A tea afficianado will tell you that it takes time to learn to brew great tea. True, but its also fairly easy to learn how to brew good tea. Just learn the Five “T”s of brewing good tea, Tea, waTer, Temperature, Time and Taste, and you will be brewing outstanding tea in no time! Let me walk you through the five Ts.

1) The first “T” is “Tea”. This may sound silly, but really, more than 90% of the quality of the brew is going to depend on the quality of the tea that you select. Fortunately today it is easy to buy outstanding tea. Compared to the yesteryears, when you had to be in a big city like Philadelphia, New York or Boston to get really good tea, today in North America there is almost a rennaisance in the tea culture, and you can find really outstanding teas just by going online.

In your vendor selection, try to be very selective about who you choose for your tea purchase. Read the reviews, email the owner and learn as much about the vendor as possible before buying from them. Be aware that there are two types of vendors, A speciality tea vendor that specializes in tea from certain parts of the world - China or India or Celon etc, or a general vendor who sells every thing under the banner of tea, including the crazy fruity blends to Yerba Mate to Roiboos. Generally speaking, the specialist vendor tends to know more about their tea and will in fact point you in the right direction rather than try to sell you a lot of different types of tea. So select the vendor carefully and with a good tea, you are already on the way to making an outstanding brew.

2) WaTer: The second biggest factor that influences tea brew is waTer. Heavily chlorinated water from the tap completely destroys the flavors in tea, so avoid the chlorinated tap water. Distilled water is fine, but in my experience tea tastes better with spring water than distilled water.

Beware though, that not all spring waters are created equal. My advice is, buy four or five different types of spring waters and brew the teas in them separately to see which one brings out the tea flavor the best. You may even want to test the “filter” water from one of the home filter companies. These filters not only filter the water, but also add some trace amounts of salts, and do a pretty good job in brewing tea. Bottom line, avoid chlorinated tap water and choose filtered water or spring water.

3) The third tea is “Temperature”. The general rule of thumb is, lower temperatures for Whites and Greens, and higher temperatures for Oolongs and Black teas. Mind you, the puritans go crazy over this “T” buying a kitchen thermometer and being really precise about it, but brewing good tea is not about precision, its about enjoyment. So follow this simple advice. If you are brewing a green tea, bring the water to a boil, turn the stove off, and wait for 4-5 minutes before pouring it on the green tea. For Oolong, wait 2-3 minutes, and for black tea, use boiling water. This should take care of “temperature”, but feel free to experiment around with the wait times and I am sure you will arrive at the temperature that is right for you!

4) “Time”. In my opinion, this is the most flexible “T” that you can work with. Again, the general rule of thumb is, lowest amount of time for “Green teas and Oolongs”, and most amount of time for “black tea”. So, start out with 30 seconds for green tea, and increase it in 30 second increments to arrive at the right time. On the other hand, for black tea, start with 2.5 minutes, and experiment it by going up till you come to the right amount of time.

5) And the final T is “Taste”: When we started selling teas in United States, one of the most common complaint we heard was that our teas were too astringent. I found that very surprising, because in India and other countries like Germany the astringency of tea is found to be quite welcoming! Slowly we learned that Americans prefer mellow and sweetish tea. So, when you are buying tea, be sure to ask the vendor about the astringency profile of the tea. If it is very astringent and you prefer sweet tea, you might be better off selecting a different tea.

On the other hand, you will realize that if you modulate the first four “T”s correctly, almost any tea will produce a satisfactory brew - even the most astringent one.

So, there you have it, five “T”s to help you prepare an outstanding tea. Easy to remember, easy to implement - Tea, Water, Temperature, Time and Taste. Its really not that complicated!

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Article Title: Five “T”s of Brewing Good Tea
Author: Dr. Madhulika Pareek-Joshi
Authors website: http://www.jayateas.com
About the author: Dr. Madhulika Pareek-Joshi is the President of Jaya Teas, LLC. Dr. Pareek grew up in India in a family steeped in tea industry and tea lore. Many of Dr. Pareek’s uncles and cousins are involved in the Indian tea industry and so, although a medical doctor by profession, Dr. Pareek decided to use her family connections for the benefit of US tea customer, by starting a tea company . Jaya Teas, which specialises in teas from India, has been open for business since 2004. Dr. Pareek invites readers to contribute their comments on her blog Chaiwalah, which can be found at http://www.jayateas.com/blog/
You are free to replicate this article else where, as long as this box remains intact, including the clickable links in this box
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DailyIndia.com reports that Assam Agricultural University is offering a course in tea husbandry.

The only university in the world, which provides a bachelors degree in tea husbandry and technology, includes in the course, as well as classroom studies and exposure of the field during the rural work experience program.

Could be a great opportunity for those interested in tea industry jobs!

In another news, tea warehouses in Siliguri, India suddenly went on strike on Oct 26, after one of the members of the warehouse association was suspended for some irregularities. For the gentle readers who aren’t aware, Siliguri is one of the Auction centers in India where Darjeeling, Assam, Dooars tea gets auctioned. Just to give you a sense of the importance of this town to tea trade, here is a tid bit from the same article…

It may be recalled that there are over 30 tea warehouses in Siliguri, which, on an average, allow an inflow of about 3,84,000 kgs of tea per day. However, the ongoing strike has stopped both inflow and outflow of tea from the warehouses, which, if continued for a long period, would affect the tea trading.

As we approach the gift giving season, I want to give you some ideas on how one can make an elegant gift out of teas. Teas are traditional gift in China and India, where top quality teas can be very scarce and therefore very valuable. Most who can afford to give good quality tea usually gift it in small chestlets - of 5 or 7kgs. However, we can suit this tradition to our on purpose by modifying it per the American tradition. Today, I am writing about making a gift basket that includes tea. Things you will need for this gift idea are:

Cut a small 10 inches by 6 inches piece of the card board and fold the sides up by about one inch on all sides. Place the card board on the mesh fabric, place two caddies of tea on it and the tea pot in front of the tea caddies. Now, start collecting the mesh fabric around the caddies and the tea pot and collect it at the top. Staple it together with your home office stapler, or simply tie it together with a string. Tie a nice little bow with a ribbon to hide the stapler or the string, and attach a card to it.
If you want, you can tie thinner ribbons such that they stream down the gift pack.

There - the whole thing should set you back by may be $20 at the most.

As a variation, you can use shrinkwrap cellphane wrapper instead of a mesh fabric with the same effect. In the photo instead of the cardboard you see a basket. A basket will cost you a few more dollars at Walmart.

Jaya Teas will be participating in the Coffee and Tea Festival in NY City. You are invited to the upcoming Coffee and Tea Festival to be held at: Metropolitan Pavilion, 12f West 18th Street, New York, NY on Saturday the 28th and Sunday the 29th from 11am onwards. Print this coupon for a $5 savings on your entrance fees.

Look forward to seeing you there…

Let me tell you, I am a very proud mama. My little Jaya is already demonstrating a talent for art. She has been making a few drawings lately, (under the guidance of both her mom of course) which have caught the fancy of some people. So, we decided that we might as well share them with the rest of the world. For instance, Jaya came up with this beautiful drawing of a boy running away from the girls at school. I found it very funny, and gave it the title of “Run, the women are coming!”. This makes for such a nice t-shirt for International Woman’s Month that we decided to get Cafe Press to make a few t-shirts. So if you are interested, please click the image below and go to Cafe Press to get one for yourself, and help us celebrate International Woman’s Month.

Well, the interest in Tourism to India continues to grow. Today, WSJ printed an article on Kerala as a potential travel destination. Its a nice article that talks about how the region is coping with the stagnant coconut prices, and converting itself into a tourism haven. Unfortunately, the article is available for subscribers only, so not many will be able to view it. If you get a hard copy of the WSJ, then the article in on P5 of the printed Journal.

For others, there are numerous sources online about Kerala. For starters, there is a Kerala Tourism website, choke full of information about Kerala. There are maps, and tour planners in place to help you, but it will take some getting used to. It would be nice if Kerala Government were to provide a few “pre-planned” trips for newbies to pick.

On the other hand, the government owned Kerala Tourism Development Corporation has a very nice website, with exactly that. For tea lovers, the Nilgiris run through Kerala, and there is a great opportunity to go and see the hillstations and tea plantations at the KTDC Hills Resort.

Recently, a few International Airlines (such as Singapore Airlines) have added direct flights to Cochin International Airport which means that instead of having to fly in through Mumbai or Madras airport and take a long drive to your final destination, you can now fly directly to Cochin and take a short ride any where in the state of Kerala.

With its beautiful long beaches, and gorgeous hilly vistas, Kerala has long been a travel destination for Indians. With the expansion of Cochin International Airport and an increased interest in all things India, may be Americans might finally be persuaded to go to the region we call “Heaven” of India.