Iced Tea Made Perfect

One of the most often questions we get asked in the spring and summer season:

How do we make our delicious iced teas?

We serve a variety of our blended teas over ice in store during these seasons.

A. Good quality tea makes a good iced tea. Flavorful without using a ton of sugar

B. Many tea blends make wonderful iced tea. "experiment"We use Flavored Black Teas, Flavored Green Teas, Flavored Rooibos Teas, Tisane Tea (fruit and herb), and even Herbal Tea (like hibiscus)

C. Remember your tea will get watered down when you and ice, so general rule of thumb use double what you would for hot tea. (1tsp. per cup 1T. per 2-3 cup teapot.

D. Most Important the right recipe.

TEAZEHRI ICED TEA RECIPE

makes 1-1/2 liters of tea

INGREDIENTS: 25 gr. or 1 - oz of tea

1-1/2T of sugar or honey. half that if using Stevia

boiling water

INSTRUCTIONS: Place sugar, honey or Stevia & 25gr of tea (in a LARGE infuser into a 6 cup tea pot

or heat resistant container. Add boiling water. allow to steep for recommended time.

Remove infuser with tea and let cool. Put into a container of your choosing and

refridgerate.

STEEP TIMES: Black Tea 5 minutes, Green Tea 3-5 minutes Tisane (fruit & herb) can be left overnight

in the teapot overnight, then removed

NOTE: Hibiscus is the "ONLY" tea that brews overnight on the counter of fridge without using boiling

water. Part of the "Agony of the Leave" or unfurling the tea leaf for maximum flavor, requires

the use of boiling water.

ENJOY!!!!

The Emerald Isle

When not partaking in a Guinness, the Irishman consumes, on average, 6 cups of tea per day! Even with a relatively small population of 3.9 million citizens, Ireland still consumes 24 million cups of tea per day!

Tea and Ireland go way back actually. The beverage was first introduced to Ireland in 1835 by British traders when Ireland was still part of the British Empire. Ireland could always count on a steady supply of tea as they relied on British importers for their fix of tea, that is until WWII when Britain was forced to ration foodstuffs of all kinds, tea included, throughout the entire empire. Much to the dismay of the British government, during the war, Ireland declared itself neutral in the global conflict. This was viewed by the British as an act of subversion and thus they cut Ireland's tea ration to nearly nothing. Ireland was not fazed by this action however as the Irish government decided to set up their own tea importing company: Tea Importers (Eire) Ltd. Tea drinkers all across Ireland rejoiced and continued on drinking one of their favourite beverages.

In tribute to Ireland and it's hardy spirit, we have our Creamy Irish Breakfast tea, which is a lovely bold blend of East African, Ceylon and strong Assam black tea varieties. This tea is wonderful on it's own but is lovely with a bit of cream as well. Get yourself a little taste of Ireland here.

Copy of Tea with a Bang!

What tea comes with a bang you ask? Why it's Gunpowder green tea! But don't worry it won't explode or make loud noises and it doesn't contain any gunpowder. According to legend the tea got it's name from a young English clerk, who thought the tiny rolled balls of tea leaves looked like gunpowder! The tea leaves are specially selected for quality size and style, they are then rolled into small balls. This method of processing the tea means that Gunpowder tea will actually keep longer than other green teas and has become popular because of this characteristic!

Gunpowder green tea comes from Taiwan and the Zhejiang province of China; however, some believe that higher quality gunpowder green teas come from Taiwan as Taiwan's gunpowder quality improved significantly after 1949. The first tea bushes planted in Taiwan were planted around 300 years ago with bushes from the Fujian province of China. The bushes in Taiwan flush around five times per year between April and December. The best leaves are picked from the end of May to around mid-August.

Interestingly, before the 1900's gunpowder green tea comprised around 60% of America's total tea imports, today that figure is less than 1%.

This tea is a wonderful experience for the senses and not just smell and taste. Try brewing the tea loose, with boiling water, in a cup, bowl or teapot that you can see into and watch as the leaves open up and almost "bloom" like a flower would and float gracefully to the bottom.

Our Formosa Gunpowder Green Tea is an excellent gunpowder variety and has a surprising and strong body but still has that familiar fresh and captivating green tea flavour.

#yyc #gunpowder #greentea #loosetea #qualitytea