This week Joe and Brandice try two totally sweet teas from Mighty Leaf, the Orange Dulce (a sweet black tea) and Chamomile Citrus (a sweet herbal/tisane), both with notes of citrus. Both teas were steeped in boiling water, the tisane for five minutes and the black for four minutes. It was totally sweet.
What is even sweeter is that we totally steeped the tisane a second time. What could be sweeter than that? We don’t know. It was pretty sweet.
For photos from this episode, visit our Flickr pool, and for more episodes and other tea tidbits, visit STeaPtv.com. Contact Joe and Brandice via steap@steaptv.com.
This week, the episode falls on my (Brandice’s) birthday, so I got to pick the tea. If you don’t yet know this about me, I am a HUGE fan of primates, so the obvious choice for my birthday was Monkey Picked Tea. In addition to the monkey-themed tea, I also brought a sizeable portion of my monkey collection, and general monkey-related merriment was had by all (mostly by me).
I hope you’ll enjoy watching us try a tea that was hand-picked by monkeys in a remote mountain village. I really enjoyed trying the tea and sharing some of my stupendously awesome monkeys with all of you. :)
For photos from this episode, visit our Flickr pool, and for more episodes and other tea tidbits, visit STeaPtv.com. Contact Joe and Brandice via steap@steaptv.com.
Mercy Corps, a charity that helps build sustainable communities in developing nations, has a series of articles on India and it’s tea industry. It’s a good view on a part of our favorite beverage that we don’t often see. One talks about the CHAI program that Tazo Tea (WARNING: horrendous Flash site) helped found, which helps raise th standard of living in the Darjeeling district of India.
Good reporting from an organization that I’m quite fond of. I also recommend TheSimpleLeaf’s Behind The Cup for more behind the scenes reporting.
Today’s episode features another tea from The Simple Leaf called Pure Decadence, a white tea grown in the district of Darjeeling, India. With a name like Pure Decadence, Joe thought this luxurious tea deserved its own episode, so that we could also try steeping the tea a second time (something often done with white teas) and seeing how well it holds up to multiple infusions.
The tea was prepared with a 7 minute steep in rumbling (not quite boiling) water for both infusions, and you’ll have to watch to see if it was really “Pure Decadence.” Many thanks to The Simple Leaf for sending the sample.
For photos from this episode, visit our Flickr pool, and for more episodes and other tea tidbits, visit STeaPtv.com. Contact Joe and Brandice via steap@steaptv.com.
We now have an audio only mp3 version of STeaP. This is brought about by popular demand and is perfect for listening during a long commute. If you like STeaP but can’t find a way to fit it in your schedule, this just might help you out a bit.
It’s not in iTunes yet, but should be within a week.
Do you have a suggestion for us? Let us know in the comments or on steaptv.ning.com.
This week we’re trying some Oolongs, one from The Simple Leaf and one from our old stand by, auraTeas.
The Simple Leaf’s Honeybee is an Oolong grown and prepared in Nepal. This is produced by the Meghma Tea Estate and is quite different than most any other Oolong you’ll find on the market.
Next up is auraTeas’ Formosa Mingjian Retro Oolong, a simple Oolong and not as complex, or expensive, as the other Oolongs we’ve had from auraTeas. Will it stand up to the STeaP taste test?
For photos from this episode, visit our Flickr pool, and for more episodes and other tea tidbits, visit STeaPtv.com. Contact Joe and Brandice via steap@steaptv.com.
Tea Nerd is giving away three different bundles of tea goodies! Click on the snapshot from his site below to get to look at the three packages and find out how to enter the contest.
