Tea Good for the King (and Queen)

Last year I attended a tea talk by Mr. Liu, TenRen Tea's store owner at Rockville of MD . He said that "King's Tea" is a blend of oolong with a touch of ginseng to produce pleasant sweet aftertaste. No wonder I like it so much! He also said that once you recognize the particular sweet aftertaste while partaking a new tea, you can well assume that it contains some ginseng during its processing. I think King's tea's natural sweetness will be helpful for tea drinkers to wean away from the sugar bowl at tea table.

Since the blends become quite popular, there are arrays of King's tea products from TenRen Tea Company. The product number ending in "9" are the blends of dark oolong (longer roasting time, golden color tea brew), and the number ending in "3" are the blends of green oolong (shorter roasting time, greenish yellow tea brew). The price of King's tea varies with the grade of tea used in the blend. If you like fragrant oolong, King's # 403 or #313 would be a nice treat for your tea enjoyment.

First bitter, then sweet

(Note: This blog entry is composed specially for the TJ middle school cultural class on Friday.)

For young people who has not been exposed to Chinese tea (no sugar and milk added to the tea), it will be interesting to note your taste buds' reception to the very first sip of green tea. The tea leaves in the photo above right were freshly picked from tea shrubs. Commercial "green teas" are its products shortly after drying and toasting. Therefore green tea still retains certain natural leafy taste. Depending upon individual taste threshold, one may taste a slight bitterness upon sipping. However, subtle sweet taste of green tea will certainly emerge and linger long afterwards.

If you have dined in Chinese restaurant, "Oolong tea" is most likely the tea served with your meal. Oolong (means "black dragon" in Chinese) tea undergoes further processing (biochemical oxidization under controlled atmosphere) than green tea. The artisan process transforms most bitter leaf elements into mellow and complex-flavored ones; therefore the various pleasing characteristics of most Oolong teas (photo shown above left).

Besides technological advances of tea making, tea drinking has played an integral part of Chinese culture along with calligraphy, music and literature activities. Interested readers may check into my web site's reference sections to expand your tea knowledge. :))

Beautiful Camellia Flowers

(photo credits to my music & art club friend Isabel)

For Valentine's Day, roses are the most popular flowers to send or receive. To add interests for the day, here are some prized camellia flowers (from a variety of tea shrubs) for my readers. The photo with prolific blooms is the 2008 first prize winner camellia "Elena Nobile". The others are just as beautiful in their own ways. Enjoy the mini-flower show and happy Valentine!