rubato wrote:Tea is shit to begin with. You soak some chinese leaves in boiling water for a few minutes and get ... what?Gob wrote: ...
I wonder if it's compulsory for "Big Things" cafes to serve shit tea?
yrs,
rubato
RESEARCHERS have uncovered evidence showing the Kelly gang more as ruthless police killers than misunderstood rebels.
Historians have found a map detailing how the gang murdered policemen sent to capture them in north-eastern Victoria in 1878.
The Victoria Police Museum collections manager, Elizabeth Marsden, said a diagram outlining where the bushrangers gunned down three policemen at a camp near Stringybark Creek had been discovered in old files. The diagram had been drawn up by Constable Thomas McIntyre, the only survivor of the showdown with the bushrangers.
Ms Marsden believed the map and notations, ''which looks as if it could have been created yesterday'', presented a clear picture of the Kelly gang and would challenge those who believed the Irish-descended Ned Kelly was a folk hero rebelling against British authority.
McIntyre was part of four-man team on a mission to track down the Kelly gang in the Wombat Ranges. His map shows the locations of the police and the bushrangers.
McIntyre was often regarded as a perjurer who sent Kelly to the gallows, but Ms Marsden said documents showed he was a meticulous keeper of records whose evidence was consistent.
Ms Marsden believed the gang could well have come across the tracks of the officers' horses by accident. ''They [the gang] could have walked away but … I think it quite clear-cut that they [the police] were ambushed,'' she said.
McIntyre's story re-emerged in 2008 when his scrapbooks were being documented and filed.
The map was later discovered in these scrapbooks, but even then its significance was not apparent.
Historians realised its worth when it went on display at an annual festival in Beechworth in 2009.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/map-reve ... z1XgB0RmsP
rubato wrote:
Tea is shit to begin with. You soak some chinese leaves in boiling water for a few minutes and get ... what?
yrs,
rubato
It's also nice to try the subtly and difference of teas grown in other countries;http://www.dilmahtea.com/
Dilmah is unique; a brand that is founded on a passionate commitment to quality and authenticity in tea, it is also a part of a philosophy that goes beyond commerce in seeing business as a matter of human service.
Tea is Nature’s gift to mankind. A beverage that heals, protects and refreshes, it is also infinite in variety, changing Subtlely with the natural alchemy of sunshine, soils, wind, rain and temperature. That beautiful variety in tea is as much a challenge as a deliciously indulgent reward for whilst nature gives us a tea to suit every mood, and desire, she demands expertise in understanding and selecting the finest. That expertise can only come from passionate commitment to tea.
Founder of Dilmah, Merrill J. Fernando, declared his commitment to tea when in the 1950s he devoted his life to tea. Four decades later he was joined by his two sons, Dilhan and Malik (after whom he named his Dilmah Tea) who share his passion. Today, nearly sixty years on, Merrill and his sons – the Fernando family have acquired the expertise to grow tea, pack and offer consumers around the world only the finest. Their love for tea clearly transcends generations for Dilhan and Malik’s sons and daughters are learning tea, preparing for a time when they assume responsibility for the covenant that Merrill made, when in the 1950s he declared that he would devote his life to bringing quality back to tea, ethically.
African Tea Production Regions
Most of the tea produced in Africa is CTC black tea destined for teabags. Tea-producing countries include:
Burundi
Cameroon
The Democratic Republic of Congo
Ethiopia
Kenya
Madagascar
Malawi
Mauritius
South Africa
Tanzania
Uganda
Zimbabwe
Indian Tea Production Regions
The main tea regions of India are Darjeeling, Assam and Nilgiri/Conoor (in that order). Other regions include Dooars, Sikkim, Terai, Himchal Pradesh (including Kangra and Mandi) and Travancore/Kerala.
Sri Lankan Tea Production Regions
Formerly known as Ceylon, Sri Lanka became a major player in tea production shortly after its coffee crops failed in 1869. The island continues to produce mostly orthodox teas today. The tea production regions of Sri Lanka include:
Badulla
Dimbulla
Galle
Haputalle
Kandy
Maturata
Nuwara Eliya
Ratnapura
Ruhuna
Uda Pussellawa
Uva
Taiwanese Tea Production Regions
Formerly known as Formosa, Taiwan is primarily known for its superb oolongs, including pouchongs, which some classify as green teas because they are so lightly oxidized. Tea regions within Taiwan are associated with mountains. In fact, “shan,” which appears in many of the regions’ names, means “mountain.” Each region is known for different teas.
Ali Shan (a.k.a. “Alishan” or “A Li Shan”)
Hsinchu
Kaohsiung
Li Shan (a.k.a. Lishan)
Nantou
Shan Lin Xi (a.k.a. Shanlinxi)
Taipei (and nearby Muzha and Maokong)
Wen Shan / Ping Lin
Yushan
United States Tea Production Regions
Tea is produced on a small scale in Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, South Carolina and Alabama. Haiwaii is becoming known for its hand-produces teas. South Carolina is known for its Bigelow-owned plantation.
Roy Fong of Imperial Tea Court has purchased land outside the San Francisco area with the intention of growuing tea there. Given that San Francisco is to tea what Seattle was to coffee in the 1990s, this could be a major event in the specialty tea industry.
Other Asian Tea Production Regions
Bangladesh (These are mostly black teas. There is a movement toward Fair Trade and organic production.)
Indonesia (Java and Sumatra mostly produce green teas, but also make some black CTC teas and oolongs.)
Iran (Most Iranian black tea is consumed within Iran.)
Malaysia
Nepal (Nepal has recently begun to produce some excellent less-than-fully-oxidized black teas that are similar in flavor to those from its neighbor, Darjeeling.)
Russia
South Korea (Artisanal green teas from South Korea are currently gaining a following in the U.S. specialty market.)
Tibet
Thailand (Some Taiwanese oolong producers are relocating to Thailand for lower land and labor costs. They are beginning to produce good oolongs there.)
Vietnam (After producing mostly low-grade teas for many years, some producers are now making quality teas.)
Other Tea Production Regions
Australia
Georgia (This Eurasian country produces small batches of handmade black teas that are being popularized within the specialty tea community by tea consultant/wholesaler Nigel Mellican.)
Italy
New Zealand (which has produced a new line of oolongs known as "Zealong")
Papua New Guinea
Turkey
United Kingdom (Tea is grown in greenhouses and sold for large sums.)
South & Central American Tea Production Regions
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Guatemala all produce tea. Most of it is blended into cheap teabags, but there is some orthodox tea production in Bolivia and Guatemala. Almost all tea the tea produced is black, although tea author/authority Jane Pettigrew said Bolivia does produce some green tea during an interview I conducted with her for World Tea News.
Japanese Tea Production Regions
The major tea-producing regions of Japan include Kyushu, Shikoku, and southern Honshu. Notable areas within Honshu include Shizuoka (a prefecture bounded between the Pacific Ocean and Mount Fuji), where most of the nation’s tea is produced, and Uji (in the the Kyoto Prefecture), where some of Japan’s most prized teas are grown.
Chinese Tea Production Regions
China is the birthplace of tea production. This one country produces more types of tea than any other, and it produces more orthodox tea than any other. These main Chinese tea production regions are within the provinces of:
Anhui
Fujian
Guangdong
Guangxi
Jiangsu
Jiangxi
Yunnan
Zhejiang
http://www.neradatea.com.au/index.htm
The lush, misty hills of the Cairns Highlands in Tropical North Queensland are one of Australia’s finest agricultural regions. The combination of rich volcanic soil, high altitude and ample rainfall provide the perfect conditions to grow quality tea that rivals some of the best in the world.
Grown without the use of pesticides Nerada Tea is harvested, manufactured and packed throughout the year. From tea bush to your cup can take as little as four weeks, enabling us to provide you with a fresh aromatic cup of tea that has its own unique satisfying flavour.
......BSGThis year's balmy weather has brewed up a record vintage year – for British tea.
Workers at the nation's only tea plantation are picking leaves later in the year than ever before. Perfect conditions also means the leaves are bigger and better than previously recorded, leading to the biggest yield in history.
Jonathan Jones, gardening director at the Tregothnan Estate, near Truro, is still picking Cornish tea nearly two months after the end of the normal season
.The warmest spring for 100 years, followed by a wet summer and one of the mildest autumns on record means leaves are being picked well into November. Growers have seen a 30 per cent increase in the average crop, and expect a "vintage year" as healthy leaves are picked up to two months later than normal.
The tea-picking season normally lasts from April to late September, but experts expect to continue picking until December due to the warm weather.
Jonathan Jones, of Tregothnan Estate, near Truro, said he expected to harvest more than ten tonnes this year, compared to the previous annual record of seven.
He said: "It's been an incredible year for us and I'm absolutely amazed we're still producing. We're heading for a record year for sure.
"It's almost become an annual growing season. It started very early in April due to early warm weather in spring and we've just seen the perfect storm of conditions since. Summer was warm and wet – which mirrors the Indian climate where tea is traditionally grown – and we've seen an incredibly warm autumn.
"It's unheard of for us to be picking leaves in November, and the way things are heading we could find ourselves picking them for a few weeks yet."
Tea requires an ideal combination of sunlight, rain, warmth and soil pH (acid or alkaline level) conditions, which this year's weather has conspired to create.
The estate has only been a working tea plantation for the last decade and blends traditional imported teas with its own leaves to produce a quintessential English tea.
Tregothnan was the first place to grow Camellia, the plant used for growing tea, 200 years ago and tea bushes thrive due to the warm Cornish micro-climate. Their plants take six years to mature, but the tea is ready for drinking 36 hours after the leaves are hand-picked.
http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Mild-we ... story.html
