RECOMMENDATIONS for the HANDLING and STORAGE of TEAS:

       a) Store it in a reasonable atmosphere where it is reasonably dry. Temperature is not so important but please, not in a refrigerator or freezer. Foil is the ideal packing material and always has been. In a cheese shop this helps to keep smells at bay. Strong smells close to tea are not advisable.

       b) Do not store it on a shelf with a spotlight aimed at it. This heats the foil and induces air expansion in the pack. It does not do modern waxed paper bags any good either.

       c) Handle the packs as little as possible and try to avoid customers handling packs and putting them back especially with a plain foil pack. Handling tea, especially traditional tea, breaks the twisted leaf into dust and also takes the shine off the leaf that the tea-maker carefully put there. It produces a grey looking leaf and it gives an inferior brew In the factory we could extract every single stalk but to do so would ruin the leaf, so we keep a very eagle eye on excessive handling and avoid it.

       d) A tea that is packed and sealed at source and never opened again until the customer drinks it, will always be a more superior tea to one that is opened and re-packed. This applies to blending and also to teas that are sold loose in a shop from a tin, even more so. The romance of the loose tea open to inspection is the attraction but it is not good for a high quality tea.

       e) I am often asked how long a tea will last. If it was a good tea packed at source and sealed properly, for many years. When we sold up our family interests, we brought three chests of packeted tea to England in 1955 by 1965 we were drinking the last pack. If it is a high quality flavoursome tea with bite, the bite will slowly disappear over time but perfectly drinkable. It has a very long life and drink by dates are rather irrelevant to tea really. In my own opinion with the average quality tea that is sold in the U.K. they are unnecessary but the law has to side somewhere. The dating system is probably more applicable to a very high quality tea, where the sought after effect tends to die away over time. It does not mean the tea will be bad or undrinkable so long as the tea was packed correctly in the first place..

       BREWING LOOSE LEAF TEAS. Not just a ceremony but important to the teas.

       GREEN TEAS: Traditionally Green teas are recommended to be brewed at a lower temperature. This relates to the type of manufacture and the heat that the teas are subjected to. Usually approx 90 - 95 o F is considered satisfactory. It is also advised that a lower level of leaf is used. It is best that water that has not been boiled is used rather than water that has been boiled and left to rest. Water contains oxygen a vital element in brewing a brisk quality tea, boiling removes oxygen and leaves a water that is flat. One teaspoon for a two cup pot is satisfactory and brew for a short period e.g. 1-2 minutes and use a tea sock or modern cage to remove the leaf.

       BLACK TEAS: I would suggest that you use an amount of leaf that suits your palate. Instructions on packets have to be a good guide. Start with less than our standard recommendation and build up to your taste level by trial and error. Increasing the leaf will intensify the flavour level. Where consumers palates are used to Herbal infusions, I suggest that they cut the leaf in half and perhaps brew with a system that allows them to withdraw the leaf. Because these are 'Single Estate' teas (natural source), they will even then present the consumer with superb light and even aromatic liquors.

       (Below are the original instructions printed on the old family tea packets in 1930, which included the island logo used today).

       Fill the kettle with fresh water.

       Never use water that has over boiled or water that has been boiled more than once.

       Warm the pot.

       Ideally you can also warm the cup. In the island they place milk in first and it is worth noting that due to health risks milk is boiled before use. Therefore the milk had the effect of warming the cup prior to the addition of the tea and combining with the hot tea. Put in the milk when it suits your taste.

       Place one teaspoon of leaf per person and one for the pot into the teapot. Here again this has been modified to taste and we recommend less leaf if drinking without milk. e.g. 3 teaspoons of leaf to a 5 cup pot and work up to your palate. When using with milk best to increase the leaf.

       Please see recommendation above. Some people are put off by heavy flavour at the normal recommended rate and then call the tea bitter. These teas are not bitter - bitterness is a term applied to incorrect manufacture and is truly bitter. However many of these teas do have a high level of flavour at the full brewing rate.

       UTENSILS USED FOR BREWING AND SAVOURING THE BREW:
       In the West we have come to expect fine bone china tea cups and there are various theories postulated about the best material for tea pots. In the tea producing countries themselves you will see a variety of receptacles and so long as the material does not alter the brew in taste or loose heat fast a number of materials are suitable. Some forms of pottery are not very conducive to tea making and may have something to do with some tainting from some types of material. Certainly paper and plastic cups are totally unsuitable. The tasting sets that we use in the tea factories to taste the previous days manufacture are glazed porcelain and the white glaze allows us to see the liquor clearly to evaluate it's brightness, and clarity. For keen tea drinkers these sets are available to purchase in the web shop under the title Gifts.

LINK SITE:
       I recently visited a website which may interest those looking for collectable items such as tea pots and crockery from the past. It has an excellent collection of fine china in a wide range of shapes and sizes..

       As the water comes to the boil pour it on to the tea with some force.

       Because of several factors there is some confusion in this area. Firstly many consumers have been drinking what we call convenience tea, very small CTC leaf that can brew without boiling. Secondly coffee has been popular and consumers use coffee brewing techniques for tea. It is recommended that coffee should be brewed off the boil, this is totally unsatisfactory for a quality leaf tea. As the estates carefully fire the liquor onto the leaf at about 200o F, both to stop the fermentation process at the right point and to lower the moisture content to below 3% to preserve the tea. Tea in foil can last 5 to 10 years and still be drunk. The liquor requires that same temperature to be released quickly. I recommend pouring the water on to the leaf as the kettles vibrates to boiling point, this is just prior to the click. The more that the water boils, the more oxygen that is driven out of the water. After about 1 minute stir the brew with a teaspoon vigoursly        three or four times making sure the spoon touches the bottom of the pot. This ensures that no leaf sticks to the bottom in a damp pot and allows the leaf to give off all it's liquor.

       Allow the tea to brew from 3-5 minutes before pouring out.

       Again in these times where our water is often not tea friendly and contains various levels of chlorine and other chemicals or varies in hardness. We recommend that you prolong the brewing time in areas receiving hard water. this will allow the flavour to develop better. For tea bags please follow the instructions on the cartons.

       Add cream (milk) and sugar if required and a delightful beverage will be obtained.

IMPORTANT:

       With very high quality teas, it is of very great benefit to use filtered water (e.g. filter jug) When first tasting this tea we recommend the use of a spring water e.g Evian. This will give you the true flavour of the estate.

ICED TEA:

       This has become popular amongst some consumers. In order to brew, we suggest that you brew to double strength with extra leaf. When fully infused. Pour the tea into ice filled glasses, the ice will dilute back the tea to normal strength. SIMPLE!

       Infusion: Look for aroma. Brunswick made in the Western Quality season will allow you to inhale the smell of a factory rolling room if you lift the lid of a tea pot after 3 minutes brewing. Look for brightness of the brew and clarity. Rainy season teas will have a muddy flat look and taste.

       Liquor: Look for Brightness and briskness. Almost a bite on the tongue, the feeling of the taste buds rising and general feeling of activation on the palate. This leads to a real quenching of thirst, relaxation of self and a general feeling of comfort. A poor tea will exhibit a flat wetness, that maybe hot but little else. The average U.K. catering tea falls into this area. This sort of tea needs to be near the price of water but something that really lifts you and calms you is worth a lot more.

       As consumers accept the present trend to convenience (tea bags) and the boring convenience teas, the lessexy?or exciting tea has become. My opinion is that this is the cul de sac that the marketing fraternity have driven consumers into in the interest of tea being more acceptable to all. Like all things there is a need to inform consumers and lift their sights and palates to experience the really exy?teas that come from estates. Even if you buy the cheapest boring form of tea at present, I urge you to try a new quality tea, read up about where it comes from, think of the structure that has brought you that tea and then quietly play with your palate and swill the new tea around your mouth. It may shock you to start with but as you drink more your palate will adjust and be open to other flavours. This is what happens with brand imaging, once to use a certain brand day in, day out you will find it difficult to widen your experience. I have been in a tea shop where a consumer drank a Darjeeling as it happens and said, hat is this muck, I cannot drink this? My belief is that had she given it a fair trial over say a week, she would probably seek it out as different and enjoyable. Of course some teas will never suit some people but there is usually at least one that fits most palates if you experiment and give the teas a chance to register with your palate.

       What are Tea Bags?

       For tea bags, we suggest that the finest leaf is a B.O.P.F. grade. This will give a tea of excellent taste and a delicacy of balance. Please remember though that you cannot convey the flavours of quality loose teas, to tea bags, neither can you brew any grade above a B.O.P.F. successfully. Many tea producing countries have opted for CTC and this is now seen to be lowering their prices. Sri Lanka has really worked at high quality Orthodox teas and their teas are now in huge demand.

       In the early days of tea bags, papers with chlorine chemicals were used. However most papers to-day are perfectly satisfactory and it makes no difference if the bag is silk or paper to the brewing. neither does it make any difference what size or shape the tea bag is. The most successful tea bag is a glazed tea pot and loose leaf, with instantaneous contact between boiling water and leaf.

.