A cup of strong flavoured tea will help you to cheer up, improve your morning mood and start a new working day actively
A cup of strong flavoured tea will help you to cheer up, improve your morning mood and start a new working day actively. Today we already cannot imagine our morning without it. It’s just incredible, that this wonderful drink is more than 4 thousands years. According to a legend, Chinese Emperor was the first one who tried it during his trip around the country. Leaves of some plant fell to a copper with boiling water. Aroma struck Emperor, and the drink itself recuperated him quickly. They say, era of tea began from this event.
Taste of tea depends on many things: soil, climate, water, method of brewing and even time of the day it was gathered. But if you just dry out a tea-leaf, like, say, usual lime-blossom, then, most likely, it will have a smell of hay, and unpleasant bitter taste. The whole secret is in technology: as a result of correct processing, they receive absolutely different in taste and even color drinks. Green tea differs from its black relative, although they have same starting material - same tea-leaf.
While green tea production, fermentation of secreted juice is not allowed, that’s why it keeps color and maximum of wholesome qualitites. In a word, the shorter technological cycle of processing is - the less fermented tea will be. Many people think that tea becomes black because of a special method of “browning”, but in fact, it becomes dark as a result of 4-hours soaking at 40?°C temperature and 95-98% humidity.
Useful information for tea drunkards
- You can spoil taste of tea, if you brew it using non-filtered water.
- If you see a film on the surface of brewed strong tea, this means it contains much tannin and tanning agents.
- Keep tea the right way: keep it in a hermetic glass can in a dry place, farer from spices, to prevent tea from absorbing their smell.
- Remember, green tea contains much more caffeine, than coffee, so try to drink it before afternoon.
- 4 cups of hot green tea per day will protect your skin from ultra-violet rays.
- Green tea can be: large-leaf - high-quality, small-leaf or broken, powder and brick-tea.
- Black tea should be made once; roibush, honeybush, karkade and green - up to three times (but no more!).
- You can eat brewing, left after preparation of karkade drink. This is a good vitaminic supplement with karkade taste. You can also decorate a pie with soaked bells.
Non-tea teas
Tea assortment is not limited by with traditional sorts, it’s much richer.
Mate have been the most popular drink in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay for many hundreds of years. It is received from leaves of a tropical tree ilex paraguariensis, growing in Latin America. Nowadays, this toning drink with sour-sweet taste and smoke aroma has gained great popularity. Indians ascribed magical power, ability to appease hunger and remove tiredness to mate. And it also helps quit smoking and get rid of coffee addiction. Unlike tea, mate is produced much easier. After shoots are collected, they are processed in 4 stages: drying alternates with pounding. The first stage - is the key moment in mate production, as this plant is water-resistant and contains much water. They dry in under very high temperature, then mate shoots and leaves become light-green.
A plant, of which they make an unusually pleasant ruby drink, has lots of names: hibiscus, bloodwort, rosenella, Venice mallow, Sudan rose, ambari, gumbo, African mallow. But many like its African name - karkade. In cold weather this ruby drink is magnificent hot and with sugar. And in hot weather it’s good to make it with ice and sip through a straw. Experienced connoisseurs prefer karkade without additions and flavoring matters, large-leaf, when petals are dried in the form of neat cups.
Roibush - is a decaffeinated drink with a unique, peculiar taste and aroma, made of South-African bushes, which belong to legumes. Leaves and stalks of a plant are processed according to the same technology, as with black and oolong tea.
Honeybush is also produced of bushes, growing in South Africa. Leaves are gathered, pounded and dried under the sun. Under its beams it secretes juice and is acidified. In dry form it looks unusual: bright russet little needles with glossy surface. A drink, which is received later, one can drink both hot and cold. However, you should brew it much longer, than other sorts - 20 minutes.
Fine points of brewing
Well, you’ve bought a desired sort and are going to make it. It’s seems so easy: pour tea with boiling water, draw and gain necessary color. However, it’s not so easy to prepare a scented drink - you need to consider all important moments, only then tea will give you his wholesome substances. So, you should make tea only in a china or highly glazed pottery teapot, warmed thoroughly, on no account use metallic one. Of course, each tea and even sort has his own time for brewing. But there’s a common rule: if tea is large-leaf, it’s better to brew it at least for 5 minutes, and small-leaf - 4 minutes. And drink it immediately. Don’t make tea in store, for the whole day, and also add boiling water to brew, and moreover - cold water.
Fount of health
Tea-drinking - is not only a pleasant way to quench, but also a possibility to establish your health. Since ancient times it has been used as a healing remedy. Any tea contains so many wholesome substances, that it’s just necessary to drink it! As it will replace not only many medicines, but even entire vitaminic complexes. Judge yourself: tea tones up central nervous system, supports heart, cleans vessels, lowers cholesterol in blood, clear organism from slags and helps growing thin. In China, tea’s motherland, it was also used as a drink, removing tiredness, strengthening will-power and sight and even included in elixir of immortality. And practical Japanese people brush teeth with used green tea brew. Yes, they are really assured that they have healthy teeth right due to their big love to tea. Well, there’s some logic here. Tea contains fluorine, a micro-element, which takes part in formation of bony tissue and strenghtens enamel.
Spiced tea
2 cloves buds;
5 g of pounded race;
1 lemon lobule;
3 g of grated cinnamon;
5 g of dry black tea;
500 ml of water;
grated lemon peel - to your taste.
Pour cloves, race and cinnamon with water, boil, remove from fire, add black tea, lemon peel and lobule. Brew during 5-7 minutes.
Apple tea
100 ml of strong green tea
200 ml of water
50 ml of cherry syrup
2 apples.
Pour tea, water and syrup in a dish and stir. Add apples, peeled and cut in cubicles, and boil. Leave for 10 minutes, cool down, filter and pour in cups.
Tea with a beaten egg
500 ml of strong black tea
1 egg white
2 egg yolks
juice of half-lemon
2 table spoons of sugar
Beat up white with sugar, add yolks, lemon juice, hot filtered tea. Whim mixture in a think foam and pour in warmed ceramic cups.
Cold honey tea
1 l of black tea
2 tea spoons of honey
1 glass of grapefruit juice
ice-cubes - to your taste.
Melt honey in warm tea, pour in grapefruit juice and cool down. Pour in bocals, putting an ice-cube into each one.
And still, we love tea not only because of its wholesome qualities. But, first of all, because of pleasure we feel while enjoying a pleasant taste and refined aroma. Tea warms and calms down, quenches and cheers up. That’s why it’s so nice to dream slowly, lapse into memories or just have a rest from vanity of vanities over a cup of tea.
