Bridal Flowers And

Making a perfect cup of tea takes just the right ingredients, your attention, and a little patience. The reward for the effort is a cup of pure nectar to soothe the senses, set things all right again.

First, consider the water. Even since the venerable Lu Yu in his now-classic book, Cha Jing or The Classic of Tea (780 AD) declared the 10 springs of China the best source for making tea. Spring waters clean, clear, and sweet have been the key to preparing the perfect cup for more than 13 centuries. You deserve only the best, so buy the best spring water and use it for each and every cup of tea unless you live in one of the top 10 cities with superb municipal waters

Second, use loose leaf tea. Buy the best you can afford and buy only loose leaves because they offer the fullest flavor, most distinct fragrance, and a truly beautiful color in the cup.

Third, measure. Measure the water and measure the tea. For each six ounces of water, use one level teaspoon of tea if you're enjoying greens- one heaping teaspoon for oolongs, and one rounded teaspoon for blacks, unless your tea purveyor suggests another quantity.

Four, use the right temperature for the right tea. Many tea brands post a generic brew with boiling water three to five minutes, but that is to save the cost of tailoring labels to go with different teas. Boiling water is hardly ever necessary to brew fine teas except for puerhs, an intentionally aged tea. Blacks brew up beautifully with 205°F. water but some can brew up without forcing out the flavor too quickly at boiling 212°F. Oolongs do well in water heated from 190 to 195°F. and greens and whites respond best to lower temperatures, heat from 180 to 190°F. A candy thermometer is an excellent tool to teach your eyes what the water is doing.

Again, we can refer to Lu Yu who suggested this guideline for water temperatures: when the bubbles are the size of insect eyes, it is just right for greens and whites- when they become the size of birds' eyes, it is excellent for oolongs, and when they become large as the eyes of fish, it is just right for black or puerhs. To "practice", fill a saucepan with water from the tap, and watch the pot (yes a watched pot does boil.) You will soon be able to time the water movement by the clock!

Five, brew by the clock not by the color. Your tea purveyor has figured out what is best for which teas, so ask his/her advice. Otherwise, brew 30 seconds to one minute for greens- three minutes for oolongs, and three to five minutes for black teas. You can always brew longer so taste the tea after the minimum suggested time, and brew longer to your taste. A three-minute egg timer is a good tool for timing the brew.

Alas, brewing tea too long makes the tea overly astringent, even bitter, and adding water will not soften the damage at all. Should the challenges of timing and temperature control be a challenge, consider an automatic tea maker that does all the "thinking" for you.

Six, use a porcelain or crockery cup. Porcelain, in particular, retains heat so that the last cup is as satisfyingly hot as the first. As an extra step, consider filling each cup with hot water, covering it with its saucer, then discarding that water when you're ready to fill it with the brewed tea.

Seven, taste the tea before you add milk or sugar. You may be remarkably happy to learn that high-quality tea, мейд with the right water at the right temperature with the right amount of tea is infinitely satisfying all on its own. While milk and sugar can enhance some teas, they usually just mask the delicate, delicious flavor.

Brewing these fine gourmet teas deserves attention to water temperature and brewing time and this effort is critical to enjoying the delicacy and nearly ephemeral color of White Needle leaves as they dance in your glass tumbler or porcelain cup. The sweetness of Green Anji is like a caress to the tongue and the floral fragrance and full-mouth taste of Wuyi Oolong Rock is reason enough for the extensive work of harvester and processor to bring you such rich and satisfying flavor. You'll never order "just black" again after sampling the richness of Golden Monkey with its whisper of golden tips and beautiful brown-black color that infuses a cup with exquisite red-gold flavor. In addition to teas, Zarafina® offers the world's finest herbal, Chinese Osmanthus, the blossom of an orange-like tree with an apricot fruitiness in both the taste and the fragrance. It has no caffeine as it is not a true tea but leaves from flowers which range from silvery whit to golden orange or red. Osmanthus is perfect for seniors, children, and anyone who has any sensitivity to caffeine during the evening.

Zarafina® means heavenly, like a special friend who greets you with kindness and warmth, and a cup of the world’s finest teas: White Needle, Green Anji, Wuyi Oolong Rock, Golden Monkey, and Osmanthus, a caffeine-free herbal. Each of the Zarafina® teas is the finest example of its category: white, green, oolong, black, and herbal.