Showing posts with label hot water. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hot water. Show all posts

Monday, December 15, 2008

Making Delicious Iced Tea

It quickly became a drink for all types of weather. It was so refreshing that people realized you could enjoy tea served cold instead of the common hot methods. Louis expo. A tea merchant by the name of Richard Blechynden decided to serve tea over some ice during a St.

Iced tea can trace its' roots back to the heat wave in the year 1904. Many people savor drinking iced tea, especially on a warm summer day.
You can drink these either decaffeinated or not for a little boost in energy when you need it. Some of the popular flavors are peach, mango, strawberry, and raspberry iced tea. It is a refreshing drink when the temperatures are rising.

Simply open the bottle and enjoy. Many of the bottled iced teas you purchase already have these in them for extra flavoring. Iced tea can be sweetened by adding sugar.
Sugar and lemon can be alternatively added to sweeten it up even more. It should be refrigerated for six or seven hours, then strained into a second clean container. With this method, a dry tea leaf should be placed in a clean container that has the right amount of cold water.

The first way is called the cold steeping method. If you are more inclined to make your iced tea there are two methods to try.
The second method of making iced tea is the hot steeping method. One favorite way of doing this is to double the amount of dry tea leaves you would typically use for hot tea, infuse it for approximately 5 minutes, and then pour over a full glass of ice. For the optimum results, let the tea cool down before pouring it over the ice. Alternatively you can try to steep it for approximately 5 minutes in hot water, then pour into a container with a matching amount of cold water. This method will dilute the strong tea flavor and help avoid clouding.
Iced tea can be mixed with lemonade or your favorite fruit juices to create a fruity flavored drink. Bear in mind that by doing this you should make sure that the juice does not overwhelm the flavor of the tea, but complement it instead. Experiment with the mixing ratios for the most desired results. Once you get it right you will be enjoying your iced drink while soaking up the warm sun.
James McDonald writes for findteaonline.com, a website where you can find
flavored tea
products and gift ideas. We have a variety of flavors as well as informative articles on many topics related to tea.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Tea Varieties

Oxidation is the reaction of the enzymes contained in tea leaves when they are broken, bruised or crushed. In its most basic form, processing is the taking of the raw green leaves and deciding whether or not, and how much oxidation (or fermentation) should take place before drying them out. It is the processing techniques that produce the four simple tea categories are considered the art of tea making.

Shades in flavor derive from the region of cultivation and the method of processing the tea leaves. If you do like tea drinking, but simply never had the opportunity to learn more about it beyond the fact that you enjoy it, you should know that there are thousands of kinds of tea offered on today's market. Tea is made by steeping processed leaves, buds, or twigs of the tea bush in hot water for a few minutes, a great variety of tea tastes, aromas and colors can excite even the more skeptical drinker. Interestingly enough the 3,200,000 tones of tea produced worldwide come from only one plant species, named "camellia sinensis." But how a plant becomes a beverage?

The second most consumed beverage behind water is tea.
The first category is that of black tea. Black tea is nothing more than the leaves of the camellia sinensis after being exposed to 8-24 hours of open air. After the leaves are picked up they are spread out to let the water they contain evaporate. You have probably witnessed it happening to a flower that is left without being watered. The foliage curls up and begins to dry. After this part of the process, the tea leaves are balled into rolls that encourage oxidization. When fully oxidized, the leaves turn into a rich black color. Tea producers then put the tea leaves into the final drying period before sorting and packaging them.
Oolong tea is another tea category and is considered to be the most difficult of the four types of teas to process. The best way to describe oolong tea is that it is somewhere in between green and black tea. This is because the leaves are only partially oxidized during the processing. As with black tea, the leaves are spread out to dry for 8-24 hours, but after that, they are tossed about in a basket in order to create a bruising and partial exposure to the air. The final step involves steaming the leaves, which neutralizes the enzymes in the tea and prevents further oxidization.
Though the tea leaves are sometimes laid out to dry for a few hours, then, in order to neutralize the enzymes and prevent further oxidation, the leaves are rolled up, still quite green in color. The whole process of creating green tea revolves around preventing oxidization from taking place in the leaves. This type of tea is also lower in caffeine and has higher antioxidant properties. Green teas, like white teas, are closer to tasting like fresh leaves of grass that the other two tea categories.
Finally, white tea has recently become a popular item in the west as it is the least processed tea and thus tastes the most like fresh leaves or grass. White tea is made of the little buds of the tea plant. Again like green tea, white tea is steamed or pan fried to prevent any kind of oxidization, and great care is taken to avoid bruising or crushing the tea. The dried buds have a silver-like appearance because the tiny white hairs of new growth are still present.
John Gibb is the owner of
Tea resources

For more information on Tea check out
http://www.tea-foru2k.info

Monday, September 8, 2008

Does Green Tea Taste Like Grass?

Realising what had happened, he took some of the leaves from the tree home with him, and so invented tea. When he came back, the emperor was upset, but still decided to drink the water - only to find that it now tasted excellent. Suddenly, a freak gust of wind put out his fire and blew leaves from a nearby tree into the emperor's hot water. According to Chinese legend, green tea was invented by an emperor who was out in the forest, and had just boiled a kettle of water on his campfire.
It is known to have been consumed as long ago as the 9th century in Japan, and has long been a social drink and a status symbol, as well as a drink that is considered to have a wide variety of health benefits. Whether that's true or not, there is no doubting that tea has a long and noble history in China and many other Asian countries, and most of the tea they consume has long been either white or green tea.
While this means that green tea doesn't stay fresh for very long, it also means that it has a much fresher taste than black tea, and many believe that it is much better for you. Black tea is first dried out and then fermented so that it will last longer, while green tea's treatment stops after the drying stage, while the green colour of the leaves is still present. The difference between green tea and Western black tea isn't that they are different plants - they are both made from camellia sinesis, the tea plant - but that the leaves are treated differently after they are picked.
The first time you taste green tea you will probably think that it somehow tastes ‘green', or grass-like, but it is hard to describe. The best way to figure out whether you'll like it or not is to just give it a go.
John Gibb is the owner of
Green tea advice
, For more information on green tea check out
http://www.green-tea-guidance.info

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Ginseng Tea

However, it should only be a secondary boost to health and not curing diseases or illnesses. Experts in Chinese medicine recommend that it should be drunk daily or whenever one is feeling unwell. The Chinese have been using ginseng tea for their health for thousands of years.
As a result, there have been great exports of ginseng to China or overseas Chinese communities, as well as Korea. It was discovered that the weather and soil conditions of the United States and Canada are suitable for growing ginseng.
Ginseng tea is probably the most popular use for Wisconsin ginseng. American ginseng is sometimes referred to as quinquefolium. The principle ingredients of American ginseng tea are panax quinquefolium, herbal lysimachiae and radix glycyrrhizae.
The ginseng slices are very popular, because they have already been sliced into thinner pieces and are ready for use. When using the whole root for cooking or ginseng tea, it is often sliced or broken into smaller pieces so that it does not have to simmer for long. The tea can be made from the whole root, slices, ginseng tea cut or ginseng tea bags.
The ginseng can usually be reused for about 2-3 cups of tea and then eaten if desired. Just add the ginseng to hot water and allow it to steep for about 4-5 minutes, or as long as you like, depending on how ""strong"" you like tea. Ginseng tea is very simple to prepare.

This is about 5-8 slices, about 1 teaspoon of ginseng tea cut or powder, or one tea bag. When making ginseng tea, it usually takes about 2-3 grams of ginseng per cup of tea.

Blogger template 'Kiwi' by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008