What does the Tea Guy drink?

Just realised that this is my first blog of 2010, I really must up my game! I have a back-log or should that be "back-blog" of ideas to share!

Still, being an ex-pom turned Kiwi one of the hardest things to get used to living in New Zealand is having Christmas and the New Year during summer. Christmas creeps up almost unawares, and then there is the "relaxing holiday" month of January juggling kids and, well kids, which seems to spit you out into February hurtling back into the hurly-burly of life.

During the last couple of months we have done quite a few tea tastings for external visitors and customers here at our tasting rooms at Bell Tea and I keep being asked what I drink, or what is my favourite cup of tea. One thing that strikes me these days is how tea consumers tend to drink different types of tea at different times of the day. Even within the growing Bell portfolio of teas I am conscious when developing the blends as to when certain teas might be drunk. For instance our most recent addition to our black tea range, Bell Indian Origin is great as an afternoon tea, one to savour, to really overcome all that your palate might have experienced through during the day.

It made me think though as to what do I actually drink during the day, so here is my rough routine. I always start the day with a cup of Bell Kenya Bold, without fail. I usually make this in a tea-pot whether it is leaf tea or teabags and very strong - that is how I like it. There is nothing like this to really get you going in the mornings. Now Stephen Twining would disagree with me as he sips his cup of Twinings English Breakfast and I wouldn't knock the strength and refined flavour for one moment, but for raw power and the ability to set me up for the day, Kenya Bold it is.

I usually have a coffee mid-morning aroung 11am after we have finished the morning's tea tasting, this is to try and appreciate the great coffees we have in our range, but also to improve my slightly dodgy barista skills! I usually have a double shot of fresh Gravity coffee with a small amount of milk. Now I'm sure there is a proper Italian word for this but I call it a "double-shot half flat white"

At lunchtime I usually have a green tea, and we have a lot of great ones to choose from, i love Twinings Green Tea with Orange + Mandarin, and also Twiste Kiwi from our "Live Tea" range, often though I might sip one from my library of samples. I tasted a great Oolong the other day which I have hidden away so no-one else can find it.

In the afternoon I will usually have a pot of India Orign tea there is nothing better than the Assam and Darjeeling flavours to revive me. Also, as these teas are seasonal and only available in a small window of production every year, I love seeing hoe the blend mellows and matures until the new season's teas arrive.

Finally, I alway finish my day with a cup of Twinings Peppermint, I find this very cleansing, good for my digestion and a great way of settling me for the evening.

So there is a rough journey through my tea drinking as opposed to tea tasting day.

Milk & Tea

You may have seen a couple of NZ articles recently that talk about conflicting health advice around food, beverages and supplements.
Who can we trust?

Jeremy Laurance compiles an A-Z of conflicting health advice. Under T is for Tea he writes:

“Good: Black tea reduces heart disease. It also reduces stress, boosts mental alertness and may boost the immune system and help prevent diabetes.
Bad: adding milk counteracts its effects, sugar makes it worse”

I remember that there was an article reported in the press here a while ago about the addition of milk to tea after a small study was carried out in Germany. My view is that this is misguided.

Amongst very positive news for tea and coffee drinkers during 2009 there was a recent review in the Journal of Nutrition and Food Science which sought to clarify and update some of the overall conclusions of health studies on black tea consumption, particularly in relation to the bioavailability of flavonoids (antioxidants) in black tea.

There were a couple of very interesting conclusions: “..the debate over the addition of milk to tea and the subsequent effect on the bioavailability of flavonoids finally seems to have been laid to rest. Many studies have found tea with milk has similar antioxidant potential to tea without milk.”

This is great news! One of the other key conclusions was around the optimal amount of tea to drink to get the most health benefits which was concluded to be 1-8 cups a day (or 5-6 mugs). This was thought to provide sufficient bioactive constituents to increase the likelihood of cardiovascular and potentially cancer and cognitive health benefits without exceeding a daily caffeine intake of 400mg per day and adversely affect hydration, sleep quality and blood pressure.

I drink up to 8 cups a day so no need to change there then!

Also as we’re on the subject and to support what I said earlier,

Researchers from the Netherlands have reported that drinking tea and/or coffee can reduce the risk of type-2 diabetes. 2 separate studies collected data from 40,000 men and women over 10 years and concluded that drinking more than 5 cups of tea per day reduced the risk of type 2 diabetes by 32% independent of factors such as age, smoking, family history etc, moreover the studies also concluded that drinking at least 3 cups of tea and/or coffee reduced the risk of type-2 diabetes by approximately 42%. Given the large study population, design and comprehensive data collection about diet and lifestyle this study adds considerable weight to already published studies that have linked tea consumption to reduced risk of chronic health conditions.

I firmly believe that drinking tea as part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle is good for you…trust me!

I recently had the privilege of going to see my beautiful daughter Francesca in her class, Room 9, at Cockle Bay School in Auckland.

I had sent her in one day with a magazine article on tea to share with the class and she came home with a request from her classmates for the Bell Tea Guy to come in and talk to them about tea. Cockle Bay is a great school and Francesca is lucky in having a superb teacher in year 4, Kirsten Holmes (Miss Holmes to me!). Miss Holmes confessed that she was unable to answer the deluge of questions that she had been asked about tea and that I simply just had to come in and deal with them myself.

Another connection is that Bell's financial controller's daughter Georgia is in the same class. She made it very clear that her dad is the guy who gives me all the money for the travelling I do, and I guess she is right about that!

We had a fantastic time and I don't think I have been asked such searching questions by any group before. The kids were most interested in the travelling that I have done which was a good chance for me to reminisce about some of my experiences over the years. We had a go at slurping and spitting, so much a part of my life, and they got the hang of that very quickly, so my apologies to their parents if they were still practicing in the evening! It was also the only time I have ever asked a group how many of them wanted to become tea-tasters and more than half the room put their hands up! Miss Holmes is now leading a science project for the school and tea may well be part of that.

Keep up the good work Room 9 it was great to meet you all.

The Tailor of Tea

It was a privilege to be part of the Twinings sponsored Mother's Day Afternoon Tea for the benefit of the Nurture Foundation, and no better place to hold it than the revamped ballroom of the Heritage Hotel. For those who don't know, Nurture, through research, are committed to helping New Zealanders have families through the safe delivery of a healthy, full-term baby.

There were a couple of key auction prizes on offer and one was to win an afternoon home cooking/baking class at Allyson Gofton's house with the lady herself. I've known Allyson a little while and she is great, not only a total pro chef but lots of fun and very humble! She is also a committed ambassador for Nurture. We had a right laugh and I of course muscled my way in to make the tea to go with the food. All in a very good cause. The stars of the show though were the ladies who bid for and won the prize, plenty of stories and I was the only guy there!

The other charity prize from the afternoon was a commitment from me to create a bespoke tea blend for the winning bidder. It was very appropriate that Cindy Farquhar outbid all to secure the blend for her husband Geoff. Cindy is Professor of gynecology and obstetrics at the University of Auckland, and a trustee of Nurture. I went along to their lovely Auckland home to interview Geoff and find out more about him in order to create his own very personal and unique blend of tea. It’s just like the concept of a bespoke tailor and Geoff will join the ranks of previous recipients, Allyson Gofton herself, and the illustrious Earl Grey for whom the very first bespoke teas were created by Twinings in the early 1800s.

Watch this space and I'll let you know how this developed......

New season tea

There is nothing better in my job than to taste fresh new season's tea from the best tea crops in the world.

Some of the team (Leigh, Chris, Jessica and Amy) popped in to join me and taste the first shipment of the new season for our India Origin blend.
These are outstanding teas from Darjeeling and Assam and, as you can see, we are very happy with them.

My friend Ashok Gandotra has done an outstanding job for us in India to secure these teas against fierce competition from around the world.

Hong Kong Visit

13th August

I'm on a whirlwind tour of Hong Kong having been invited to the very first Hong Kong International Tea Fair as a guest of the Hong Kong Trade and Development Corporation.

This is running concurrently with The Food Fair and two other exhibitions at the amazing Hong Kong Convention + Exhibition centre. (see picture) There is a lot going on.



The crew from Australia (8 people) and New Zealand (me) are great and I would say we are the liveliest delegation here.

As you can see we found our way to the Fine Wines of Italy stand, with the charismatic Eduardo, 2nd from left, who also owns an organic tea company based in Piedmont, Italy.

Now for me to be tasting 100s of Asia's best teas over a two day period is my kind of heaven, there were 250 exhibitors from 10 countries. I have really enjoyed sampling over 10 top white teas from Fujian province.

I might not be a great personal fan of Pu-erh tea but some of the oldest and most valuable vintage Pu-erhs are about to go on sale. There is 10g of a 109 year-old Pu-erh tea up for US$1000, and a 300g slab of a 1950s Pu-erh going for US15,000, now I wonder if the team back home at Bell might like some.....

It is good to see so many Producers here from other parts of the world including our partners in Sri Lanka, Watawala Plantations, and my old friend Vinodh (see picture) from Vintage Teas in Sri Lanka, looks like we are going grey together my friend. Also caught up with Mike Wright from Twinings in the UK, who now owes me dinner on my next visit!

The Auckland Food Show

If you were wondering why the streets of Auckland seemed eerily quiet this weekend, I can tell you it is because most of the city congregated at the Food Show to sample the goods and (literally) rub shoulders with their fellow city-people.

I was at the Show to talk to punters about the two latest Bell blends on the market, India Origin and Zesty Green Tea Berry, and Twinings ever-popular blend (and the original) Earl Grey. With new products it is always great to have a sampling opportunity, and some face time with the public. For this there is no better place than the Auckland Food Show.

This year it was hard not to notice the rise in numbers and the influence of ethnic stands. This is a great reflection on not only the ever diversifying cultural makeup of Auckland, but also the growing influence of and demand for world foods on New Zealanders plates.

India Origin fit beautifully into this environment. We were lucky enough that Peta Mathias agreed to promote India Origin during her cooking demonstrations which focused on combining flavours and ingredients from Rajasthan in India (great show, Peta). Whilst watching Peta, I was reminded again of how blending tea really is like cooking – creating combinations of different teas can often result in something that is greater than the sum of its parts… despite what some of the other brands in the NZ market say!

We were able to draw in many a punter with the tempting aroma drifting from the freshly brewed Zesty Berry. It was great to meet people who are already Zesty Green Tea converts, and the reaction to the new flavour (and the pink colour) was overwhelmingly positive. Again, it was great to get people to sample our green tea as it is so unique and easy to drink in comparison with the majority of the market.

From the company perspective it was great to be across the aisle from Gravity coffee, one of the brands in the Bell Tea & Coffee stable. This year we were conveniently dressed in what we call “Gravity purple” t-shirts, so we dominated our corner of the hall.

Finally, during the show we promoted a competition to win an India Origin hamper filled with goodies. If you want to enter, please do. You just need to click on the elephant on the Bell Tea homepage. Or click on this link