Tea geek alert! Warning: tea sommelier attempts ahead. If you have some of our black teas, play along!

The most nuanced differences in our loose tea collection is found in our straight black teas, in my opinion. While darjeeling has very distinct muscatel notes and lapsang souchong is heavy on the smoky notes, I have to admit that I get a little fuzzy in being able to describe, in words, the distinct characteristics of our other blacks, even after working here nearly 5 years. (I’m not proud to admit this!)

So… for fun, and to once-and-for-all learn the nuanced differences of our traditional black teas we set up a blind tasting in the office today. That’s when one person steeps up a set of teas of undisclosed types and presents them to the rest of the group to sample, essentially “blind”. I even went so far as to hide the wet leaves, which can give huge clues to what’s steeped up based on the size, shape, & color of the leaf. We then began to sample the unknown teas, aka teas #1-5, which included: Assam (India), Nilgiri (India), Keemun (China), Yunnan (China), & Ceylon (Sri Lanka) – in no particular order ;)

Before we attempted to assign names to the brews, we gathered adjectives for each cup from our little tea tasting team and ranked everyone’s favs. Then everyone guessed which tea was in each cup, as I practiced my best poker face. After revealing who got them right, Maria our CEO was the clear winner – no shocker there, she knows her teas!

To extend this guessing game to our readers. Browse our descriptions of each tea below (listed from top to bottom in the photo above) then guess which of our straight black teas is described – a kind of  virtual blind-tasting. If you have some of these black teas to cup along side, add your own adjectives and rankings in the comments section. (Scroll to the bottom of the post to see our answers).

Diggin on Puerh
growing roots with each dark sip
deep. earthy. goodness.

When we were in Las Vegas last month, at World Tea Expo, we had the pleasure of meeting a really fun group of people from the podcast radio show “Steeping Around“. They were in search of the best new gadgets in tea. The crew from Steeping Around approached our booth, interested in learning about our recently launched Brewlux – a large-volume loose leaf tea filter for to-go tea – and our Tuffy Steeper – a telescoping travel tea infuser. So…. the host and producer of Steeping Around, Manish & Tere, sat down to officially interview our Tea Specialist, Bo Olson. They discussed the ins & outs, the whys & hows.

Then…. like Christmas in July, they sent us a link to their completely amazing and professionally-produced radio segment that recently aired on FoodRadioNetwork.com. We were blown away! They are so personable & enthusiastic about loose leaf tea, and so much fun to listen to! So grab a cup of tea, sit back and enjoy listening to these wonderful people and stories (and dulcet voices, if I might add)… The entire segment features us throughout!

Steeping Around –Tuff Stuff Today’s Best Tea Gadgets
or  Listen to the MP3

Bo Olson & Manish Shah

Today’s blog is an introduction to an incredible Platoon, currently serving in Afghanistan. These tough guys (pictured with their Tuffys) expressed interested in loose leaf tea and we jumped at the chance to make their mission feel a little more comfortable. Sergeant Castaldo specifically spoke of him and his men enjoying Rooibos, Oolong, Pu’erh, and Black, but they were enthused to try any flavor. We sent them a variety pack consisting of our most popular blends (as rated by you and your purchasing habits!) Mate Limon Chai, Red Rocks, Bolder Breakfast, Boulder Blues, and enough Tuffy Steepers to go around.

Upon arrival, Sergeant shared excitement and claimed, “The Tuffy Steepers are definitely a step up from the strainers I’ve used in the past.” The platoon’s favorites were Mate Limon Chai and Boulder Blues. I was delighted to correspond with Sergeant Castaldo and learn a little about the guys. Needless to say, besides being courageous, they’re incredibly cultured… and have good taste! ;)

Castaldo's Platoon

A bit more serious than my usual posts, but I was moved by last Sunday’s NYTimes article involving tea and wanted to share my thoughts.

In a culture where cultivating lasting bonds over tea is the norm, US women soldiers overseas were given the task of reaching out to rural Afghani women to “assess their need for aid, gather intelligence, and help open schools and clinics.” In many cases, these conversations occur over pots of tea in the homes of these local Afghan women. This, of course, makes me think of Greg Mortenson’s accounts in 3 Cups of Tea, where a climbing mishap lead him to making friends with the villagers who saved his life and where many lasting connections were made over cups of tea.

Here’s an excerpt from the newspaper article published last Sunday:

Six months ago, Lance Corporal Robertson arrived in Afghanistan with 39 other female Marines from Camp Pendleton, Calif., as part of an unusual experiment of the American military: sending full-time “female engagement teams” out with all-male infantry patrols in Helmand Province to try to win over the rural Afghan women who are culturally off limits to outside men.

As new faces in an American counterinsurgency campaign, the female Marines, who volunteered for the job, were to meet with Pashtun women over tea in their homes, assess their need for aid, gather intelligence, and help open schools and clinics.

They have done that and more, and as their seven-month deployment in southern Afghanistan nears an end their “tea as a weapon” mission has been judged a success. But the Marines, who have been closer to combat than most other women in the war, have also had to use real weapons in a tougher fight than many expected.  – Elisabeth Bumiller

Regardless of how you feel about this war, or about war in general, I’m guessing that most people want a peaceful ending. I’m really hoping these conversations and bonds created during this mission can have a positive effect on the lives of both the Afghani families and the US soldiers. I’m also hoping that the heightened alertness and meditative state that tea creates can help facilitate these meaningful discussions. That’s placing a lot of hope in one simple beverage and a handful of good women, but this particular tactic is the most hopeful thing I’ve read about war in a while.