Tea Blog

Green!

The color of spring. Have you caught a glimpse of the oncoming season? Here in Texas, we’ve seen hints of winter’s end earlier than most of our tea loving friends across the country.

To celebrate, we’re drinking even more green tea than before. Here, we’d like to invite you to enjoy one with us: Gyokuro.

Gyokuro is a rare green tea from Japan. Not to be confused with sencha, gyokoru has its own harvesting, processing, and steeping methods which yield a distinctly different cup. The name “gyokuro” means “jade dew,” referring to the pale, whispy green color of the infusion.

If you like the grassy notes of sencha, you’ll love gyokuro. Before being harvested, gyokuro tea leaves are shielded from the sun for at least two weeks. This step heightens the naturally occurring photosynthesis of the plant. Here, the levels of both l-theanine and caffeine increases and there’s plenty of reasons to celebrate that effect! Plus, it gives gyokuro a distinct aroma and a slightly sweeter flavor from this covering process too.

Steep this delicate green tea at a lower temperature than most, and for less time. Experiment to find your perfect steep. Get lucky!

Have you ever heard of yaupon? You’re not alone.

This surprises many as this native plant is North America’s only indigenous source of caffeine and we all know how popular caffeine is!

Thanks to a neighboring harvester in Cat Springs, Texas, Zhi is able to bring you your new favorite tea, grown right here in Texas.

Pronounced “yo pawn,” this tea is well known to native North American Indians and had adapted perfectly to the dry environment in which it grows. This rare caffeinated herbal tea loves time and temperature: give it very hot water and steep it a little longer than average, about 5 minutes. It’s cup is a beautiful amber glow and the taste is superb! Notes of honey and almonds.

Like most tea, flavor is not your only reward. Yaupon has been studied and found to have tons of antioxidants, flavonoids and theobromine, the anxiety free caffeine also found in pure cacao.  This best kept secret is going to be your new favorite tea to share with your friends and family. Try some today!

Somehow, somewhere, a rumor was started that tea did not hydrate you. And regretfully, the answer boards at Yahoo.com are not always a reliable place to get information. Zhi would like to set the record straight.

Tea hydrates as well as water. Recent studies from India compared two controlled groups: one drank water and the other drank tea. There was no measurable difference between hydration indicators, leading to the conclusion that drinking tea is just as effective for bodily functions as water. This validates results from a 2010 study that showed the same conclusion: the trace amounts of caffeine in tea did not compromise hydration.

Additionally, there is evidence to show that tea actually hydrates better than water! Tea contains beneficial elements that water does not: antioxidants, polyphenols, and flavonoids. Plus, since tea has such a range of flavor, your eight cups a day could each be unique! Today, we’ll have an eight cup marathon of our current favorite: Cherry Sencha. What will you hydrate with today?