Lastea - Know more about tea: August 2020

Monday, August 24, 2020

Chinese Tea Ceremony – How To Make Tea In Gongfu Tea Style

If you love MMA and watched the early UFC, or you ever watched Bruce Lee‘s movie, you may know the word “Kung Fu,” which is the total name of the Chinese martial arts. In the Chinese tea ceremony, there is also a word called “Gongfu Tea.” Tea and martial arts, how are they get together?

What Is Gongfu Tea

Gongfu tea is not a type of tea; it’s a making tea style and ceremony, also called Kung fu tea. It originated and popular in Chaoshan, Fujian, and Taiwan provinces, China. These three regions have the most abundant tea yield and profound tea culture in China. The local folk developed this brewing tea way to extract the tea taste better. Gradually, it becomes a ceremony, and it is the most representative one in the Chinese tea culture.

Why this tea ceremony got the name “gongfu?” Is that mean the brewing process like the Chinese movie: two masters using the so-called “Chi” fighting each other when having tea?

Of course not. The word “Gongfu” in Chinese, except means martial art(Kung fu), also means “skills,” “workload,” and “lengthy and complex work.” So you can understand the gongfu tea as “a complicated tea brewing style which needs a long time practice.” Well, that’s complicated. Keep reading, I will try my best to help you know better.

Necessary Gongfu Teaware

The most traditional gongfu tea requires more than ten teawares, and each has an explicit standard. For example, there is a saying “alive fire and alive water,” which means it must use the open flame(alive fire) for boiling water, and the water must come from mountain spring(alive water).

Of course, unless you are going to learn the gongfu tea ceremony deeply, you should not get all the teawares. It only needs some of them that you can begin to study and show off when treating friends.

Tea Tray

The tea tray is the most crucial teaware in the gongfu tea ceremony. The water will be all around when brewing tea in the gongfu tea style, so it needs a tea tray with a drainage system.

The tea tray for gongfu tea typically made from wood. If you drop the cups off, the soft material can help prevent it from breaking. And because the tea tray often soaks in tea, its color will turn close to tea after a long time, and the surface becomes smooth. This is what Chinese old tea lovers alike, so-called “train the teaware.”

About the size, what I thought is the bigger, the better. When you are going to serve many friends, it also needs lots of teacups. The bigger tea tray got more space for placing, avoid the cups crash each other, and more convenient for operation.

Related Reading: 6 Popular Tea Tray – Pros & Cons

Tea Art Six Gentlemen

In the previous post, we’ve talked about the tea art six gentlemen(click here.) These tea tools are not necessary when making tea in modern ways, but must be in the traditional Chinese tea ceremony. Whether using them expertly is the embodiment of your “kung fu” level.

The tea art six gentlemen are mainly used for:

Tea Tools Caddy: Storage the tea tools;
Teaspoon: Measure and get the tea leaves out;
Tea Funnel: Prevent the tea leaves from fall out;
Tea Stirrer: transferring the tea leaves from the teaspoon or the tea holder to the teapot; dig out the steeped leaves from the teapot;
Tea Tweezer: Pick the teacups up instead of using fingers
Tea Needle: Dredge the blocked teapot;

Teapot

In the gongfu tea ceremony, both teapot and Gaiwan can be used for brewing tea.

Using the Gaiwan, the Kung Fu show will be more attractive. Gaiwan has the performance as good as the teapot on extracting the tea taste. But to the beginner, the Gaiwan is not recommended, because it is hard to use and easy to burn fingers.

Know more about Gaiwan: Use A Gaiwan Instead Of A Teapot To Brew Tea

The teapot is easier to use. Usually, the teapot used in gongfu tea ways is small, about 100ml, not over 150ml because the smaller ones look gracer, and lighter for use.

You may think the small teapot may not serve multiple friends. In fact, tea in the gongfu ways in not for solving thirst, just for appreciation, so every round only provides little tea, that’s enough.

Know more about Teapot: Teapot Buying Guide – 9 Popular Types, Pros Vs. Cons

About the material, what I recommended is choose the porcelain. Even though the Yixing purple sand teaware is the most traditional and famous, but it will leave the tea smell behind. The tea lovers only use it for a single type of tea.

Fair Cup

The fair cup is a big mug for storage the tea temporary, typically use with a filter. Because if you pour the infusion into the teacups directly, the concentration and color in each cup are not the same; that’s not fair.

Pour the infusion into the fair cup first, then serve it to every guest’s teacups. That makes all the teas and the experience it brings are the same; that’s why it called “fair cup.”

Smelling Cup

In the post about teacups(here), we’ve mentioned a type of teacup named smelling cup. It has a long-tall body and narrow opening, which can slow the tea cool down and make the scent more concentrated.

But the smelling cup is not for drinking tea(of course you can also do this at ordinary,) it’s just for feeling the scent of tea. In the gongfu tea, you need to pour the tea into the smelling cup first, and lid the tasting cup on it as a cover, then overturn them soon, to transfer the infusion. After that, the smelling cup only has the aroma left. Rub it with your hands, send the scent out, and smell it with your nose.

Tasting Cup

The tasting cup is the cup for drinking tea. As same as the teapot, it got a small size, typically about 15-20 ml. Due to the few tea insides, you can finish it in 2-3 sips, so the tea will not cool down and oxidation.

Most of the time, the smelling cup and the tasting cup are matching for sale. Because if they do not match, when you overturn them, the tea may spill out. That’s dangerous and unaesthetic.

How To Make Tea In Gongfu Tea Style

Even though the gongfu tea ceremony looks like acting, but every part of it is spreading an idea of “Dao.” Using body language instead of speaking, that conforms to the implicit personality of Chinese.

The gongfu tea style is not all the same in different regions of China, but they both based on the following steps:

1. Choose The Tea

Not all types of tea suitable for making in the gongfu tea style. Because the gongfu tea brewing is a long process, the leaves need to been wash and steep several times. Light-fermented tea like green tea, yellow tea, and white tea would lose the taste before drink. And black tea will be too strong and bitter for a drink.

Therefore, traditionally, oolong tea and dark tea are the main types. These two types of tea are suitable for brewing several rounds, and each shot can bring a different experience. Tie Guan Yin(oolong) Da Hong Pao(oolong) and Pu-erh (dark tea) have the same origin as the gongfu tea, and they are the most people choose.

2. Clean The Teaware

Clean the teaware up is the first step of gongfu tea.

Add the boiling water into the teapot, put it up, shake, and let the water wash the teapot interior;
Pour the water from teapot to the fair cup, and shake it;
Pour the water from fair cup to the smelling cup, till to overflow;
Pour the water from smelling cup to the tasting cup, then hold the bottom of the smelling cup with fingers, soak their opening into the water of the tasting cup, rotate and wash it;
Pick up the tasting cup with the tea tweezer, and shower the teapot’s body with the wastewater. At last, water will drain away through the drainage system of the tea tray;

Washing the teaware with hot water is a sanitary requirement. Also, it can pre-heat the teawares, let them better for the subsequent brewing.

3. Take Out The Tea

Take the loose tea leaves out with a teaspoon, get close, and have a smell to see if they go bad. It will be impoliteness if you use spoiled tea to make tea for serving the guest.

4. Adding Tea

Open the teapot, place the tea funnel on it, and then add the tea leaves with a tea stirrer. Unlike the ordinary case, to brew gongfu tea requires more tea leaves to make the tea infusion strong; keep adding till full at about 3/5 of the teapot.

5. Washing Tea

Adding boiling water into the teapot till spill out a little, that can bring some dust on the tea leaves away. Then cover the teapot, and shower the teapot with the hot water, washing the dirt away and keep it warm at the same time.

The first round infusion, we called it waste tea. Do the same job as cleaning teaware, washing the other teawares with these waste tea one by one.

6. Adding Water Again

Adding boiling water into the teapot again, till spill out a little. Cover it and shower some hot water on the surface again for keeping warm; then steep for the proper time(according to the types of tea.) Typically, this time the host will add the water at higher up, so-called “high-pour,” to make the leaves dancing in the teapot.

7. Pour The Tea Infusion Into The Fair Cup

Place the filter on the fair cup, then pour the tea infusion in. Pay attention, the tea in the teapot must all pour out without a drop left behind. A long time steeping will make the tea taste lost and speed up the oxidation and affect the quality of the next rounds.

8. Pour Tea

Pour the tea from the fair cup into the smelling cups. If there are many guests, the drink in every cup should be the same volume, for showing fair. And the tea in cups should not be too much, full the cup with tea is impolite in Chinese culture.

When serving too many guests at the same time, the host will round the cups in a circle, then pour the tea in clockwise. It is said that the host who is good at “kung fu” can quickly finish this job and make every cup of tea as much as the same. But most of the time, they will refill some tea to each cup to get average at the end.

9. Serving Tea

Cover the tasting cup on the smelling cup. Then pick the smelling cup up with your both hands’ index and middle fingers, while using the thrumb s pressing on the bottom of the tasting cup, turn them over quickly! This action is called “overturn the sky and the earth.” At last, place them on a tea saucer, and pass them to the guest.

10. Smell Tea

At this time, the guest should pick up the smelling cup first, so that the tea will all flow to the tasting cup. But it is not the time to taste; guests should rub the smelling cup with two hands, get close, and smell. Also, it is best to say something good to the host.

11. Enjoy Tea

After smelling tea, the guest put down the smelling cup. Then pinch the edge of the tasting cup with thumb and index finger of one hand, hold the bottom with the index and middle finger of the other hand, then pick it up for drinking. If you are not good at this, you can hold the tea saucer instead.

Before tasting, you need to smell the scent of the tea again, then taste in a sip way. Sipping and make a loud sound so that the host knows you are drinking. After enjoy, put the cup back to the saucer, and pass them back to the host.

12. Repeat

The host will repeat the 6 to 9 steps, and the guest repeats the 10-11. Usually, this process will repeat 3 times; 3 is is a lucky number to Chinese, which means growing strong(may also to the House Tyrell of Highgarden?). It will never stop at the fourth round, the number 4 means death to the Chinese.

Of course, high-quality oolong tea typically can brew over 5-7 rounds, and each shot can bring a different experience.

Traditional Russian Tea Culture, Unique Teaware & Drinking Way

Russia has the largest land area in the world; most of our impression of it may be Putin, bear, belle, and vodka. But if you thought the wine is the only drink to the Russian, that may be a mistake. A traditional tea drink “zavarka” is also popular. This Russian tea means a lot to them, even as important as vodka in their mind.

Russia Tea History

What we know that China is the birthplace of tea. But how the tea spread to Russia, there still is a debate about this. Scholars mainly hold two views on this:

One viewpoint is that tea was brought to Russia through Siberia in 1638. At that time, the envoy Vasily Starkov exchange gifts with the khan of Mongolia and got about 64kg tea. After the envoy brought it back to Moscow, Tsarist tasted and fell in love with it immediately. Since that, the habit of tea consumption began popular in Royalty and nobility.

Another saying is that Russian been drinking tea is earlier, according to some historical records. In 1567, two Cossack of atamans, Petrov, and Yalyshev ever described a strange local drink they tried in China. This kind of beverage has been general consume in south-east Siberia and central Asia, what is tea in practice. But maybe the two atamans were not good at describing it, so tea has not attracted the attention of the Tsars and nobles at that time.

No matter when the tea appeared in Russia, in the beginning, it was a very precious drink. The ordinary people were hard to have a try.

In 1727, Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty(China) signed a trade agreement with Russia, and tea is the primary commodity in the deal.

The agreement protocoled a trade path, which strat from Wuyi Mount(China) and ends at Kiakhta(Russia). This Tea Road(Siberian Route) was over 10 thousand km, and the journey usually needs more than six months by caravans of camels.

Because it was a long journey, black tea and dark tea, which suitable for long storage was the best choice. Even though green tea also took part, but due to it is non-fermented, so it was easy to go bad. And during the journey, the caravan’s members would make a fire to keep warm, which make the goods got a smoky flavor inevitably. As a result, the later Russian preferred tea with a smoky flavor, especially Lapsang Souchong and Da Hong Pao tea.

Import tea from China was hard at that time. Therefore, in the 18th, tea was still a luxury in Russia, and having tea once became a symbol of status and wealth. Until the beginning 19th, local tea plantations built, then the tea been popularized all over Russia.

Russian Tea Culture

After several centuries of development, tea has already become the most favorite beverage of Russian, and form a unique tea culture.

In Russia, the fragrance of tea is everywhere. Whether in the house or outdoor, at a restaurant or a cafe, you can also smell it. It is said that the tea house in Moscow often crowded with customers. Once the tea time comes, people even put down what they are doing, just for a cup of tea. They thought tea is a big fun of life, and it’s the best way to socialize.

Russian seems to prefer black tea. But when they are brewing tea, they love to add too many loose tea leaves to make the infusion in a high concentration, which they called it “zavarka.” Except for black tea, green tea, or oolong tea also a nice choice for making zavarka.

They got a unique teaware – Samovar, you can imagine it as a big kettle for boiling water. Samovar typically made from brass or stainless steel, and some even made from silver or gold, decorated with enamel, delicate and expensive.

There is a metal pipe in the middle of the samovar for filling fuel. At the top, there is a vent, can connection a chimney for better exhaust when heating. After the water boiled, move the chimney away, and put the teapot on it, the hot air can keep the tea warm. Because the fuel in the pipe is still burning, so the water in the samovar is always heating.

On the body of samovar, there is a tap. People got hot water from it to dilute the high concentration zavarka. The fuel for boiling water is typically wood, carbon, and dried pine cone, so the water often has a wood smoke smell, and this is what Russian wants.

Due to the long time steeping, the tea infusion is not only at a high concentration but also contains more tannin and caffeine, which makes the tea taste bitter. Even though add hot water for diluting, the tea would not taste better again. So Russian never consume pure tea; they love to make it into sweet tea by adding sugar, lemon, honey, or milk, sometimes even jam.

But in the case of Siberia, the nomad gets used to add butter and salt in tea for seasoning. This habit may come from Mongolia and Tibet such plateau sections.

Besides, the drinking tea way of Russian is special. Especially in some traditional villages, the old folks like to use the tea saucer but not the cups for having tea. That can let the hot tea cool down faster. Add the sweet in the tea first, then pour it in a saucer, sip carefully. Besides, local Russian also love to bite a piece of sugar or keep some honey/jam in mouth first, after sipping the hot tea in, they will mix, and get a more sweet shock.

The meaning of Russian tea culture is different from China and Japan; it would not link to philosophy. It only about sharing fun and cuisine. Crowd together, having tea and communicate merrily. The samovar’s capacity at least 4L provides enough time for improving the relationship with your friends and family.

What Is Russian Caravan Tea?

Most of the time, Russian tea refers to a having tea way and culture in Russia, not a single type of tea. But when we are going to buy tea on the internet, we may find a product named Russian Caravan Tea. What is that?

In fact, they are all blended tea, which uses Lapsang Souchong, oolong, or Ceylon tea as basic-tea, and mixed with some spice such as cinnamon, or orange flavor agent.

And the named Russian Caravan Tea may originate in the 1960s, the age of space race between the USA and the Soviet Union. Americans at that time like to make lemon black tea and imagine it is the recipe of the Russian tea, it was popular.

It just so happened that Tang invented the instant mixed beverage, which taken as the official drink in the NASA human spaceflight plan. The church staff found it was easy to prepare a vast so-called Russian tea for the party with these instant granules; that makes the name more famous.

So, it can say Russian caravan tea actually has nothing to do with Russia.

Monday, August 17, 2020

Worry About Is Copper Teapot Safe To Use? Let’s See

No matter the past time or nowaday, the kettle used to boil water was all made from metal. The most we know is the silver teapot, which has a delicacy appearance. But it was only for the patricians or the royal family because of its expensive cost. Relatively, the iron cast and copper teapot are more suitable for the civilian.

Typically, the cookware for boiling water, we called it kettle; and which for brewing tea, we called it teapot. But to the metal teapots, they can also be used for boiling and brewing because it can be heated directly, so you can call it what you like.

Pros Of Copper Teapot

Easy To Process

As we know, copper is the first metal used by humans. The oldest copperware found by the archaeologist from northern Iraq that dates to 8700 BC. Due to the easy exploit and smelt process, the ancients add other types of metal into the copper when smelting to produce out the alloy like brass(alloying with zinc) and bronze(alloying with tin.)

To make a copper teapot primary in two ways.

One is weld processing. The body, handle, spout, are processing from different pieces of copper plates, then soldering them together. The style can be various and more delicacy. The Indian and Moroccan teapots mainly made in this way. And generally, craftsmen love to carve some beautiful designs on the surface. Some of them are complicated, that depended on the skill of the craftsmen.

And the other way is produced in one complete copper plate. The craftsman hammers it thousands of times to create out the shape. The surface is full of hammered print(some will be polishing), looks an original style. This method is often used in processing Chinese and Japanse copper teapots. The whole teapot(except the lid) is integrated, compared to the welding one, the solidness and airtightness will be better.

Low Cost

The storage volume of copper is large on earth. Copper is a soft and low melting point, so it is very easy to smelt and process, leading to a low cost. Before Chinese porcelain popularizes over the world, copper teapot plays an essential role in people’s lives for a long time in history. Compared to the silver teapots, it cost less; and to the iron cast teapot, it is not easy to rust.

Durable

Copper will be oxidized. The teapot made from the pure copper shows a rose-gold color, but once it got oxidized, the color will turn close to purple, but most of the time, it is still shining.

To make the copper teapot durable for long time use, people usually not process with the pure copper, but the alloy, like brass, which is alloy copper and zinc. The brass teapot is harder, malleable, and the color similar to gold.

The brass teapot also will be oxidized. Once it oxidized, the appearance will get darker, and lose the shining. But it will not like the silver teapot turns black, or the iron cast teapot gets rust. The oxidation film will protect the teapot from getting oxidized further, and improve the resistance to corrosion. So there are many antique copper teapots preserved well, which a high price in the market.

Copper Teapots In Different Countries

Even though we call it teapot, it was not only for brewing tea, also for holding water, wine, coffee, or to boil water. And in different countries, copper teapots come in a unique style. Let’s see how fun they are.

Morocco

Morocco is a tea-love country, and Moroccan mint tea is famous. People use an elegant copper teapot to hold the drink. The first time you see the teapot, you may confuse it wasn’t copper, because most of them were silver plated.

The Moroccan copper teapot has a long spout, and people like to “high pour” when pouring tea, the tea infusion will draw a beautiful curve in the air. And because Moroccan believe in Halal Islam, the shape of the teapot is like a mosque.

In the bazaar, also you can see some big copper kettle. It’s filled with the cinnamon tea named hunja. The large body can keep the drink warm, in cold winter, take a cup will be awesome.

India

India is the largest black tea exporter in the world, and the copper teapot produce from it also is know-well. They were cooking the masala chai with a pot, then pour into the copper teapot for serving.

Most of the time, the copper not only use for tea. Indian people took the water from their mother river-the Ganges River, then stored in the teapot for some sacrificial activity or wedding use. Therefore, the status of the copper teapot in their mind is also very sacred.

You can’t describe the style of Indian copper teapot in a few words because it is various and complicated, just like their lifestyle, always surprise you. But most of the design is about something Buddhism.

But pay attention! If you wanner buy an Indian brass kettle for tea, don’t confuse with the Lota.

China

As the birthplace of tea, China has a deep copper teapot culture. Here we would not talk about the bronze, it’s antique and not for practicality. But due to the vast territory of China, the copper teapot also comes in various styles.

The most common is hammered copper teapot, which for boiling water when brewing tea. The most famous is a Brand Zhu Bingren copper teapot. It is said all of the product is hand made, and each one has been more than ten thousand times of hammering.

In the west of China, Xinjiang region, the teapot’s style is close to India and Pakistan, because they are also close in geographical. The Uyghur people love the copperware much, and they prefer pure copper. At the front of their house, there is a big copper kettle prepared for the customer washing hands. They also use a smaller one for boiling tea.

And in Sichuan Province, there is a kind of interesting copper teapot called long spout teapot. Literally, we know it has a long spout. It is said that in the past, the local tea house is very small and crowded, and the waiters hard to add water for the tea customer. So they created a long spout teapot to make the job easier. And it became the local tea culture gradually, the tea master(Local saying is Dr. Tea) can play the teapot like Gongfu, very amazing.

Japan

Although iron cast teapots are the mainstream in Japan, copper teapots also popular. The famous is a Brand Gyokusendo. They also produce pure copper teapot, and the processing method is similar to China. But they got a unique coloring technology. The copper teapot they made has a gradient color and a naturally generated pattern.

Is Copper Teapot Safe For Use?

Many people may worry about whether copperware is safe for use. Excess copper intake indeed leads to poisoning and cause vomiting, hypotension, melena, coma, jaundice, and gastrointestinal. Long-term ingestion may damage the liver and kidneys.

But the question is, will use a copper teapot to boil water leads to poisoning?

When boiling water, the teapot will release a small number of copper ions by heating. The merchant said that metal ions can help kill bacteria. That’s right, but the copper teapot’s effect is much lower than the silver teapot.

And these ions released from the teapot, most of them would combine with the tannin in tea, the left to be absorbed by the body is less. Copper is one of the essential trace elements, and the human body has efficient mechanisms to regulate copper stores. So most of the cases, use a copper teapot to boil water is safe.

That’s why in so many regions, people use the copperware a lot and live well.

Most of the copper teapots sold on the market have a metal liner, such as stainless steel, or some coating inside. Therefore, no fear of whether it is harmful to the body.

But pay attention, many people love to collect the old copper teapot. On these antique’s surface and inside is full of the verdigris, which is the oxide of copper, and toxic. These oxides are readily soluble in water when heating. If you use these antique coppe teapot for making tea, it will lead to poisoning, no doubt.

So, for the collecting antique copperware, it’s best to just take them as decorations, not to boil water or store drink. Of course, you can remove the verdigris of them at all by scrubbing, but it also reduces their collection value.

How To Care Copper Teapot

No matter your copper teapot is made from brass or pure copper, they also will get oxidized. The brass one will lose its shining; the pure copper one will turn in a darker color. Anyway, that’s not what we want.

And we know, verdigris is harmful to the body. Therefore, how to protect the teapot from oxidizing is essential. Fortunately, to care a copper teapot is easy.

When we got a new copper teapot, we may see a dust layer on the surface, and it’s dim. The first thing we should do is put it into a pot, boil with water for a while, and scrub it with a soft cloth.

Even though these dust may lay a protect film on the teapot and take a little effect to prevent it from oxidizing. But by the time flow, it will corrosion the metal slowly. And the dust also not good for health.

Ever time we use a copper teapot for tea, we should wash it with hot water again. And after using, do the same job, and dry it with a soft cloth, do not left any liquid behind.

Once you found the copper teapot getting some rust(verdigris), you must remove it, or it will get worse.

In the same way, put it into a pot and boil it with water. Take a wet towel and dip some toothpaste, scrub the rust part gently until you remove the verdigris at all. Then wash it with hot water again and dry it.

For collectors, it’s best to wax for the ornamental antique teapots after doing the clean job or polishing.

Whether you take the copper teapot for making tea or just collection, place it in a dry and cool environment when you are not using it.

Monk Fruit Tea – Best Sugar-Free Drink For Who Has A Sweet Tooth

Do you have a sweet tooth, yet worry about getting fat? Monk fruit tea, a popular herbal tea, comes from Asia, may satisfy what you need, and with many incidental health benefits.

What Is Monk Fruit Tea

Siraitia grosvenorii is a kind of Cucurbitaceae that originated in Guangxi Province, China, and monk fruit is the fruit of it, also known as Luo Han Guo(a Buddha). It harvests in autumn every year. Due to the monk fruit shell is fragile, and it got a short shelf date, almost the fruit sold on the market have been dried process. The plant has a high demand for the growth environment, so the plantations are few. Unless you live near, you are hard to buy fresh monk fruit.

The dried monk fruit can be used as a drug and food, typically sold in the Chinese Medicine pharmacy. Except make tea, people also cook soup with it. Monk fruit is rich in sweet ingredients, even can be used to making sweetening agents replace the saccharose.

Most of the herbal tea got a strange herbaceous taste; that’s why people difficult to accept. But monk fruit tea tastes pleasant, even kids would fall in love with it. More surprise is, monk fruit has been consuming for hundreds of years, but none any side effects found, even pregnant women and children can take it. That means you can also try it reassured.

What Is Monk Fruit Tea Good For

As a natural herbal beverage, monk fruit tea not only tastes excellent but with many health benefits to the human body.

Relieve Sore Throat

When we talk about the benefits of monk fruit tea, the sore throat relief effect is the first thing we think of. In every Asian family, once people got a sore throat, they like to take a cup of monk fruit tea, and the symptom would be transference cure soon. It was the best choice in many folk remedies.

To the profession such as teachers and singers who needs to speak a long time, monk fruit tea is the best long-term consumption beverage for them. It can moisturize the dry and scratchy throat, and repair the damaged vocal cords. To chronic pharyngitis patients, it can also relieve the discomfort of the disease.

Related Reading: 9 Best Herbal Tea For Sore Throat Relieve.

Balance Blood Sugar

Monk fruit contains a sweetener called mogroside; the sweetness is 250-300 times than saccharose. It is the primary source of sweet taste, and most benefits also come from it. Mogroside would not switch to glucose, so it would not increase the blood sugar.

There was a study suggested, mogroside also can induce insulin secretion without any carbohydrate intake. That may help make the blood sugar balance and reduce the rate of diabetic complications at the same time. What good news to diabetes patients!

But when we are going to buy the monk fruit-related products, take a look at the ingredient list, whether there is carbohydrate content. Some manufacturers may add sugar to the tea bags to make the flavor in a more popular style.

Cough

Monk fruit also contains D-mannitol, which is a type of sugar alcohol and easily soluble in water; the sweetness is about 0.55~0.65 times than saccharose. D-mannitol can help with cough, and it is one of the ingredients of various cough syrup.

Monk fruit tea is the best choice in Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM) on a sore throat and cough treatment. When you are on a cough, the lung would get a hot and dry feeling, and cause phlegm. The TCM thought monk fruit belongs to cool herbs, which has a good effect on curing the heat disease. Chinese believed that Luo Han Guo has stop cough, moisturize lung, and eliminating phlegm benefits. In modern medicine opinion, they think it may profit from the anti-inflammatory effects of antioxidants in the monk fruit.

Anti-inflammatory

Scientists found that the mogroside even shows an excellent antioxidant activity, which takes a noticeable inhibiting effect on DNA injury, and scavenging radicals effectively.

This antioxidant contained in monk fruit tea also plays a role in anti-inflammatory, helps reduce the inflammation, and prevents some related degenerative disease. Maybe help with anti-aging too.

Potential Anti-cancer Effect

A study on mogroside suggested that it can inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells in vitro effectively, has the potential to prevent the development of colorectal cancer and laryngeal cancer. Plus the oxidation property, take the monk fruit tea into your diet list may reduce the rate of getting cancer.

Weight Loss

Carbohydrate is the biggest reason for obesity. However, sweet teeth can not resist them. Fortunately, monk fruit tea, this nonsugar, zero calories drink would not absorb by the human body and lead to getting fat. Even it tastes sweeter than saccharose, no doubt is the best beverage to the dessert lovers. The artificial sweetener made from mogroside become more and more popular in recent years.

Worth to know, in the Chinese Medicine theory, monk fruit tea also has a laxative benefit. But the study suggested that it was not working by improving the intestinal tract movement but by lubricant it.

Personally, monk fruit tea is one of my favorite herbal teas, and I often have it. Maybe just my case, every time after I drink monk fruit tea, I got an astringent on my tongue, and my appetite was lowing. Even though I am not fat(I Am Big Boned?) but that symptom seems not bad.

Monk Fruit Tea Buying Guide

If you wanna make a cup of monk fruit tea, the simplest way is to brew with a teabag. When you are going to buy monk fruit teabags, you should take a look at the ingredients list to check whether it contains sugar or not. In most case, it is sugar and caffeine-free, but some producer adds some additives to make it taste better, it may offset the benefits a lot.

And the most common way is brewing with the dried monk fruit. In Asia, the dried fruit typically sold in the pharmacy; you can also buy it in the mall or on the internet. When picking, something you should know about:

Color

The shell color of the monk fruit, which been baked usually shows brown; the product processing by the lastest freeze-drying technology shows green-yellow. If the shell color is too dark, that means it might be over-baking, lost most of the nutrient facts, and taste bitter. Besides, the high-quality monk fruit tea infusion shows a gold color.

Worth to know, Luo Han Guo has a low yield(surprise that didn’t lead to a high price). It’s one of the most famous Chinese medicine, many pharmaceutical factories use them to extract medicinal ingredients. Some bad merchants purchased the residues and repacked for sale. These residues monk fruit looks dark, with a strong medicine taste, and an incomplete shell. Never pick them for consuming.

Fuzz

The dry monk fruit surface is full of tiny fuzz. But when the products been over-baked, after the secondary process, or long time storage, these fuzz were gone. It’s an easy point to judge the quality, but you should distinguish the natural fuzz and the mold clearly, and don’t confuse them.

Shake It

Pick up a monk fruit and shake it, feeling whether a waggle inside. If there, that means the quality is terrible. And estimate its weight, the heavier usually is the better.

Sunday, August 2, 2020

Try These 9 Best Herbal Tea For Sore Throat Relieve

Do you remember when you were a child, once you got a cold and suffering from a sore throat, grandma would give you a cup of horrible taste herbal tea. The amazing was, the symptom would get good in a short time after taking. Yes, there are various herbal tea recipes for curing sore throat in the folk remedies, and they got an excellent effect on the disease.

What Causes Sore Throat?

The reasons that cause sore throat are different, and not all the herbal teas work. Even in folk remedies, the treatment should go according to the disease.

Most of the sore throat caused by the inflammation or bacterial /viral infection, especially during the cold weather and flu seasons. Once you got a severe sore throat, become hard to speak, swallow, feeling throat swollen, and even challenging to drink water, the first and the best thing you should do is go to your doctor.

No matter what kind of herbal teas, it only can do the adjuvant therapy job. Try the drink without any doctor’s advice may make the illness getting worse, even lost your voice.

The mild case is the throat got a slight tickling feeling after a long time speaking or singing, and the voice became hoarse. That’s because of the vocal cords abrased, in this case, the symptom would self turn good after a few days, and taking some related herbal tea can help it faster.

Besides, chronic pharyngitis patients always got sore throat trouble.

Traditional Herbal Tea For Sore Throat Relieve

So many kinds of herbal tea, which one is the best? Here come 9 popular traditional herbs, some of them even been consumed for hundreds of years in folks, may help you relieve the pain.

Slippery Elm Bark Tea

Slippery elm is an America originated plant, which been used by the aborigines as naturopathy for a long time, and tea bags with these ingredients also sold on the markets.

The part of it to make tea is the inner bark of slippery elm, not the surface. Ground the slippery elm bark to powder and mix water to make tea. The tea is gel-like and almost tasteless.

Slippery elm tea can form a mucosa on the throat to relieve the pain, inflammation, stimulation, and protect it. It also helps inhibition of cough, especially in the case of pharyngitis, which causes by cold and flu.

Side effects: Slippery elm bark tea is likely safe, but for health and safety reasons, pregnant should avoid consuming.

Licorice Root Tea

Licorice is origin in southern Europe and some regions of Asia, taken as a seasoner and medicine all the time, what we know most is the snack licorice stick. And tea made of the licorice root is the best helper with sore throat remission.

The licorice root is rich in many nutrition facts such as glycyrrhizic acid and glycyrrhizin, and all of them have excellent anti-inflammatory benefits, help get rids of the throat pain, and relieve bronchial congestion, play the role of cough and phlegm at the same time.

But relative to its benefits, the side effects of licorice root deserves more attention. Licorice contains opium facts, which can be addictive. This medicine contains licorice ever regarded as contraband in most countries. Besides, a long-term licorice root tea consumption may cause kinds of awful side effects. If you only want to get rid of sore throat, other types of herbal teas may be better ideas.

Side effects, including but not limited:

Headache
ED(erectile dysfunction)
Hypertension
Addiction
Edema
Premature delivery

Marshmallow Tea

Althaea is native to Europe, the other name we familiar with is Marshmallow. Every time autumn comes, many people begin to get a tickling feeling in the throat; that may mean you gonna get a cold. In the old days, once the kids appear this symptom, parents would feed them the bake marshmallows, to prevent them from catching a cold.

Look at the spelling of the Marshmallow, we can see it is derived from the name of the plant(Mallow) and the growing environment(Marsh). The leaves, flowers, and roots of it are rich in a gelatinous mass, especially the roots, which the most used part of the herbologist. The herbal tea made of marshmallow root can calm down the stimulated mucosal tissue, take effect on the disease such as sore throat, cough, and bronchial infection.

It is said the ancient Egyptian used to make a throat lozenge with the marshmallow root juice, combine with honey, to help cure throat upset.

Side effects: Marshmallow root tea is considered safe, but pregnant women and diabetes patients are not recommended to consume.

Chamomile Tea

Chamomile tea is a typical herbal tea for many families, loved by people because of its pleasant taste. It also called “Earth Apple.”

In the past folk remedies, people like to have a cup of chamomile tea once they catch a cold. By inhaling the tea steam to soothes a stuffy nose and relieves a sore throat caused by colds. Scientists thought the treatment effect might come from the anti-inflammatory of chamomile. Or it took good help on sleeping, make the natural self-healing power works better.

Side effects: People who are allergic to the daisy family plant should take care of it

Learn more on: 8 Reasons Chamomile Tea May Be The Best Herbal Tea

Peppermint Tea

Peppermint is known well to everybody, the amazing cool taste, usually used as the ingredients of the seasoner, ointment, and essential oil. Peppermint tea is also an ordinary herbal tea, the menthol it contains has excellent anti-inflammatory and killing bacteria property. People mainly use it to treat colds, itchy throat, and breathing problems.

When you are having peppermint tea, try inhaling the tea steam, it may help with the stuffy nose caused by colds.

Side effects: Peppermint tea is likely safe. But personally, I don’t think it is the best choice. Because the over cool taste makes stimulate the throat, to somebody, it may make the discomfort getting worse.

Monk fruit Tea

Monk fruit is short for Siraitia grosvenorii, which originated in China. The fruits after dried can making tea. Maybe you never heard about it, but in China, it is famous. Traditional Chinese Medicine thought it has benefits of relieving a cough, moisten throat, and lung.

For the teachers and singers, having monk fruit tea can relieve the hoarseness voice caused by a long time speaking. And to most chronic pharyngitis patients, this kind of herbal tea can help them reduce the trouble from the disease.

Different from most herbal teas, monk fruit tea tastes very sweet. Because it contains mogroside, which sweeter than sugar 240 times. And mogroside is not a kind of glucose, it means it takes less effect on getting obesity, what good news to the people who love sweets.

Side effects: Traditional Chinese Medicine thought intake too much monk fruit tea because the sweet taste may harmful to the spleen and the stomach.

Honeysuckle Tea

Honeysuckle is a popular herb in China, and it is one of the main ingredients of most Chinese patent medicine. The honeysuckle tea also the loved beverage for the sore throat of many traditional families. But unfortunately, the tea tastes so bitter, and not everyone likes it.

Honeysuckle is rich in chlorogenic acid, isochlorogenic acid, and luteolin, all of them have an excellent benefit on anti-inflammatory, and an inhibiting effect on the Typhoid bacillus and Staphylococcus aureus.

In the sore throat treatment, honeysuckle tea maybe the fastest and best one. And in the Chinese Traditional Medicine theory, honeysuckle tea also helps the body detox and eliminate whelk.

Side effect:

Honeysuckle tea is not recommended for long-term and large dose consumption, or it may cause diarrhea.
Women who during menstrual and pregnancy should avoid it.

Turmeric Tea

Turmeric originated in Asia. People gound the turmeric root to powder to make flavor and dyestuff. We are most familiar with the curry take it as the main ingredient. And turmeric also has been used as a herbal remedy in Ayurvedic in India and Traditional Chinese Medicine for thousands of years.

The research found that even though the curcumin contented in turmeric has a great property on anti-inflammation and sterilize. Still, its bioavailability is relatively low orally administered. Even some recent academic research on turmeric is proved fraudulent, make people raise questions about its exact efficacy.

Even so, most people express that their sore throat improved after having turmeric tea. Maybe the warm taste of it increases the bloodstream of the throat, so that relieves the inflammation.

Side effects: Turmeric is considered safe. But there is not enough evidence to prove the safety of women taking turmeric tea during pregnancy.

Sage Tea

Sage belongs to the same family with mint, also got a refreshing flavor. It rich in the antioxidant such as ellagic acid and rosmarinic acid have a significant anti-inflammation effect. Sage tea used to help freshen breath(sage is the primary ingredient of most mouth wash), and women are often having it after delivery, for ablactation, or reduce milk secretion.

Thanks to the antioxidant power of sage, drinking sage tea is also great for treating sore throats, and its cool taste helps soothe swollen throats.

Side effects: Some kind of sage contains thujone, which is neurotoxic, long-term consumption is regarded as not safe, may cause:

Hypoglycemia
Hypertension
Epileptic seizure
Abortion
Nausea

Takeaway

Although these herbal teas have been used in folk remedies for many years, it is best to consult your doctor before taking them to be safe.

When you are going to having herbal teas for sore throat, it must brew with hot water. The cold or frozen drinks can cause more stimulation to the inflamed throat, worsening into a cough.

For some herbal teas with unlikable taste, you can add some honey and lemon juice for flavoring. These two also play an outstanding role in curing sore throat, even brew them with hot water alone is awesome.

Da Hong Pao Tea – The Most Expensive Tea Even Cost $1400 Per Gram

What is the most expensive kind of tea in the world? In 2002, ever 20g of Da Hong Pao tea was under the hammer at an outrageous price – 180,000 RMB(about $28,000.) High to $1,400 average per gram, and the gold price was $12 per gram at that time. That means those Da Hong Pao tea leaves, was hundreds of times expensive than the same gold weight.

What is Da Hong Pao Tea? Why is it so expensive?

Da Hong Pao tea class in Oolong tea, one kind of the famous Wuyi Rock Tea, origin in Fujian Province, China. The climate there is mild, with an average annual temperature between 18 to 25℃, and abundant rainfall, the soil is mostly comprised of volcanic rock and shale. The original tea tree of Da Hong Pao planted at the crag of Mount Wuyi, and the particular growth environment makes it got a unique rock taste.

The yield of the original Da Hong Pao tea from the mother trees is poor, less than 500g per year in the historical record, only provide for the King consume. Due to it grow on the crag, a human is hard to pick, so folks training a monkey for tea picking, and sometimes people called the Da Hong Pao as “Monkey Pick.”

Low yield is not the main reason for the high price. In China, Da Hong Pao means a lot in history. In 1972, President Nixon visited China and established diplomatic ties. President Mao, the leader of China that time, gave about 200g original Da Hong Pao tea to Nixon as a gift. To play as a national gift in such an important historical event makes Da Hong Pao value more.

History

Da Hong Pao means “Big Red Robe” in Chinese, several legends about the origin of this name, here is the most approved.

In ancient China, there was a king, his mother got ill, and doctors have no idea about the disease. So he sent his son, a prince, out to find the prescription which works. In the travel, the prince found that there 3 tea trees grow on the crag, he thought that trees must be full of living power content so that they can live in such a bad environment. So he picks the leaves from those trees, go back and brew it to tea for his grandma, and the disease cured. King was so happy, bestowed a big red robe for those trees to keep warm. Every year since that, a new big red robe will be donned on those 3 trees under the King’s command, so people call them “Da Hong Pao.”

Later, it is said once a tea master cut a branch from each tea tree respectively, and planted in around, since then, the number of tea trees on the crag became 6.

Those six trees on the Tianxin Crag are considered the Da Hong Pao’s mother trees. They classified into three types – Qi Dan, Bei Dou, and Que She. In 2006, the government forbade picking from those six mother trees, for protection reasons. In 2007, 20g of Da Hong Pao tea, which was last harvested from the mother tree, was sent to the national museum of China for collection.

Da Hong Pao Tea Products

Because of the forbade picking reasons, no more original Da Hong Pao tea produce. So, is the tea sold in the market now fake? Can’t say like that.

In fact, the Da Hong Pao tea products classify in 3 types:

Mother Tree Da Hong Pao.

Made from the tea leaves which picked from the Da Hong Pao mother trees, regarded as the most authentic one, the same kind that Mao gave President Nixion. But few people know the taste of it nowadays.

Even some people storage them, they may just take it as collections and not for sale or consume. If for sale, that may be at an exorbitant price.

Pure Da Hong Pao.

We don’t have a chance to experience the taste of the authentic Da Hong Pao, but fortunately, we still can take a similar feeling.

Many years ago, tea master cut the branches from the mother trees and planted them in clonal ways in other tea plantations. Now the so-called authentic Da Hong Pao sold in the market, also made from the clone trees.

The expert said the trees clone from the Qi Dan(No.2 mother tree) has the most biological likeness, with the same genes as the original parent tree, there is little difference in quality or taste. Qi Dan tastes like Shui Xian(another kind Wuyi Rock Tea), with a fragrance like the wood after sun-blasted.

But due to the different environment of the tea plantation, the pure Da Hong Pao tea taste and quality are not the same. Especially the Qi Dan type, which is hard to plant and process, the quality is also challenging to control, resulting in low yield. So numerous tea growers prefer to plant other types of rock tea, which is relatively more profitable.

Commercial Da Hong Pao

Also known as blended Da Hong Pao. Because Da Hong Pao is too famous, the local government allows the tea manufacturer to use “Da Hong Pao” as the brand for all the Wuyi rock tea, for improving economic development. Among these commercial teas, some of them may be the other kinds of Wuyi rock tea, such as Rou Gui and Shui Xian, blended with pure Da Hong Pao; Some of them may only the different types of rock tea but branded as Da Hong Pao. That makes many people mistakenly believe that Wuyi rock tea and Da Hong Pao are the same.

You may think that blended Da Hong Pao is just the shoddy goods, that’s not right. Tea masters develop the blended Da Hong Pao, to simulate the taste of the original Da Hong Pao, or just wanted to develop better taste by blended other rock tea.

The high quality blended Da Hong Pao flavor by the tea masters meticulously, blend with various other types of tea and spice, got a better fragrance like fruit, flower, and wooden, or stronger rock aroma. Just like the cocktail, a variety of ingredients and processing ways, make the taste of blended Da Hong Pao in unlimited possibilities.

How To Make Da Hong Pao

Prepare the teaware and tea leaves. Gaiwan is what I recommended.
Pre-heat and clean the teaware with hot water.
Put 5g Da Hong Pao loose tea into the Gaiwan.
Wash the tea leaves with hot water. Da Hong Pao not tight like the Tie Guan Yin, pour the water out when it fills to 4/5
Add hot water for brewing. It is best to add water on high so that the tea leaves will tumble in the tureen and heated fully.
The first steeping time is about 1-2 mins, 10-30s longer each round next. Da Hong Pao can brew about 7-8 rounds, and every round brings different feelings.
Pour out the tea after steeped, feel the charming wooden or flower aroma with your nose(depending on which tea type you choose), then sip and taste the unique rock flavor of Wuyi tea.
How expensive is the most authentic Da Hong Pao tea? It ever cost hundreds of times than the same weight of gold. Why Da Hong Pao tea cost so much? Let’s see.