Curated Tea

Mail-order tea originated two centuries ago but the arrival of online tea shops and marketplaces like Amazon make it a billion dollar business accounting for 10% of sales at typical brick and mortar ventures. Major chains with sophisticated websites like Teavana and DAVIDsTEA report that online purchases approach 20% of sales.

Amazon currently offers a daunting 1 million tea products for sale, many by leading suppliers, resulting in far too many choices for the average consumer. That is precisely the problem innovative retailers hope to alleviate.

Tea discovery becomes critical as selections increase. Some companies have introduced digital “discovery engines” but these are primitive at best.  Typing in your preferences at a site like The Tea Shelf points to The Tea Shelf’s teas. Steepster, an online community of tea drinkers with thousands of searchable reviews serves as a discovery engine but critics point out that the online journal features “a rather endless stream of reviews on the site that is more than overwhelming.”

Following gifted reviewers is an option but selections are limited to their preferences and many tea bloggers are identified with specific brands they are paid to promote.

Teabox, the Siliguri-based tea supplier, decides for you what teas to place in their monthly shipment. Subscribers, who pay $20 a month, state a preference, often beginning with a starter box offering broad selections.  Subscribers gradually refine their taste through sampling. Teabox responds by narrowing its selections to specific origins and categories of tea.

In Vancouver, Canada, Tea Sparrow’s Michael Menashy and his team of tea connoisseurs and sommeliers taste dozens of teas each month, “with no affiliation to blenders, and chose the blends that inspire us most to share with you.” The teas are scored for appearance, region, aroma and taste, he explains.

“We take pride in delivering a variety of world-class blends to your door every month – we feel we deserve it, and so do you!” he said.

Curated collections like Teavana’s Tea of the Month Club let tea buyers select a category. In April subscribers received 4 ounces of Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearls Green Tea and two 2 oz. bags of tea to compliment the selection. Including samples increases the likelihood customers will purchase larger quantities.

Tea Discovery

Since tea retailers inventory a large selection, typically 150 to 300 teas, their websites are the best resource. Lengthy product descriptions, travel articles, video, blogs and tasting notes assist in the discovery process and with small samples available, hopefully bring customers to give featured teas a try. 

Retailers like TWG in Singapore offer 1,000 teas to insure that customers will eventually stumble across a tea they favor, rewarding the retailer with a lifetime of re-orders. But tea discovery industry-wide is happenstance, limited to mail-order sampling and infrequent in-person tastings.

Since tea shops are relatively few in number mall-based ventures like DAVIDsTEA and Teavana and their small-chain local competitors continue to have the greatest influence in the discovery process.

Reference: World Tea News

5 teas to enjoy in the rains!

Curl up on the sofa and start sipping...here's how to brew the most flavourful and aromatic teas this season

The monsoon is here, and there's nothing like a steaming hot cup of tea to accompany the softly falling rain. While tea (also known as nature's tranquiliser) is best had in its most popular avatar - black with milk and sugar - here are other interesting ways to enjoy it ...

1) Rose tea

Rose tea, made by mixing fresh roses and terminal bud of the tea, is probably the oldest flavoured teas available. The tea is known for its subtle taste. There are several benefits that it has. It can beautify the skin, clearing it of toxins and contains vitamins A, B3, C, D and E. Rose tea also acts as a cure for sore throat.

How to brew: Put 10 rosebuds into a cup (should have below-boiling water). You may brew this for as long as you like, a shorter time results in lighter tea. Use no sugar or cream as the flavour is best had natural.

2) White tea

This is a mild, fresh tea, one of the least-processed types. It is said to contain three times as many antioxidants as green tea. A study says white tea can preserve the skin's natural collagen, and another points out how it speeds up the fat-burning process.

How to brew: The first thing to remember is that hard water can ruin white tea, which has delicate a flavour. Boil water to about 158oF to 167oF and pour it over the tea leaves. Steeping time can be for about 10 minutes. Serve as it is, without milk or sugar.

3) Cinnamon tea

You can enjoy the many benefits of cinnamon tea whether you love a pure cinnamon tea or prefer it blended or added to other teas. Sweet, soothing, spicy, and a little bit exotic... Cinnamon is versatile and much-loved, a favorite not only in sweet and savory dishes, but in tea, as well!

The well-known spice is famous for its ease in blending with a variety of flavors - with other teas, spices, fruits, and herbs - to create intoxicating tea blends.

4) Tulsi tea

One of the most important benefits of this tea is that it can cure stress. Tulsi can be calming and is said to lessen abdominal pain. Having a little after a meal helps to relax the muscles of the intestinal tract. The tea is light and refreshing.

How to brew: Buy some fresh tulsi from any grocery. Boil water and place tulsi leaves inside a teapot. Pour the boiling water into the teapot and let steep for about three minutes. Enjoy it hot.

5)Chamomile tea

Part of the daisy family, chamomile tea was grown by ancient Egyptians to treat a wide variety of ailments. The ingredients in this tea are said to have anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial properties. It is also said to relieve fatigue and is considered a cure for insomnia.

How to brew: Place a sachet of dried chamomile into a cup. Boil water and cool it for 20 seconds, then pour it over the chamomile. Cover and let it steep for about 5-7 minutes. Strain and sip. The flavor will be sweet and soothing.

Try these teas today at The Tea Shelf.

The World’s Most Expensive Teas

A cup of Earl Grey’s breakfast tea may be one of the preferred beverages in the United Kingdom, but the world’s most expensive teas offer a much more exquisite flavour profile. While tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world, with approximately three billion cups per day, the difference between the massively produced product and the refined variations is enormous. Not only does their cultivating and processing method vary, so does the flavour intensity. The addition of herbs and blending of different tea extracts can modify your drinking experience, as well as the price tag.

6. Gyokuro Tea

Price: $650 per kilogram

Gyokuro, which means “jewel dew”, is a shaded, pale green tea, with an intense aroma and specific processing method. Often classified as the unshaded Chinese tea Sencha, these leaves are shaded from the sun for two weeks prior to harvesting them, in order to increase the amino-acid levels in the final product, giving it a distinctive taste.

5. Poo Poo Pu-Erh Tea

Price: $1,000 per kilogram

Yes, the name is as revealing as you would think, since this fermented tea is infused with the feces of several insects. Given that the only thing they eat is tea leaves, their droppings add to the concentrated flavour of this energizing concoction. Originating from the 18th century, when Chinese doctors in the Yunnan region found the Pu-Erh to have medicinal properties and thereby offered it as a gift to Emperor Qianlong, this tea has stood the test of time. Today, its meticulous preparation method makes it one of the most expensive on the market.

4. Yellow Gold Tea Buds

Price: $3,000 per kilogram

Maybe one of the trickiest teas to get your hands on, but definitely one that’s worth the effort, Yellow Gold Tea Buds is produced by the TWG Tea Company and only sold in Singapore. What makes it so special is its limited production: one day per year, tea pickers hike up to one specific area on a specific mountain and cut the superior part of the tea tree with golden scissors, in an almost ceremonial way. After being sundried, the buds are stored in containers in order to release the polyphenols that give them their yellow colour and particular flowery aroma. In honour of the name, the leaves are then painted in 24 carat gold.

3. Panda Dung Tea

Price: $70,000 per kilogram

Once again, one of the world’s most expensive teas features animal droppings. In this case, however, the panda excrement isn’t in the tea leaves itself, but used as fertilizer for the tea trees instead. Since panda’s only eat bamboo, relieving 70% of the nutrients through their feces, this gives the tea a highly defined flavour, one that tea lovers are willing to pay a fortune for.

2. PG Tips Diamond Tea Bag

Price: $15,000 per tea bag

While these limited edition tea bags are filled with the most expensive Darjeeling tea in the world – Silver Tips Imperial Tea from the Makibari Estate – its real value is in the packaging. In honour of the British tea company PG Tips’ 75th anniversary (in 2005), they created the diamond studded tea bag, featuring 280 diamonds, and handcrafted by Boodles jewellery. Talk about a luxury beverage!

1. Da-Hong Pao Tea

Price: $1.2 million per kilo

A valued Chinese national treasure, this legendary tea is a well-kept secret and only given as a gift to dignitaries and honourable visitors. It’s said that a Ming Dynasty emperor was cured by this tea, and so his men went in search of the source, finding only four bushes on top of Mount Wuyi. Although Da-Hong Pao tea is very difficult to find for sale, its whopping price of $1.2 million for a kilogram makes it the emperor of the world’s most expensive teas.