khsheehan said

Tea Knowledge

I thought that it would be nice to start a little tea encyclopedia here. I love tea and I’m always trying to learn more and more. I think this would be a great place to ask questions about tea itself, not just tasting notes, but more educational aspects of tea. I’m sure most of you know a lot but there’s always more to learn. This could be a place for begginers to read and learn. Where tea comes from, how it’s made, flavors, locations, tea ware etc. Anything would be great. Anyone feel like continuing this?

18 Replies
khsheehan said

I realized that there’s something that I would like to learn about. I want to know more about teas that are not blends. Green teas are a good place to start. There are a ton of green teas in the world and I hear that all the time. But I know a lot of these are blends (such as Genmai Cha, Jasmine, etc) These teas get some of their flavors from what they are blended with. Is there a shorter list of green teas that are just tea though? I’m talking about Sencha, Matcha, Gunpowder, etc. I would be very appreciative of a list and/or explanation of different types of green tea. Thanks!

Cofftea said

Google. There’s a crap load of info that will keep you entertained (and overwhelmed lol) for hours. Check out www.denstea.com and http://www.maeda-en.com/. They’re 2 companies that exclusively sells greens.

Hi, if you’re looking for tea that is exclusively camellia sinensis tea leaves without blends, then try www.cloudwalkerteas.com . They’ve got pu erh, oolong and cliff teas. All have different flavours and aromas, but the processing methods change for each category of tea which results in the differences between them.

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Carolyn said

I just want to add a site I recently found: WikiCha: http://www.wikicha.com/index.php/Main_Page

It seems to be a wiki devoted to tea. It looks pretty new so your questions may not be in there, but it also looks like something that is worthwhile to support.

That looks like something I could really have fun adding to…
Thanks for posting that up.

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rabbysmom said

@Carolyn, that is a great website! Thanks for the link.

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Cofftea said

I’ve always wanted to get a BIG collection of tea books. Anyone know a place I can get them dirt cheap?

Carolyn said

It depends on what you want the books for. One thing you can do is avail yourself of free or inexpensive e-books like The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/28911) which is a book first published in 1906 and describes teaism, zen, and many other Asian concepts associated with tea.

Cofftea said

SWEET! Thanks!:)

you might want to try used? bookmooch paperbookswap or swaptree

TeaParT said

To add to Carolyn’s post, check out Librivox for free audio files.

http://librivox.org/the-book-of-tea-by-okakura-kakuzo/

Another site to check if you want to pick up books for a reasonable place is:

http://www.goodwillbooks.com/

Use tea for your keyword search term.

~lauren. said

Have you ever tried:
www.alibris.com
I’ve gotten a lot of used books on that site and I have been pretty happy with them.

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Janefan said

Here’s a random piece of info: there are technical documents about the proper preparation of tea (mainly for taste testing in what is essentially a laboratory setting)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3103

There’s also a link on the above page to the Royal Society of Chemistry news release entitled “How to make a Perfect Cup of Tea” which is less clinical, more informative, and a bit tongue in cheek. (too bad there’s a typo in it though – needs a better tech editor!)

I found out about this British Tea Standard after taking this really cool, informative quiz about the history and traditions of tea in Britain. Got 15/20 – not bad for an American!
http://uktv.co.uk/blighty/quiz/aid/612726

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Tapiridae said

http://the-leaf.org/

Very informative online magazine about tea. It offers a better insight into especially Chinese, but also Japanese tea culture. A lot of info about puerh and oolong.

One of the authors is part owner of my company. They definitely know their stuff. I also know the magazine editor; again, knows his stuff.

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Janefan said

Here’s an interesting article about how Rooibos (red bush “tea”) is harvested and processed, from World Tea News (a great source of tea knowledge!):

http://www.worldteanews.com/PassportToTea/2010/02/12/rooibos-from-south-africa%E2%80%99s-cederberg-mountains/

wow, that is neat, i kinda just assumed it was twigs that went through a shredder before!

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I do like Adagios teachat site – nice information from the basics right up and I’ve learned a lot from on there

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