The aroma for Teatulia’s Black Tea is very light. Too light to really judge whether their “apricot” claim is true. But I dis catch some nuttiness and smokiness in there.

The leaves are roughly 1/8 an inch long, with golden tips throughout. Together they brew a light caramel gold liquor.

This brew comes out clean and smooth. No real astringency, but there is some drying of the palate. You definitely get the nuttiness and the smokiness here in the flavor. The texture is smooth, almost creamy.

I would recommend this tea to fans of Sri Lankan (Ceylon) black teas, such as those from New Vithanakande, and for fans of other Himalayan teas, such as those from Jun Chiyabari in Nepal. Fans of orthodox Assam teas and Autumnal Darjeelings may also find this brew pleasing.

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This herbal infusion or “tisane” comes in a tea bag, so I can’t really describe it’s leaf appearance. It would be nice if Zhena’s offered at least some of their more popular options in loose form.

Visually, this tea brews a pinkish-red liquor. The weak aroma combines sweet and tart to create an inviting feeling in the nose.

This flavorful tea has some pucker though. With both Acai, orange peel and Hibiscus you’ll get plenty of dryness on your palate. And that’s exactly what I got. But add in the rooibos and the lemongrass and you have a conflict of sweetness and tart that’s hard to grab the subtleties of.

This is not my cuppa tea. I like to be able to see the leaves, and to indulge in the nuanced flavors which come out when you brew a tea.

I can recommend this infusion for fans of acai, fruit teas, tart drinks and flavored teas. If you’re more of an orthodox purist, you won’d be drinking Zhena’s Gypsy Tea anyway, but I do encourage you to step out of your box of orthodoxy and try something new now and then which you wouldn’t normally partake of. Someetimes, you win. Sometimes you lose. This brew is lost on me.

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Here’s the final installment of this three part recap to the activities and friends from this year’s expo!

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Day 3

Ouch! So much ground to cover in a single day! Seven rows and we’ve only finished four! I gues it helps I didn’t attend any educational sessions this year. This would have been a five page set instead! Maybe next year.

First stop when the doors opened? Special Teas! This group has some rather fine offerings. Then, on to Florapharm. A bright logo, good quality product and an interesting name. This German company is housed in the US near my old stomping grounds in Owings Mills, MD. They even had a real live samovar (see last photo)!

Special Teas

Special Teas

Special Teas

Special Teas

Florapharm USA

Florapharm USA's samovar

Next I hit Eco Vita who do supplements and vitamins. Not really my scene. Then was Eastrise Trading Corp. who had the banner for Foojoy, a great chinese company who I had a good rapport with last year. No, on to Rooibos, Ltd. This company obviously specializes in Rooibos related teas.

Further down the isle I hit AOI Tea which specializes in Matcha. I had a little formal ceremony sit down with a great little Japanese woman who whisked the tea up in a little bowl for me to drink. It was extremely good!

Next was Harney & Sons. Last year I was lucky enough to meet both Michael and John Harney at their booth. This year, the booth was considerably smaller and the Harney’s themselves weren’t present. I was a little disappointed.

AOI Matcha

Moving on I had the pleasure of hitting Sugimoto America again. They won an award this year for their greeting cards with a pretty sealed teabag in it based on the occasion. That was kinda neat.

Tavalon Tea was next. Their packaging is some of the more unique I think. Clear plastic that’s UV coated so you can see the tea is nice. What’s great is that unlike other UV plastic tins, these don’t just have a window in the tin to see the tea. The container is the window to see the tea.

Continuing, Stash Tea was the following stop. Most of us know Stash Tea from their tea bags sold in grocery stores and such. However, they have some great loose teas, and the new Chanakara line Cindy Harling showed me is really great, and available loose!

Oh My Gosh! PeLi Teas! The wonderful 2009 Pu’erh they had was equally pleasant in a tea bag as it was loose. Just incredible! Maeda-En was great as usual. With their Green Tea Mochi and their Iced Green Tea. Delicious!

What the heck is up with Sam Ritchey and his hair over at TeaGschwendner! That guys knows how to liven it up something real! A stop off at MarketSpice located in Pike Place in Seattle and a taste of Hojicha Gelee (which I’ll review down the road) at The Green Teaist and we close out the fifth row!

What a hectic run! But we’re only about a third of the way through our day! Will I be able to make it through the seventh row in time for closing? Follow along and we’ll see!

PeLi Teas

PeLi Teas

Maeda En

The Green Teaist

The Green Teaist

There’s a LOT going on here in the sixth row! Plenty to see. Let’s get started!

First stop? The Taiwan Tea Manufacturer’s Association. This is a conglomerated booth area made up of seven or eight Taiwanese tea companies all in one place. They’re almost independent of the expo! Too much to describe here. There’s lots of good stuff!

What’s this!?! Hawiian grown tea! I’ve known about the Hawaii projects for a while now, but it failed to register that anyone was close enough to production. Well, Liam Ball over at Na Liko Tea certainly is! The Hawaiian Oolong was spectacular. This is on top of being a first year production from plants just five years old! They really nailed it!

Tisano was next. They make cacao stuff. In this case their product is made from the outer shells of the cacao beans. This Equadoran product is pretty good actually and tastes like a hot chocolate but not as rich. The company actually helps in the picking and shipping processes for their product and gives some proceeds back to the community and growers from each sale.

Na Liko Tea from Hawaii

Na Liko Tea from Hawaii

Tisano Cacao Tea

Just across the split from Tisano… was Zealong, the New Zealand Oolong people. If you haven’t tried this stuff, seriously give it a go. I did. I’ll have a formal review up soemtime soon. Zealong has some of the best marketing this year I think, and their packaging is simply beautiful! Tulsi Organics across the walkway was another herbal beverages company. There seem to be plenty of these this year.

Time to take a peek at one of my favorite accessory makers… FORLIFE! Great looking stuff as always! Vibrant colors, unique styles. Good stuff.

On to Naivetea. I really like this brand’s identity. Clean and refined but with a slightly fancy augmentation. Always friendly, the couple who run this company are somehow calming to me. It could be the tea too, but there’s something about this fun pair from California!

Zealong New Zealand Oolong

Tulsi Organics

Naivetea

Next up? Hankook Tea who have some simple but nice packaging, and they’re representing Korean teas which are seriously under-represented in the industry. You go guys! On to Takeya USA! These guys make some really swell tea brewer jugs! Some of these are for chilled teas, and others are for hot teas. Some for large quantities and others for just a cup or two. You should check them out!

Keeping up the pace we have Shang Ri La Tea and Hancha Tea another company I remember from last year who has nice clean package design. A trip to Teas Etc. rounds out the 6th row. I mean what would the expo be without Beth and Newman Johnston!

Time for the final row already!?! The Expo can’t be over yet!?! I mean c’mon!

Takeya

Teas Etc

Teas Etc

Row seven is shorter and has less going on. I did run into Jason O. Walker from Walker Tea Review whom I met last year. If I’d been swifter maybe I’d have caught him before he was closing up. Maybe I could have even been in one of his review videos! That would have been killer!

A stop by the World Tea News booth was empty. All that was left was Torn Ranch.

I did make my way back to the International Tea Importers booth to grab a copy of the New Tea Dictionary and a photo-op with the author Mr. James Norwood Pratt.

Disappointed row 7 didn’t have more going on? Oh, fine! There was this row of new product displays. Maybe you’d like to see those, yeah? Here you go, I’ll leave you with these. I hope you enjoyed my coverage of the expo as much as I did getting to go again.

Me sniffing some Himalayan Tips

QTrade Teas & Herbs

Village Tea Mini Canisters

Tea friends Make a Toast

Tea Friends at Lotus of Siam for Dinner

ITO EN Bench Made of Recycled Tea

More Delicious Tea

David Smith Tea Blender

This cute, colorful little accessory allows you to use a tea bag without all the mess.

Typically when we use bagged teas we’re left squeezing the extra tea with our bare hands. Well… not anymore! This little squeezer not only holds the tea bag after you’ve infused it, you can use it to squeeze the un-dripped tea from the bag as well.

Little touches on this accessory make it worthwhile if you happen to drink tea from teabags commonly. The divet at the back of the Tea Squeeze makes it cleaner and less messy to pick the bag back up if you need to. The spout at the front of the device makes it rather drip-free to dispense your squeezed tea.

Overall, if you happen to use tea bags from time to time, or frequently, this little tool is a keeper.

Pros

• Keeps your table
• Removes unsightly tea bags
• Divet for the string to rest
• Spout for drip-less dispensing
• Squeezes tea from bag without getting any on yourself
• Preserves better flavor for future steeps
• Dishwasher safe

Cons

• Means you’re using tea bags instead of drinking loose tea

Last week I wrote my second installment, preceeded by the first installment in this three part series relating my experiences on a trip to Boulder and Denver back in March of 2010. This is the second of three parts.

There’s something intrinsically wondrous about the Denver and Boulder area in Colorado. The air is clean and clear. The wildlife diverse, and the nature beautiful in so many ways.

There’s another side to this metro area in the mountains though. An extreme diversity of tea and tea companies makes this area one of several real escapes for passionate tea drinkers in the US.

As a self-proclaimed avid tea drinker I have to say I was impressed by my trip.

This is a three part series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Sunday started out wonderfully. It only got better from there!

After eating a light breakfast we headed back to Boulder. We had been invited to a gong-fu style tea tasting ceremony at the home of one of the employees over at PekOe. We steeped a simple Bi Lo Chun, and Ti Kuan Yin and a more reserved Mao Feng. During this time (which I unfortunately don’t have photos of – DOH!) I taught the attendees about leaf eating, the process of eating used tea leaves.

Next we bypassed the university, PekOe and lots of other interesting sites in order to take a tour of the Celestial Seasonings plant.

At Celestial Seasonings

I know a lot of us tea drinkers don’t put much stock in Celestial Seasonings. They’re almost completely lower quality fannings placed in bags with lots of added flavors and herbal stuff. But to be honest, I do like some of their products. Perhaps it’s because their Raspberry Zinger is what I drank growing up. Perhaps it’s because I’m crazy. I don’t know.

But even if you don’t like thier products, visiting their facility if you’re in the area is a quick and easy way to understand the packing, processing and bagging side of the tea industry. The tour is free of charge and definitely worth it!

The first thing they do is brainwash you with a great video on the company’s origins and histroy. It gets kind of old halfway through, but it’s a great way to connect with the company if you do enjoy their stuff. I have not been able to locate this video on their website. It may not be there. If they read this, I recommend putting the video on their site. It’s interesting and link-worthy.

The brainwash room

After the video there’s supposed to be something else. But because it was Sunday we went straight to the olfactory test. Here, there were three bowls on the wall where scoops held some of their herbal concoctions. After passing them around we moved on to the primary storage room.

In this room were hundreds of large plastic containiners marked with their contents. BOP this and herbal item that. It was really quite impressive to behold.

Those who’ve taken the tour will recall the tea and mint rooms. A wall a foot thick separates the tea room (housing actual camelia product) from the main warehouse. Make that two feet between it and the mint room next door. And for good reason. Those smells would infect the tea under normal circumstances, and the mint smell is said to be so strong that if they leave the garage door to it open for just fifteen minutes you can smell the mint up to five miles away! It makes most people’s eyes water… but I was hardcore and didn’t weep a bit.

Moving along we got to see the automated side of things. Here in the packing center the tea material is automatically weighed, wrapped into tea bags, sealed in packets and boxed. A robotic arm stacks the boxes on a palette. Presumably to employ people, the palette of boxes needs to be manually moved with a forklift.

Sadly, the assembly line wasn’t running while I was there, so I didn’t get to check out how it actually worked. But, I’m told it pretty neat.

The Dushanbe Teahouse

After Celestial Seasonings we headed downtown Boulder to check out the Dushanbe Teahouse donated to Boulder by the people of Tajikistan in exchange for the Internet Cafe we gave them. Not quite a fair trade in my opinion. I think Boulder got the betetr end of the deal.

Left with some time before we could be seated we walked over to the nearby VG Burgers for a vegan smoothie and returned to await our seating assignment. While waiting, we snapped some pictures to pass the time.

Outside the Dushanbe Teahouse

Finally time for us to make it inside, we were presented with an extensive menu of teas, a beautiful interior to the building, a semi-knowledgeable staff and some very tasty tea!

I ordered n Imperial Pu’erh and some spicy Udon noodles with tofu. The noodles were pretty good. Just the right amount of spiciness, but a little overcooked and the tofu was extra soft instead of firm – making it difficult to eat properly.

The Pu’erh was of decent quality. It seemed to noticeably lose flavor after only six infusions which surprised me given the flavorful description relayed to me by our server. The flavor came out less mossy and more like compost but the texture was smooth and affable.

The Dushanbe Teahouse

The Dushanbe Teahouse

The Dushanbe Teahouse

The Dushanbe Teahouse

The Dushanbe Teahouse

My companion ordered the Good Morning Sunshine herbal blend. This blend was light and flavorful. It lasted a good three brews before losing most of its flavor which is about average for an herbal blend.

After Dushanbe we spent some time wandering downtown Boulder. We did some shopping here for a few hours, stopping into bookstores, watching street performers, and grabbing a couple drinks.

As time passed, and sunset grew closer we made our way back to the car and on towards a beautiful mountain lookout spot. I can’t express how beautiful it was, so here’s some photos to illustrate the point.

Boulder Sunset

Once back, we hit a couple bars for good measure, having a couple drinks, chatting about oddities, listening to some local groups perform and having a helluva time.

That’s almost all of my trip in a nutshell. I passed over a few details for expediency including dinner at a Sushi place, a trip to the first hotel in Boulder, a great local bread and sandwich place and more. If it sounds like a busy weekend, you’re right! It was non-stop, action-packed awesomeness in just three days!

I’ll be taking other tea tours later this year in Portland, New York City, San Diego, Chicago and an undecided mystery location! Stay tuned for future tea tours!