Tips on iced green tea

Summer is here, and one way to beat the summer heat is with a nice, tall glass of iced green tea. There are many ways to prepare iced green tea, and many ways to enjoy it, too. Here are a few hints on my own blog. For instance, here is a recipe for a green tea Arnold Palmer.


Also, this summer Mellow Monk has introduced a one-of-a-kind tea, one you'll not find anywhere else on the Web—cold-brewed iced green tea bags. That's right—no boiling necessary. Simply place one of the pre-portioned nylon tea bags into a pitcher of room temperature water, stir, then place in the refrigerator for 2 hours. That's all there is to it. Read more about this new tea here.


Thanks again for the opportunity to post here, Relznuk!


—Mellow Monk

Zarafina Tea Maker Suite.

To my fellow tea drinkers:

May I present the most amazing of machines;
The Zarafina Tea Maker Suite.

We at Insani-Tea have recently acquired this magical machine (courtesy of Zarafina) and would like to share the joy with each of you.

I don't want to sound like a commercial or anything but if I could I would seriously buy one of these for all of my friends and family.
Even if you're not an avid tea drinker, this is such a lovely machine to have.

I love love love love love tea and this tea maker makes it so much easier to enjoy it.
It's really easy to use and aesthetically pleasing. It even comes with a jive little tea pot and two cups. The day I got it, I actually made about five pots of tea in one evening. :)

One of the nicest things about it is that it automatically dispenses the tea into the pot so if you have to run to do something it doesn't over steep and make the tea bitter or too strong. It's also perfect for iced tea drinkers. It has a setting for the intensity of the tea you want. strong, medium or mild. So when you want iced tea, just set it to strong, and if your tea is already spicy you can put it to mild...or whatever you feel like at the time.

Recently, my little seven year old brother, one of the pickiest kids on earth, has started drinking tea a lot, and he loves it so much, mostly because its way cool, but also because its not too strong and he gets to make it himself. The machine works with both loose and bagged tea, so when he wants tea he can just stick a few bags in it and push start.

Another brilliant feature about this tea maker is how you can basically "customize" your pot of tea. You simply set each feature according to what you want, ie: whether its black, green, white, oolong or herbal, it knows exactly how long is needed for steeping, whether its loose or in a bag, and the intensity.

I know that tea is supposed to calm you down and that it's nice that it takes a while to make so you aren't in such a rush...but sometimes its nice to wake up in the morning and have tea without having to get up fifteen minutes early! :)

Well, I could go on and on about this amazing thing, but I'm pretty sure you get the picture.
and if any of you want to have a tea party, let me know and I will show you this lovely tea maker as well, hooray!

If you would like more information on the Zarafina Tea Maker Suite, just go HERE.

Have a brilliant day!
peace&love
- Katelyn

P.S.: A big thanks to Zarafina for allowing us to evaluate and review this machine.

Camp Loll Organic

As some of you know, I am currently a summer staff member at a scout camp in the high mountains of Wyoming, sandwiched between Yellowstone and the Tetons. I initially had a number of anxieties about doing this for another summer, as many of my beliefs are very incompatible with the Boy Scout philosophies. The experience has proved very interesting though, as there are a number of people working here that are very accepting, and a couple who are like-minded unto myself.

We have formed a small tea society of 4-5 people, and it started out being the case that we take turns buying tea - but then we got to thinking. Why should we buy tea when we are in the middle of a goddamn forest?! Instead, we have been harvesting local herbs and drying them in ther kitchen cupboard. We have most recently been making a kickass horsemint tea. We also have been going for wild strawberry and raspberry leaves, as well as many other native herbs.

The forest up here is truly amazing, and there are tons of good outlook points of the location. One need only climb one of the neighboring Tetons to see some of the magnificense of this area, and the two Yellowstone waterfalls within walking distance of camp are pretty impressive as well.

We call the finished product Camp Loll Organic, and drink it usually once a day or more, made in a large tea kettle with my swiss gold infuser. It is jive.

I am glad to see a post or two on here since I have left. It pleases me greatly. Thanks, Nikhil!!!

I am currently in an internet cafe in Jackson Hole typing this posting. Jackson hole doesn't have a whole lot going on, but enough to break up a little of the monotony of week after week of teacking the same old things.

The staff up here at the camp is amazing as always, and I find that I can be far more expressive of my personality than I thought I could reasonable be. People just don't seem to care so much what I think and believe up here, which is kinda counter-intuitive considering the ultra-conservative Boy Scout environment.

Anyhow - Fresh herbal teas are delicious, and I will certainly post more information on this when I return home.

Cheers for now,
Relznuk Zero Relznuk

Bewitch'd With Indian Poyson

Relznuk asked me a while ago to contribute a guest post here. I was only too happy to oblige, but things got really busy. So now, after much procrastination and numerous delays, I am pleased to finally contribute the first (of what I hope will be several) guest posts. The following is cross-posted on Tea. Uncomplicated, a blog by The Simple Leaf.

It's safe to say that not everyone was thrilled with the increasing popularity of tea during most of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In Britain, a slew of commentators were pointing out the evils of this newly discovered beverage.

This particularly poignant passage bemoans the effect of tea on the British national psyche. It appeared in The Gentleman's Magazine in 1737, under the title Observations on the effects of tea.


[read the full archived version]

Tea is utterly improper for food hitherto useless in physick, and therefore to be arranged among the poysonous vegetables. Were it entirely wholesome as balm or mint, it were yet mischief enough to have our whole populace used to sip warm water in a mincing and effeminate manner once or twice a day. . . In this manner the bold and brave become dastardly, the strong become weak, the women become barren; or if they breed, their blood is made so poor that they have not the strength to suckle, and if they do, the child dies of the gripes. The poor people's children which are bred with it, as they really are in the cities and towns, are only fit for footmen and chambermaids. . .I leave any one to judge what soldiers we are like to have. The Spaniards very likely had felt the force of English beer within the last 20 years, if the use of it had not been exchanged for warm water bewitch'd with Indian poyson.

For further exploration into the history of tea, I would urge you to check out Roy Moxham, Tea: Addiction, Exploitation and Empire (New York: Carroll and Graf, 2003). I'm halfway through this book — every page has nuggets of fascinating trivia interspersed with tea's rich history. Well worth checking out.

Tea-time with God.

When I was younger than I am now, I always thought it would make a nice afternoon to have Tea with God. A sort of tea-time to beat all tea-times. A light-hearted tea-time of the soul. This tea-time would be paired with a game of Chess. I pondered that it should be a very odd experience to play a game of Chess with someone who, by definition, would have to win.

If God did not win, then there would be at least one thing that God attempted but did not succeed at. If there is something that God did not succeed at, then God is not all powerful. Additionally, if such a game were to be proposed with the unbendable rule that God should win, then the game would be remarkable unfair, and God is a perfectly fair God, and a perfectly just God, so this too would make it the case that the chess game is unplayable.

If God cannot play a game of Chess with a human, then there is at least one thing that God cannot do without violating his own rules, which he also cannot do. This could serve as a rationale to why God is not all-powerful.

It might be the case, however, that God did not intend to win the Chess game. Perhaps it was the intention of God to allow his tea-partner to have the experience of winning a game of Chess. That would certainly seem to fulfill his requirement of being all-good. However, it seems almost definitionally incompatible with God to allow a lesser being to triumph over him, no matter how small the stakes were. A human having completed such a task would have quite the boasting rights, and would probably form at least one religion in his/her own honour.

I wondered what sort of tea would be served, and at what temperature. It seems to me that a truly courteous host would want to serve a beverage at the most comfortable possible temperature for his guest. However, if that host is God, then he would also want to serve the beverage at the most comfortable possible temperature for himself, since Gods settle for no less than perfection.

Additionally, a truly courteous host would allow his guest to select the beverage being served. Although, if the host were God, the again the host would not settle for anything less than his personal favorite, having the high standards for beverages that only a God would have. So unless it were the case that both God's guest and God himself had the exact same beverage preferences, including temperature, God would be unable to pour the tea, or to accept the tea if his guest poured it (which is just poor etiquette anyway.)

One way around this would be for two pots of water to be boiled, and two separate types of tea to be infused in that water. However, to be truly proper, which it is assumed that a perfect God would be, he would not be so presumptuous as to drink a separate beverage than that which he offered his guest.

So the scenario we are left with is that of a tea-party where no tea can be served, and a chess-game where no chess can be played. Or at least that is what I penned in my journal as a young teenager.

If you are wondering exactly what explaining this journal entry has to do with tea, the answer lies within Tea Etiquette, and Tea Custom. Following proper tea custom is what makes serving the tea impossible for God.

Proper tea custom would dictate that the guest should be the most important consideration when brewing a beverage for such an invited guest. Proper tea custom would also dictate that the host should not drink a separate beverage from his guest, and also that a host would not be permitted to abstain from beverage while offering it to his guest. Additionally, the beverage must be poured for both members only in the presence of the guest being served.

There are many reasons why such customs came about. One of these is the fear of poison. If a host refuses to drink the same beverage offered to his guest, then it is a reasonable suspicion for that guest to assume that there might possibly be something wrong with the beverage. However, if the host does sip the same beverage as his guest, it provides a certain level of comfort and reassurance that there is, indeed, nothing wrong with the beverage at all.

There are a number of reasons why is a poor rationale (such as if the host had built himself up an immunity to a certain poison, or if a poisoner planned to kill both his guest and himself,) however most social customs have an equally poor rationale, such as the wearing of modern ties, which, in their origin were worn in medieval times at feasts, where they were used to wipe ones face and hands.

The reason for wearing ties has now vanished, and today's modern ties would be very inadequate to perform this job, not to mention it would be very socially unacceptable. However, because it was established as a social custom, it persists. Likewise, someone following proper tea etiquette in today's society almost certainly does not have in mind the assurance of their guest that they are not being poisoned.

So, the moral you should take away from this posting, which is probably the most random and bizarre, yet still tea-related posting I have ever done, is three-fold.

1: If you are a believer in the traditional God, you should on no account allow such God to invite you to tea, or to play chess or some other game of skill.

2: If you are a guest who has been invited by someone for tea, it is much less likely that you will be poisoned if your host follows proper tea etiquette, therefor you should always insist that your host does so.

3: Wearing ties is ridiculous.

Now you are three ideas wiser than you were before reading this post. You should be very pleased.

Over and out,
Relznuk Zero Relznuk

It's a Revolution!!!

Hello again readers.

Today, I'd like to tell you about a brand of tea that I discovered (actually, interestingly enough, it discovered me!)

The brand is Revolution Tea ( revolutiontea.com), and they produce something that astounded even myself - Quality tea... IN TEABAGS! Now, if any of you have spent very much time on this blog, you'll know that my attitude towards teabags is less than positive. The reason for this is that most teabags contain poor quality tea that is broken into too small of bits, resulting in a weak, bitter, nasty tasting cup with bits of particulate in it. GROSS! With these teabags, however, this is very much not the case.

Revolution has abandoned the idea of paper teabags in favor of expanding nylon ones. The teabags are also extra-large, and are not overfilled (another thing that most commercial teabags have a problem with. Using the teabags that they supplied me with (one each of every flavor they sell), I was actually able to get complete water circulation around the tea (which, by the way, remains in whole leaf format.)

Another thing I found particularly interesting and useful about this tea is the packaging. It is extremely convenient. In the sampler that they sent me for evaluation, each teabag was contained in a single-serve T-box. Five of these t-boxes were placed inside a carrying tube, which listed all the flavors from left to right that were included in the box.

As for the tea itself, I found it to have very good flavor and low bitterness. Additionally, they seem to have a knack at blending herbs to create unique and pleasing flavor profiles. The first sample that I drank, called Dragon Eye Oolong, combined a mixture of safflower, peach, and apricot along with a base of high-quality Chinese Oolong leaves. The resulting beverage was mild and slightly sweet, with a very comfortable lingering aftertaste.

The beverage also had very nice color - something which can be difficult to achieve without the use of artificial coloring agents (none of which are present in any of their teas.) Using only herbs, they managed to create a blend that was both aesthetically pleasing, as well as orally pleasing.

Now, I hope I don't sound like I've been paid to do an advertisement here. This is not the case. I have remained objective in my review of this product, and have maintained my editorial integrity - But when something truly is an outstanding product, I feel that my readers should know about it.

I did mention that they used an extra-large nylon teabag to house their concoctions in, and it seems to work well... But I couldn't help thinking that it would do even better if they gave that some dimension, perhaps by embracing a pyramid design or something.

All in all, though, this new company manages to produce a quality tea that is both portable and convenient.

Thanks for reading my tea review, and have a splendid day.

R 0 R

P.S.: Due to spam at my blog posting robot's email (which ended up on the blog with me having to delete it), I have been forced to change said email address. If you would like the new address, please send me an email.

Put Your Tea on Ice!

Guess what folks?!? June is national iced tea month, so I thought it would most appropriate to offer a blog entry to that affect. I will share with you some history on iced tea, as well as providing you some brewing methods and some recipes.

While it would be unfair to say that iced tea was created in 1904 (there is significant evidence that this is not the case), it's very much the case that Iced Tea was, in popularized in 1904, the circumstances of which are as follows:

It was a particularly warm summer day in Saint Louis, Missouri. This was were the World's Fair was being held that particular year. An Englishman named Richard Blechynden was manning a concession stand selling tea. Not surprisingly, hot tea was not a big hit with the crowd, who were too busy wiping the sweat from their eyes to notice him. Not wanting to put up with poor sales all day, Mr. Blechynden turned on his English ingenuity, and began pouring the tea over a cup of ice. The beverage was a big hit, and the world quickly caught on and followed suit, hence the popularization of iced tea in the US.

I could tell you a great deal about the history of iced tea prior to this event, but since this is national iced tea month, and the nation I am in happens to be the US of A, I seems fitting only to emphasize the American portions of this tale.

Quite nearly any tea can be turned into in iced tea by being brewed a tad stronger and poured over ice. Some times with certain teas this process will cause the beverage to cloud, causing no difference in flavor, but perhaps making it a bit less aesthetically pleasing. A couple suggestions that sometimes work is to add a small amount of lemon juice or boiling water. Another suggestion if your going to use a tea prone to temperature clouding, is to simply allow the tea to cool slowly instead of pouring it over ice. This will take some time, but will be worth it if you aim to eliminate cloudiness.

One very popular way to create iced tea is to place a large, specially made tea bag into a massive pitcher of cold water and allowing it to sit overnight. Those of you that are aware of my thoughts on tea bags can predict what I will say next - that this is not a proper way to make any sort of tea, even iced tea. The tea used in any teabag is almost always broken into too small of bits, and is generally of much lower quality.

A second popular way is to use instant or powdered iced tea. This is an abomination to the world of tea, and does tea tradition a huge disfavor. Using this method, you have zero control over flavor blending, and zero control over quality - you're simply stuck with whatever they happened to put in that mix (generally ungodly things like processed sugars or corn syrup.)

I maintain my position that loose leaf is still the best way to go, even for iced beverages.

And now, I would offer you some links to delicious iced tea recipes. I hope you will enjoy them, but what I hope even more is that you'll experiment and create your own delicious concoctions.

The links are as follows:

Saigon Iced Tea

A few recipes and some great suggestions and ideas (although with this one take care to avoit the teabag recipes.)

A great from-scratch Thai Iced Tea recipe (although I recommend you leave out the food coloring).

Cheers, and enjoy the tea!

Relz