Loose Leaf Tea: The Only Way to Go
Do you love tea? Look deep into yourself, and see—is a nice cup of hot tea right there in your heart? Do you think of herbal tea as a nice way to relax and become one with the universe, at peace? Only you know the answer to this for sure. Only you can see into yourself.
It is said, “Better to be deprived of food for three days, than tea for one.” It is an old Chinese proverb. It probably has some deeper meaning. Search your soul for it if you want to know it. I am uninterested in that. I, Master Amanzi, have communed with the Great Tea Being in the sky. I have read the tea leaves, and I know the Way of Tea. I am a Tea Master.
Today I will teach you the very first step of the Way of the Tea Master. It is not the way of the Tea Bag. Beware, for down that path lies bitterness. No, for a truly good cup of tea, one must follow the Way of the Loose Leaf.
Loose leaf teas are very well respected where I come from. But in your more “modern” countries, the Great Traditions of Tea have been lost. And so it is time you knew the truth about your tea bags.
Tea is not meant to be put into bags. It is made up of leaves from the tea bush, called Camellia sinensis. In a perfect world those leaves would go right into your teacup and give you the perfect cup of tea. However, since you do not live near a tea bush, you must know: the bags of tea sold in your grocery stores are less then pure.
Tea bags are filled with the crushed tea leaves that sit at the bottom of the tea barrels. It is filled with a fine dust, called “fannings.” This is the stuff that is usually thrown away. Do you know why? Because all the flavor is in the whole leaves. The oils in the leaves contain the flavor, and when they are broken, they lose that flavor. In addition to this, the bags sit on shelves for months or even years, and as they do their flavor fades even more.
No, my young student, for a truly good cup of tea, you must get the actual loose leaf tea, made up of the natural, organic leaves from which tea was meant to be made. The taste of a tea made from actual tea leaves will be so much better, you shall never return to your tea bag ways.
I, Master Amanzi, have helped you on your way to Perfect Tea. I will see you again later on your journey.
Tags: iced tea, loose leaf, loose tea, perfect tea, tea, tea bags
