BEHIND THE CRAFT
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Tea Craft: Growing the Tea Bush

Tea cultivation is a modern science - new bushes are propagated from the best tea bushes, creating ‘clonals’ - cultivated variants or cultivars for short. The parent bushes may have been chosen for natural drought or pest resistance, helping farmers economically.

The new plants go to nursery for up to 2 years, and are then planted into a small segregated area of the tea garden, where they be left unpicked for a further 2 years until they reach roughly the height of a picker.

From then, regularly pruned down to a metre in height, the bushes will start to grow sideways and become the familiar sea of bright green leaves.

In 3 to 5 years of pruning, the tea plants are ready for their journey to the cup.

Find out more about when tea is picked.

FGTE17104

Tropical Punch (Blend 68) White Tea Pouch 100g

Net Weight: 100g

Our famous Blend 68 - a white tea with red hibiscus, rosehip and orange peel, this 'Tropical Punch' blend is a thirst quenching tea infusion with a deliciously fruity taste and a striking red liquor.

The East India Company - Lifestyle

Tea

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£20.00
Perfect for summer, it's a thirst-quenching blend of Sri Lankan high-grown white tea with fruits and fruit flavours. In a convenient pouch, it's perfect for the cupboard and great a refill for your Kaleidoscope Caddy!

Tea Master Lalith Lenadora has used his years of experience to create this super blend.

He starts with a beloved white teas from his native Sri Lanka and has added rosehips, which are high in antioxidants and vitamin C. They are of course found on the rose plant, being the fruits that appear just under the flowers and taste floral and sweet, rather than having a rose flavour.
With red hibiscus giving acidity and structure, lemongrass gives the blend a freshness and orange peel a zestiness. Finally, to elevate the experience further, natural fruity flavours of mango, banana, pineapple and passionfruit complete the blend.

In cup, the colour has a striking reddish tint, the aroma and flavour can only be described as 'fruity'.

Thirst quenching when hot, it also makes a super iced tea cocktail, where indulgence can dialed up a touch with a splash of Champagne. See our Tropical Punch cocktail by clicking on Experience.
EIC - Recipe Book - Tropical Punch White Tea with Hibiscus Cordial

Serves 4

Place 8 heaped teaspoons of tea into a saucepan with 1 litre of fresh just-boiled water and infuse for about 4 or 5 minutes.

Strain through a sieve into a heatproof bowl, leave to cool.

Tip into a jug and add a handful of ice, along with 6-8 tablespoons of Hibiscus Cordial Stir well, taste and adjust accordingly

For an extra fizz, add Champagne and pour into chilled flutes prepared with a glace cherry at the bottom of the glass. Finish with a few drops of lemon juice and a curl of lemon rind to garnish.
Quantity

2G OF TEA LEAVES PER CUP

Temperature

200ML OF WATER AT 80-85ºC

Brewing Time

4 MINS BREWING TIME

Ingredients

White Tea, Lemongrass, Hibiscus, Rosehip, Orange Peel, Natural Passion Fruit Flavour, Natural Pineapple Flavour, Natural Mango Flavour, Natural Banana Flavour

Storage

Store in a cool, dry place avoiding direct sunlight and strong odours. Once opened, store in an airtight container and consume within 3 months.

Stories

White Whiskers, White Tea

It doesn’t get much more simple that processing white tea.

White tea is named after the tiny white or silver hairs that cover the new bud on a tea plant - it is the bud which will soon unfurl to become the next young leaf.

On our White Tea product pages, if you zoom in on the tea picture, you will easily see these little whiskers. When looked at collectively, it creates a silver white sheen to the bud, hence the name.

So it is just the unopened buds or occasionally the bud and one or two of the very youngest leaves too that are picked and brought back to tea factory.
Very carefully handled to retain the integrity of the bud, they are simple dried in the sun or a drying room.

White teas are not fired like other teas, so they tend to retain a higher moisture content [therefore have a shorter shelf life]. There doesn’t seem to be a hard and fast rule about antioxidant or caffeine levels v green or black teas – whilst the white bud itself often carries a little more of both, the resulting brew tends to use cooler water for a shorter time than black, so the cup can often contain less.

Our spirit delivers no ordinary products

  • FAQ

    Does white tea include caffeine and is there more or less than green or black tea and coffee?
    Yes it does, and it varies. All tea leaves, just like coffee, contain caffeine. Tea usually has a lower level of caffeine than coffee, which averages around 95mg for a normal cup of coffee. But it is impossible to give a precise answer, because there are so many variables at play - the length of brew time, the amount of tea used, the age of the leaf, the provenance of the leaf. Even the temperature of the water. Our best advice is to treat all tea and coffee similarly if you need to manage your caffeine intake.

    I’ve heard that tea contains theanine. What is it and what does it do?
    Tea does indeed contain theanine, which is an amino acid [the building blocks of proteins]. Tea is one of only a few sources of theanine. It represents about 1% of dry weight and is at its highest concentrate in shade-grown teas like matcha and gyokuro. Whilst not yet proven in scientific studies that would permit specific health claims to be made, it is believed by many to be able to reduce mental and physical stress, promote relaxation and a sense of well-being. But not only that, it is more recently being thought to aid cognitive function. It’s one explanation for tea’s famous ability to create calm in a crisis [the Great British solution to all problems – ‘putting the kettle on’] and to stimulate when a little boost is required.

  • Delivery & Returns

    UK Standard Delivery: £3.95
    UK Next Day Delivery (mainland UK only): £9.95 (Order before 12pm)
    International Delivery is available, please see our delivery page for details. For more information and Terms & Conditions, please see our Delivery page.

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