what's your favourite Did you Know about tea?
By that I mean your favourite random thing you have learned about tea (or about a specific blend ie a fact about an herb) it can be historical, health, a funny anecdote anything!!!
One of my favorite things is the fact that Rooibos has shown a lot of promise as a bronchialdilator and is used by people with asthma and COPD!
Give me all your facts! rawr!
My current favorite thing about tea: (Kinda lengthy!) Years ago when I 1st had Green tea, I didn’t know that it had to be at a certain temp, my experience with teas at that time was Black tea and Herbals, which most of both can be boiled. Now, I know better, and flavored Green teas have become my favorite. Along with flavored Whites, some Black teas, Herbals, and Rooibos. (Have yet to really like Oolongs. Though have not given up on them.)
Yes, I feel like when I found out that different teas required different temps/steeping times, it opened up a whole new world to me! I used to assume you just left things steeping forever, and used boiling water… no wonder I didn’t love tea, haha.
My favorite random tea quote is this: “One hundred thousand scriptures cannot tell the truth as clearly as a single sip of tea.”
I think the most interesting thing I discovered about tea is the effects that L-Theanine has on the brain.
Here is an interesting study: http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/10762800151125092
Agreed! Last Spring when I learned about this I incorporated some info on gyokuro and L-Theanine in a group lecture I gave on anxiety disorders because I was just so excited about it (and found it to actually, seriously, work)
That the term Orange pekoe comes from a combination of a mispronunciation of bai hao (in Chinese meaning white tip; the young leaf bud covered with white hair) and the Dutch royal house of Orange. In the 1600s, the Dutch East India Company first presented tea to the royal family and then promoted it to the Dutch public as Orange Pekoe. And that tea which I associated with England was introduced by Charles II who began drinking it while in exile at the Hague. From James Norwood Pratt’s book, “Tea Lover’s Treasury”
I didn’t know that earl grey without cream and sugar tastes like pinesol or that a cup of tea can have as much caffeine as a cup of coffee easily.
I read a couple days ago that giving children rooibos can help alleviate diaper rash and ezcema.
I would guess so, but it’s been a long time since I have chapped my hide sitting in a poopy diaper so I can’t say for sure. :)
I CAN say that I have been able to eat some citrus (my ezcema trigger) recently without my skin freaking out AND I have been drinking a ton of rooibos lately. Coincidence???! I have no clue.
Hahahaha! I was going to clarify ezcema, not diaper rash. and thought noooo, they’ll know what I mean. I should have known it would be mentioned, hee hee.
My favorite (and really, most useful) lesson has been about how citrus curdles milk. I wasted what must have been four servings of herbal tea because I didn’t know that the citrus in the mix would curdle my cream.
Yeah I admit it took me a long while to learn that, Novi. I thought it was maybe the milk had gone sour or something. Gah….even thinking that stuff now…shudders
Like most tea lovers, I started off using tea bags before progressing to loose leaf. In summer, I really enjoyed Twinings Lemon Scented tea with a splash of milk but when I purchased the loose leaf version it curdled. Because I’m a bit slow, I couldn’t figure out what I did wrong. :P
My favourite little factoid is the role of tea in pre-Revolutionary France and that it was the Marquise de la Sablière, a French aristocrat who popularised milk in tea or “the French touch”, rather than an Englishman.
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