Amy Dubin, of Portland, Oregon USA, who imports her own range of Single Origin teas from India and then sells them on her online store , describes her conversion

In November 2002 I decided to immerse myself in tea education by going on a self-guided journey through India; my first stop was Assam, and a tea garden about an hour from Guwahati. The air was clear and sweet, it was late morning and already the pluckers were gearing up for their first tea break of the day.

The waist-high tea bushes were planted close together and lean, gangly trees towered over the garden, which stretched as far as the eye could see. Big, shiny leaves sprouted from every branch, I touched them in disbelief because they almost looked fake. I was shown how they’re plucked and took lots of pictures of the garden and the homes of the workers. Once I saw how much labor and care goes into making tea, it seemed clear that I wanted to make a life for myself in this industry too.

There’s nothing better than sitting down with a good cup of tea and a large slice of chocolate cake (it’s not even 10am and I’m already salavating), but what happens if you combine the two..?

Flavoured teas are not new (think Earl Grey) and chocolate flavoured tea certainly isn’t either - but what constitutes a good chocolate tea? Whilst Adagio claim to have the best chocolate flavoured tea, most large tea companies will offer some form of chocolate flavoured combination. I’ve not tasted Adagio’s blend, of the chocolate teas I know, the best tend to have a light tea base (such as a Sri Lankan Uva) so as not to detract from the delicate flavour of the chocolate. A North Indian Assam base is already very malty and thick, so the chocolate flavouring has to be added to the tea in higher quantities in order to be tasted in the cup. Continue Reading »

Alex Probyn gives some industry insider views on tea in tea bags. Alex is a trained Master Tea Blender whose company Blends for Friends creates personalised tea blends as gifts and custom blends for tea shops; as gifts these teas are perhaps the height of tea giving as each blend is uniquely created from Alex’s stock of over 400 teas and herbs.

Invented in 1904, becoming widespread in Europe and North America during the 1950’s, the tea bag had not seen much change in it’s style for nearly 40 years before the likes of Tetley and Unilever (Lipton and PG Tips) sought new marketing angles by changing it’s shape. In reality - and contrary to what they would want you to believe - whether it be square, round or triangular, the flavour extraction is pretty much the same. However the past 10 years have seen a mini-revolution in these bags of leaves and it seems the bag of the moment is a ‘Fuso’ style bag that allows loose leaf teas to be brewed in a see-through gauze tea bag. Continue Reading »