In India, the tea industry promoted the idea that young girls with gentle and graceful fingers should pick the tea, to minimize damage to the leaves. And it's not as simple as picking some leaves and roasting them. They have to be put through rollers so they will release their flavor when brewed. The climate and soil where the plants are grown are important. The mineral content and pH of the water have to be correct, as well as the temperature at which it's brewed. Just sticking a tea bag in a mug of boiling water won't produce the finest flavor and aroma. The plant is related to the flowering camellia; I don't know whether they do anything with the flowers (I know that jasmine flowers, chrysanthemum petals, and rosebuds are used to create floral-flavored teas. Jasmine tea goes nicely with spicy Sichuan food.)
I'm going to go make myself a cuppa Scottish Breakfast tea - a very bracing brew, more so than English Breakfast or Irish Breakfast, often considered "the coffee of tea". I'll save the Iron Kwan Yin for dinner.
I’m afraid I haven’t the right sort of sensory range for tea connoisseurship, but I fully believe that the world’s most widely consumed beverage after water has inspired ancient and elaborate taxonomies of terroir.
The plant is related to the flowering camellia; I don't know whether they do anything with the flowers (I know that jasmine flowers, chrysanthemum petals, and rosebuds are used to create floral-flavored teas. Jasmine tea goes nicely with spicy Sichuan food.)
You can in fact buy the flowers of the tea plant, but they’re a prestige luxury product. (Interestingly, the Hugo people classify it as a tisane—a term purists use for infusions made from plants other than Thea camellia sinensis, such as chysanthemums, hibiscus, or rose hips:)
I grew up drinking ordinary "American" tea, hot or iced, following the examples of the New England women of my family.
I know that there are varieties of tea that are especially prized for their unique flavor, which is always attributed to the climate and soil where they're grown. The one I'm most familiar with is Iron Kwan Yin tea. The story is that there was a poor farmer whose family was on the brink of starvation. He prayed to Kwan Yin, the Bodhisattva of mercy, to help him save his family. Kwan Yin told him to go to one particular field on his farm, where the plants appeared to be dying. In the middle of the field he saw a shrine, and inside the field was an iron statue of Kwan Yin. He tended the field, and discovered that the plants were tea plants, and they produced a tea with a unique and delicious flavor, which he named after the miraculous statue. He sold the tea, and told people about the shrine, and charged admission, and people paid him to look at the iron statue. So this brought him enough money to feed his family, and the tea became well-known for its beautiful flavor. It's a strong flavor, but not bitter or overwhelming. I find it especially uplifting in cold weather. And, if there can be an Iron Kwan Yin, I have a pendant made of stainless steel (which is my favorite metal), in the shape of the Bodhisattva - my own Stainless Steel Kwan Yin.
I don't think I'd like camellia tisane. And I enjoy the caffeine in tea (coffee is too bitter for my taste).
Floral teas are made by blending dried flowers or petals with tea leaves that have a compatible flavor, and allowing the fragrance from the flowers to permeat the tea. I like jasmine tea - it goes quite well with sweet desserts or pastries, and also with chili-hot foods.
I'm sure you already know this, but Kwan Yin was a maiden from a noble family, whose father wanted her to marry into another noble family. But she was a devout Buddhist, and didn't ever want to be married. She devoted herself to good works, and learned how to be a healer. She showed mercy to anyone in distress. And she became spiritually eligible to enter Nirvana and become a Buddha herself - the first woman to ever come that close to enlightenment. As she was about to enter Nirvana, she heard a child crying, and turned back to help the child, so she's only a Bodhisattva, not a full Buddha. Early Catholic missionaries to China often conflated her with the Virgin Mary (Kwan Yin is often depicted holding and comforting an infant, and she brings mercy and comfort to women in childbirth.)
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malionette
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Date: 2025-02-23 06:45 pm (UTC)I'm going to go make myself a cuppa Scottish Breakfast tea - a very bracing brew, more so than English Breakfast or Irish Breakfast, often considered "the coffee of tea". I'll save the Iron Kwan Yin for dinner.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-23 08:24 pm (UTC)The plant is related to the flowering camellia; I don't know whether they do anything with the flowers (I know that jasmine flowers, chrysanthemum petals, and rosebuds are used to create floral-flavored teas. Jasmine tea goes nicely with spicy Sichuan food.)
You can in fact buy the flowers of the tea plant, but they’re a prestige luxury product. (Interestingly, the Hugo people classify it as a tisane—a term purists use for infusions made from plants other than Thea camellia sinensis, such as chysanthemums, hibiscus, or rose hips:)
https://www.hugotea.com/products/tea-flower-tisane
(Interestingly, they classify tea made from
no subject
Date: 2025-02-23 09:02 pm (UTC)I know that there are varieties of tea that are especially prized for their unique flavor, which is always attributed to the climate and soil where they're grown. The one I'm most familiar with is Iron Kwan Yin tea. The story is that there was a poor farmer whose family was on the brink of starvation. He prayed to Kwan Yin, the Bodhisattva of mercy, to help him save his family. Kwan Yin told him to go to one particular field on his farm, where the plants appeared to be dying. In the middle of the field he saw a shrine, and inside the field was an iron statue of Kwan Yin. He tended the field, and discovered that the plants were tea plants, and they produced a tea with a unique and delicious flavor, which he named after the miraculous statue. He sold the tea, and told people about the shrine, and charged admission, and people paid him to look at the iron statue. So this brought him enough money to feed his family, and the tea became well-known for its beautiful flavor. It's a strong flavor, but not bitter or overwhelming. I find it especially uplifting in cold weather. And, if there can be an Iron Kwan Yin, I have a pendant made of stainless steel (which is my favorite metal), in the shape of the Bodhisattva - my own Stainless Steel Kwan Yin.
I don't think I'd like camellia tisane. And I enjoy the caffeine in tea (coffee is too bitter for my taste).
Floral teas are made by blending dried flowers or petals with tea leaves that have a compatible flavor, and allowing the fragrance from the flowers to permeat the tea. I like jasmine tea - it goes quite well with sweet desserts or pastries, and also with chili-hot foods.
I'm sure you already know this, but Kwan Yin was a maiden from a noble family, whose father wanted her to marry into another noble family. But she was a devout Buddhist, and didn't ever want to be married. She devoted herself to good works, and learned how to be a healer. She showed mercy to anyone in distress. And she became spiritually eligible to enter Nirvana and become a Buddha herself - the first woman to ever come that close to enlightenment. As she was about to enter Nirvana, she heard a child crying, and turned back to help the child, so she's only a Bodhisattva, not a full Buddha. Early Catholic missionaries to China often conflated her with the Virgin Mary (Kwan Yin is often depicted holding and comforting an infant, and she brings mercy and comfort to women in childbirth.)