Aviva Yerba Mate Newsletter and San Francisco Updates

Thanks for the shoutout Aviva!

So as you can see on my Calender of Events I’m in San Francisco!  So I won’t be able to update the website as a frequent as I like and because the time zones are different, it might show up a day later.  A few highlights over the past few days.  Aviva Yerba Mate was kind enough to include my website and tea reviews in their latest newsletter.  Click above for a larger resolution image.

Today was Earth Day and I was lucky enough to be at the California Academy of Science in San Francisco.  I have always wanted to go their ever since they opened as they have an indoor rainforest amongst many other cool things!  The restaurants and cafes inside served Mighty Leaf Tea, so that was pretty cool spotting them!  I also spotted Harney and Sons at the Starbucks in the Barnes and Noble today.  It got cold fast so we weren’t able to go to the tea garden, but hopefully Friday!

10 more days till the World Tea Expo!

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Wabi by The Tea Emporium Rooibos Indian Summer Tea Review

Biodegradable vs. non biodegradable (Nylon teabag is on the right)

I decided to review the Tea Emporium‘s Wabi Rooibos Indian Summer tea today.  The sample that I picked up from the CRFA show.  The tea they gave me was in a triangular shaped pyramid teabag, and since it was a sample, the packaging didn’t indicate what the teabag was made from.  The website says it’s 100% biodegradable, but doesn’t provide any more information after that.  It’s most likely made from corn but I’m very paranoid when it comes to teabags, as I will not drink tea from a bleached tea bag or one made from nylon.  When you steep tea in a nylon teabag, the heat from the water will release harmful toxins from the nylon into your tea.  Not only that, but all this nylon creates a lot of waste as it is not biodegradable.

From Green Living Tips

These petroleum-based tea bags are not biodegradable – they’ll take many, many years to break down….However these are disposed of, they will cause problems – in landfill they’ll leach toxic chemicals into the soil and groundwater. If they wind up in waterways; bird and aquatic animals will consume them which can clog up their digestive systems and cause starvation.

Know thy tea

I decided to open up the teabag and steep the contents loose.  Please note I don’t recommend buying teabags and then ripping them open to steep unless the specific tea you want only comes in a teabag.  It makes more economical and environmental sense to buy loose leaf tea.  If you have teabags lying around though, I highly recommend this activity as it will give you a chance to examine what you are drinking.

Anyways, Rooibos Indian Summer is caffeine free is blended with orange, honey and berries.  There are no actual ingredients stated, in the loose tea, I saw apple pieces, what looked to be safflower petals, and rose hip.  I couldn’t make out what the loose leaves were.  I’m going to guess blackberry leaves.

Use a lid to drink this to prevent rooibos from sticking on your lip

The tea smells of oranges and berries.  The hue was very typical of a rooibos tea, a very mellow organgey brown.  The tea was to be honest quite boring.  Nothing stood out about it’s character.  The body was a little heavier than a green tea.  I actually opened another teabag and emptied the contents into the tea to see how it would change it’s character.  I found bits of camomile in the mix this time.  Another disadvantage to teabags, depending on which teabag you get you may miss pieces of the tea blend!  The Tea Emporium has a lot of spectacular teas (like their mate chino), but this isn’t one of them.

If you like a plain simple rooibos tea with a subtle hint of orange and berries this is the tea for you.

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Organic Garden Pure Ceylon Ginger Black Tea

I am not a huge fan of black tea, mainly because there are so many bad tasting ones out there.  I don’t like the heavy taste and the nasty films a lot of black teas that come in teabags leave you.  But surprisingly the Organic Garden Black Ginger Tea I picked up at Essence of Life on my recent downtown Toronto Tea Trip was not too shabby!  The taste is smooth and not too strong, the ginger really comes through well on the first steeping.  The flavour gradually subsides on 2nd steeping and it’s pretty much dead after 3rd round.

I actually didn’t notice that it was black tea when I purchased it because the packaging only states Certified Organic Ginger Tea on the front.  It’s only when you look closely at the ingredients that you see its a blend of: Organic black tea and organic ginger.

Like Celestial Seasonings, Organic Garden packages their tea in one large bag as opposed to individual packets.  They have their tags in tact however.  Inside the box of tea is an extremely cute and informative pamphlet that can be used as a bookmark about the benefits of organic tea versus non organic.

Elimination of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides prevents environmental pollution.  Application of compost and sustainable agricultural practices develops an organic rich soil hoizon, vegetation diversity and forest cover.

This tea also states on the front of the packaging that it is low in caffeine.  Black tea is to my understanding is high in caffine, but I have read it varies from tea plant and also that white tea is the highest in caffeine according to The Guide to Tea by Michael Harney.

I was actually feeling like crap, and ate 4 Ferrero Rocher’s to bring up my energy (ya gross I know), but the tea really helped me.  I feel much calmer and the tension in my head subsided.  Yay.  I love tea.  25 unbleached tea bags cost me $2.99 at the Essence of Life.

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Celestial Seasonings Plants Trees

Do you remember the first time you opened a Celestial Seasonings box?  Were you confused?  Amazed or Annoyed?  I for one was, baffled.  Where were the cute little individual tea packets?  When I expressed my annoyance to Dean, he said something along the lines of “It’s more environmentally friendly!”  Of course!  How did I oversee that?  It was brilliant.  Celestial Seasonings puts all their individual tea sachets into a wax packaging to prevent waste from the strings and cute little tags that many companies have.

I am a huge environmentalist and always have been since I was a little kid.  I always felt there was something “wrong” with wasting paper, cutting down trees and polluting.  Those WWF commercials in the 1990s of the evil industrialist cutting down all the trees in the world really made a huge impact on my impressionable psyche.  Needless to say, I love it when companies choose to give back to the community or in this case, the world, instead of always looking at the bottom line.

Recently Celestial Seasonings partnered with the non-profit organization Trees for the Future to support the planting of trees in developing countries. If you visit Celestial Seasonings from now until March 31, 2009 you can plant a virtual tree on their website that Celestial Seasonings will then turn into reality. As of this posting I just planeted the 1960th tree!  Once you plant your tree Celestial Seasonings sends a cute little em-mail saying
“Your tree will help remove approximately 50 pounds of harmful carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year.” If you are wondering why planting trees is so important in developing countries.  I encourage you to visit the Trees for the Future link above for more information.  Also note that

“For every box of tea you buy between January 1 and March 31, Celestial Seasonings will sponsor the planting of trees all around the world—up to one million trees in all”

Yay drink tea and save the environment.  Celestial Seasonings teas are pretty cheap and can be easily purchased at any local supermarkets, even Wal-mart carries them.

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Camellia Sinensis Bonsai

I’m going downtown Toronto today to visit all the tea shops and talk to some of the owners and workers. I’m so excited!  I made a public map of all the places I’m going to visit on Google Maps.

Aaron sent me a picture of this wicked camellia sinensis bonsai. Camellia sinensis is the “bonsai” plant that “real” tea comes from – black, white, green, oolong, pu-erh. Isn’t it beautiful? I’m definitely going to be growing a tea tree this year in my house.

Anyways have a beautiful day everyone.  It’s super sunny outside today!!

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