Tea 108 Cuppings: Week Four/Five
So, I’m not behind on actually doing my cuppings but I am behind on writing about them so I’m lumping these two weeks together because the line up of teas I had to drink were the same. Here’s the list:
Pai Mu Tan
Silver Needle
Mao Jian
Gunpowder
Sencha
Gyokuro
Lightly Oxidized Oolong
Kenya Orthodox
Ceylon (Kandy region)
2nd Flush Darjeeling
Keemun
Pu’erh
Yeah, twelve teas in total…
Week four I made the mistake of doing three after work one day and then lumping the other nine together on the day of class and doing all nine cuppings in the span of around three hours. I was so motherfucking tea buzzed; I felt all kinds of warm and floaty and light headed. And the caffeine rush was insane. Week five I was incredibly smarter, and broke them up into three teas a day groups. Not much to comment on the teas themselves; interestingly the Chinese greens really stood out to me as enjoyable, and the Pai Mu Tan tasted way more fruity than I normally find it (notes of strawberry leaves!?).
Class itself was alright; the module is “The Business of Tea” and it hasn’t caught my attention the same was “The Science of Taste” did. Probably because such a great deal of this class is studying statistics and numbers. Yawn; totally not my thing! Week Four we looked at statistics of tea drinking within a restaurant sitting.
Basically, what it boiled down to was that tea drinkers in a restaurant setting a GREATLY dissatisfied to the point where the majority don’t order tea at all (30% just get water which means restaurants are actually losing money in sales in that area) but 70% of tea drinkers would ABSOLUTELY order tea at restaurants if there was a guarantee it would be quality. The biggest restaurant complaints are: (1) That tea often isn’t displayed on the menu or, if it is, it’s done without listing the options/kinds which deters people from jumping through the hoops of asking to find out/order, (2) It’s bagged/poor quality, (3) It isn’t treated with the same respect as coffee.
I also found it interesting that the two LARGEST purchasing groups of tea in restaurants are Millennials (my age group) and Baby Boomers, who have such a drastic age gap. However, their “wants” are quite different. Millennials favour variety and flavour options whilst Baby Boomers want ‘traditional tea’ (EG, English Breakfast, etc.).
Week Five, the focus of conversation was on what legally much be displayed on Nutrition Labels for tea products as well as packaging. I found this really boring, to be honest. But things that have to be on packaging are stuff like a net weight (g or ml), the common product name (in this case tea; labeling something “Constant Comment” wouldn’t cut it), the company and their address, ingredients but ONLY if the tea contains things other that pure/straight tea, and the appropriate nutrition information. You also CANNOT make any health claims on a tea product with ONE exception. The only thing you’re legally allowed to make a health claim about in regard to tea (keep in mind a health claim is different than a wellness claim) is this:
[Consumption of 1 cup (250 ml) of*] green tea has an antioxidant effect in blood [or on blood lipids].
And you can only make that claim in regard to green tea.
That was basically it! And next week is the ‘final’ for the module. I don’t have a blind cupping this time around; instead I have to design a tea based product and present it to the class. I’m still figuring my idea out but right now I’m leaning to one of two things:
1. A ‘mock’ line of Tea Infused Soda (Strawberry Earl Grey, Silver Needle Cream Soda…)
2. A collection of blends targeted specifically for men, since women are the higher percentage of tea drinkers.
Help/thoughts/suggestions welcome.
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I’ll sometimes order tea in a restaurant just for the hot water, then use my own tea from my purse. It’s almost always more enjoyable than what the restaurant offers. I’ve seen a few restaurants here and there that have a bit more selection, but normally it’s dirt cheap black tea bags, or occasionally green. I think asian restaurants or actual tea shops are about the only places you have a pretty good chance of finding decent tea.
You should probably start spitting if you do a ton of cuppings yo avoid the buzz. Our teacher said most of the professionals have a spittoon.
It just seems like such a waste; and the pros who use the spittoon typically are doing 100+ a day which is a lot more extreme than nine.
I’ll sometimes order tea in a restaurant just for the hot water, then use my own tea from my purse. It’s almost always more enjoyable than what the restaurant offers. I’ve seen a few restaurants here and there that have a bit more selection, but normally it’s dirt cheap black tea bags, or occasionally green. I think asian restaurants or actual tea shops are about the only places you have a pretty good chance of finding decent tea.
You should probably start spitting if you do a ton of cuppings yo avoid the buzz. Our teacher said most of the professionals have a spittoon.
It just seems like such a waste; and the pros who use the spittoon typically are doing 100+ a day which is a lot more extreme than nine.