Video Review of Monkey-Picked White

I just found this video this morning, made by Lainie from the LainieSips tea blog. She has some interesting tips on varied brewing methods for our Organic Monkey-Picked White Tea. This loose leaf tea is both Organic & Fair Trade Certified, and comes in tea tins as well as bulk bags. Check out what Lainie thinks!

How to TEAS your palate...

Photo by j-tea.blogspot.com

For your first tea tasting it's helpful to taste the four different types of single estate teas to better understand the basic varieties: white, green, oolong and black. Once you've had an introductory tasting, it's fun to move on to a tasting featuring only one type of tea but that is another blog post...How to REALLY TEAS your palate...

Four types of tea should make for a comprehensive, though not overwhelming, tasting. I recommend steeping about 1/2 tsp per 1/2 cup of each tea. Steep the tea according to the directions on the package or the recommendations of the tea merchant. Tea, like wine, has a general sequence to tasting: 1) Look 2) Smell 3) Taste

TEAS your palate
Ask yourself the following questions when sampling the teas. Take tasting notes to learn your palate. These questions help you get a sense of the quality of the tea. They also help you determine whether you like and would purchase the tea.

1. Look: Describe the appearance of the dry and wet leaves. Are they whole or broken? Are the leaves twisted or flat, regular or uneven? Describe the color of the tea liquor (liquid). It is clear or cloudy?

2. Smell: Close your eyes and inhale. What does it smell like? Does the smell ignite any nostalgic memories, like rolling around in the grass or smelly socks?

3. Taste: Now, slurp the tea. Don't worry about making loud noises. Spread it all over your tongue and mouth. What flavor notes do you detect? Finally, swallow the tea. Is the finish (or aftertaste) long or short, meaning do the flavors dissipate quickly or last for a while in your mouth? What flavors remain? Do you want another sip or would you rather feed it to your plants?

Like many things in life, tea tasting is very subjective. Many people love the smokey aroma and flavor of Lapsang Souchong, but not me. Although the smell brings back memories of camping in the Grand Tetons, the taste reminds me of eating the ashes of a campfire. Pu-erh, on the hand, also brings back memories of camping in the Grand Tetons while the dark liquor coats my mouth with rich, and earthy memories of gardening fresh vegetables in my back yard.

Do you have a tea worth tasting or one we should stay away from? 

Thank You, Tea Reviews Blog!

Big thanks to the reviewer at Tea Reviews Blog for the great review of our Meditative Mind tea!

"This is a rare and exotic tea that definitely deserves 5 stars... It’s one of the most romantic and inspired teas I’ve tasted recently, and contains both tippy high quality white tea leaves as well as green tea rolled into jasmine pearls."

Sweet romance is in the air.... ahh spring.

Tea for Romance

Summer in Boulder: our extraordinary irises and wild Mariposa Lilies, which we’re well known for, are showing their varied colors and exuding their delicious fragrance. Wood roses are open and sharing their exotic perfume. These and more contribute to the lovely feeling of romance in the air…hence my inspiration for this post!

As busy entrepreneurs in our respective businesses, my fiancé and I don’t always have the time or energy for a leisurely 6 o’clock drink, but it’s still important for us to get together and reconnect at the end of our work days - which is just as beautifully, if not more so, accomplished with an informal gong fu tea ceremony and some aromatic (is there a pattern here?) oolong…or, if we need more of a lift, a nice strong pot of Earl Grey, or a Japanese green with some dark chocolate! When we’re really looking to unwind, a couple of aromatic steeping cups of Meditative Mind, our white tea blend sprinkled with rosebuds and green tea jasmine pearls, are just the thing.

A quick Google search on “aphrodisiacs” shows that there are many different categories of substances named after the Greek Goddess of love, Aphrodite, used in the belief that they increase sexual desire – aromatic, edible, stimulating, relaxing, hallucinogenic, and more.

The oil of bergamot in Earl Grey, it turns out, has long been used as an aromatic aphrodisiac to reduce muscle tension, anxiety, and stress. For added smoothness, our Earl of Grey has just a touch of licorice root, considered an excellent edible and aromatic aphrodisiac. In fact, traditional Chinese medicine used licorice root to enhance love and lust and the ancient Kama Sutra included it as an ingredient for many recipes to increase sexual vigor! According to research done at the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, the smell of licorice root is particularly stimulating to women. I always thought the calming aromatherapeutic benefits coupled with the visual beauty of Meditative Mind helped make it our best-selling tea, and had quickly dismissed a most grateful cycling buddy who once told me that my gift of that tea turned his girlfriend wild! But my research unveils that the rosebuds and jasmine pearls may do more than simply calm us down. Rosebuds are, indeed, an aphrodisiac…mmm. Their aroma stimulates the brain and keeps the mind focused and alert (hence the name of our tea!). But rosebuds are also a great mood enhancer and amplify the libido! Eating them (though I don’t know about their infusion) apparently increases blood flow through the body and allows a warm sense of stimulation. Jasmine is also an aromatic aphrodisiac. So much for the meditation…perhaps we should have called it “Tantric Mind”.

Needless to say, the caffeine in tea can offer an energy boost at the end of a long day to get you back to your best when starting your evening with your sweetheart. You should consider a romantic tea break next time you come home. Just keep in mind the quote by the travel writer Catherine Donzel: “Each cup of tea represents an imaginary voyage”.

White Teas, Please... a hit!

Since our White Teas, Please gift bundle was such a success, we're extending it for this week. If you like white teas, you've got to take advantage of this deal. (We're not usually so generous!) It's listed at 40% off retail values, essentially giving a 2 for 1 deal. Check it out....
And read our previous blog post to learn the latest facts in white tea research linked to weight loss and fat metabolism.

White Tea and Weight Loss - Get the Skinny!

If reducing that abdominal paunch is one of your goals for this upcoming bikini season, you might seriously consider adding white tea to your diet. Concern over increases in obesity-related diseases prompted research into the effects of white tea extract on the human body. The findings, published last month in Nutrition & Metabolism, found that white tea extract effectively inhibits adipogenesis (the production of fat) AND stimulates lipolysis (the destruction of fats). Even Dr. Oz, Oprah's wellness guru, recommended recently that "you should drink about four cups of green or white tea a day", which propelled "white tea" to the highest-searched tea term on the Internet overnight! Ahh, the power of Oprah... All this twitter around white tea and weight loss has prompted us to do some more digging to bring you a summary of the facts.

TRUTH or MYTH:

• Simply adding white tea to your diet will help you lose weight - MYTH

• White tea will assist your body in inhibiting the production of fat cells - TRUTH

• White tea provides a boost to exercise-induced weight loss, further stimulating the destruction of fat through exercise - TRUTH

• The caffeine in white tea helps you burn fat by speeding up your metabolism - MYTH

• White tea often contains the least amount of caffeine of all teas. It's the polyphenol antioxidant EGCG that helps inhibit fat cell production - TRUTH

• White tea is a natural appetite suppressant - TRUTH - And of course, "the weight loss will be even better if the tea is unsweetened and if it's replacing caloric beverages such as soda," suggests Shawn Talbott, author and producer of Killer at Large, a documentary exploring the causes of and the solutions of the American obesity epidemic.

So go ahead and make white tea your new BFF!

Simply Running, although Running isn't all that Simple....

You would think all one would have to do to run is throw on some sneakers (or tennis shoes for all those Colorado folks) and go. Once you get into long distance running or racing, this however, is not the case. You have to make sure you have the right shoes, the right amount of water, find out which energy gels you want to use, how to evade overuse injury....you get the idea. I am currently training for my second marathon, The Vermont City Marathon, which I'll be runnng in two weeks. I am nervous as all hell. I've already run 1 marathon, 4 half marathons and a smattering of 5 and 10K's, but gearing up for the 26.2 miles never gets easier. I think this is partially because no matter how much you train, how good you feel before hand, anything, and I mean ANYTHING can happen during the race.

Now my first marathon I feel like I got lucky, I was tired and lonely around mile 22 and my legs started cramping up a bit, but that is to be expected. Other than that I had no major injury, no blisters, no tweaked hamstring or IT bands or anything else that typically comes up from long distance running. I'm thinking this might be the reason why I'm nervous for my upcoming marathon, I'm nervous I won't get this lucky a second time.

For the past month I've been training pretty regularly, rolling out my muscles, avoiding all alcohol, and eatng the appropriate carbs, protein and fats. Since I drink tea all the time, I wanted to see if there was any benefits of my tea drinking that would aid in my running. My search lead me to another blog post that spoke about that very issue. It started off describing tea as a great alternative drink to coffee before a race for non-coffee drinkers "tea is the pre-run drink of choice. Although tea only provides about half as much caffeine as coffee, it can be much easier on the stomach, especially for runners who have prerace butterflies." The blog then went into various tea types and the health benefits of each such as...

Green and white tea, "the least oxidized teas have the highest [nutritional] value, especially due to their anti-inflammatory properties. Green and whites also do the best job of any of the teas of boosting the body’s ability to utilize fat as an energy source."

Black teas on the other hand, "contain more of the antioxidants that inhibit cancer growth and lower cholesterol. One study has shown that drinking just a cup a day of black tea can cut the risk of heat attack by 44 percent."

The blog post also described that drinking herbal teas like mint and chamomile have no caffeine so the night before you can drink them and still fall asleep. What the blog post failed to mention however, is that one of my favorite teas, rooibos, like our Red Rocks, is actually rehydrating and has tons of vitamins and minerals and therefore is a favorite with athletes.

So we've realized that running is no easy feet (pun intended) I do now know that everyday, in addition to all my training and nutritional awareness, that my mutiple cups of tea are aiding me with anti-oxidants, anti-inflamatory properties and keeping me hydrated for the long haul.

It's time to go run!






To read more of this blog post, click here http://devinesports.com/Article.7+M5e73a27535f.0.html?&cHash=3d0a4e9cf4&tx_ttnews%5Bpointer%5D=2

Forget the great taste & cancer-fighting effects - It'll make you skinny!!

Last Friday Marie Claire was buzzing about white tea, for it's slimming effects. Although I find it slightly depressing that women's mags focus so much energy on being thin, any way you look at it, white tea is a great healthy beverage choice. They posted the following article online May 1st:


White Tea Could Make You Slim

New research has revealed that white tea, which has a high concentration of antioxidants, increases metabolism and boosts slimming. Compounds in the tea prevent the formation of new fat cells and help burn off old ones.

It is claimed white tea, which is made from the buds and first leaves of the Camellia Sinensis plant may carry even more health benefits than the more popular green and black teas which are made from the same plant.

Nutritionist Marc Winnefield of German skincare firm Beiersdorf AG which carried out the research said: "In the industrialised countries, the rising incidence of obesity-associated disorders including cardiovascular diseases and diabetes constitutes a growing problem.

"We have shown that white tea may be an ideal natural source of slimming substances."

Here are links to our hand-picked, loose leaf, white teas:

Organic Monkey-Picked White: 100% organic & fair trade certified, single-estate, white tea

Snowflakes: white tea tips that resemble the well-known silver needle tea

Meditative Mind: white tea blended with green tea jasmine pearls & rosebuds

These teapots have legs!

As Steepware designer for The Tea Spot, I have the opportunity to create unique and exciting tea steeping vessels of beauty and function. I wake every morning excited about the challenges of the day. We take our mission to make loose leaf tea an everyday luxury very much to heart. On this cloudless, beautiful Colorado morning, I steeped up some calming Snowflakes white tea - delicate, downy fresh tea leaves (yesterday was a rough day, so I need no extra caffeine this morning!) in my favorite blue Steeping Cup. Thinking forward to our next Steepware innovations, I look to traditional tea vessels for inspiration, and work on how to integrate function and modern materials into their concepts.


Teapots with legs have always fascinated me! Is it because they are more people or animal-like...? In the Shanghai Museum, there are a few very cool legged tea vessels - and these are some of my "muses" for future Steepware designs.

Organic Monkey Picked White

Greetings, fair TeaSpot blog followers.

While graduate school and a move across the country to Boston has taken me away from the warm clutches of the TeaSpot’s arms, I have been fortunate enough to convince the powers that be that I’ll never turn down an opportunity to blog for tea.

So, without further ado, welcome to my next blog installment. It’s good to be back, in a fashion.

Tea Tasting: Organic Monkey Picked White

Round One: 3-minute steep, approx. 190°, ‘round about 5:30 p.m., Saturday, February 7, 2009

My day was spent writing, homeworking, going to the gym, and observing a rather dramatic incident with a crazy man on the train—an incident that caused tears for a fellow female passenger, and a rather saddening but justified throwdown on the perpetrator. Needless to say, I was more than happy to have myself a wee tea party after the lactic acid abated and the sun went down. I recruited my roommate Tony to participate, who was more than happy to oblige.

The first thing that surprised me about the leaves was how brown they were--I was definitely expecting your typical downy white tea leaves a la Snowflakes. In any case, this tea is the essence of lightness; smooth, with a subtle and sweet aftertaste. Tony’s word was “silky,” which is probably better than any of the other word combos I will come up with. This tea was confusing to me at first, because I couldn’t detect a noticeable smell, which caused me a bit of worry because it has also recently come to my attention that I seem to be losing my sense of hearing (too many rock shows) as well as memory (I swear, I forget everything. I blame it on my urban environment and constant media exposure). However, I think this had more to do with the water temperature, as I noticed the tea increased in flavor and scent as the temperature of the water cooled.

Round One Steepage: Buttery Golden Liquor

Round Two: 4-minute steep, approx 180°, 11:45 p.m., Saturday, February 7, 2009

After indulging in an amazing and completely unexpected “dessert” of cheese fondue, red wine, and great company (my roommates so awesome you don’t even know), I gave the tea leaves a bit of a sniff, and they were surprisingly fragrant. I convinced my second roommate and former TeaSpot employee Mr. Ross Wrangham to get in on a late-night re-steep with me. The leaves, as well as the re-steeped tea had an amazingly light floral taste and smell. I can’t for the life of me pinpoint what flower it is…something like orchids, but not quite. Light, honeyed, refreshing, with no trace of tannins whatsoever (as one would expect). I have to say, I much prefer the second steep to the first. I was also happy that the low-caffeine content (especially after a second steeping) didn't keep me awake--keep in mind it was almost midnight--I can barely drink a cup of brewed coffee without getting twitchy, and if anything this tea helped me relax before hopping aboard the S.S. La La Land.

Overall, this tea is extremely rewarding in its subtlety and flavor, and of course I must also appreciate its intrinsic ability to keep me healthy and chock full of antioxidants--an absolute must for my current commuter situation, which requires that I share public bus and train space with hundreds of strangers nearly every day. Thank you, TeaSpot!

I heart my Steeping Mug