Earth Day:

Celebrating Organic Farming Progress

On this day we celebrate the greatness of life on earth! As humans here, we have no bigger concern than keeping the air, soil and water clean… for us, for our children and for generations to come.

Of particular importance are the grains, fruits and vegetables that sustain us, and the freedom we have to pick the foods we put in our bodies.

Some of our produce is grown on large farms, and some on small family farms. But the method of farming is important to consider when it comes to our health and the health of the earth. That’s why Dragon Pearl Tea is produced on machine-free, organic mountain farms.

Our tea is hand-picked in an ancient traditional method and all-natural fertilizers are carefully added to the soil in such a way as to not pollute the pure mountain streams that are the source of water here.

Dragon Pearl Tea is concerned about the new farm bills HR 875 and S 425. We need to protect our right produce sustainable, non-toxic farming! We hope you’ll do your own research on these bills, and then let your senator and representative in the House know what you think of them.

And this earth day, let’s think about the purity of our environment, the freedom to choose organic, and the sustainability of our future.

Tea Feng Shui

A good tea master practices good feng shui. "Feng Shui" is considered by many to be simple superstition. However, there are some very good reasons for many Feng Shui practices, some of which are more scientific than you might imagine.

Feng Shui ('wind-water") is the art of placement of the things that surround your world. Good Feng Shui brings good luck, because the flow of universal energy is properly directed in a balance of the yin and yang.

Here are some general Feng Shui rules and tea serving suggestions:

1. Start with a clean kitchen and clean untensils. An unclean kitchen, especially the stove, is considered very bad luck. Avoid pointy plants in the kitchen, in favor of full-leaf, flowing ones, and keep the counters clear of unneeded utensils and appliances.

2. Use pure water and pure tea, and always serve it in ceramic or glass vessels, never plastic, wood or metal.

3. Pre-steep. The first steeping releases the scent of the tea and primes the leaves to release their flavor. Pour this first steeping out (it is considered rude to serve a guest the first steeping).

4. Give the tea your full attention: smell, taste, and observe, that you never take tea for granted, or the moments in which we are able to enjoy it.

For those of you who are more technical, place your utensils in the part of the kitchen corresponding to their elements: Water to the North, Wood to the East, and Metal to the West and Northwest.

(Thanks to Angi Ma Wong for her suggestions. Buy her book here.)

Making Tea Extract - Tea, Caffeine and Cancer 2009 Study

An interesting study recently demonstrated that caffeine helps destroy cancerous cells, and the article on Yahoo! indicated that soon doctors may be recommending topical caffeine solutions to fight skin cancer.

This brings us to the subject of extracts, which people ask us about often.

There are generally two types of extracts: powdered and liquid. Powdered is much more common since it's easier to make and doesn't spoil or ferment over long periods of time.

Neither is very desirable since A) most of them are made from cheap tea and include chemicals from pesticides and other impurities and B) powdered or brewed tea extract very quickly begins to oxidize and loses its potency and flavor.

Your best bet is to use your own organic whole leaf tea.

1. Powdered Extract
Use a little electric coffee grinder with spinning blades. Make sure it's very clean. In unscented teas, coffee grounds will wreck the flavor. Grind it and use it immediately.

2. A more practical way to make tea extract for most applications is to simply brew it strong.
A) Add hot water to a cup that's half to 3/4 full of tea.
B) Let it get cooled a little, then refrigerate.
C) Use within about 72 hours; keep it in something with an airtight cover

If you're considering expensive skin lotions and so forth, you might try dipping a cotton ball into some chilled organic tea extract instead.

More about the tea and skin cancer article
More about tea and health

Organic Tea Videolog

See our new videolog at YouTube. We'll keep adding photos of our little adventures and tea tips. This one is one of our TV commercials.

This one shows fireworks in Shanghai.

You can see all our videos at youtube.com/dragonpearltea

The Top Ten Tea Myths

Tea is so misunderstood! Marketeers often exaggerate the sensational aspects of tea, and sometimes they just plain get it wrong. People often ask us questions about these things, so here’s our take on the most common misconceptions many people have.

1. White tea is “the baby tea leaf.”

No. White, green and black teas all use very young leaves, depending on the kind of tea being made. White tea is defined by the fact that it’s uncured and unfermented. (It’s sometimes steamed as part of the drying process.)

2. White and black tea are different kinds of plants.

No, they’re both made from Camellia Sinensis. The difference is that black tea is fermented. Green tea is roasted in ovens or dings; oolong tea is partly fermented, typically about 30-40 percent.

3. Tea is tea.

Certainly not! Different kinds have very different characteristics, and even two similar-looking teas of the same variety are almost never identical in flavor. Almost all the teas from other brands we’ve had tested for comparison lack the potency and purity of fresh organic tea. Many are grown in impure areas and use chemical fertilizers, pesticides, moldicides and fungicides... but we think the biggest difference is in the flavor.

4. Air is good for tea.

Some teas are carefully oxidized, like pu’er, a deeply fermented, aged tea. However, most teas quickly lose flavor and potency when exposed to the air. Try grinding some coffee and letting it sit for a few days… it will taste kind of like cardboard. The same is true of tea.

5. Green tea is lower in caffeine than black tea.

There are no hard rules about this. Contrary to popular belief, our lab tests revealed that not only is our green tea higher in caffeine than our black tea, it’s much higher than a cup of coffee! (Fortunately, you can pre-steep to remove much of the caffeine.)

6. Some tea is naturally caffeine-free.

All true tea has natural caffeine, which is technically referred to as theine in tea. (Herbal teas and tisanes like chamomile and mint aren’t made from the tea plant.)

7. White tea is “healthier” than green tea.

We’ve heard this many times, but in our lab tests, the green tea was in fact higher in antioxidant potency than any of the others.

8. Iced tea is the same as hot tea.

The main reason this isn’t the case is that most iced tea is “ready-to-drink.” The tea in bottles is usually acidified with ascorbic or citric acid and heated to extremely high temperatures to conform to FDA shelf-stable requirements. Those teas tend to be high in sugar and caffeine, but lower in natural antioxidant properties. Recent studies also indicate that caffeine levels become more pronounced in a beverage when it's chilled.

9. Green tea is a fad.

Tea has been the most popular drink in the world since the beginning of history. For thousands of years, people have drunk more tea than anything else except water. America is recently re-discovering tea in its natural form, and we think it’s here to stay.

10. All tea comes from China.

Many countries grow tea. Africa and India are famous for their black teas, and Japan is known for its ricey sencha and macha teas. South America grows matte, a different kind of tea, and many other cultures have a local herb or root tea. In the United States, Lipton tea is grown in South Carolina, and more recently, Hawaii has begun experimenting with tea crops. China is known worldwide for the best green and white tea, especially the mountain tea areas like Fujian and Hangzou. Taiwan, Wu’Yi and An’xi are known for their oolong teas.

More about the different tea varieties

Dragon Pearl Tea at Fancy Foods

We brought our Dragon Pearl show on the road last week, along with our 650-pound dragon teamaster tray, to the NASFT Fancy Foods Show in San Francisco.

The National Association for the Specialty Food Trade's Fancy Food Shows® is one of the biggest gourmet food shows in America, where retailers, restaurateurs, distributors and others discover innovative new food and beverage products.




More info

An Organic Tea Poem

We get lots of comments about our tea. But this one is so cool! We just had to share it.

Ah, the Mountain Jasmine Dragon Pearl, a flowered pearl so sweet,
when put inside a teacup, mingles essence with the heat.
Each breath that I take in, each petal that unfolds,
Enlightens with its fragrance,
and moves my quiet soul.

The dance we make is calming,
yet moving all the same.
A light touch here, a warm embrace,
Yet, excitement, none too tame.

Invigorated and refreshed,
we part, as lovers do,
with lingering lips on surfaces warm,
and returning promises, too.

By Patricia Chaney