Author: Michael J. Coffey

I called myself a tea geek enough times that I eventually named my business after the phrase. However, I’ve never claimed to be the only tea geek. My hope is that through the efforts of myself, in conjunction with other tea geeks out there, the general public will gain more accurate information about tea, a greater appreciation of the teas they enjoy, and improve the lot of the artisan tea farmers around the world by understanding why great tea is worth paying for.

One of the tea geeks I have worked with, learned from, gotten tea-drunk with, and even worked for, is Shiuwen Tai of Floating Leaves Tea. I was at her shop this weekend and was teasing her about an episode that beautifully illustrates what being a tea geek is all about.

Shiuwen was fast approaching the birth of her baby (one false going-into-labor episode had already passed) and I was working in her shop part time to give her some extra time to rest. She called in about something related to the store and was making periodic wincing noises. Apparently, she was experiencing contractions right there on the phone with me!

Then she asked if there was anything else I needed to ask. I mentioned that a couple of boxes had been delivered from Taiwan. She winced again and said, “Oh. Have to go!”

Alarmed, I asked, “Are you going into labor?”

“No,” she said, “I have to go in and taste tea!” And indeed she did come in and sampled the new winter teas from Taiwan the day they arrived. And within two days, her baby had been born as well.

We had a good laugh about this (and other things), tasted some tea samples she’d received recently, and so forth. She told me she’d be closing the shop on Monday–again for a rest and spending time with her little son (well, enormous actually…20+ pounds at 4 months). But I forgot about it until I was calling Floating Leaves on Monday to do a little tea industry networking.

Shiuwen answered the phone. I said, “Wait a minute…weren’t you going to be closed today?”

She replied, “I am.”

“Then what are you doing there answering the phone?” I asked.

“New tea came in,” was her response, in a tone that clearly showed that she felt this was explanation enough for why a mother with a new baby would go to work on one of her few days off…a day off she had specifically planned so she could get away from work.

I think that may become our explanation for any kind of crazy behavior: New tea came in. Why are you going to work while you’re in labor? New tea came in.

Oh, and be sure to subscribe to my newsletter if you haven’t already because I’ll let you know when I get a chance to taste these new teas–maybe I’ll pick up something through her suppliers. Then you’ll have an excuse to order because, well, new tea came in.

To follow up on the theme of Keemun, I did a Keemun tasting at the Perennial Tea Room here in Seattle. I collected eight different samples from five different tea shops (Perennial Tea Room had three represented, Teahouse Kuan Yin supplied two, and I had one each from the Market Spice store, Barnes & Watson Fine Teas, and Floating Leaves Tea).

The teas were divided into three categories: Congou (or unknown grade), Mao Feng, and Hao Ya A. The attendees, including myself, some of the PTR staff, and PTR customers who had signed up, tasted the samples within each category side by side.

Keemun comes from a very small area (Qimen county, Anhui Province…about 870 square miles, with a total county population about a third that of the city of Seattle). Despite this, several people said they found it interesting that the flavors were so varied. Some seemed floral–especially rose–while others were deep and smoky. And this variation could be found within the same grade, not even comparing one grade to another. Just one more reminder not only to experiment with your brewing methods, but also try the “same” tea from different vendors. Just because it says “Keemun” doesn’t mean you’ll get the same flavor from one company to the next.

Something I found interesting was how there wasn’t a lot of consensus about the “best” in any category. Often times at a tea tasting, one or two samples will rise to the top as being better than the others. This time it seemed more to be about people’s individual preferences. Some people liked the rose-like Keemuns, others liked the smoky ones, while another group liked the “plain black tea” samples. Some preferred the simple-but-bolder flavors, while others went for the lighter-but-more-complex.

Here are my own quick tasting notes:

Congou or Unknown Grade

A: (MS) Pretty good Keemun–not fantastic, but enjoyable.

B: (PTR) Ranked lowest of this grade for me. Kind of mineral/metallic tasting.

C: (TKY) Second favorite. Better flavor than A or B, but less interesting than D.

D: (B&W) My favorite–more smoky like a Hao Ya.

Mao Feng

I apparently got caught up in the experience of tasting because I don’t have any notes on either of the Mao Feng teas.

Hao Ya A

G: (PTR) The basic flavor was more chocolatey, but less complex than sample H.  My partner Loren chose this one as his top choice of all the options.

H: (TKY) I liked better because the mouthfeel was smoother and had a bit more complexity (though admittedly that flavor was less like chocolate and more light a light smoke).

I recently offered a tea tasting where participants compared different Keemun teas. We compared grades (gongfu/congou, mao feng, hao ya) with each other, as well as different vendors’ products of the same grade with each other.

In preparing for the class, I tried to fill out the Keemun article on the Tea Geek wiki. As I researched, I kept coming up with additional questions that I wanted to know. In the end, I got enough information for an informative class, and at the same time was appalled at how little good information there is about Keemun in English.

Here are some of the things I could NOT find information about, in question format. If you happen to have a line on good answers or information sources on any of these, I’d love you to post a comment or send me email.

1) Keemun Black Tea (Qimen Hongcha or Qihong) is supposedly made only from a particular varietal–kind of like Tie Guan Yin. Is this true, and what’s the name/classification/genetic identifier/ etc. for the varietal/cultivar/clonal?

2) Many tea vendors say that Keemun is one of the only sources of a substance called myrcenal that imparts some of the rosey/toasty flavor unique to Keemun. Yet I can’t find other references to it other than by people who are using this “fact” to sell tea. Is there such a substance, what is it, and is it indeed unique to Keemun (and oil of bay, as mentioned in James Norwood Pratt’s New Tea Lover’s Treasury)?  Any other chemical or biological points of interest?

3) Are there technical classifications that can be easily described and differentiated to explain Hao Ya A, Hao Ya B, Mao Feng, Xin Ya, and Congou? Are there other grades? Is there really a Keemun grade that is rolled like Gunpowder? (I’ve seen claims that there is, but never seen a picture or real-life example.)

4) Any good descriptions on the production methods? Statistics on amounts of genuine Keemun? Statistics about counterfeit Keemun production?

5) Geography–I can find Huangshan City and the Yellow Mountains to the north in Google Earth, but so far haven’t had much luck with other geographical information specific to Keemun tea. Is there much to know other than that the area is gorgeous? 🙂

6) History–what reliable information is there about She Ganchen / Yu Quianchen / Hu Yuanlung or whoever started production of red tea in Anhui? Can the oft-repeated date of 1875 be verified? Can the mysterious inventor of keemun be actually tracked down to being a failed civil servant or other particular biographical information?

I’ve been getting all kinds of spam about tea. Oprah’s weight loss tea, amazing properties of green tea, Critical Health Information!!! — some of it is ridiculous. Of course, it’s dangerous for me because I have real email sent to me all the time about tea, and it’s sometimes hard to tell the spam from legitimate tea-related emails.

Apparently I’m not alone in that assessment. I just got an email that used the word “T3A” instead of “TEA”–my guess is that spam filters are starting to use the word “tea” as a red flag for spam…and the spammers are using their tricks to make it through the filters.

However, this means that legitimate emails about tea are likely to be more difficult to get through. That’s a sad thing.

I offer this post merely as a heads-up, too. If you’re on my mailing list (and if you’re not you can join on the front page at www.teageek.net), or on other tea lists that are delivered by email, be sure to add the sending address (or domain name) to your “Safe Senders List” or “White List” or whatever the filter calls its list of folks who you want email from.

For those of you who will be in the Seattle area at the end of April, the film All In This Tea will be showing at the Seattle International Film Festival, April 23-24, 7:30pm.

I saw the film a few months ago and while it certainly isn’t a comprehensive look at tea in general, and is a little personality-focused (it’s about David Lee Hoffman of Silk Road Teas more than it is about tea), I can heartily recommend it for tea beginners.  For the more advanced tea geeks, there may still be a few “Oh, that’s cool!” moments unless you’ve already got experience trying to buy large quantities of good handmade tea from China.  That is, in essence, the quest that Hoffman is on during this film.

If you’re in the area, check it out!  Also, you can pick up literature for the upcoming Northwest Tea Festival, which is co-presenting the film with SIFF.

This may come as a shock to some. Virtually all of the tea produced in Japan is green tea. It’s what they’re known for. Even people who know next to nothing about tea will ask about “Japanese green tea” as if that’s a specific kind or Japan is the only place where “green tea” grows.

Well, I just ran across a reference to a website that sells black tea (koucha) manufactured in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. (Shizuoka is famous for its green teas.) I haven’t tried any of it, but I’m tempted to order just to see what it’s like. First, though, I wanted to share the discovery with my readers who might also like to try some. (Apologies for using their image without express written permission–but I think it still falls under fair use since I’m giving credit and linking to them, and I’ve altered it a bit.)

Curiously, the website appears to be of the Assam Tea Company. Their teas all seem to be from India except this one. Even their greens and whites come from Assam (which might be just as shocking as a black tea from Japan to some people).

Very interesting stuff. I can’t vouch for this particular source, but it does seem like more and more experimentation is being done in the tea world, and those experiments are actually reaching the American tea-drinking public. And that’s pretty cool.

“Drink your tea. Tea’s a good drink. Keep you going.”

–Agnis Hamm (played by Judi Dench) in The Shipping News

Things have been busy for me recently, so here are just a few things that I’ve wanted to mention on the blog. It’s a bit more higgelty-piggelty than other posts, but there’s tea involved with it all so that will have to do for a theme.

First, happy Lunar New Year (aka “Chinese New Year”–China being homeland of tea). My partner and I went down to Seattle’s International District for the celebration last weekend and I took a photo of the new traditional Chinese gate that was ceremonially revealed for the new lunar year. (What was actually revealed was the plaque in the center that basically says “China Gate”.) We were given hong bao or red envelopes with chocolate coins inside, and since it was crowded we went home to have tea after picking up a few goodies at the local Asian markets. May Cai Shen (aka Bi Gan, or the God of Wealth) be kind to us all this year–as well as Shen Nong, the emperor who supposedly discovered tea!

Okay, next–tea in the media! On his most recent appearance on Oprah, Dr. Mehmet Oz revealed his Ultimate Anti-Aging Checklist which included the recommendation to drink 4 cups of white or green tea daily for the antioxidants. While there are a couple of things that he said which fall under several listings on my own Common Tea Myths article, such as the supposed levels of caffeine, I certainly can’t argue with drinking 4 cups of tea daily for increasing antioxidant intake. Based on what I’ve seen about tea, varying types would probably be better because green and white teas are high in some antioxidants and low in others…black, wulong, and puer all have different mixes of which antioxidants in which amounts.

Also in the media, during a recent television interview, U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton claimed that she kept up with the grueling demands of the campaign trail by drinking lots of water and drinking tea instead of coffee. Go Hillary! (For her tea drinking habit, of course…Tea Geek hasn’t found any candidates with a sufficient pro-tea platform to be comfortable offering an endorsement.)

Having now worked in two different tea shops (one mainly English style, the other mainly Taiwanese), one of the most common things that gets brought up is caffeine. Sometimes people ask direct questions about caffeine, sometimes they just want a tea with a lot (or none), and sometimes it’s a vague thing like, “I want something that will help me sleep.”

There are a couple of interesting things about this. First off, the assumption seems to be that the only “active ingredient” in tea is caffeine…besides the antioxidants. Most people seem to think that if they don’t sleep, it’s because of caffeine. They also seem to assume that the stronger the flavor and darker the color of the tea, the more caffeine it has: a lightly floral, almost clear cup of tea can’t possibly have more caffeine than a nearly-black cup that’s so strong a mouse could trot across the surface.

Others bring out the oft-repeated myths either that different styles have a predictable level of tea relative to the other styles (i.e., black tea has more caffeine than green tea), or that you can decaffeinate tea with a quick wash of hot water. Dump out the first 30- to 45-second steep, then brew the full time, and you’ve got easy decaf tea. (I did mention that these were myths, right?)

The truth, as it often is, is far more complex. Basic caffeine levels depend on a huge number of factors, including your tea-to-water ratio, brewing temperature, and brewing time. So making a prediction of caffeine content based on what leaves you’re buying is already problematic.

Then add other factors: plant varietal (Camellia sinensis var. assamica naturally produces more caffeine than Camellia sinensis var. sinensis), weather conditions, soil type, fertilizer used (or not), shade level, which leaves were picked (younger leaves produce more caffeine than older leaves), amount of stem included, whether the plants were propagated by seed or cutting, and so on.

In addition, most people don’t drink single-origin teas. Most teas are at least blends of tea from different farms, but even more common are blends of tea from different growing regions or different continents. All of the above variables are then mixed up with that based on exactly how much came from Sri Lankan farms, and what percentage of the mix is Kenyan, and did they add a pinch from Argentina?

Hopefully you now think it’s hopeless trying to predict caffeine levels in tea. Good. Now, you know how I said it’s more complex than that? Well, that’s still true. Along with the caffeine is a little amino acid called theanine. Actually, theanine comes in two mirror-image molecules, called L-theanine and D-theanine. D-theanine doesn’t seem to do much for humans, but L-theanine appears to enter the brain and help you to reduce stress and relax. In brain-wave terms, it encourages alpha-wave production–think meditation, not sleepiness. The tea plant only produces L-theanine, as far as I can tell.

What’s even more wacky is that it appears that this relaxing effect of L-theanine is enhanced by the presence of caffeine. That’s right, you get more relaxed when you’ve got a stimulant involved. I think this combination is why people sometimes say that “coffee caffeine is different than tea caffeine”. That’s not true–caffeine is caffeine. However, there is a relationship between caffeine and the other compounds that get consumed along with it. That is what’s different.

Oh, but wait…there’s more. Just like there was all of that variation in caffeine, there’s also a ton of variation in theanine levels. Now less is known about theanine than caffeine, but according to tea scientist Nigel Melican (interviewed earlier by Tea Geek), the Tea Research Foundation of Central Africa published some Japanese tests from a few years back on the subject. These findings lumped tested teas into regions. The 15 Japanese teas averaged the lowest concentration, while the highest were the 12 teas from Argentina, the 4 South Indian teas, and the 12 Malawi teas.

Finally, just like the “different caffeine” thing, your body has different compounds floating around. Your body chemistry is different from my body chemistry. What you consume is going to affect you differently than if I have some of the same pot of tea. The amount you drink each day may differ from the amount I drink. And when we drink them may differ as well. Tolerances for caffeine (and perhaps for L-theanine) differ. It’s crazy.

So the upshot to all this is that you simply cannot predict ahead of time the amount of caffeine in your cup, or how it will affect you. My advice? Buy some tea. Drink it in the morning in case its caffeine turns you into some kind of hyped up monster. If you like its flavor, experiment with when you can drink it and how strong you can make it. Experiment with multiple brews versus just one. If you don’t need to get up the next morning, try a cup at night to see if you really can’t sleep.

Oh, and the 30-second decaf steeping thing? Doing that will very likely get rid of most of the beneficial antioxidants and a good portion of the flavor, according to the small amount of tea science I’ve read. But if it makes you feel better, you can go ahead and do it. Much of our experience with the world is psychological anyway. But more on that in another post.

Edit:  Original post mentioned “R-theanine.”  This has been corrected to “D-theanine.”