Having considered the pros and cons of aged white tea cakes—and delved into what the microbes are up to during those years of aging—it’s time to brew a few of them! White Tea Grades In Fujian Province, white teas are categorized by leaf size (grade): Grade 1: Silver needle (yin zhen bai hao) consists solely of single unopened buds. Grade 2: White peony (pai mu tan or bai mu dan) consists of leaf sets: two young leaves with the bud. After plucking, the sets are lightly oxidized, with each production step ensuring minimal damage to the leaves. Because this tea is a blend of leaves and ..read more

Marketing is all about getting you to pay for something that you may not even need or particularly want. Worth the money? Of high quality? That’s often irrelevant. Producers and distributors use lovely words to describe aged white tea cakes. And these teas may or may not live up to their product descriptions. That’s for the consumer to decide. You may also get the idea that these cakes have been around forever, but as I said in my first post of this series, white tea cakes are new. Yes, tea was made into bricks centuries ago. In compressed form, tea could be more easily stored and transported ..read more

The whole concept of aged white tea cakes is sort of a curious thing. To make a tea cake, white tea leaves—a finished product that is already relatively rare and fairly pricy—are reprocessed. This process, in which the tea leaves are steamed and then compressed into a mold, “destroys the bud and leaf tissue of white tea” (Zhihui Wang et al. 2022). The cake then sits around for years while microorganisms go to work. Why would anyone do this? Well, if a tea producer has so-so white tea leaves, they could sell them as a middling grade of tea. Or, they could compress and age them, ideally ending u ..read more

You may have noticed that white tea cakes, or compressed white tea, now seem to be a thing. Attractively packaged with eye-catching artwork, they can certainly elevate the tea experience. But, if we’re looking for the best teas as far as quality and flavor go, how do they compare? Should we buy compressed, rather than loose, white tea? And really, what’s the point of compressing those beautiful, large, fluffy, white tea leaves? In this series, I take a closer look at white tea cakes: Why they are made What happens as the compressed leaves age Reasons that loose leaves may be preferred, histo ..read more

Fresh red currants—with their juicy zing—have always been a favorite of mine. Delicious on plain yogurt or vanilla ice cream, they also shine in a meringue torte where their tartness nicely counters the sweet meringue. And, thanks to my prolific bushes, currant jelly and syrup are a mainstay at my home. But black currants? I loved them in Europe, which currently produces nearly all of the world’s supply of black currants. I didn’t realize they were rare in the U.S. until I read recently that most Americans have never had the fresh berries! Sure, jams and jellies can be had—many of them produc ..read more

Chemistry doesn’t ever come to mind when I brew a cup of tea, but the process is indeed chemistry: I extract the chemical compounds from the tea leaves and transfer them into the hot water. In this case, the type of extraction is infusion, which simply means that I steep the leaves in water (the solvent) to allow the flavors and complexity of that plant material to transfer into that water.  But tea leaves will infuse into just about any liquid that you put them in—including spirits! Thus, you can easily infuse your favorite spirit with your favorite tea and use that infusion to create u ..read more

The annual World Tea Expo fosters exploration, innovation, networking. Tea industry producers, importers and distributors, tea shop owners, restauranteurs, and tea drinkers sample and discuss teas, teach or attend classes, peruse tea-related merchandise, and network. Why should you care? Well, products that catch the eye of attendees may possibly turn up in your local tea shop, restaurant, or even big-box store at some point! This year, in an arguably more novel and fun vein, Lisa of TeaHaus, Ann Arbor, and Phil (Mammoth Distilling) taught popular classes that demonstrated how to use tea leav ..read more

Next week’s World Tea Expo is taking place alongside the Bar & Restaurant Expo, which is fitting. Although we may view tea and alcoholic beverages as two entities, they’ve long been entwined. Europeans were first introduced to tea in the early 1600s, although only the wealthiest could afford such a luxury. At the same time, British East India Company employees discovered punch during their travels. Whether the word “punch” truly derived from Hindustani panch, meaning “five” (see earlier post), isn’t clear. However, the drink’s five elements: spirit citrus sugar spice/tea water remain the ..read more

Have you seen the latest tempest in the [salted] teapot? Recently, American chemist Michelle Francl had the audacity (!) to recommend a sprinkle of salt in your tea. Which prompted the Brits to charges of heresy. (Read story here.) However, adding salt to tea is nothing new. Chinese tea master Lu Yu, who wrote the Classic of Tea around 760 CE—that’s over 1200 years ago!—added salt when he boiled water to make tea. Although he cautioned against making the water too salty lest the tea also be too salty, he apparently used only a pinch of salt to about a quart of water (Barnes 2014:11). That amo ..read more

In my last post, we had reached the mid-1800s, entering into the advent of leisure travel in Europe, a period when souvenir collecting evolved into spoon collecting, both in Europe and the United States. By displaying a collection that advertised where you had been, you demonstrated your interest in the world, your ability to travel, and, of course, your disposable income and accompanying status. On May 10, 1892, the Omaha Daily Bee of Nebraska remarked on the “spoon fad,” explaining that American cities as well as those in Europe were producing their own souvenir spoons for tourists, commemo ..read more