From plant to cup – Page 11

Beneficial pain

15 January 2021

With so much focus on the benefits of the vaccination needle, despite its brief sting, I wanted to look at a comparable phenomenon that affects the tea plant, in which momentary “pain” is beneficial. In some parts of the world, such as Taiwan and Darjeeling, a particular insect – a type of leafhopper called Jacobiasca formosana – likes to munch on the leaves of Camellia sinensis. The plant’s chemical response to this attack results in a rare, highly sought-after aroma in the cup. You will find this bouquet in an Oriental Beauty, for example, or a Darjeeling Muscatel. In these regions, farmers actively protect the insect to make sure they visit the plants and eat their leaves.

Papayas and tea

25 December 2020

People are always experimenting, and when you’re lucky enough to be a tea researcher, you’re well placed to see all sorts of things. Here, on a coffee plantation in Tanzania that has branched out into growing tea, there is no lack of innovation. The latest initiative is to remove the flesh of papayas and fill the skins with a semi-oxidised tea that has been withered and rolled. After a short oxidation, the wet leaves are stuffed into the hollowed-out ripe fruit and become impregnated with its delicious scent.

Travels with tea

11 December 2020

I met Sidonie when she invited me to be on her RTL radio show. That was a few years ago. We stayed in touch and, after chatting over a cup of tea one day, we thought, why not? Why not combine our passions and take our listeners, tea enthusiasts, on a journey to their favourite tea-producing country? This idea led us to launch a new podcast, or balado, as our Quebecois friends would say.

Join us at https://www.palaisdesthes.com/fr/podcast/ and on your usual podcast platform. These tales of travels and tea are for you. (In French only.)

Around Maskeliya Lake

4 December 2020

Would you like to come for a walk with me around Maskeliya Lake in Sri Lanka? Here, we’re halfway between the high-grown and low-grown teas; between those from the mountains of the Nuwara Eliya region and the often-remarkable teas produced in the jungle around Sinharaja forest further south. This is the view from the front of the bungalow on the Moray Tea Estate. The artificial Maskeliya Lake is surrounded by tea plants and the magnificent flora particular to this region, including flamboyant cassia and poinsettia. The yellow and red brighten up the eternal green of our camellias.

A walk in the woods

13 November 2020

During lockdown, it can be easy to let ourselves go a bit. We might exercise less and put on weight. Could this be a good time to turn to tea? According to traditional Chinese medicine, one of the many properties attributed to our beloved Camellia sinensis is fat-burning. This remarkable quality is particularly true of dark teas, called Pu Erhs, with their powerful notes of undergrowth and humus. If you can’t take a walk in the woods, you can at least enjoy all the associated aromas in your cup – alongside those other supposed benefits.

Stronger, more robust tea plants

30 October 2020

It’s not just us humans that are attacked by viruses; tea plants are too. For them, it is the job of research centres to find remedies for diseases. Of course, this doesn’t involve vaccines, as it does for humans. It’s about identifying the strongest plants and crossbreeding them to create new stronger, more robust plants.

Kangra Valley

23 October 2020

Today I’m taking you to Kangra Valley, which lies between the states of Punjab and Kashmir, in India. The British established tea plantations there in the second half of the 19^th century.

In 1905, a terrible earthquake devastated the estates, and our British friends abandoned production, fearing that the earth would open up again. More than a century later, the same plantations are thriving. The tea harvested there has improved significantly over the years, and there has been no major earthquake since.

Isolation and fermentation

18 September 2020

Freshly plucked tea leaves shouldn’t be kept in isolation, or they might start to ferment. As soon as they are harvested they are transported to the factory in bags made from a light, loosely woven material that allows air to circulate. The journey must be as short as possible to prevent the risk of the young shoots undergoing an undesirable change.

Our Nepalese friends need you

4 September 2020

Of all tea-producing countries, Nepal has suffered the most from Covid-19. There are a number of reasons for this: the small remote farms, the crumbling infrastructure (roads are cut off, the international airport is closed or swamped), the lack of access to the sea, and more.

Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world. I’ve done my best to support my tea-producing friends during this difficult period, and delicious teas that take months to reach us are starting to become available. I’m counting on you to try them – for the sake of these small producers, the cooperatives of often very young farmers, who we must encourage and not leave to fail. When it comes to premium teas, the quality and variety of teas they produce are unique, and they are very good value for money.

Balls of tea

31 July 2020

There are endless ways to shape tea, or compress it. Tea leaves can be shaped into needles, pearls, sticks, twists, old man’s eyebrows, birds’ tongues, melon seeds – there are many evocative descriptions in Chinese terminology.

Tea can also be compressed. This is mainly done with dark teas, but sometimes with white teas and certain black teas too. They become bricks, cakes or, as you can see here, simple balls.