Tea for One Bird

I want this little set I found on Teaopia earlier today, or its matching glass mug with the porcelain infuser. It's adorable, great for an office or a quick cup, and is at an awesome price! Now to wait until I get some spare change to buy it...



So cute! I love the classic pattern, combined with the more modern glass pot on the top, and pulling it all together with a matching porcelain infuser inside the pot. Well done.

Tea processing

I know very little, if not nothing, about the processing of tea. However, recently, someone (I can't remember who - I'm sorry!) linked an awesome flow chart on the process by which various types of teas are made. Two things that stood out to me from this chart: the fact that I'd never heard of yellow tea before, and the very noticeable differences in the processes of producing each type of tea. Of course, the latter shouldn't be a surprise - different types of tea taste distinctly different! I think I just attributed it moreso to the location from which the leaves were gathered and the oxidation process only. Anyway, on to the graph and its teachings!

At its simplest, the graph gives us six types of tea: black, oolong, yellow, green, white, and post-fermented (of which the most popular is puerh).

Black stands out in that it is the most oxidized.

Oolong is unique in that it is oxidized partially, but then kill-greened (the act of stopping the oxidation).

White tea, like black and oolong, is wilted, but then skips the oxidation process and is immediately kill-greened.

Green tea isn't wilted or oxidized at all.

Yellow is similar to green, but differs in that goes through a "moist heating" process after the kill-greening, giving the tea a distinct yellow tint.

Last but not least, the post-fermented tea differs from green tea in only the additional aging (quite often moist) that comes after drying.

Obviously, this is the sparknotes version from what the chart gives you, and what a more in-depth explanation could have. Even still, I find it fascinating, and plan to research more into this topic!

Tea grades

Wow. I was surprised how little I knew about tea grades when I looked them up. Originally this post was going to be about loose tea versus tea bags, but when doing that research I saw some terminology thrown around with regards to the tea bags and grading that I decided to look into it more closely! And without further ado, I shall jump into the grading system!

• D (Dust): This is the lowest grade. It consists mostly of small pieces of tea and tea leaves. The reason this is low grade is that as the tea leaves are broken up from their original state (whole!) they lose essential oils, which is key to a tasty brew.
• Fanning: This is a low grade. It consists mostly of pieces of tea leaves. Many generic tea bags consist of this grade.
• BOP (Broken Orange Pekoe): Ok, I was surprised to find out that "orange pekoe" was actually a grade and not a type of tea. Mind fuck! That being said, orange pekoe refers to full tea leaves, so broken orange pekoe would be - you guessed it! - broken tea leaves.
• OP (Orange Pekoe): Whole leaves!
• FOP (Flowery Orange Pekoe): Flowery refers to the bud of the tea plant. This grade consists of whole leaves and the buds!
• GFOP (Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe): Golden refers to the hue of the tea leaf tips, with gold being a sign of quality. GFOP consists of quality whole leaves and buds.

Changes

We need more customization than Tumblr can offer. It's been a short and sweet love affair, Tumblr!

Please excuse the dust as we stretch our legs in our new hosting.