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Tea Brewing Guides

Cold Brewed Iced Tea

As things heat up in the summer months and we begin craving iced beverages, one of the easiest ways to brew tea and herbs is to cold brew overnight in the fridge. Recently we tried this method with three offerings from The Tao of Tea — Hibiscus Ginger, Golden Tips Assam, and Moroccan Mint. The results from an overnight steeping in cool water were full flavored, fresh and delicious — truly steeped to perfection. Check out our guide to cold brewing.

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Meet Our Partner: Lewis & Clark’s Fields Dining Hall & Maggie’s Cafe

Lewis & Clark College, located on a beautiful campus in Southwest Portland, Oregon, offers a great dining experience to its 2,000+ students. The Tao of Tea is part of Bon Appétit’s Farm to Fork Program — an initiative that requires chefs to obtain a percentage of ingredients from local sources — and our tea is served in both the main dining room and at Maggie’s. We asked Bonnie Von Zange, Manager of Fields Dining Hall, about her experience serving food to the Lewis & Clark student body and working with The Tao of Tea.

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Meet Our Partner: The Arbor Lodge

Meet our partner, The Arbor Lodge! Located on the corner of Interstate Avenue and N Rosa Parks Way, The Arbor Lodge is a mission based coffee shop that has been serving Arbor Lodge and the surrounding commuter communities since 2011. The Arbor Lodge emphasizes local coffees and teas as well as organic milks. We asked them to tell us a bit about their business and their focus on community.

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Meet Our Partner: The American Local

Our Tao of Tea partners, Jenny and Chris, planned The American Local for five years, collecting tasty American dishes during their many cross-country road trips. At The American Local, they combine their love of great regional American specialties with warm hospitality. Inspired by the attentive service of fine dining and the lively energy of their favorite dive bars, Jenny and Chris have created a space for their fellow travelers of the American West.

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Meet Our Partner: Mississippi Market Natural Foods Co-op

Located in St. Paul, Minnesota, Mississippi Market has been a cooperatively owned natural food store since 1979. At their three locations, they offer local and organic produce, fresh cheeses, an extensive deli, local and sustainable meats, and wide wellness and body care selections. We asked our friends at Mississippi Market Co-op a few questions about their experience with The Tao of Tea products.

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All Videos, Tea Brewing Guides

Yerba Mate Brewing

Yerba Mate was first used by the Guarani Indians, who believed it could cleanse and heal the spirit. Now millions enjoy it in South America. In Brazil, the drinking of Yerba Mate is practiced as a social ritual. Friends and family gather in a circle as the host prepares the beverage in a gourd and drinks the first infusion with a filtered straw called a bombilla (Spanish) or bomba (Portuguese). The gourd is refilled and passed to each guest in the circle. Learn how to brew yerba mate in the gourd.

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Gongfu Tea Brewing

Gongfu brewing is a ritualized form of preparing tea that works well with oolongs and puers. The Gongfu tea ceremony originated in the Song Dynasty and by the Ming Dynasty had become more widespread, used especially in Fujian and Guandong. “Gongfu” refers to something done with skill, and indeed brewing in this way can bring out the best flavor in a tea, as one controls variables like water temperature and steep time. In addition to producing a great brew, it is a beautiful ritual and certainly can heighten one’s enjoyment when drinking tea with others.

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All Videos, Tea Processing, Tea Profiles

Bingcha (Round Tea Cake) Factory

This Bing Cha factory video is from one of our sourcing trips in the early, start-up years as a tea company when we were auditing new suppliers. It is a visual landscape from a tea factory near Menghai in Southern Yunnan specializing in making round tea cakes (Bingcha). The visuals include the sun drying of the cakes and also on indoor wooden racks. In shaping the cakes, the leaves are first steamed and then put into cloth sacks and finally molded with stone weights.

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Nilgiri Tea Estate

View a tea garden in the Nilgiris, South India. Nilgiris are also called the ‘Blue Mountains’ of India and famous for the lush, green tea gardens. The video is made by a friend of ours Indi Khanna who is resident in the small town of Coonoor in the Nilgiris. Indi has spent the last 25 years in the tea industry in various roles. We enjoy working with him in different tea related projects.

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Japanese Tea Harvester

Traditionally, most teas in Japan used to be plucked by hand. These days, Japanese tea is mostly harvested with the use of a mechanical harvesting machine. Only high grades of green teas in Japan such as hand-picked Gyokuro, Sencha, or Matcha are hand plucked and therefore more expensive. There is also a difference in flavor of the tea between hand plucked or machine plucked. Hand plucked tea is smoother, mellower with more fragrance.

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