Thursday is News, History & Culture Day

Welcome to your weekly news post here on Tea-Guy. This week you get a taste of machine-made southern sweet tea, learn about connections between White Tea and the life cycle of certain types of celulite (fat).

1. Nutrition & Metabolism has posted the results of a study regarding links between white tea extracts and the life cycles of certain types of fat cells. An interesting read, if somewhat dry.
2. I didn’t realize this while I was in Las Vegas for the World Tea Expo a couple weeks back… but QTrade Teas & Herbs has introduced their first Taiwanese tea. This is a wonderful step for one of the finest wholesale suppliers!
3. Hammacher Schlemmer, the oldest U.S. based catalogue company, has released an electric sweet tea brewer. It apparently uses both loose and bagged teas, allows you to customize the desired level of sweetness and produces up to 2 quarts (8 cups) of readily drinkable sweet tea in ten minutes! It does this by brewing the tea at 204° Fahrenheit and adding your selected amount of sugar. It apparently does allow for brewing unsweetened tea as well. I hope to review this in the not-all-too-distant future.
4. Lindsey Goodwin of both World Tea News and VeeTea has a wonderful question and answer session posted with Iman Hakim regarding tea and health. I recommend giving it a read through!

Help a good cause: CharityWater.org

Monday is Teahouse/Tea Room, Accessory and Brand Review Day!

It’s been a week since the end of the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas and I’m still a little heady from the experience. Here’s a recap of my time at the Expo and my takeaway from the event.

Like most people, I don’t work in the tea industry. I make my living doing something else. For me it’s in technology in one form or another (I get around). For others it might be banking or retail work. Regardless of our backgrounds we all have limits on the time we can spend away from the office. You can imagine the general level trepidation I had in spending half my yearly vacation allotment (not to mention the monetary costs) to attend this industry only event almost an entire continent away!

Let me start by stating that Las Vegas has never been my kind of town. No offense to those who enjoy it. I’m not one for gambling, unless I’m starting a business… which is a gamble all its own. And while I can certainly get into pretty lights… all the sex advertising is overkill for me. So Vegas is clearly a bit absurd for me. But I follow the tea… and there the tea went.

Although the expo started on Saturday, I spent Thursday travelling to Vegas. This would give me time to rest up before the expo and explore the town a bit more than I’d had on my only previous visit to Vegas. I spent Friday walking up and down the strip photographing the architecture and window shopping in the stores. There’s plenty to see, even if you’re not out for the gambling or the gratuitous nudity everywhere.

Friday night I picked up my badge and packet for the expo to avoid the morning lines. I missed the opening ceremonies Saturday morning… something I’ve never really enjoyed much at other gatherings. I hear there was a very good breakfast there, and that would have been appreciated versus the $9.70 I ended up paying for a bowl of fruit and some yogurt at the Red White & Blue restaurant in the Mandalay Bay hotel where the expo was held.

Right off the bat I had a session Saturday morning. The first was held by James Norwood Pratt on the Myths & Legends of Tea. Of the six sessions I had at this year’s expo this was probably my favorite. Mr. Norwood clearly and entertainingly discussed the real world drawbacks of concentrating too heavily on the oft complicated and confusing (not to mention long and growing) list of health benefits of tea. Also covering modern societies’ general loss of the ability to tell and listen to stories, Mr. Pratt was captivating and educating all at once. If you have the opportunity to read one of his myriad of books, I highly recommend it.

Also on Saturday I had a panel called “Educating Your Customer,” hosted by Michael Harney of Harney & Sons. If you frequent this site you’ll note a number of Harney & Sons reviews here for both hot and iced teas. After Mr. Pratt’s amazing presentation I had very high standards for this followup. However, as much as I admire Mr. Harney and what he and his family’s company have done for the industry over the years, he needs some improvement in the presentation skills arena. Looking past lots of “umms” and “ahhs” flowing through the presentation, Michael Harney gave a good presentation discussing the intricacies of staff training and engaging customers in their education process.

I hit the show floor after this and spent a whole lot of time (6+ hours) networking and meeting people. I’m a bit of a talker, so I got stuck at several booths discussing their teas, company histories and other things along the way. You would think so much time would have allowed me to meet lots of people, but I don’t think I even finished a full row of booths on Saturday out of the seven or eight total rows.

I ended up visiting with ITI (International Tea Importers) right through the door, then moving on to the Harney & Sons booth and speaking with both Michael and John Harney. Both gentlement are uniquely and fantastically knowledgeable about tea and I had been very much looking forward to interacting with them. I also ran into Tea Escapade, another blogger, while at this booth.

I also met with Rona Tison of ITO EN and learned they have been recycling their used plastic bottles and used tea leaves to make other goods. While I found making their business cards of these materials to be a natural extension of things… they also fashion pens, park benches and vending machines out of the plastics and tea leaves! Completely fascinating!

Saturday evening brought the World Tea Championships out. Far and away Rishi Tea took the most awards… walking away with NINE (9) first place wins and numerous runner up positions across multiple categories. I was most excited to see a relative newcommer with Puripan taking away a win. I’ve long been upset at the seemingly clear bias against Korean teas in the industry. I’m very excited to these teas to receive recognition!

Saturday brought many new relationships into my life… but Sunday and Monday were yet to come. Visit back next Monday for a recap of the final two days of my time at the World Tea Expo (WTE).

Help a good cause: CharityWater.org

Monday is Teahouse/Tea Room, Accessory and Brand Review Day!

If there’s one thing everyone needs if they’re going to brew tea, it’s a way to heat the water. While one could certainly use a fire to heat a traditional teapot, it’s not always a viable option. A cubicle comes to mind as a bad place for a traditional teapot. What it is though is a great place for an Electric Kettle by Hamilton Beach!

Quick Info
Rating	5/5
Manufacturer	Hamilton Beach
Accessory	Electric Kettle
Classification	Kettle
Price	$27.99 USD

I’ve got two of these kettles and I use them constantly. They’re not perfect mind you, but they do the trick! Simply fill the kettle to just below the spout, set on the cradle and flip the switch. In a couple minutes you’ll have water hot enough to brew most any tea properly (let it cool some for green, white and some herbal teas.)

This model kettle holds enough for roughly seven cups of tea, which is more than enough for most of us on a workday (though I can sometimes drink up to 12 or 14 cups during a workday.)

Be sure to check with your office management before installing a kettle as some companies have policies against some items in individual cubes. The cord on the cradle can be somewhat short for office use and you may feel the need to stretch it a little to get it to your surge protector.

There are kettles designed for brewing tea. Some even have options to set your desired temperature. I thought that though this one lacked those features it was simple and elegant enough to stand the tests of time and use. I was right! I’ve used one of these kettles at home and another at the office for thousands of cups of tea over the past few years and they’re both still going strong.

I’ve found great value in this low cost kettle and I’d buy it again in a heartbeat. It wouldn’t even take me a breath to recommend it for you to use either.

Help a good cause: CharityWater.org