Prima Infusione

The latest exclusive launch to look out for is the white tea by Alain Ducasse the Michelin-starred chef who is partnering with Kusmi Tea Paris​ to celebrate their 150th anniversary.

The famous chef enhanced this flavoured white tea with an exclusive recipe combining delicate notes of rose and raspberry. The perfume is very concentrated but not mawkish at all. The liquor is golden and bright, continuing with a soothing floral and fruity aroma. Wonderfully warming and with a refined sweetness. The verdict is beyond expectation. 

“Sometimes, when you go to the big name tea shops, you feel like they are more flash than substance. Postcard Teas shop is the understated answer to the showy superstores. After all, tea in London is a genuine businesslike affair. 

Tucked away on a side street right off of the hustle and bustle of Oxford Street, the tea shop is truly an oasis of calm, and is very beautifully arranged with copious tea varieties in cute tins alongside an assortment of elegant handmade teapots from Japan.

A peculiarity from Postcard Teas is in providing a curated variety of teas from small tea farms all over the world, precisely small producers who farm less than 15 acres.

The available teas range in type and price from tiny tea estates throughout Japan, China, India, Vietnam, Taiwan and Korea. Most of the teas are black, oolong and green, but there are also pu-erh and flavoured teas. The choice is almost overwhelming, but the welcoming staff is very friendly and highly knowledgeable. I’ve appreciated the nice artwork on all of the tea tins, which each come with information about the provenance of the teas and brewing instructions. The amount of care that Postcard Teas puts into informing its customers about tea is very apparent.

The coolest aspect is that you can actually send worldwide a “tea postcard”: you can select from one of their tea varieties and put it in a special envelope and mail it directly from a little red postbox right in the shop. You pay the extra for postage and they take care of the rest for you. 

I would immensely recommend this shop to any tea lovers, they truly promote the very best of global tea culture." 

Il GOLDEN MILK – aka Turmeric Latte – è  una portentosa pozione anti raffreddore, ma non solo: è un potente anti-infiammatorio e antiossidante, aumenta le difese immunitarie e l’energia a livello celebrale, allevia i dolori muscolari, favorisce la digestione, reduce il colesterolo, abbassa il livello di diabete, aiuta a combattere le infezioni, E antidepressivo. E non è tutto: la curcuma è un’eccellente alternativa alla caffeina e portentosa per la salute della pelle (riduce i rossori e l’acne, previene la formazione di rughe e idrata a fondo). Troppo buono per essere vero?

Ecco come prepararlo:

una tazza di latte (in alternativa latte di cocco, soya o mandorla)

1 cucchiaino di curcuma in polvere

1 cucchiaino di zenzero in polvere

un pizzico di pepe nero

miele

Versate il latte in una casseruola, aggiungete la curcuma, lo zenzero e il pepe. Mescolate bene affinché non si creino grumi. Scaldate a fuoco medio.

Portate     a quasi ebollizione, continuando a mescolare facendo attenzione a non     surriscaldare troppo il latte.

Rimuovete     la casseruola dal fuoco e lasciate riposare per 10 minuti affinché     l’infusione si perfezioni.

Fate riscaldare una manciata di secondi qualora il latte si sia intiepidito e/o     lo gradite più caldo. Versate in una tazza e dolcificate con miele a     vostro piacimento.

PS. Lo sapevate che le ricerche del Turmeric Latte su Google sono aumentate del 56% da Novembre 2015 a Gennaio 2016?

There must be a reason why tea-lovers call it “The Champagne of Teas”… Almost 6,000 yen (almost 45 €) in order to get 100 gr of a special spring harvest 2017 of Darjeeling Nurbong. 

The Japanese tea-assistant at Marriage Frères in Aoyama - posh area of Tokyo - explained to me that this Spring Darjeeling Nurbong was the only harvest of this year, the production of the Indian garden was so tiny that they couldn’t have the autumn harvest.

Why the Darjeeling tea is becoming so exclusive? 

Recently the situation of Darjeeling gardens is getting worse, the Japan Times points out that the main reason of the price increase is related to ethnic disorders between the inhabitant of Darjeeling foothills - the Gurkhas - and their neighbors, the Bengali-speaking community.

“The world faces a shortage of prized Darjeeling tea because of deadly unrest in the idyllic Indian Himalayan foothills where it is grown. In the dozens of lush green plantations across the picturesque hill station, the June-August harvest season normally provides the bulk of the nearly 8 million kilos of tea sold a year — most of which goes to Europe. But with a showdown between native Gorkhas, who provide the majority of plantation workers, and the West Bengal government now 50 days old, production fell by 90 percent in June.”

(For the full article click here) 

Another source, from World Tea News, states that the situation in Darjeeling area got worse due to a worker strike in the tea farms during the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM: a political summit in order to create the separate state of Gorkhaland within India). 

During the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) led shutdown (the strike hoped to force the establishment of a separate state to be known as Gorkhaland), unwanted vegetation quickly encroached on the neatly groomed tea bushes.

(Read here the full article)

I must say that, as tea-lover, I am quite worry about this situation. But what should I do? …taken by a compulsive tea-shopping attack, I couldn’t resist and I’ve bought 100 gr of the exclusive Darjeeling, now I am stretching out every single drop of it and, as strongly recommended by the sale assistant, I will keep some of it for rare teas collection purpose. 

Keep tuned for the tea review! 

‘It’s always six o’clock now!’

‘Is that the reason so many tea-things are put out here?’ Alice asked.

‘Yes, that’s it’. Said the Hatter with a sight: ‘it’s always tea-time, and we’ve not time to wash the things between whiles’.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (illustrated by Kusama Yayoi)

Wanna discover more about this amazing artistic version of Alice’s book…read my article here, sip and wonder!

Starbucks is not a “coffee only” place anymore but, since TEAVANA has been introduced in the American coffee chain, there you can sip also iced or hot delicious TEA-VANA. What TEAVANA is? Here below an introduction from a MUST READ article and a summer tea-vana-portrait by Alessandra Rovetta. 

What Teavana tells us is: tea is now a drink for America’s boujis. Construction workers and delivery men, stick to your Dunkin’s coffee – your calloused hands and peanut brains probably can’t handle something so chichi. We are tea drinkers, not barbarians: we’re creative, alternative, organic, sustainable. We play the oboe in our spare time; we make our own hummus. We’re caffeine-free, and we all went to Oberlin – and we’re gonna make a big deal about ourselves.

Well, I call foul. This is tea we’re talking about! Delicious, refreshing, normal tea! With milk! In a china cup!

Read the full article here

Feat. tea: TEAVANA CHAI 

An Italian friend of mine who lives here in Japan asked me:

“How comes that on the menu there is a list of at least five different type of teas but the English translation – if there is any – it’s always Japanese Green Tea?”

He is so right! For a non-Japanese reader, in fact, it’s really difficult to guess which tea is going to drink!

Sencha, Shincha, Hōjicha, Kukicha … all of them translated always as ‘Green Tea’…when they are so different it taste, color, aroma and cultivar!

Contrary to the English translation, in Japanese there is something before the little character of ‘cha 茶’, which means ‘tea’. What’s before? The essence of the tea itself! I am serious, read here:

  煎茶：Sen is ‘fresh’, so Sen-cha is fresh tea (i.e. ‘steamed’)

新茶：Shin is New, so Shincha is ‘new tea’ (i.e. picked up the current year during the first harvest)

焙じ茶： Hoji means roasted Hojicha is Roasted tea

茎茶：Kuki are the tea-leaves stalks, so stalks-made-tea.

For instance, usually kukicha is considered one of the lowest quality tea, just because it is made of stalks instead of proper tea leaves. But this is not true all the times! The kukicha I’ve tasted today, for instance, it is one of the best quality ever! Not only because it comes directly from a renowned farm in Shizuoka, but also because these little stalks belongs to this year best quality Shincha (New Tea, we’ve said). A truly cup of freshness and steaminess expressed in a reach vegetable aroma, as delicious as a cup of King Shincha!

Thank you Akari for this precious present

♫ Ice Ice Baby, Ice Ice Baby All right stop, collaborate and listen ♫

Crack up the ice cubes and make a splash: it’s your private tea party time!

Summer, you know, can be a tricky season for a tea lover. It’s too damn hot to pull out the kettle and make a cuppa as usual; the solution for those of us who can’t stand the heat is to brew our tea ice-cold.

So, in order to get a tasty, aromatic liquor I used to brew my tea according to the slow track method. A rounded richness will surprise you and linger long after you’ve finished a sip, leaving a sweet finish on the tongue and down your throat like a mountain breeze. Plus, the drink tastes less astringent and less caffeinated.

This cold brew method implies filling your container with room temperature water. Place your pitcher of water and tea leaves out the refrigerator for the time required and then remove the tea leaves when you’ve reached the desired strength (recommended steep times: 3-4 hours x green teas – 6 hours x black teas – 5 hours x oolong teas). Fill ice cube trays with the infused liquor for additional pump to your iced tea, and leave in the fridge the glass of tea to cool down.

Perfect timing for celebration: it occurs just today the National Iced Tea Day which is observed annually on June 10th. This day is set aside to celebrate one of summer’s favourite drinks.