I found a store online which sells loose leaf tea. It's called Vitabase and they also sell suppliments; everything from vitamins to diet to heart health. They sell several kinds of loose leaf tea and have a Tea of the Month Club, which I know I'm interested in joining!
Vitabase Health Supplements and Gourmet Tea
They carry both Genmaicha (under the green teas) and Earl Gray (under the English teas) which I've written about previously. They also carry Jasmine (under the green teas) which I plan to write about next, as well as several Black, Green, Rooibos, Chai and herbal teas as well as tea accessories. It looks like it is a one-stop shop for several great loose leaf teas! They also have a few varieties of bagged teas, if you wanted some bagged teas for convenience.
I will also look for other places to purchase loose leaf teas online (as the places I get my teas are brick&mortar stores, so not too able to get to everyone interested in purchasing teas) and link those as I find them. But in the meantime, Vitabase looks like it has a fabulous selection at a decent price.
Vitabase's brand is for health supplements, but if you check out the above link, it goes straight to their tea page, which looks pretty good.
Friday, May 31, 2013
Friday, May 10, 2013
Earl Gray, revisited
I know I already spoke about Earl Gray tea, however, I'd like to revisit the topic. Previously, I wrote about the tea itself, what it is like in its dried form, its brewed form, how I discovered and fell in love with Earl Gray. This time, I'm going to discuss why I love Earl Gray tea so much.
I mentioned previously that I could steep the Earl Gray loose leaf tea for an extra long time in order to brew a very strong tea. In this case, the Earl Gray takes on a bitter taste as well. However, when it is this strong, it makes a wonderful morning cup of wake-me-up tea. I love making Earl Gray this way to have in the mornings. I will either drink it by itself this way, or I'll enjoy it with some breakfast items like an egg and cheese breakfast sandwich or oatmeal or breakfast pastries like a cinnamon roll or blueberry muffin. The tea compliments the food or is robust enough to be a pleasant morning drink.
Normally, however, when I drink Earl Gray tea, I steep it normally, not going for the super strong taste I go for on work mornings. With this, it is wonderful enjoyed by itself. However, Earl Gray tea goes very well with any lunch or dinner foods as well. I've enjoyed Earl Gray when eating comfort foods like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or when enjoying some of the best sushi I've ever found. I've enjoyed Earl Gray with several varieties or Asian cuisine, with Indian and Thai curries, with Mexican foods as well as pizza.
Earl Gray tea is so high up on my favorites list because it is so versatile. I can drink it at any time of the day by itself or with food.
Earl Gray, however, is a black tea and therefore does contain quite a bit of caffeine. While nothing like the amount in coffee, black teas do typically contain the highest caffeine amounts of any of the teas. How strong a tea is will also determine caffeine contents, so my morning cup of Earl Gray probably contains a lot more caffeine than when I steep for a normal amount of time.
Current Tea: Earl Gray
I mentioned previously that I could steep the Earl Gray loose leaf tea for an extra long time in order to brew a very strong tea. In this case, the Earl Gray takes on a bitter taste as well. However, when it is this strong, it makes a wonderful morning cup of wake-me-up tea. I love making Earl Gray this way to have in the mornings. I will either drink it by itself this way, or I'll enjoy it with some breakfast items like an egg and cheese breakfast sandwich or oatmeal or breakfast pastries like a cinnamon roll or blueberry muffin. The tea compliments the food or is robust enough to be a pleasant morning drink.
Normally, however, when I drink Earl Gray tea, I steep it normally, not going for the super strong taste I go for on work mornings. With this, it is wonderful enjoyed by itself. However, Earl Gray tea goes very well with any lunch or dinner foods as well. I've enjoyed Earl Gray when eating comfort foods like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or when enjoying some of the best sushi I've ever found. I've enjoyed Earl Gray with several varieties or Asian cuisine, with Indian and Thai curries, with Mexican foods as well as pizza.
Earl Gray tea is so high up on my favorites list because it is so versatile. I can drink it at any time of the day by itself or with food.
Earl Gray, however, is a black tea and therefore does contain quite a bit of caffeine. While nothing like the amount in coffee, black teas do typically contain the highest caffeine amounts of any of the teas. How strong a tea is will also determine caffeine contents, so my morning cup of Earl Gray probably contains a lot more caffeine than when I steep for a normal amount of time.
Current Tea: Earl Gray
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Genmaicha
So today's post will be about one of my other favorites: Gemaicha.
This is a Japanese green tea which, if you've ever had tea at a Chinese
or Japanese restaurant, I can pretty much be certain that you've had
this tea.
I discovered this tea completely by accident. I was in a loose leaf tea shop buying Earl Gray and Sencha tea (I'll do a post about Sencha another time, so don't worry!) and was asking the tea seller what some of the other teas were since I was curious. I ended up asking about the Genmaicha and was told that the Genmaicha was unique as that it was a green tea with roasted rice, producing a nutty flavor. I thought that was pretty cool, so I decided to get an ounce or two to try it out. Needless to say, Genmaicha is another tea that I tend to have to buy every time I go tea shopping.
Genmaicha is pronounced: Gen (using the guttural G like in good and rhyming with Ken), Mai (sounds like my), Cha (the CH from chimney, and the A as in "say ah" when you go to the doctor). Gen-mai-cha.
Here is a picture of the loose leaf Genmaicha, you can see the roasted rice within the green tea leaves. Sometimes the rice will pop (just like popcorn) and you'll have little white puffs in the tea. As a result, the tea is sometimes called "popcorn tea". If you do end up buying some Genmaicha and you see the popped grains of rice, don't take them out, they are perfectly okay to steep with the rest of the tea. The popped rice also makes a wonderful conversation starter!
Also, as an aside, I feel I should mention that thus far, all of the pictures I've used are mine, taking with my digital point and shoot as I'm making the tea and drinking it with these posts in mind. If I should ever use someone else's images, I will credit them as is their due. If the images remain uncredited, they are mine.
And here is a picture of the brewed Genmaicha. If you read yesterday's post on Earl Gray tea, you'll notice this tea is more of a green color and much lighter. In a future post, I will go into what black, green, white, oolong, etc teas are and the differences between them.
Genmaicha has a smooth buttery taste with a nutty flavor to it. In my opinion, it can be the drink of choice with any food. I've had it with all kinds of food. In my opinion, the nuttiness of the flavor helps to tie into whatever you may be eating. It's also a fabulous tea to drink by itself and enjoy the tea just for the tea.
This is one of the reasons I love tea so much, because it is a drink that can be enjoyed by itself and with food. It can be enjoyed hot or cold (and I've found that I enjoy lukewarm or room temperature tea of my favorites as well). It's a very versatile drink and with loose leaf tea, you can do several steepings before you need to toss the leaves, unlike with tea bags where you can get, maybe, two steepings before the tea ends up too weak and you have to get a new bag. Loose leaf tea is meant to be steeped several times, and yes, I'll go into this in another post at another time.
I believe that Genmaicha tea is only available in loose leaf form - I've never found it in bagged tea, which is not to say it doesn't exist.
Current Tea: Genmaicha
D
I discovered this tea completely by accident. I was in a loose leaf tea shop buying Earl Gray and Sencha tea (I'll do a post about Sencha another time, so don't worry!) and was asking the tea seller what some of the other teas were since I was curious. I ended up asking about the Genmaicha and was told that the Genmaicha was unique as that it was a green tea with roasted rice, producing a nutty flavor. I thought that was pretty cool, so I decided to get an ounce or two to try it out. Needless to say, Genmaicha is another tea that I tend to have to buy every time I go tea shopping.
Genmaicha is pronounced: Gen (using the guttural G like in good and rhyming with Ken), Mai (sounds like my), Cha (the CH from chimney, and the A as in "say ah" when you go to the doctor). Gen-mai-cha.
Here is a picture of the loose leaf Genmaicha, you can see the roasted rice within the green tea leaves. Sometimes the rice will pop (just like popcorn) and you'll have little white puffs in the tea. As a result, the tea is sometimes called "popcorn tea". If you do end up buying some Genmaicha and you see the popped grains of rice, don't take them out, they are perfectly okay to steep with the rest of the tea. The popped rice also makes a wonderful conversation starter!
Also, as an aside, I feel I should mention that thus far, all of the pictures I've used are mine, taking with my digital point and shoot as I'm making the tea and drinking it with these posts in mind. If I should ever use someone else's images, I will credit them as is their due. If the images remain uncredited, they are mine.
And here is a picture of the brewed Genmaicha. If you read yesterday's post on Earl Gray tea, you'll notice this tea is more of a green color and much lighter. In a future post, I will go into what black, green, white, oolong, etc teas are and the differences between them.
Genmaicha has a smooth buttery taste with a nutty flavor to it. In my opinion, it can be the drink of choice with any food. I've had it with all kinds of food. In my opinion, the nuttiness of the flavor helps to tie into whatever you may be eating. It's also a fabulous tea to drink by itself and enjoy the tea just for the tea.
This is one of the reasons I love tea so much, because it is a drink that can be enjoyed by itself and with food. It can be enjoyed hot or cold (and I've found that I enjoy lukewarm or room temperature tea of my favorites as well). It's a very versatile drink and with loose leaf tea, you can do several steepings before you need to toss the leaves, unlike with tea bags where you can get, maybe, two steepings before the tea ends up too weak and you have to get a new bag. Loose leaf tea is meant to be steeped several times, and yes, I'll go into this in another post at another time.
I believe that Genmaicha tea is only available in loose leaf form - I've never found it in bagged tea, which is not to say it doesn't exist.
Current Tea: Genmaicha
D
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Earl Gray
I love Earl Gray. If it's not my favorite tea, it's certainly in the top 5 (probably top 3).
I first learned of Earl Gray tea when I was growing up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. In the show, Capt. Picard (played by Patrick Stewart) asks the ship's computer for "Earl Gray. Hot." and a cup of tea would appear. The tea we always had in the house when I was growing up was usually a cinnamon tea, as my mother liked cinnamon. My mother never drank tea (that I recall) except for this and my father never drank tea at all. I believe I was either in very late high school or already in college before I stumbled across some Earl Grey tea (Celestial Seasonings or other box of tea bags of Earl Gray tea), tried it and fell in love.
And yes, I tried it simply because it was mentioned in Star Trek. I really ought to thank the creators/producers of the show for getting me into tea, which has become my favorite drink.
Since then, Earl Gray is typically my go to tea. If I want to try a new brand of bagged tea, I'll try their Earl Gray tea. If I approve of it, I'll try the brand's other teas. This is the same, typically, of loose leaf teas: try the Earl Gray and branch out from there. Any tea order I do usually will include Earl Gray since I go through it so quickly because I drink it so often.
Earl Gray is also my "coffee". I will brew it extra strong and drink it in the morning to help wake me up or focus me, just like a lot of coffee drinkers that I know will do. Even if I brew it way too strong and the tea is bitter in strength, I still love Earl Gray.
I've just brewed up some Earl Gray, a loose leaf tea I got from a company called The Tea Box. This is what Earl Gray looks like in its loose leaf form. It has an almost spicy citrusy smell - but not like an orange or a lemon. The citrus is the from oil from the rind of the bergamot orange, a citrus hybrid from the Mediterranean area. Earl Gray tea is a Chinese black tea that is infused with the oil.
Here is the tea as it steeps in my tea pot. I heated the water in a kettle and poured the water over the tea which is in a metal strainer. Tea really doesn't need that much time to steep. Most tea box instructions (for bagged tea) advise a couple of minutes in order to steep properly, however, typically, this is too long as it will create a rather bitter tea. I've seen some loose leaf instructions advise steeping for over a minute, though once I started to get savvy with loose tea, I found somewhere (I will have to try to search for where I read this) that you only need to steep for 20 seconds or so.
The way I steep my tea is different between loose leaf and bagged, obviously. With loose leaf tea, I steep until the tea is the color I want for the type of tea I'm using. Earl Gray is a black tea, so it will be a medium light brownish color, unlike green teas which will be a light greenish or white teas which can be a pale hint of tanish green. I figured my steeping process out by experimentation and almost always end up with the perfect pot of tea. At least in my opinion! I believe I steeped this for about 45 seconds to get to the color as pictured below.
And now, to enjoy.
The citrus smell is more diluted in the final product, however, is definitely still there. It lacks the spiciness from the scent of the dried tea leaves. However, the tea is smooth with the faint aftertaste of citrus and the loveliness of black tea.
Current tea: Earl Gray
D
I first learned of Earl Gray tea when I was growing up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. In the show, Capt. Picard (played by Patrick Stewart) asks the ship's computer for "Earl Gray. Hot." and a cup of tea would appear. The tea we always had in the house when I was growing up was usually a cinnamon tea, as my mother liked cinnamon. My mother never drank tea (that I recall) except for this and my father never drank tea at all. I believe I was either in very late high school or already in college before I stumbled across some Earl Grey tea (Celestial Seasonings or other box of tea bags of Earl Gray tea), tried it and fell in love.
And yes, I tried it simply because it was mentioned in Star Trek. I really ought to thank the creators/producers of the show for getting me into tea, which has become my favorite drink.
Since then, Earl Gray is typically my go to tea. If I want to try a new brand of bagged tea, I'll try their Earl Gray tea. If I approve of it, I'll try the brand's other teas. This is the same, typically, of loose leaf teas: try the Earl Gray and branch out from there. Any tea order I do usually will include Earl Gray since I go through it so quickly because I drink it so often.
Earl Gray is also my "coffee". I will brew it extra strong and drink it in the morning to help wake me up or focus me, just like a lot of coffee drinkers that I know will do. Even if I brew it way too strong and the tea is bitter in strength, I still love Earl Gray.
I've just brewed up some Earl Gray, a loose leaf tea I got from a company called The Tea Box. This is what Earl Gray looks like in its loose leaf form. It has an almost spicy citrusy smell - but not like an orange or a lemon. The citrus is the from oil from the rind of the bergamot orange, a citrus hybrid from the Mediterranean area. Earl Gray tea is a Chinese black tea that is infused with the oil.
Here is the tea as it steeps in my tea pot. I heated the water in a kettle and poured the water over the tea which is in a metal strainer. Tea really doesn't need that much time to steep. Most tea box instructions (for bagged tea) advise a couple of minutes in order to steep properly, however, typically, this is too long as it will create a rather bitter tea. I've seen some loose leaf instructions advise steeping for over a minute, though once I started to get savvy with loose tea, I found somewhere (I will have to try to search for where I read this) that you only need to steep for 20 seconds or so.
The way I steep my tea is different between loose leaf and bagged, obviously. With loose leaf tea, I steep until the tea is the color I want for the type of tea I'm using. Earl Gray is a black tea, so it will be a medium light brownish color, unlike green teas which will be a light greenish or white teas which can be a pale hint of tanish green. I figured my steeping process out by experimentation and almost always end up with the perfect pot of tea. At least in my opinion! I believe I steeped this for about 45 seconds to get to the color as pictured below.
And now, to enjoy.
The citrus smell is more diluted in the final product, however, is definitely still there. It lacks the spiciness from the scent of the dried tea leaves. However, the tea is smooth with the faint aftertaste of citrus and the loveliness of black tea.
Current tea: Earl Gray
D
Everything Loose Leaf Tea
Welcome to Everything Loose Leaf Tea! I'm D and I'm an avid tea drinker. I love tea like most people (I know) love coffee and I started this blog to share my love of tea.
I'll include posts here like reviews on teas, pictures of loose leaf teas and comments on what teas I'm in the mood for at the moment, what tea I'm drinking at the time, what teas I like for certain times or moods. I'll even get into tea pots, cups, strainers and other tools. If it has to do with tea, I'll probably discuss it.
While I do definitely prefer loose leaf tea, I see no reason to leave out bagged teas, as they need love, too.
If there's anything you'd like to see specifically on this blog, feel free to let me know and I'll add the topic to my list!
I hope that you enjoy this blog as much as I will enjoy writing it. And I hope you enjoy tea as much as I do. :)
Current Tea: Earl Grey
D
I'll include posts here like reviews on teas, pictures of loose leaf teas and comments on what teas I'm in the mood for at the moment, what tea I'm drinking at the time, what teas I like for certain times or moods. I'll even get into tea pots, cups, strainers and other tools. If it has to do with tea, I'll probably discuss it.
While I do definitely prefer loose leaf tea, I see no reason to leave out bagged teas, as they need love, too.
If there's anything you'd like to see specifically on this blog, feel free to let me know and I'll add the topic to my list!
I hope that you enjoy this blog as much as I will enjoy writing it. And I hope you enjoy tea as much as I do. :)
Current Tea: Earl Grey
D
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