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Over this week, we have celebrated the flavors of many teas. I hope that you have done it over a pot of good tea. Now, how do you go about this exploration? In my book: Harney & Sons Guide to Tea, I discuss how to taste teas. It is a simple pleasure. A good start is to de-construct a common tea: Earl Grey Supreme. It is a blend of black teas from Sri Lanka, China, and India, oolong from Taiwan, and white tea from China. So you can try a tea from each of those regions. Then you can try other teas from those countries. Before you know it you will be enjoying a tea that you had never heard of.

Also in Appendix of my book, I offer Tea Tasting Menus. These are suggestions of complimentary or contrasting teas. This allows you to focus on a particular tea flavor and soon it will be apparent. Scientists assure us that almost all of us can learn flavors and tastes quickly, so do not be daunted. An example is Tippy Teas. The tip (or bud) makes all teas better. I recommend three teas that will showcase wonderful tippy teas.

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Darjeeling was always different.

With its mountains and cool winters, it could never compete with Assam as producer of low cost simple teas. It worked out that there was an established base of high quality "china" tea plants. So the teas were always more aromatic than those from Assam. However, the British consumers drank their Darjeeling with milk, so the teas were dark and thick. By the late 1960's, the British influence was waning in those mountains. The new Indian garden owners were ready to rethink. At that time, a unique partnership happened between an Indian tea man: Ranabir Sen and German tea buyer: Bernd Wulf. Germany represented a new market for the Indians and one that was willing to pay more money for good tea. They felt that underneath all the darkness in traditional Darjeelings, was a great tea full of wonderful aromas. It just needed to be released. So the teas had to be lighten up. As mentioned, plucking standards were tightened up so just the two leaves and a bud were harvested. Withering time was lengthened so that aromas could develop during the chemical wither. Rolling was done easier (less pressure), with a special attention to avoiding heat buildup. Oxidation time was cut back.

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Continued from this morning...

Two of the most popular types of teas are green tea and black tea. Both come from the same leaf. The difference is that the green tea is kept green by steaming it immediately after plucking. To make black tea, a leaf is rolled enough to make it limp, so that the polyphenols within mix with an enzyme PPO (PolyPhenolOxidase), also released inside the leaf, and the green tea turns into black tea.

Why plants have these reactive substances within them, and why they keep them safely apart (until we rupture them) is still under study. One elegantly simple theory, property of Dr. Peter J. Davies, of Cornell University, suggests that when these two reactive substances coagulate, making tea in the bug belly! - the bug finds the tiny tea mix repellant, and it stops eating the leaf. Experts have unilaterally, in any case ruled out the old theory that polyphenols and its enzyme's natural role in the tea leaf was to give the Brits a brisk cuppa.

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The great author, Michael Pollan, wrote a book called the "The Botany of Desire" that discusses man's relationship with several plants. He asked that we look at the world from the plants' view.

When analyzing and considering tea, we should remember that tea was not originally designed for our pleasure. Like all plants, tea evolved according to its own propagation peccadillos and survival needs. When we talk about tea and components of the leaf, we tend to focus on what they do for humans. Caffeine keeps us awake. Certain polyphenols help keep us healthy. The warm beverage cheers our souls and nourishes. But from the plant's point of view, from nature's standpoint, why are these components present inside the green leaf of a perennial plant? How did this humble plant become the most popular beverage on the planet? Tea, like most plants, just wants to grow. Its growth is fueled by glucose, which it magically creates out of sunlight and carbon in the air. Also tea can not run from its predators, it remains firmly planted in the ground. So to survive thousands of years, tea plants have developed many different defenses against those pests that would eat the leaves until the plant dies and threaten the entire species.

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So who is on my list? Well, I am very thankful for all the tea growers and producers who have made my book possible.

 So much has changed in the twenty years that I have been in the tea business. Back then, the big boy producers had dumbed-down the business. There was only terrible tea in teabags, and a few brave (or crazy) people that sold tiny amounts of loose tea. My father, John, was one of those fools. When I joined him, he had about 6 teas: Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Darjeeling, Orange Pekoe, Lapsang Souchong and a token green: Gunpowder. At that time the Lapsang and the Gunpowder were not even from Mainland China, but rather were imitations from Taiwan. Teas were just starting to come from Mainland China.

Now there is so much choice. In my book, "Harney & Sons Guide to Tea", I list 56 teas to offer a great variety of flavors. It could have been three times that number. However 56 is a good start to celebrate the great artisanal teas available today. Enough to show the wide variety tea flavors from the best gardens of Asia, but not enough to numb the senses.  Your choices include: white teas from Sri Lanka and China, green teas from China and Japan, oolongs from China and Taiwan, and black teas from the Chinese Tradition and the British Legacy countries ( India& Sri Lanka).

This week, I look forward helping you explore and enjoy these teas. Please contact me with any questions: michael@harneyteas.com.

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Michael Harney is our guest blogger during the week of December 22nd. If you have any questions for Michael Harney, add a comment to any of his posts. Here is some more information about The Harney & Sons Guide to Tea:

The country's leading connoisseur presents a comprehensive guide for developing your tea palate.

The Harney & Sons Guide to Tea transforms tea drinkers into tea experts. Written by one of the country's leading tea professionals, The Harney & Sons Guide to Tea is an illuminating resource for tea drinkers interested in developing and refining their palate as well as their understanding of the complex agricultural, historical, and cultural significance of tea.