I attended the first day of the Restaurant & Food Service Show at the Javits
Center in New York, yesterday. I'm not in the food business, but I was
there to sit in a booth for most of the day and talk with people.

During lunch break I walked around the exhibit hall and took in the sights.
Bought a broccoli tie. Ate lots of nibble samples. For the majority of
readers who don't live in New York, the Javits Center is a very very large
exhibit center. There are usually two shows there at once, each taking up
space equal to almost an entire NYC block, if not more. It took at least 90
minutes to walk the entire show.

In my wanderings I wanted to take in the whole cultural experience, the
celebration (ahem) of the retail food industry. I was also looking for teas
and ethnic foods.

A moderate disappointment, probably originating from the price of a booth
($3,000 - $5,000 and up). Local distributors for Stash, Tazo, Bromley and
Yogi teas were there, and a multi-multi-product distributor had a display of
Harney & Sons teas. The only vendor of bulk teas that I found was
Serendipitea (www.serendipitea.com) which I don't remember being aware of,
although they're located in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn.

The depressing side, there were a larger number of companies selling iced
tea liquid concentrates (Hiss, boo).

Warren

Warren C. Liebold > wrote:
>The depressing side, there were a larger number of companies selling iced
>tea liquid concentrates (Hiss, boo).

Okay.

How does concentration remove valuable
qualities from the essence of tea?

--Blair
"Gonna to hear it somewhere;
might as well be here."

"Blair P. Houghton" > asked:
> Okay.
>
> How does concentration remove valuable
> qualities from the essence of tea?
>
> --Blair
> "Gonna to hear it somewhere;
> might as well be here."

It may not be a matter of concentration, but it is a matter of freshness.

Warren

Warren C. Liebold > wrote:
>
>"Blair P. Houghton" > asked:
>> Okay.
>>
>> How does concentration remove valuable
>> qualities from the essence of tea?
>>
>> "Gonna to hear it somewhere;
>> might as well be here."
>
>It may not be a matter of concentration, but it is a matter of freshness.

Okay.

How is it that a leaf that's been rolled, dried, fermented,
baked, and stored in a box for upwards of 9 months before
finds its first-flushy way from Ceylon to your mug is
"fresh"?

--Blair
"One myth at a time, please."

Blair P. m3/18/04


> Warren C. Liebold > wrote:
>>
>> "Blair P. Houghton" > asked:
>>> Okay.
>>>
>>> How does concentration remove valuable
>>> qualities from the essence of tea?
>>>
>>> "Gonna to hear it somewhere;
>>> might as well be here."
>>
>> It may not be a matter of concentration, but it is a matter of freshness.
>
> Okay.
>
> How is it that a leaf that's been rolled, dried, fermented,
> baked, and stored in a box for upwards of 9 months before
> finds its first-flushy way from Ceylon to your mug is
> "fresh"?
>
> --Blair
> "One myth at a time, please."


Blair,

Many of us buy our teas during strategically chosen months in order to get
the tea fresh. A tea processed in April might be in my hands three weeks
after processing. That's not so bad. I don't know where you got that 9 month
figure. Reliable vendors come in with a pretty fresh product.

What kind of tea do you drink and how do you brew it?

Michael

Michael Plant > wrote:
>Many of us buy our teas during strategically chosen months in order to get
>the tea fresh. A tea processed in April might be in my hands three weeks
>after processing. That's not so bad.

Sounds pretty good, actually. You should go into business.

>I don't know where you got that 9 month
>figure.

From the "first flush" labels on stuff being sold in January.

>Reliable vendors come in with a pretty fresh product.

For reliable values fo reliable.

>What kind of tea do you drink and how do you brew it?

Black tea in bags, these days. I'm on the road. I'm only
just getting into tea seriously, but seriously it appears
there's more variety than quality, and plenty of opportunity
to step wrong.

--Blair
"Try entering 'tea shop' and
'Peoria, Illinois' in a search
engine and you'll understand
why I'm not trying too hard
this month..."

Michael Plant > wrote in message >...

>> Many of us buy our teas during strategically chosen months in order
to get
> the tea fresh. A tea processed in April might be in my hands three weeks
> after processing. That's not so bad. I don't know where you got that 9 month
> figure. Reliable vendors come in with a pretty fresh product.

Many teas, particularly the long leaf orthodox processed teas,
actually mature in the early months after processing. A hasty rush
for "freshness" now afforded by air freighting can put teas onto the
market before they have matured, equilibrated or "chemically settled
down". The exact process is poorly understood scientifically but in my
experience three weeks is too short (for black teas at least).
Maturation of most blacks is more a period of three to four months.
Nitrogen gas flushing and vacuum packing inhibits this natural
process, and though touted as providing garden fresh teas, is truly
only of service for CTC processed teas that actually benefit from
early drinking.

Nigel at Teacraft

"Blair P. Houghton" asked:

> How is it that a leaf that's been rolled, dried, fermented,
> baked, and stored in a box for upwards of 9 months before
> finds its first-flushy way from Ceylon to your mug is
> "fresh"?
>
> --Blair
> "One myth at a time, please."

First, most tea aficionados purchase tea long before nine months have gone
by.

Second, air and water cause chemical changes in the tea, not storage which
restricts exposure to air. Once tea, or many other materials, is steeping
in hot water, substances are diffusing from the leaves at varying rates, and
those substances change over relatively short periods of time. Concentration
allows some of these substances to dissipate, increases the chemical
reactions among others and adds a preservative or two to inhibit spoilage.

If tea fans didn't make this distinction we'd all be drinking tea from
bottles.

Warren

"Warren C. Liebold" wrote
> Second, air and water cause chemical changes in the tea, not storage which
> restricts exposure to air. Once tea, or many other materials, is steeping
> in hot water, substances are diffusing from the leaves at varying rates,
and
> those substances change over relatively short periods of time.
Concentration
> allows some of these substances to dissipate, increases the chemical
> reactions among others and adds a preservative or two to inhibit spoilage.


An important question is: How did they get all that water out in the first
place? There are only a few practical ways to do this. The main group all
involve evaporation - from boiling to wiped-film stills to freeze-drying and
spray-drying. Some of them involve heat, which can cause chemical reactions.
All involve removal of volatiles in addition to water, which means many of
the delicate aroma notes. Lower pressure permits lower evaporation
temperature, which avoids cooking but at the expense of less discrimination
between water and desirable compounds. Instant coffee producers have been
fighting this battle for years, and losing. They even pump recovered
volatiles back into the can or jar so there's at least one burst of
almost-real aroma!

There are other ways to do it. Freezing out the water (the way apple jack is
made in th winter from hard cider) would be best, but no-one does that
commercially AFAIK. Ultrafiltration or reverse osmosis would also likely be
better for tea than evaporation, but again they are more expensive.

So it's probably the concentration step itself that does the most damage.

-DM

<< I attended the first day of the Restaurant & Food Service Show at the Javits
>>


:::raises hand::: I was there as well and was also disappointed to not see more
tea vendors. I was also at Coffeefest in DC last week and there wasn't much
tea there either. But there is hope in the world...I will be attending the
Take Me 2 Tea Expo in Providence, Rhode Island in September. I believe this is
a trade only show but I'd be happy to report in afterwards and would love to
meet up w/any of you that make it there
Speddie
My soul's had enough chicken soup for my...bring on the chocolate!
stolen from kathy's license plate holder

"Beth" > declared:

> But there is hope in the world...I will be attending the
> Take Me 2 Tea Expo in Providence, Rhode Island in September. I believe
this is
> a trade only show but I'd be happy to report in afterwards and would love
to
> meet up w/any of you that make it there
> Speddie
> My soul's had enough chicken soup for my...bring on the chocolate!
> stolen from kathy's license plate holder

Where did you find out about the Sept. show? There's a Take Me 2 Tea Expo
in Las Vegas next week, but the Tea Association's web site and the Take Me 2
Tea site don't mention a September show.

Warren

<< > stolen from kathy's license plate holder

Where did you find out about the Sept. show? There's a Take Me 2 Tea Expo
in Las Vegas next week, but the Tea Association's web site and the Take Me 2
Tea site don't mention a September show.

Warren >>


There was a press release somewhere along the way...and my tea supplier is
taking me to help at her booth and she has already contracted for her booth. It
will be Sept. 19-21 or whatever that Sunday-Tuesday is.
Speddie
My soul's had enough chicken soup for my...bring on the chocolate!
stolen from kathy's license plate holder