teapigs™ Tea School
Tea might be considered the ultimate English drink, but have you ever wondered what makes tea green? Or what makes White Tea white (guess what: it’s not the same as adding milk to black tea!)?
We wondered too, so on 19th and 20th February, we teamed up with the amazing people at teapigs™ to run two exclusive teapigs™ tea schools.
With Andy from teapigs™ at the helm, the tea students had 8 teapig™ teas to explore. We learned about how and where tea is grown; which bits of the tea plant make the best tea; and how to make a good cuppa (3 minutes with boiling water – unless it’s green tea, in which case it has to be 80 degrees).
There was a little bit of science (the risks of scalding your tea leaves leading to a bitter drink, methods of de-caffeinating tea – and why decaf tea always tastes so bad); a little bit of horticulture (some teas can only be harvested in the spring, while others can be picked all year round); and a little bit of tea history (tea only came to Britain in the 1600s, making the UK almost the last European country to start drinking it!).
Of the four teas we actually tried in the class, my favourite was the cold brew (a fruit tea designed to be made with cold water and steeped for a long time – apparently also good when added to a shot of gin!).
Despite Andy’s efforts, I did not become a convert to green tea (still tastes like mud), but I could definitely be a fan of some of the herbal teas. And with a little discount for the online shop to sweeten the deal, I can definitely feel tea shopping trip in my near future.
