and tea flavonoids are great for our heart health, neurological health and cellular health.

Research demonstrates that drinking tea can help to lower cholesterol.

One Harvard study found a person who drank a cup or more of black tea per day had a 44 per cent reduced risk of having a heart attack.

And in a large population based study, adults who drank more than two cups of green tea every day reduced their risk of cardiovascular disease by more than 20 per cent!

In the US, a study by the Department of Agriculture found that people who drank five cups of black tea a day reduced their cholesterol by more than 10 per cent in just three weeks.

The benefits to gastrointestinal health from drinking tea are also evident in studies. One study found that women who drank 2.5 cups of tea a day had a reduced risk of rectal cancer risk.

A separate study found tea drinkers to have a reduced risk of colon cancer compared to non-tea drinkers. 

Further to this, a long-term study of close to 30,000 people showed that drinking three or more cups of tea per day was associated with a 69 per cent reduced risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.
We'll certainly drink to that!

Lovely Liquor

There are approximately 300 types of aromas which can be found in the tea leaf and the liquor of the tea. Many of these aromas have desirable notes and are often highly fragrant which is what makes tea so pleasant.
The different types of aromas are attributed to things like altitude, climatic conditions, country of origin, manufacturing processes, and the different clones of the camellia sinensis plant (tea plant).
Professional tea tasters call the aroma of tea, the nose or the bouquet. This nose or bouquet is attained from the smell of both the dry leaf, wet leaf and the liquor after steeping.
Tea is generally is described as having a top note, middle note, and background flavour or base note.
Similar to aromatherapy blends these notes come together to create the profile of the tea. This is particularly important when a blend is being created but it also gives specialty teas their unique characteristics.
Professional tea tasters take many, many years to educate their palate and their sense of smell and in that time taste hundreds of teas. They judge tea by using their senses of sight, smell and taste.
Some words used to describe aroma are bakey, biscuity, burnt, fruity, floral, earthy, pungent, smoky, sweet, cut grass or vegetal.
Just as roasting coffee changes the bean profile, it also can change the aroma and flavour of a tea leaves.
High fire roasting means that the tea leaves will be sweeter, fruitier and darker. This can be due to the sugar transformation within the leaf. Aromas will change considerably after being roasted at high temperatures.
Low temperature roasting can mellow out the texture, which in turn will create a smoother cup and the aroma will be less modified.
The best roasting is achieved using bamboo baskets over open fire and the roasting process can take anywhere from a few hours to several days or weeks. This is where the importance of a tea master comes in.
Just as a coffee master roaster creates profiles for certain beans after testing for moisture and other variables, a tea master will do the same for tea.
Over a period of time while the tea is roasting, the tea master must carefully watch the leaves, smell the aromas and taste the tea so that he or she can control the overall process.
Some famous roasted teas are hojicha from Japan, long jing from China, tung ting, a beautiful oolong from Taiwan, and aged puerh from Yunnan province in China.
Please share with us if you have tried any of these teas and what aromas you experienced from them.

A Japanese Tale

Some records tell us that the Japanese have been drinking tea since the 8th Century.
It was particularly linked to Buddhist ceremonies in the early years but for some strange reason tea drinking took a break from Japanese culture for about 400 years and then re-emerged in the 12th Century.
A Buddhist monk called Eisai was one of the pioneers in Japanese tea history.
Returning to Japan from a trip to China he brought with him some tea plant seeds that were planted in the Uji region.
He also brought back knowledge of tea and introduced the custom of grinding tea into powder, called matcha.
The habit of drinking tea didn't catch on quickly though, and for a long time was reserved only for the Japanese elite.
Several centuries later, in roughly the late 1600s, some farmers in the Uji region improved the tea processing technique of steaming and rolling the tea leaves.
They called this sencha, and it quickly became popular with the wider Japanese community.
Japan has since become famous for other types of tea.
One, called genmaicha, is mixed with puffed rice and has an earthy aroma to it.
Traditionally genmaicha was used by poor farmers as a hearty, warming drink but nowadays it is a specialty tea consumed throughout the world.

The Art of Gong Fu Cha

Gong fu cha is a skillful Chinese tea ceremony.
It is labour intensive and the act of devoted tea afficionados, designed to provide the peak appreciation of tea.
Gong fu cha started in Guangdong Province, China, which is nearby the Fujian Province.
The practice is designed for leafy oolong teas and is to highlight the flavours and life of the brew.
A gong fu cha specialist uses a Yixing clay teapot and divides the tea into small clay cups.
Multiple infusions allow the drinkers to enjoy the oolong through all its steeping phases - sometimes up to 30 steeps!
An elegantly carved wooden tea washing table and utensils are used during the ceremony.
All of the senses are engaged during gong fu cha.
The person conducting the ceremony allows the guests to see and smell the dried tea leaf and the wet leaf and be part of the experience in its entirety.

Rising Nepal

Nepalese tea farms grow some fine teas and according to tea producers the area will continue to increase its production.
Medicinal herbs cultivated in the lower regions of the Himalayas are thought to be some of the purest in the world, and tea is among these.
In fact, high altitude teas are known for having more flavor than lower altitude teas.
Nepali tea bushes are youthful and benefit from the region’s humidity and heavy rainfall, with many people believing these conditions produce high levels of antioxidants and are also lower in pollutants than tea grown in low altitude areas.
The Association of Himalayan Orthodox Tea Producers Nepal claims the area is only using 20 per cent of its available land for growing tea. And with a 15 per cent annual increase of tea being produced in Nepal, you can expect to see more and more tea coming from the region.
Most Nepali teas produced for export are orthodox and interestingly, Germany is the number one country importing the tea.
Of the six million kgs of tea a year the main places taking a liking to it are Hong Kong, the USA and UK, and parts of Europe.
Nepali organic orthodox teas are first flush (FTGFOP I), STGFOP I (silver, tippy, golden, flowery, orange pekoe). You may have seen this naming system before. It tells us about the tea’s color, shape, size, aroma and more.