Teatime Tuesday: A Love Affair with Tea

Teatime Tuesday:

A Love Affair with Tea

Many years ago, my doctor told me to take caffeine out of my diet to solve some health problems. As someone who drank LOTS of coffee, I was not happy with the mandate. However, I was paying her to be the subject matter expert, so I complied.

In search of something to replace coffee, I tried cider, but it was difficult to find out of season, and it was too sugary for my taste (I took my coffee black). Someone mentioned tea, but when I investigated, I discovered that although black tea doesn’t have as much caffeine as coffee, there is enough to cause issues. Several years passed before I learned about green tea and white tea. Both contain caffeine, but research turned up the facts that the amount is small enough for me to handle and our bodies metabolize tea differently that we do coffee, so the effect is less of a “punch” or stimulant.

I’m a happily converted tea drinker and adore green and white teas. Also a bit finicky, I purchase loose

leaves to brew.

The tea plant, an evergreen, was classified by Swedish botanist Linnaeus in 1753 as Camellia sinensis which is subdivided into two main subspecies known as Camellia sinensis sinensis, the variety originally found growing in China, and Camellia sinensis assamica, the plant that is native to India’s province of Assam. The more than 10,000 different teas founded around the world are made from different varietals of Camellia sinensis. The location, altitude where grown, climate, soil, minerals, cultivation methods, etc. all determine the color, character, and flavor of each tea.

Here are the basic types of tea:

• White tea is the most delicate because it is harvested before the plant’s leaves open and minimally processed.
• Green tea is made from the leaves and buds that have not undergone the withering and oxidation process.
• Oolong tea is partially oxidized tea that has gone through a process of elaborate transformation through withering, shaking, firing, rolling, drying, and baking.
• Pu-erh tea is the only tea defined by its geography (like “real” champaign comes from the Champaign region of France). Pu-erh comes from the Yunnan province in China and has been fermented. It is often stored underground for several years.
• Yellow tea is quite rare and is processed like green tea. However, the drying process is slower to allow the leaves to take on a yellow color.
• Black tea has been quickly and heavily oxidized. This is the strongest of the teas and has the highest amount of caffeine.

Herbal teas are not teas. They are tisanes or infusions of botannicals likes fruits, flowers, barks, herbs, mints, spices, roots, berries, and seeds.

If you haven’t tried tea, you’re in for a treat. Experiment with all of them to find your favorite. Twinings, Stash, and Harney & Sons, all offer bagged tea of good quality yet not highly expensive.

___________________

A Lesson in Love

He thinks he’s too old. She thinks she’s too young. Can these teachers learn that love defies all boundaries?

Born and raised in London, Isobel Turvine knows nothing about farming, but after most of the students in her school evacuate during Operation Pied Piper, she’s left with little to do. Then her friend Margery talks her into joining the Women’s Land Army, and she finds herself working the land at a manor home in Yorkshire that’s been converted to a boys’ school. A teacher at heart, she is drawn to the lads, but the handsome yet stiff-necked headmaster wants her to stick to farming.

Left with an arm that barely works from the last “war to end all wars,” Gavin Emerson agrees to take on the job of headmaster when his school moves from London to Yorkshire, but he’s saddled with the quirky manor owner, bickering among his teachers, and a gaggle of Land Army girls who have turned the grounds into a farm. When the group’s blue-eyed, raven-haired leader nearly runs him down in a car, he admonishes her to stay in the fields, but they are thrown together at every turn. Can he trust her not to break his heart?

Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3JghuYI  

Sources:
The New Tea Companion, Jane Pettigrew and Bruce Richardson, Benjamin Press, 2008
A Social History of Tea, Jane Pettigrew and Bruce Richardson, Benjamin Press, 2021
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_tea
https://www.britannica.com/topic/tea-beverage
https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/blog/steeped-in-history-tea-drinking-in-britain/
https://www.stashtea.com/blogs/education/tea-types

Photo credits:

Pouring Tea: Pixabay/Pexels

Tea Plants: Pixabay/seinfuchs

Herb Tea: Pixabay/Pexels