O'Tea & JIGYASU

The term 'chai' doesn't refer to an actual kind of tea or a specific drink, but a style of preparing it. Chai tea is usually served with a milk or cream, and is heavily spiced. Common spices in chai are cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, pepper, and allspice.

Chai has come to North America, UK, Belgium from India, and has gained much popularity at coffeehouses and tea shops everywhere.

Masala Chai
A personal favorite. This is another basic chai recipe, but the hint of cinnamon makes a world of difference.

Kashmiri Chai Tea
The powdered almonds add a nutty touch.

Thai Iced Tea
Better for warmer weather, this iced chai tea is rich and creamy and lightly spiced.

Not only does India produce the most tea in the world, it grows some of the very best. Nearly every part of the country has a tea-growing region. Approximately 4% of the national income of India comes from its tea, there are over 14,000 tea estates.

The geography of India allows for many different climatic conditions, and the resulting teas can be dramtically different from each other.

There are 3 main kinds of tea produced in India:

Assam
Assam tea comes from the North Eastern section of the country. This heavily forested region is home to much wildlife, including the rhinocerous. Tea from here is rich and full-bodied. It was in Assam that the first tea estate was established, in 1837.

Darjeeling
The Darjeeling region is cool and wet, and tucked in the foothills of the Himalayans.
The tea is exquisite and delicately flavoured, and considered to be one of the finest teas in the world. The Darjeeling plantations have 3 distinct harvests, and the tea produced from each 'flush' has a unique flavour. First flush teas are light and aromatic, while the second flush produces tea with a bit more bite. The third, or autumn flush gives a tea that is lesser in quality.

Nilgiri
This tea comes from an even higher part of India than Darjeeling. This southern Indian region has elevations between 1,000 and 2,5000 metres. The flavours of Nilgiri teas are subtle and rather gentle. They are frequently blended with other, more robust teas.


Besides the different kinds of tea that come from India, there is also a very unique style of making tea. It's called chai. There are lots of various recipes to make chai, but the basic ingredients are: black tea, milk, sugar, and spices. It's the combination of spices that make chai so wonderful. The most common are cardamom, ginger, cloves, cinnamon and even pepper. If you're tired of plain tea, give chai a try.

Hello virtual void. Welcome to a blog about Tea. Yet another one? Yes - there's probably a healthy colony of tea blogs and sites out there. For one thing, it took some guesswork before finding a reasonable name related to tea for this blog that wasn't already taken by all the other tea connoisseurs, tea drinkers.

So what's O'Tea? It's just Indian tea, Ceylan teas, Chai (the third word being for the Tea+Spices that you find in India). It sounded neat. To me.

And the point is? Besides talking about tea, if you're reading this you'll probably have as good a chance of unraveling that question as I do.

But the original idea, as I sit here and drink a darjeeling high-mountain 2nd Flush, from one of my Indian Kettle or tea pots, is to write thoughts on teas, and present you my tea concept located in Brussels, Belgium - and reviews on what I find or happen to think of while sitting in front of a computer being woken up by the morning's pick of tea.

So, hope you enjoy. Feel free to leave a comment if one comes to your mind.

If you found it too virtual, you can also visit the shop located in 715 Chaussée de Waterloo - Galerie Bascule - 1180 Bruxelles for a warm cup of tea.

There are as many times for tea as there are types of tea. And while I'm also thinking of 'time' in the sense of 'occasion', what I mean to write on just now is the time as the 4th dimension of tea preparation and enjoyment.

Tea lends itself remarkably well to being part of personal rituals and ceremonies. It can be a perfect way to center one's focus and relax -- to ease and refresh the mind. It can also be a quick mug to warm one's hands on.

Some even believe it can be a caffeine fix, created by drowning a tea bag (something often better described by the word 'bag' than 'tea') on water that's been boiled completely flat and poured onto a polystyrene cup (that often has more aroma than any remains of tea enconsed in the aforementioned bag). Let's make this one clear. It can't.

But, returning to my actual topic for today -- the time of brewing is something that many people seem to pay far less attention to than perhaps they ought. The more common extreme is probably the assumption that there is no such thing as brewing time but, rather, a single 'point', dividing 'not strong enough' and 'strong enough', without further points marking when the tea becomes 'over-brewed', 'way too brewed to drink' and, finally, 'only good for dyeing fabric'.

This unfortunate misconception leads to tea leaves forgotten in their pots and tea drunk well past its prime. Once the tea is brewed, the leaves should be given their deserved rest. This also gives you the opportunity to see the texture and color of the wet leaves, as well as their scent (it's often interesting to note the difference in what parts of the scent are more pronounced before and after brewing).

No need to take my word for this -- brewing time is very much a matter of personal taste. The most amazing thing is just how much effect it can have on the taste and quality of the tea. Most full-leaf teas can be brewed for any amount of time between 2 to 5 minutes. Just don't get me started on water temperature. Yet. For now, let me write a few general advise I've found to be useful:

1) Experiment with brewing time for each different tea. While most stores will recommend a brewing time, taste is a very individual experience, so find your ideal for each type of tea.

2) If you want stronger tea, use more tea. Brewing a tea for longer will change the taste and make it richer in tannin, but it won't necessarily make it stronger. If you think your tea is too weak, try using more of it before you try increasing the brewing time.

3) Size matters. Full-leaf tea with whole leaves can be brewed for a longer time and will often yield a more complex flavor. The smaller the leaf size, the quicker the tea will brew, so adjust the brewing time accordingly. Should you choose to brew commercial, mass-produced tea bags, keep in mind that what's inside those bags is usually the 'fannings' (tea dust -- the stuff that was too small to be used in anything else gets swept up at the end of the day and made into tea bags.

However, the directions printed on those tea bags are generally hand-me-downs from when there was actual tea in there somewhere, and claim that one should brew it for 2-3 minutes. Usually, 30sec will get all you really want out of one of those. (It's a matter of surface area, for the engineers out there.)

4) Light on the caffeine? Tea does have caffeine, but if you want to reduce it a bit, you can do a quick 'home de-caf'. Turns out caffeine is more soluble in water than most of the other components of tea, so a lot of it comes out onto the water in the first 30 seconds or so. Assuming you're brewing a tea that can be brewed for longer than 30 seconds, you can do a first 'wash': pour hot water on the tea leaves, leave it for 30 seconds, then toss the water out and pour fresh hot water. Brew it for the full time you usually brew the tea. It loses a little bit of flavor, but it loses the caffeine a lot more.

5) Try it again. Good teas can often be brewed more than once, though the brewing time should usually be increased a bit. The flavor may be weaker, but sometimes a second brewing will bring out notes that were obscured in a first brewing, so it's fun to experiment.

India: a Tea universe..........

is the biggest tea producer as it accounts for almost one third of world production.
There are great differences from one type of Indian tea to another. On the one hand, this is due to the climate and local conditions which can vary greatly from one region to another: from mountainous regions to plateaus or plains; on the other hand because the plantations are not all made up of the same type of tea plant: camelia assamica in Assam, camelia sinensis in the south of India, both varieties in Darjeeling, hybridising etc.



Darjeeling

Darjeelings are high altitude teas, cultivated on plantations situated between 400 and 2,500m above sea level, in the foothills of the Himalayas, on the outskirts of the town Darjeeling, famed for the coolness and purity of its climate. The English started the first plantation in 1856: Tukvar, later to become Puttabong and North Tukvar. The quality of the teas and the success they enjoyed encouraged the rapid start up of other plantations: Dooteriah in 1859, Ging, Ambootiah, Tukdah, Phoobsering between 1860 and 1864, Badamtam, Makaibari a little later.

The growth of Darjeeling was extremely fast and there are still 90 plantations today. For a long time, 61 of these have been classified into three categories, according to their altitude. If, at one time, these categories may have had some meaning in terms of prestige and fame, today they no longer really make sense, since the quality of the crop on all the plantations has improved, and depends as much on the skill of the planter as it does on the plantation's altitude.

Darjeeling, because of its high price, is a tea that is reserved for export. It is sold in two ways:

as a "blend": a mixture from different plantations, all designated with the generic name of "Darjeeling".
in the original tea chests, in the case of the most rare and finest teas, which therefore carry the relevant information: the name of the plantation, the grade and the time of plucking.
Darjeeling is one of the most prestigious teas in the world. Its flavour and scent can be very different from one crop to another and from one plantation to another. This depends on:

the time of plucking (spring, summer, autumn, during the monsoon),
the way in which the tea is plucking,
the climatic conditions,
the altitude and the direction the plantation faces in relation to the sun,
the distribution of tea plants on the plantation: whether they come from Assam, China, are cloned etc.
the soil on the plantation, rather like the grape variety for wine.


First flush

The spring flush of Darjeeling, the first of five harvests, usually takes place between the end of February and the end of April. It is an event keenly anticipated by the world's tea lovers, since spring Darjeelings, which are produced in very limited quantities, are rare teas, with great aromatic richness, the fineness of which has earned them the sobriquet of the "Champagne of teas".

Throughout the whole winter, the tea plant is allowed to rest and its shoots become full of essential oils. The very first harvests of the year contain a very high percentage of these young shoots, known as "golden tips" and are often of a very high grade. A spring Darjeeling can be easily recognized by the green hue the leaf takes on when it is infused. Young and light, its bouquet is fresh and lively.

An essential factor for the first flush is the climatic conditions that precede it; the quality and the flavour of the teas are closely dependent on them and the same plantation can produce very different teas from one year to the next. Every year therefore, Le Palais des Thés experts go to Darjeeling to taste the product of each plantation so they can make their selection from amongst the best teas and then send them to France.
This selection is often available from March onwards for airfreighted teas and from May-June for those shipped by sea.

The fineness and freshness of spring Darjeelings make them very fragile teas that do not age well. To enjoy them at the peak of their quality, it is therefore recommended to drink them "in season", in other words during the nine to twelve months following the harvest. To fully appreciate their richness infuse them in gentle simmering spring water for 2 to 3 minutes.

In-between flush

This is a fairly rare harvest, carried out in early May on some plantations, which combines the freshness of the first flush with the roundness of the summer ones.


Second flush

This harvest is plucked between May and June, during the hot season before the monsoon. The leaf is darker than the spring crops; it has a brown colour and is small. When infused it is shiny and copper-coloured, with a powerful bouquet.

The liqueur, round and golden, is more full-bodied than it is for the first flush. Very aromatic and relatively astringent at the same time, it is long-lasting in the mouth and often has a taste of ripe fruit.


Monsoon flush

Tea produced during the monsoon season, from July to September, is of a lower quality than the other harvests. In fact, it is lacking sun.

Third flush

This harvest gives a tea with large leaves. The liqueur is darker than the second harvest and its aroma more powerful.


Semi fermented Darjeeling

Semi fermented teas are a speciality of Taiwan and the Fujian region in China. It is rarely produced by other countries.

Green Darjeeling
Though traditional in China and Japan, unfermented tea is still a rarity in the north of India.


Assam

The province of Assam is situated in the northeast of India, to the east of Darjeeling between Bangladesh, Myanmar (Burma) and China. It is a low-lying region, criss-crossed by the Brahmapoutre and its tributaries, that was covered in the early 20th century with tropical rainforest. This fertile region produces more than half of India's tea. The rainfall is the same as in Darjeeling (dry from November to January and wet from April to September) but the rain is much heavier. Two harvests are possible: the first flush however takes place very rarely; the bulk of the output comes between April and October.

Assam teas are vigorous, spicy, tannic and astringent, typically known as "British taste". The infusion is generous and very dark; the liqueur is dark and powerful, and can sometimes be drunk with milk.

These teas are found in all the full-bodied morning blends. If not blended, they must be sold under their label of origin, in other words under the name of the plantation that produced them.

Nilgiri
Nilgiri, which is situated in the south of India, is the second biggest tea-producing region after Assam. This region of plateaux of the same height as those in Sri Lanka, produces teas whose regular leaf and round, full bodied liqueur recall Sri Lankan teas.

A small bud forms at the end of each stem and quickly becomes a young shoot. This end leaf is usually curled and forms the bud.

Other leaves are found on the stem and their number below the bud will determine the quality of the plucking: the more are removed, the lesser quality plucking.

There are three types of plucking:

- the imperial plucking: the bud and the leaf that directly follows.
- the fine plucking: the bud and the two leaves that follow. This is a harvest of excellent quality.
- the average plucking: the bud and the three leaves that follow. This gives a lesser quality tea than the previous two but it allows the tea plant to grow better.

The leaves are never plucked separately: the part of the stem that unites the young shoot and the leaves is always plucked as a whole.

There are several tea categories depending of the process made after plucking. We call them categories:

Here are the main tea categories :

Black Tea :


For black teas, the fermentation process is allowed to run its full course. Legend has it that in the 17th century, a cargo of green tea from China arrived in London after a particularly long trip. During the journey the tea chests had gone mouldy and the tea they contained had turned from green to black. Not great tea connoisseurs, the English enjoyed it so much that they asked for a new delivery to the Chinese…

Withering
This first procedure is to give to the leaf pliability for subsequent rolling. Fresh leaves lose 50% of their moisture. The harvest is spread out evenly on bamboo or hessian racks placed 12 to 18cm apart in a room. The room temperature is kept constant between 20°C-24°C with fans circulating air. This process usually takes between 18 and 32 hours.

Rolling
The rolling of black tea differs from green teas: its objective is not to twist the leaf but to break down its cell structure, in order to facilitate the enzymes reaction of the fermentation. If the leaves are lightly rolled they will produce a mild tea; if they are more twisted the tea will have a more pronounced flavour. Rolling can be carried out either by hand or by machine.

Fermentation
The leaves are sent next to the fermentation room. In these rooms the humidity ranges from 90% to 95% with a temperature from 20°C to 22°C. Ventilation needs to be good however without any draughts. The leaves are spread out in layers of between 3-6cm. Fermentation can last for anything from 1 to 4 hours, depending on the quality of the leaves, the season, the region and according to the strong colour desired.

Roasting
To stop fermentation the tea has to be brought to a high temperature as quickly as possible. Roasting usually takes place in large, cylindrical drying machines that heat the leaves to an average temperature of 90°C for 15 to 20 minutes.

Grading
The next thing that must be done is to sort the tea by grade. The tea is immediately sorted into two grades:

broken leaves
whole leaves
Broken leaves are obtained either naturally when, whole leaves are broken during handling, or artificially by being cut with a machine. Whole leaves are classified according to the fineness of the harvest.

- Green Teas :


Green teas are unfermented teas. Their preparation therefore aims to avoid any hint of fermentation. The leaves go through three processes: roasting, rolling and firing.

Roasting
The purpose of roasting is to kill those enzymes in the leaves that cause fermentation. In order to do this, the leaves are brutally heated to a temperature of around 100°C, either in large pans (the Chinese method) or by steam cooking (the Japanese way), for anything from 30 seconds to 5 minutes. The leaves thus become soft and easily bendable for the rolling process.

Rolling
The leaves are then rolled or folded by hand to give them the appearance of small sticks, balls, coils or actual tea leaves as is the case, for example with Long Jing tea. The operation can be carried out either hot or cold, according to the fineness of the harvest: young shoots are easily rolled cold since they have high water content, as opposed to more mature leaves which require immediate rolling after the roasting process, while they are still hot.

The firing process
The leaves are dried on racks called "tats" with hot air being circulated for two or three minutes. Then this process stops for half an hour leaving the leaves to rest, after which time the drying is repeated until the moisture content of the leaves is no more than 5 to 6%.


- Oolong :

These are teas in which the fermentation has been interrupted mid-process. More mature leaves that therefore contain less tannin and caffeine are often used for this category of tea.

Wu Long (Oolong) teas are a speciality of the Fujian province in China and of Taiwan.

These Wu Long teas are currently divided into two categories: lightly fermented teas (10%-15% fermentation) prepared in the so-called Chinese way; and others where the fermentation process is much more important (60%-70%) in which the teas are processed according to a method more specifically developed in Taiwan.

- White Teas :


These are teas that have remained in their natural state. The leaves in this case only undergo two procedures: withering and firing. In order to obtain a level of moisture loss comparable to other teas, the leaves are left to wither for a much longer period of time: from 52 to 60 hours. They are then immediately dried in large pans for approximately half an hour. The process might appear simple but the production of white teas is nevertheless one of the most delicate. Withering in the open air is an operation impossible to control in terms of humidity and heat: the skill of the tea planter lies in accurately predicting weather conditions and organising the timing of the plucking accordingly. White teas are a Chinese speciality from the Fujian region.

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SRI LANKA

The weather and landscape of this island nation are ideal for growing tea, which is its largest agricultural crop. When the nation, for years called Ceylon in the West, gained its independence in 1972, it renamed itself Sri Lanka. However, the tea produced in estates in the verdant hills is still called Ceylon. Sri Lanka was once the world's largest exporter of tea, but economic and political setbacks have forced it to drop in this category. Nevertheless, it remains a top producer and certainly an esteemed one, being known for some of the best tea estates in the world.


BLACK TEAS

Ceylon: This black tea is very flavorful and mildly astringent, with enough body to stand up to milk. Its beautiful long, thin leaves steep to make a mellow tea that is a favorite the world over.

Pettigalla: Similar to the teas produced by Kenilworth estate, the slightly fruity OP tea grown and processed on this estate is wonderful as an afternoon tea.

Allen Valley: Known as an excellent FOP tea (Flowery Orange Pekoe), this tea is made from high-quality fine-plucked leaves with golden buds that give it a mellow flavor. This is an afternoon tea of distinction.

Uva Highlands: As another example of an FP tea that can be served morning or afternoon, this is a full flavored brew. Also from this estate is a superior BOP (Broken Orange Pekoe) tea that is wonderful in the morning.

Berubeula: here is another FOP of distinction that makes a delightful afternoon tea.

Nuwara Eliya: This rich, heady, brisk OP (Orange Pekoe) tea is produced as thigh altitudes. It is a tea with a lovely bouquet and excellent clarity that sometimes is referred to as the Champagen of Ceylon teas.

Kenilworth: The long leaves produce bright red color and robust aroma in a tea that is brisk and strong. This tea accomodates milk very nicely and is best enjoyed in the mid to late afternoon.

Saint James: From this estate comes an excellent BOP with good character and full flavor, two qualities of a good morning beverage.

Dryaaba: This FP (Flowery Pekoe) tea is a well balanced, aromatic one that serves as a morning or afternoon tea.


GREENS TEAS

Ceylon: Green Ceylon tea is a rarity, but well worth drinking whne found. It is marvelously aromatic and mellow with the subtle character and full body of the black Ceylon tea.

Nature's Garden OP (or Koslande): Most teas produced in Sri Lanka are black teas, but this estate makes a fresh, fruity green tea as well as a black tea. The green tea marries well with the flavors of fresh greens or roasted vegetables and so is a pleasant accompaniment to a lunch or light supper.