This tipping teacup has been designed in Finland and it has gotten the prestigious Red Dot Design prize – but what a horrible trinket! I can’t see how any of the promised benefits would materialize. It’s definately not easier to clean when you compare to traditional ball. The ball you can pick up from the cup, open and rinse. With this tilted cup you end up with an awkward corner that is difficult to keep clean. Ok, now that this is out of my system I can say that it probably makes a nice gift.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

After reading what I wrote, my dear Empress asked me why on earth I slammed the tilting teacup. I must admit that it is an opinion of mine purely based on these few images and video. I have not held the cup in my hands, so I take it all back. But when I’ll get one then I’m surely going to write an user’s review on it. Until then, consider the cup as a gift item at very least.

Terrible accident at Fukushima nuclear power plant will have long-lasting effects on tea production of Japan. The thing is that tea plantations can still grow tea, but there will be the dubious stigmata of post-Fukushima flush.

TERRIBLE BUT TRUE

Year 2011 will start slow downward trend in Japanese tea industry and there is very little that Japanese can do about this thing. I expect to see marketing campaigns, which focus on remote pristine areas and traditionally high quality tea produce. But human mind is a funny little thing as when it starts to think something possible it immediately grows into something, which is quite probable. This will cause the slowdown in Japanese tea sales.

THE SILVER LINING

The silver lining in this case is not for Japanese tea industry, althought there probably is one, but I can’t see it right now. No, the thing that I’m thinking of is Taiwan. That beautiful island has very similar geographic and climate conditions as Japan as well as well-established tea culture. My projection is that Taiwan is going to rise its profile as a quality tea exporter and it won’t take long before Taiwan exports much more of the total tea production than the measly 3%, which it currently does. The world – beware – fine Oolong tea is coming!

CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice company's tapioca milk tea drinks and fresh juices will be widely available in few years.

REAL TASTE YES CANE SUGAR
The taste of tapioca pearl milk tea will charm you off your feet. Chewy tapioca teamed with soft milk tea is a fascinating blend. One could think it as a mix of Coca-Cola and BigMac, but that would be just plain awful. Howcome this combination of tapioca and milk tea works so well? My guess is that it works so well, because it is a drinkable food or eatable drink – simply magical product and therefore you just have to try it out by yourself. If you can’t get your hands into bubble tea where you live I’m writing an article on how to cook it up all by yourself. It all starts with tasty afternoon black tea so buy some for yourself while waiting for the article.

IS IT HEALTHY?
Juices are often healthy so you can drink them from CoCo’s menu with a clear conscious. However the bubble tea is not so clear cut issue. Bubble teas are often mixed with milk powder and artificial food additives to produce different flavours. Sweeteners as well as real sugars make the drink tasty, but bad for your stomach girth. Anyhow, as with any tiny vice, bubble tea is harmless if consumed in moderation. If you don’t believe it, see it for yourself – even Jodie Foster likes her tea with bubbles.

Yes, now we have a little tea baby, who will definitely like to drink tea in the future, like his daddy and mummy.

I have to confess first, that I haven’t been drinking much tea during the past 1.5 years as I have been trying to avoid caffeine intake during the pregnancy and breastfeeding. I know that there are also caffeine-free tea available, but in any case I just kind of leave it all for a while. However, not drinking any common tea doesn’t mean that I have not drank anything that is called or named “tea”. In fact, during this period of time I have been taking especially different kinds of Chinese health “herb tea” which boost my health condition, including the Red Date & Longan tea.

In the coming posts, I will share more on those healthy tea or soup that are easy to make and good for your health.

Stay tuned!

Ozzy misses tea while writing autographs.

Photo by Kevin Burkett

All dressed up for the tea party.

All these beautiful ladies took part into BAFTA’s Award Season Tea Party 2011. This tea party is the real thing not one of those politically inclined groups that ruin the good reputation of tea.

This tea party has a long tradition of recognizing the filmmaking talent on both sides of the big water. BAFTA being originally a British association – I think this is a wonderful way to throw a party.

Forsman Tea finally introduced more variety to their product slate. They now offer blooming teas or flowering teas as well as all kinds of tea steeping related items.

DARK CLOUDS GATHER OVER THE TEA TREE FIELDS
(Please excuse me that long and winding subtitle – I have no idea why I wrote it) Now there is an obstacle on our way to becoming tea entrepreneurs and that obstacle is called Forsman Tea Company.

It is a small tea company in international terms but a HUGE LEVIATHAN OF A COMPANY IN FINLAND. It is bit like Microsoft used to be. They can sniper any budding competition in Finland by introducing specific products with cheap price to match new market entries and developments.

What should we do? Any ideas?

Gloom and doom over a tea farm.

Photo by Jakob Montrasio

WHAT THE GLOBAL WARMING MEANS TO A TEA FARM?

A tea farm that has been founded maybe one hundred years ago is now facing deep trouble. Farms have been using lot of money into investments that boost the tea production and into land purchases. Now these traditional tea farms find that their location is not so ideal anymore.

THE QUANTITY OF THE TEA CROP

The quantitiy of the harvested tea has dropped slightly because the changed weather but this is not a catastrophical change because the drop in production is usually compensated by the increase in the prices. The world has learned to drink tea in huge mugs and that has meant increased consuption. This is the reason why the low production quantity is not so pressing issue for a tea grower.

THE QUALITY OF THE TEA CROP

Here comes the trouble. Tea enthusiasts around the world have come to value specific tastes and tea blends and to get those special aromaone needs standard quality teas. Standard quality tea can only be grown in steady conditions. which are now qreatly affected by changing weather patterns stirred by the global warming phenomenon.

Imagine that you grow Assam tea and you have a long supply contract with some big tea company. That tea company supplies tea to the breakfast table of millions of people. Think what effect it would have if consumer would find their favourite tea tasting like – well – something else. Tea drinker would find another brand that suits her taste buds better.

MAKERS OF THE TEA
Small tea plantation in Japan under private ownership. Can tea get any more real? Not much!

INSTRUCTIONS
Instruction manuals (and asking the way if lost) are for women and engineers. They are helpful if one has no idea about the topic, but useless if one doesn’t know how to read. Luckily I can read and I am rather new to tea. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I drink several big mugs of the damn thing every day, but ceremony and gong fu are far beyond the reach of my skills. Good thing that they include all the necessary guides on their website too, check them here.

COVER LETTER
They had included a very comforting cover letter, which told about the teas in question. Sample bags were stabled on to the paper so it was impossible to mix them up and therefore accidentally review a wrong product. Simple and effective not to mention beautiful.

THE TEA
Now you know that supportive items were fine, but how about the tea itself?

1st steep for half a minute
Refreshing and light taste with sweet aftertaste. Just my kind of a cup of tea that’s what this is, but then again I am from Finland and the strongest spice that we use here is black pepper. We like our food mild and vodka strong and cold. We drink coffee here tea, however, is a drink for old women… Anyway I liked my first cup.

2nd steep for about ten seconds
Much stronger and pit over the top for me. I liked the aftertaste though and had high hopes for the third steep.

3rd steep for half a minute again
This one already had lost its luster and was easily downed as a refreshing drink.

4th steep for one minute

Frustratingly bland and got quickly thrown away, but the left over green tea salad was fantastic!

Following the clear instruction coming along with the sample, we brew it for altogether three steeping, respectively with 20, 10, 30 seconds. As Tea Emperor and I come from different cultural background and have different habits in tea drinking, it makes sense to write our reviews separately in two posts, with some basic introduction of our own background.

As a person growing up in Taiwan, tea culture is not unfamiliar to me. Although not a tea expert nor have I been especially keen drinker for Kung-Fu Tea, I have been used to drinking tea along with lunch or dinner in restaurants or in art tea houses. The most common tea served in Chinese restaurants are for example Oolong, Pu-er, Jasmin or Tei Kuan In.

My first-time experience with real Japanese Sencha was back 2 years ago when I visited Kyoto. There I have had unforgettable experience with the locally produced Sencha and Macha. I simply fell in love with those teas and brought some loose tea leaves of Sencha (Sencha Gold, from UjinoTSUYU, 宇治の露) as well as combination of Sencha and Macha (from Santory, 伊右衛門) , and bags of Macha powders with me back to Finland.

Now residing in Finland I have been having slight problems of finding quality Sencha or Macha tea around, therefore it was a really pleasant surprise for me to find Obubu Tea from Twitter and found that it is possible to get delicate Sencha loose tea and Macha powders directly from farmers in Kyoto region! Personally I have always liked the idea of how the Internet can empower local small players and help them to reach the world. Therefore the existence of Obubu Tea already made me delighted before even tasting their tea.

Now comes my experience with Sencha of the Wind.

The first steeping came with very fresh and mild flavour with pleasant fragrance from tea leaves. Compared to the Sencha Gold which I bought from Uji (near Kyoto), Sencha of the Wind is sweeter, lighter and milder. The second steeping was my favorite, as it brought further out the taste of tea leaves, stronger yet without any bitter after-taste. The third steeping was lighter than the 2nd yet remain its freshness. The instruction recommended 3 steeping altogether, and indeed after the fourth steeping the tea was already too light for me. I don’t know how the name of the tea initially came from but all in all the drinking experience was exactly like breeze of the wind in the spring, sweet, gentle, smooth and pleasant.

After drinking the tea we proceeded to eat the brewed tea leaves with soya sauce. It was amazingly tasty! Interestingly, although being a first-time “tea leaves eater”,  the taste seemed so natural to me, reminding me some fresh side dishes of Japanese cuisines. I ended up finishing all the Sencha leaves as I really loved the flavour of tea leaves dipped in soya sauce. I guess my high appreciation of eating those delicate Sencha tea leaves probably came from my own culinary and cultural background: I often eat tofu, noodles, Japanese sea algae, sushi, and cooked pork stripes with soya sauce, just to name a few. In my experience, as long as the ingredients are fresh with high quality, dipping with soya sauce is often one of the best ways to draw out their original flavour. Those brewed Sencha tea leaves tasted really tender and delicate, honestly I can be easily addicted to this “tea salad”!

That’s from me for now. Tea Emperor’s own review post will come soon after mine.

More info about Obubu Tea can be found from here