Huppy St. Patrick's Day

Today is St. Patrick's Day!!

I recently read a book written by an Irish man. He says in his book that the three leaved Shamrocks represent the unity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost. If you look at the shamrock leaves, you can find that the three are all in heart shape!! Nature always inspires us.

I collect all kinds of teapots (mostly antique, sometimes new ones if unique or made by famous artists) made in differente countries. Bought a green teapot for St. Patrick's day, but do not know its stories. There's no mark of which company manufactured it, in which year, from which country. It's really hard to tell, but i'm sure it's not made in the US, based upon its design and material.

Lightly Alcoholic Tea Punch!!!

I wanted to thank everybody for your kind feedbacks on our tea punch!!! Great to know everybody loved it!!!

The recipe was inspired by the Punch story. In old times, sailors in the sea had nothing to do but mixed drinks with spices. Punch, which means 5, includes 5 elements-Bitter (TEA!), sour, sweet, weak and arrack. The original punch was alcohol based. I replaced alcohol with tea!

Our Lightly Alcoholic Tea punch was born!!!

Taste profile: very refershing, very well balanced tastes, has the aftertaste of bitter, sweet, and sour, with nice fruity aroma, beautiful presentation!! THE BEST! Absolutely delicious!!

To make the drink more healthy, I made a revision on the original Tea Punch recipe. Here's the reduced Sugar version:


Prepare time: 20 minutes, plus at least 3 hrs to chill
Yields: 20-24 servings (or approximately 96 oz)

Ingredients
6 oz Sugar (or adjust to taste)
2.5 cups of Apple Juice (unsweetened, from concentrate)
¼ cups of Lemon Juice (from concentrate)
2 cups of Grapefruit (from concentrate)
½ cups of Tequila
¼ cups of Vodka
4 Tea Beyond Grade A Blooming teas-assorted
6 cups of spring water
*Strawberry Gingerale ice cubes

Instructions:

1. Boil spring water and get the sugar dissolved in hot water: Right before the water reaches boiling point, add sugar in and stir until completely dissolved.

2. Steep the tea: drop 4 blooms and steep for about 15 minutes.

2. Mix Apple Juice, Lemon, Grape Fruit, Tequila and Vodka in a punch bowl

3. 15 minutes later, mix all liquid together. Let blooming teas stay in the mixture.

4. Cover with the plastic wrap and put it in refrige to chill for about at least 3 hours.

5. When serve, float on Strawberry ice cubs in the punch bowl and serve!!

*Strawberry ice cubs:

Ingredients: Ginger ale and whole strawberries (or strawberry pieces)

Fill the ice cube mold with ginger ale and add whole/sliced strawberries pieces to each cube. Freeze to use. Please allow roughly 1 day to process.

Tips for preparation:

1. Make sure to use very good branded ingredients to get the best results, such as apple juice, etc. Good quality ingredients always bring the high quality results!

2. Alternatives for sugar: you can use honey, if you prefer, or Stevia. Volume might be different. Add it gradually and taste it.

3. Avoid use water to make ice cubes-Water will dilute the drink. (see, I'm SMARTIE ^0*;))

4. Strawberry Gingerale ice cubes: use Strawberries that come with green leaves for ice cubes. It creates nicer presentation in the beverage, also looks very fresh!

4. Leave the blooming tea in the mixture: it creates nicer presentation, exhotic and continues to release the tea flavor.

Here's the original tea punch recipe if you have a sweet tooth:

http://teabeyond.blogspot.com/2009/12/exotic-blooming-tea-punch.html

Long Spout Teapot Tea Performance 长嘴壶茶艺

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9D-g74SINw

Long Spout Teapot Tea Performance (长嘴壶茶艺), one kind of Kung Fu (Gong Fu) Tea performance, is a popular tea performace in Sichuan (Sizchuan in most English, famous for its spicy food) and Zhe Jiang, China.

One story says in early 3 century, the Chinese emperor Ah Dou was afraid that someone could attack him while serving him a drink. His Strategiest, Zhu Ge Liang (诸葛亮）designed a special pot that has long curved spout made of cooper for him. This pot can be used to carry liquor but also be used as a weapon to protect him.

Another story says old tea houses are always crowded and there are not many waitresses. People do not want to wait. Long Spout tea pots allow waitress to pour tea from a distance thus can serve multiple people at one spot.

There are few styles: Erh Mei style (Sizchuan), Dragon 18 Style (Meng Ding, Sizchuan), Fu Rong (Sizchuan) and Tai Chi (Hangzhou, Zhejiang),etc...This short video was recorded in Hangzhou. He is actually a champion of Tea Performance in China.

Our Youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Teabeyond

Happy tea, yes indeed!

We finally launched our Free Giveaway program in May 2010. Anybody that subscribes our email list will have the opportunity to win a FREE gift. We release the list of winners on the first day of each month.

Brian from NY is one of the winners of our FREE GIFT GIVEAWAY in May. After received his gift, he wrote:

I did win your contest, and received a collection of your beautiful teas. You have no idea how that made my day. It made me forget all the cares and worries of the day. If just receiving such a special treasure made me feel that way, I can't wait to make a pot. I can;t tell you how much that means to me. Thank you so very, very much!....Once again, Thank you so much. Take satisfaction in knowing you've made one person very happy.

Nothing is better than this!! Happy tea everyday, dear tea lovers!

Tea History-The Discovery of Tea

Chinese legend reads that the Emperor Shen Nong ("the god of farming") first discovered tea leaves when he observed that many of his people were dying of epidemic diseases and he decided to search for medicines. The legend says that Shen Nong (picture below)



has a transparent skin which enables him to test the toxicity of an herb by observing the change inside of his body.

He discovered tea one day while testing a cure. On this day, Shen Nong tried too many different kinds of toxic herbs and he lost consciousness. As he lay there, a few drops of dew from a tea tree dropped on his lips and revived him. Fascinated by this miracle, he ate the leaf, and though it was very bitter, he was able to see the leaves moving through and removing the toxins from his body.

It is recorded in the first Chinese medicine book named after Shen Nong, 神农本草经 (Classic of Chinese Herbs by Shen Nong), that Shen Nong tried 72 toxic herbs a day and that each time, tea detoxified his body. This is the first known record in Chinese history that shows tea being used as a medicine.





News of these medicinal qualities spread fast and tea varieties were developed for a host of different ailments, many of which are being proved true by modern science. For example, numerous recent studies have found that green tea has more anti-oxidants than any other drink. Anti-oxidants are shown to help reduce the presence of free radicals in our body. Free radicals randomly destroy healthy cells and reduce wholeness. It's no wonder that after more than 5000 years, green tea remains one of the most popular teas of the world! In honor of this rich history, Tea Beyond uses only the highest quality green tea as a base for all our beautiful blooming teas

Exotic Blooming Tea PUNCH!

Alcohol level-light, light sweet

Exotic Blooming tea punch is inspired by original punch which had been quaffed by sailors, explorers and patriots for centuries. The word punch either comes from Indian word “panch”, the Sanskrit word “panchan” or the Persian word “panj”, all meaning five, from the fact that this drink is made of five ingredients: tea (bitter), sugar (sweet), lemons (sour), water (weak) and arrack (alcoholic).

Best for: any parties (wedding service, Baby shower, Birthday party, etc), holidays, Family gatherings, BBQ events, Fund-raising events, Corporate events, etc. It has beautiful presentation.

Taste: refreshing, subtle, delightful, light alcohol that fits everybody's appetite.

Prepare time: 20 minutes, plus 2-3 hrs to chill
Yields: 20-24 servings (or approximately 96 oz)

Ingredients
1 cup Sugar
2.5 cups of Apple Juice (unsweetened, from concentrate)
¼ cups of Lemon Juice (from concentrate)
2 cups of Grapefruit (from concentrate)
½ cups of Tequila
¼ cups of Vodka
4 Blooming teas
6 cups of spring water
*Strawberry ice cubes

Instructions:

1. Brew tea first: Boil 48 oz spring water. Then drop 4 blooms to brew 15 minutes.
2. Mix Apple Juice, Lemon, Grape Fruit, Tequila and Vodka in a punch bowl
3. 15 minutes later, take all blooms out (will need to put back later) and add 1 cup of sugar to the tea. Stir gently until sugar fully dissolved. Mix all liquid together and put 4 blooming teas back to the mixture.
4. Cover with plastic wrap and put it in refrigerator to chill for about 2-3 hours.
5. When serve, float on Strawberry ice cubs in individual glasses or in punch bowl, whichever you like.

*Strawberry ice cubs:

Ingredients: Ginger ale and whole strawberries (or strawberry pieces)

Fill the ice cube mold with ginger ale and add whole/pieced strawberries to each cube. Freeze to use. Please allow few hours to process.

Blooming Tea Cocktail

Alcohol level-Medium

This cocktail is inspired by Long Island iced tea. It’s refreshing, fun and absolutely the killer for the night! Let the party begin!

Ingredients
½ oz Triple sec
1/2 oz Vodka
1/2 oz light rum
1/2 oz Tequila
1-1/2 oz tea (1 blooming tea)
Splash of syrup
1 piece of lemon
Ice cubes

Instructions:
1. Brew 1 blooming tea (use 1.5 oz water for one bloom) for 10 minutes. Chill for use.
2. Pour the light rum, Tequila, Vodka, triple sec, syrup, blooming tea juice and lemon piece into a shaker with ice cubes.
3. Shake well and Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon.

The History of Tea in the US -1

From the time Petrus Stuyvesant first introduced tea to the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam (later New York City) to today, it has been few hundrads years.

Board of Tea Experts (former FDA) was created in 1897, to regulate the quality of tea imported. At that time, tea trade grew exponently but tea merchants faced the tough situation where they found some teas were manipulated to reach the desired color and weight. At the time, people judge tea quality mainly by color, other than taste and aroma.

Board of Tea Experts is a group of tea experts selected. They meet once a year to sample teas submitted then choose one standard tea from each variety. Standard teas are sent to tea dealers, importers and inspectors to serve as a standard to judge for quality.

The process is very labor intensive. You can imagine the scene, water boiling, cupping, slurping, spitting....

It is also a subjective process as new tea species are constantly created. One of the most memorial tea stories is the He-No Tea. The tea is actually dried Kentuckey bluegrass, not a typital traditional tea. The company was charged for misbranding. A Chinese attorney defended at the court that the name clearly states Hay, NO TEA....

I like that attorney!

Stand out at the Fancy Food Show

This Fancy Food Show has been an amazing experience for us as people love the quality of our blooming teas.

The absolutely fancy story about blooming tea is actually the materials used and how it is made. For example, one of the uniqueness of Tea Fame collection is the silver needle green tea plucked from over 2500 feet high mountains.

Most of famous teas grow in remote mountains where there's no road even. Tea farmers need to climb miles to pluck the leaves. Normally there are only few days a year to pluck the best quality leaves. Within the few days, there are a couple of hours best for plucking. And it can not be any rainny day!

Each person can only pluck max few pounds of fresh leaves per day. Regardless of variety of teas, roughly 4 to 5 KG (roughly 11 pounds) of fresh leaves can make 1 kg (2.2 pounds) dried tea leaves! Since Tea Fame is made of single tea buds, it needs even more fresh leaves to make 1 KG dried leaves.

After the tea is processed, the final stage is to select the best leaves, strong, good looking, similar length, by hands to sew with flowers.

Yes, this is why we call it a RARE TEA! Purely love of labor!

Another thing to remember, 10 or 20 years later, we do not know if we still can get hand-made teas any more because less and less farmers are willing to do it!

The following video is from Fancy Food Show, the courtesy of PaulLin Media.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSeghrTMxBc

Absolute Iced Blooming tea!!

what you need:
cocktail strainer for the pitcher
4 blooms of Grade A Collection (4 different blooms will compliment each other for the taste and display),

sliced lime or lemon,
1 pitcher,
Ice cubes

Iced blooming tea instruction:

1. Boil water 40-48 oz until it reaches boiling. Pour the boiling water into a teapot or stainless steel pot that has a wide opening. (This will allow you to take the blooms out easily). Drop 4 blooms. Wait until fully bloom. If you prefer stronger taste, let the tea sit for a little bit longer time.
2. Pour roughly 8-10 oz cold water into the pitcher first (This will avoid break the glass) Then use food tong to move the blooms into the pitcher.
4. Pour 30%-50% of the tea into the pitcher, then add ice cubes...Or you can mix the iced cubs with tea first then pour the mixture into the pitcher.
5. When you serve it, you can add one slice of lime, fruits or anything you want. Putting sliced limes into the pitcher directly will make the water look not too clear.

Put the strainer on top of the pitcher and you can serve it immediately! Refill ice cubes and tea when 30% left. You can refill iced cubes few times. If need stronger taste, add the rest of tea to you pitcher or wait a little longer time after each refill.

You also can use Tea Fame collection or Thé Luxe collection to make iced blooming tea, 4 blooms or 2 blooms, depends on your personal preference.

Wanna a different Summer experience? Want your event memorable? Try iced blooming tea!! You will be amazed about the results!