Genmaicha aka Popcorn Tea

I was offered a cup of Genmaicha by a teacher at a school were I was teaching in Shizuoka and I absolutely loved it. Genmaicha is one of my all time favourite teas. 

 Most Genmaicha is made of Bancha(coarse tea) that is stronger tasting and sometimes bitter.  Toasted brown rice (genmai) is added which gives it a nutty  flavour. I  now affectionately called it by it's nickname "the popcorn tea". The reason it is nicknamed the popcorn tea is because during roasting the rice sometimes pops resembling popcorn. 

According to the wiki a steeping time of 3–5 minutes is recommended, depending on desired strength and the source of the tea - some sources recommend as little as one minute of brewing time. On a more social note this tea is sometimes know as the "peoples tea" as it was often cheaper as a result of the rice. 

Genmaicha really makes me smile because I feel like I am being naughty when I am actually being really good to my body. For those who are trying to cut down on carbohydrates I find that the roasted rice feels really satisfying as it tastes to me a little bit like a nutty bread. 

 The health benefits include all the benefits of green tea with claims that it also helps metabolism(I will look into this a bit better to see if there is substance to it) and judging by the amount of information out there first impressions are that it is also a very popular tea.  

Genmaicha is a great introductory green tea, it eases you into the sometimes bitter flavor of green tea as the rice warms it all up. I recommend it if you are just starting to explore the world of tea or if you are just looking to aid your health but have until now found green tea a bit of a leap.  For those of you who are avid green tea fans this one is a delightfully relaxed and tasty bit of fun.

Genmaicha should be available at most good tea shops but it is also available blended with matcha as a teabag from yamamotoyama of America or from amazon for $3.99. Also you can find it at shizuokatea.com for $30.00 which seems expensive however a little higher quality.  Delicious stuff and just for fun here is the song that pops into my head whenever I think of this tea. Enjoy!

Shizuoka Tea

Several years ago I have the great fortune of working as an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) in Japan. I lived in a city called Shizuoka which is located about 172km from Tokyo.  

Shizuoka prefecture is famous for several things, not least for having Mt. Fuji sit on its border with Yamanashi.  Shizuoka is  also famous for onsens (hot springs) and of course for its green tea. (It was also the home of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the  first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan which ruled from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868.)

The quality of the green tea grown in Shizuoka is very high and almost half of all the green tea consumed in Japan is produced in the Shizuoka region. 

According to Wiki varieties of green tea such as Motoyama and Yabukita are grown in all corners of Shizuoka city, and the varieties grown  in the Warashina area in Aoi Ward and the Ryōgōchi area of Shimizu Ward are especially well regarded. 

I may be  a bit bias here but if you are looking for a high quality green tea, Shizuoka tea is the way to go. There are many websites dedicated exclusively to green tea from the area such as Shizuoka tea.com. To learn more about Shizuoka itself & Japan in general you can also check out this travel site. 

Masala Chai

This is absolutely one of my favourite  ways to have tea. Masala Chai is absolutely gorgeous. It has this wonderful creamy texture mixed with the warming glow of spices.What is so great about this class of tea is that it can be different every time you drink it. Traditionally there is no fixed recipe  and you can adjust it to suit your tastes. It is made up of a few basic components that are easy to find in your local supermarket. All you need is a black tea (such as Assam or Ceylon), milk, a sweetener of some kind  and warm spices such as cinnamon cardamon & ginger. 

The milk is usually full fat to add creaminess however you can use lower fat milk. Sometimes condensed milk is used to act as a sweetener. The sugar can be any kind including brown, white, honey, syrup. While sugar can be left out some spices work better with it.Spices such as cloves and nutmeg can also be added. Allspice is also a nice shortcut and works well. This is definably one where there is no set rules to the combinations and flavors you add. 

The method of preparing it is also different everywhere you go but a good rule of thumb is that you need to release the tannin in the tea. You must boil or simmer the ingredients together  for a while but also you need to be careful not to burn the milk. The solid tea and spice residues are strained off  before serving. 

There are so many recipes out there for chai it is difficult to choose only one so I have decided to give you a good link to a chai recipe website which has a recipe to suit all tastes and will  help you to get started with preparing this delicious drink the way you like it. 

Greek Mountain Tea

My friends at the office introduced me to Greek mountain tea the other day and I have to say I was well impressed. The tea had a very pleasing flavour with a satisfying body and with a bit of honey added it was a warming and very refreshing drink. 

Greek mountain tea is made  using the dried leaves and flowers of Sideritis plants (ironwort). and according to about.com  is aptly named as the plant is to be found on rocky slopes at elevations over 3,200 feet (1000 meters).  Serving suggestions given include serving  Mountain Tea at breakfast or before retiring at night, with  (black) olives, feta cheese, and crusty bread.

It is also believed to have medicinal proprieties and it  is said to have a positive effect on almost any ailment. It is used for colds, respiratory problems, digestion, the immune system, and even for mild anxiety. It is also used as an anti-inflammatory and to reduce fever. 

According to the wiki on Greek mountain tea, scientific studies carried out mainly in countries where the plant is native suggest that there is a high degree of truth to claims of its  healing properties. Sideritis is known scientifically to be anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, and as an anti-oxidant. Active elements include diterpenoids flavonoids, and its essential oils.

It may be worth checking out your local pharmacy or speciality tea shop as they may stock some. You can also find it online from Mountain Tea for 9€ per 100gr. This site also provides a nice video on how to prepare the tea. Or it can be found at amazon.co.uk 

An all round tea that boosts your health-this is definately one to try. 

Selling Tea to China

I spotted an interesting news story the other day - a Scottish businesswoman, Anita Crook, has managed to sell tea to China.

This makes me very curious about Ms. Crook's business, Jenier World of Teas. They stock an excellent mix of black, herbal, fruit, oolong, white and green teas, as well as rooibos and flowering teas. But even so, how did they manage to sell tea to China?

Anita Crook says “Never in my life did I think I would be selling tea to China. It is known around the world as the place from where the first cuppa originated – the home of tea, if you will [ . . . ] But I was told by this company that they like the aromatised type and struggle to get the kind of higher quality flavoured tea I stock in their own country.”

Jenier World of Teas has only been in business for three years and they have already achieved the impossible! Prior to starting her business, anita Crook was a plain-clothes investigator for Customs & Excise in the UK. I'd say she would be an interesting person to chat to over a cup of tea!

Emigration, Care Packages & Irish Tea

Seeing as how this weekend is the weekend it is. I figured it would be important to do homage to my home  & to the tea I drink the most. The stuff I love! The stuff of lazy afternoons reading good books or chatting with friends. The black stuff that isn't Guinness. In short this post pays homage to strong black Irish Tea.

Imagine my delight this week when I arrived home to find a large brown envelope :) sitting outside my door.  It contained the essentials for survival as an Irish person abroad; a tin of Cadbury's hot chocolate with a bag of marshmallows on the side, a small gift  and most importantly a box of Barry's tea. 

Now I have lived abroad before and have learned the all important American  term "Care Package". Interestingly enough according to Wikipedia  CARE package  was the original unit of aid distributed by the humanitarian organization CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere).  This has since become know to me as a way to send someone something from home that they are missing in order to ease any of the following; a serious bout of homesickness, cravings for sweets you haven't eaten since you were a child and an uncontrollable desire to read  anything written in your native language that wasn't bought from or isn't available on the Internet. 

Also I have received Care Packages from friends I have met abroad when I had returned home. Most of my really nice green tea has come to me via a good friend of mine still living in Japan. This is doubly awesome as it reinforces a nostalgia for all the new & wonderful experiences you had in a country different to your own.  

However there is a difference of course between leaving to live abroad in a country because you want to experience a new culture & emigrating. Ireland is a country that has suffered way too much from emigration. It is a terribly sad fact of Irish history that a large proportion of its people now live abroad. The history of the  Irish abroad is fascinating & way too long a story to go into fully here but in a nutshell it has defined what it means to be Irish in many ways. 

I remember as a child writing essays on emigration. When the Celtic Tiger got into full swing I was still in secondary school & college, watching the essay topics change to immigration. Sadly those essays on emigration came in handy in the end. 

Nowadays Emigration is not the death sentence it was as regards your connection to your home. Phones, email, cheap plane flights and the internet have made it easier then ever to stay in touch. Plus I think in my case anyway I definately think I will return home. Still nothing beats a care package & mine would not be complete without a box of Barry's.

So here is the run down of two of the Irish teas described by the Irish Times this week.

There are two main rivals in the market as regards tea in Ireland and they are of course Barry's Tea & Lyon's Tea. Most people stick by one or the other but I personally like them both. Both are blended black teas. Both have a wonderful golden colour when brewed correctly & both have a strong flavour. They are what I reach for when I want to function in the morning. According to the Irish Times &  Barry's website the teas used in their blend come from the Assam Valley of India, Kenya and Rwanda. According to their website, Lyon's teas are "grown in plantations all over the world, in countries like Kenya & Indonesia". 

Both companies were founded at the turn of the last century, one in Cork & one in Dublin. By their own reckoning Barry's has cornered about  40% of all tea sales in Ireland with the Irish market being worth about  €78 million (not bad for a country of approx 4million). In short Irish people drink a hell of a lot of tea so if you really want to do something Irish on Paddy's day enjoy a nice cuppa inbetween your whiskeys :P 

Green Tea & Weight Loss

So as regards those words of wisdom promised; in this short post I will start small. One of the key pieces of advice I've read time & time again is to be sure that you are properly hydrated.

Water is of course the first response in staying hydrated, particularly on the run.  However if drinking the prerequisite liter of water just isn’t floating your boat  :P then one very nice alternative is green tea. The joy of it is that you can mix it up by using other ingredients with  a good green tea as a base. This allows you to meet one of the other hard and fast rules of dieting and that is to keep variety in your food and to keep adding different  flavours. In my case anyway, boredom is always death to a diet.

How tea aids weight loss is a question I am going to explore throughout this blog. This involves a fair bit of research so I will work through it, as well as providing my own tips and  inviting you to share yours.  If there is anything in particular you want me to look up, just give me a shout.