Tea Sippers

The tea news today seems to be pretty much more of the same, such as the news about Sweet Leaf Tea’s expansion into the ready-to-drink iced tea markets now that it has new funds from Catterton Partners to do so. They are already in 6000 stores and hope to double that with expansion funds of $18,000,000. having done very well in Texas, Colorado and parts of California and in the natural foods market.

Since this is the type of tea news available right now, I thought I would talk a little about a tea I picked up on a trip a couple weeks ago. It is a Republic of Tea Chinese oolong called “Ti Kuan Yin - Strengthen the Spirit Tea”. Although my local Vitamin Cottage carries the Republic of Tea brand, it does not carry this particular product.

This oolong tea, when you open the canister, consists of balls of tea leaves. When boiling water is poured upon the balls, they open up into the biggest leaves of tea I have seen in a tea yet. Most real tea lovers have probably had more experience than I with oolongs, or even all the other teas, so have seen such large leaves before. But these were a real treat in my experience.

It is a lovely golden color in the cup. There is a slightly nutty scent underlying the tea. The tea I can only describe as very smooth though I did sweeten it a tad. What I like best about this tea is that I could infuse the leaves again and again for more interesting cups of tea, each as delightful as the first cup. Although I have read about this, this is the first tea in my experience that I was really able to do so and have as fine a cup of tea as with the first infusion.

Source:

http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/other/04/03/0403sweetleaf.html