Blog – Page 13 – Discovering Tea

A tea for every season

14 January 2022

So, it’s January, it’s cold outside, what tea should you be drinking? I recommend a dark tea (not to be confused with black tea), especially after that holiday period when the chances are you’ve overindulged. Because this deep, rich tea has been reputed for centuries for its digestive properties. Note, however, that this type of tea, also known as pu’er or pu-erh, undergoes post-fermentation. As such, expect your cup to develop aromas of moss, mushrooms, undergrowth, wet straw, along with notes of vanilla and liquorice as well as leather and other musky flavours. This incredible tea is simply perfect for this time of year and is good for us too. Let me know what you think!

A wish for balance

7 January 2022

The passage from one year to another reminds me of crossing those monkey bridges you find in mountain regions. Made of rope or bamboo, or even steel, some can feel shaky to walk across and others more secure, but what they all have in common is the absence of piles and a swinging sensation that comes from the somewhat rickety deck. Balance can often feel precarious.

In these times disrupted by a virus that made has made a difficult period worse, I wish all of us safe passage into the new year and hope that we leave behind the dark clouds of 2021 and step into a healthy and happy 2022 filled with clear blue skies. I would also like to pass on another wish that is just as important: that we take care of our beautiful planet once and for all and think about the future generations in everything we do.

Safety first

31 December 2021

Just a few days ago, Léo and I had the pleasure of tasting a sensational tea sourced from southwest China. In fact, the variety was one of the famous ‘Yunnan buds’ that is going down a treat with tea lovers all over.

I thought it would be interesting to share with you the different stages of selecting a batch of tea.

Once the quantity we want has been decided, an order is placed. Because this is a small batch tea, it will be shipped by air. No sooner will the wheels touch the ground than a sample will be whizzed over to an independent lab for testing. Although not legally required to, Palais des Thés has made it policy to test any tea that has not been awarded French agriculture biologique certification, proof that is has been organically farmed. We are looking for over a hundred different molecules to confirm that the batch complies with European standards, known for being the most stringent in the world. Only if the tea passes muster will the leaves be distributed to our boutiques. It takes on average 4-6 weeks from when the tea is sampled to it being available to buy in store. A relatively long timeframe that Palais des Thés stands by because we understand the importance of guaranteeing food safety for the good of our customers’ health.

For all our friends who produce tea

24 December 2021

When I ask Bente, who makes the best teas in Tanzania, how Palais des Thés helps her and her community, her answer comes loud and clear: “It pays our employees!”

Then she adds: “It provides stability for the plantation and for our employees… And it makes us proud, of course!”

She continues: “Thank you for your support, and thank you for helping us to make a name for ourselves in the world of tea. When you come with your team, you show me and everyone here that you believe in us and that we can depend on you!”

I wish Bente and all our friends who produce tea, as well as our customers and employees, very happy holidays!

Tea Day

17 December 2021

There is some sort of International or National Tea Day three, four or five times a year. Different organisations, some more official than others, have decided that such and such a day should be dedicated to tea – 15^th December, for example. Fine. For me, every day is a tea day, starting in the morning with a lovely cuppa when I wake up. Then a bit later, a tea does me good, then later still I’ll have a cup of tea with colleagues and another with friends. I have one in the evening too – a chai, in this case – and enjoy inhaling its delicious scents. A day without tea would be pure misery!

€378,000 per kilo

10 December 2021

I am often asked how much a tea can fetch. The answer can be found this week on the Sotheby’s auction site, which lists a lot of rare dark teas for sale, the oldest of which dates back to the early 20^th century. When compressed into a cake and well preserved, dark tea has the reputation of improving with time. On the famous auction house’s website, one of them is estimated at no less than 900,000 Hong Kong dollars for a 270g cake, which is €378,148 per kilo. If you’re interested, you will have to add the shipping costs to that amount, and don’t delay, as the auction ends on 16^th December.
The good news is that a tea of this quality can be brewed several times.

Responsible tea growing

3 December 2021

I’m back from Nepal, happy and surprised, after a trip with my friends from Karuna-Shechen, the non-profit association founded by Matthieu Ricard. I asked them to accompany me deep into the country’s easternmost valley to see for themselves the living conditions of the pickers in this region. My aim was to convince them of the benefits of Palais des Thés and Karuna working together to improve the villagers’ living conditions. But after we’d spoken with a number of people in their local language, Karuna’s enthusiastic response left me stunned. Their answer was this: in the 10 years since these villagers have been growing tea, their living conditions have improved to such an extent that we don’t need to be focusing our efforts on supporting them. Instead, it’s important for us to understand how worthwhile tea growing has been for these people, and how producing quality tea that costs 20 or 30 times more than mediocre tea has empowered an entire community to be able to take charge of its own future.

It now remains to be seen how we can help the people we visited so we don’t disappoint them, and above all to understand how this model of responsible tea growing could be easily duplicated.

A taste for creativity

26 November 2021

Tea is steeped in tradition, for sure, but innovation is not forbidden. In Tanzania, Bente, who had the audacity to plant tea trees on a coffee plantation, cultivates a taste for creativity. Sometimes she hollows out papayas and fills them with tea so that the camellia leaves take on their aroma when they come into contact with the fruit. At other times, she blows hot air onto sliced bananas, infusing the tea with a new fragrance. And she does everything in the most artisanal way possible. Bravo Bente!

Different pruning methods

19 November 2021

No two tea fields are the same, and growing practices vary from one planter to another. As far as pruning is concerned, some thin the tea bushes once a year and level out the branches to form what is known as the plucking table. Others, like our friend Bente in Tanzania, pictured here, use a different pruning method to allow more light to reach the bushes, even the lower branches.

The benefits of passing on your knowledge.

12 November 2021

It’s good to learn, but it’s even better if you can pass on your knowledge. I’ve been travelling around the world’s tea gardens for more than 30 years, and during that time I’ve gained enough knowledge that I can share it in my turn. I continue to learn something every day, every time I travel, and I now consider it my primary role to pass on what I’ve learnt. That’s why I ask my colleagues to accompany me on trips, and I plan to do this more. I want them to meet the farmers too, to experience their passion for tea first-hand, to form good relationships with the people who make tea on their mountaintops and who always welcome us with open arms. Here, I’m on the slopes of Kilimanjaro with Chloé and Nathalie and a team of pickers