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General, Tea Info

LONDON 2024 – 6th Installment – Tea Stop #5

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Chinese Tea Company

Juyan Webster is the founder of The Chinese Tea Company. She was born and raised in Zhejiang Province, China. Click here for more about Juyan

This is the Chinese connection that I was hoping for. I spent more than an hour discussing teas and sampling a couple of puerhs. Juyan is PASSIONATE about tea – and she Really Knows her tea – she is my Chinese version of Rajen Baruah in Assam India.

I am so confident and thrilled about the Very Special teas I brought back from her shop. Some of these teas I could only get very small quantities. I will send out an email soon about the upcoming sampling session that I want to arrange so we can share the “cream of the crop” so to speak. All of the teas that are available for purchase have been set up in our register and can be purchased in shop now.

Look for a ripe and a raw puerh, a more rare Tie Guan Yin (from the oldest tea bushes used for this type of tea, growing on one of the highest mountains in the area), as well as a very special Snowbud green tea – that is only available because of Juyan’s resources. It is a tea not normally exported because only a small quantity is made each year – and primarily enjoyed by the locals – from new growth leaves plucked while there is sometimes still snow on the bushes

Last installment coming soon – SUMMARY
General

Year 15!

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Traveling Tea’s fictitious name renewal is this month. Whenever we talk about how long we’ve been open we say “since 2009” as that was our first Full/Real year in business, however the legal origin is November 2008, and we had our First Farmers’ Market event at the St Louis Community Farmer’s Market in December of 2008 at St John’s Episcopal Church on Arsenal.

That makes this month the beginning of my 15th year Sharing Good Tea in St. Louis (and beyond)! I hope to soon add a slide show here with various shots through the years

Remember those days?

Then, in May 2013 we opened the shop in Maplewood, so we are in the midst of our 10th year here!

Then – and Now

In celebration of our years with you, rather than trying to throw a party (that I’m really rubbish at), for the entire next 12 months, we are gifting you with a discount code good for 15% off most teas (any tea that is in the Black, Green, White, Oolong, and Farm Direct categories). Does not apply to teaware, drinks, or the Tea Calendar.

For online ordering, there will be 10 active coupons each month for 15% off – when ordering online: enter YEAR15 at checkout. After the 10th coupon has been redeemed code will be inactive until the beginning of the following month.

For in store shoppers – Tell us Happy Anniversary and we will apply the coupon code! (Also remind us during checkout, because you know how we get chatty with you and might forget!)

I AM So Very Very Grateful!!! – Kateri

General

Too much black tea?

If you are like me, black tea is your primary Go-To beverage. Even so, sometimes my stomach says “too much” – needing something less acidic, more alkaline.

All tea has various health benefits, that vary due to harvesting and processing – it is a plant, after all. Green tea, being dried more quickly after harvest, has been most researched and found to have many more benefits. I can feel the difference in my stomach and in my body when I drink more (properly brewed) green tea.

It can be a challenge to drink more when the palate is more used to black. Black tea is more widely consumed in this country. The trick for me, is to blend them.

For a 16oz mug of tea, use 1 teaspoon black of choice, and 1 teaspoon of green (or adjust the ratio to suit your taste). Try starting with a Darjeeling or Assam green, or our Decaf Green (lower your caffeine intake at the same time). Use the same boiling water as for black (not a rolling boil though) and steep it for no more than 3 minutes, maybe even a little less. If using any of our teas, you will definitely be able to get a 2nd steep out of your cup (maybe even a third).

Darjeeling Green, Yanki Farms

It will still have enough of the black tea flavor to satisfy your palate, but will have less acidity. You may even be able to gradually shift it so that you are drinking more green in your cup than black. Note: If you do not like bitter tea, you usually cannot leave green tea to steep more than 3 or 4 minutes (even on 2nd or 3rd steeps). There are some green teas that are more forgiving. You will have to experiment to find them. [Our Baozhong Green, that is processed as an Oolong, and our new Mao Jian are both forgiving of forgetfulness]

Baozhong Green