Blog - Miss TeaSmith

Speciality Tea – Part 2

Drying Tea Leaves Freshness is key. Once plucked the tea leaves are ferried to the factory as quickly as possible. Small tea farms and tea grown in back gardens are sold to larger tea estates. These estates will manage collection of the tea leaves at a scheduled time to be dried and rolled by the…

Hard Water in Tea

Do you have icicles on your kitchen and bathroom taps? These are icicles of calcium on your taps or do you have pronounced white water marks even when the water dries? Then you most likely have hard water. This is where your tap water contains dissolved calcium and magnesium. These are almost always at safe…

Speciality Tea

Do it extraordinarily well. Sri Lanka/Ceylon is renowned for its black tea. But with a market that’s flooded from all four corners of the world with good black tea, the tea estates in Sri Lanka have finely honed the art of producing fantastic speciality teas. Growing Tea Tea is grown in the mountains and hills…

Worry-free Packaging

I would carefully un-wrap the colourful shiny foil from chocolates when I was a child. Gently ease and stretch it out and save it in my books. Then use it to decorate homemade cards, to embellish plain wrapping paper and add extra sparkle to decorations. Didn’t think of that as reusing and recycling what would…

I Gave Up Coffee and How Tea Has Increased My Productivity

This may come as a surprise but I used to drink up to 6 cups of coffee a day!! My cappuccinos, lattes and flat whites had at least 2 shots of expresso in it. My first cup was after my morning workout, then another one midmorning and by mid-afternoon I needed another! This lead to…

How to Learn About Tea Without Being a Tea Master

For a nation of tea lovers, I am really shocked that most of us only drink one type and almost always the same brand!! Tea comes from only 2 plants – camellia sinensis and camellia assamica and it’s the processing of these that gives you a wide choice of black, white, green, yellow, etc. Within…

5 of the World’s Sexiest Teas

What’s the sexiest organ in your body? The brain! The list below is to only to help… Nuts – Pistachios in a tea blend. These particular nuts are known for their nutritious properties and are particularly rich in protein, fiber and healthy fats qualities. Studies have not firmly concluded that it does not have any…

Tea and Food Pairing

Were you intrigued by the title? Did you think it a rather strange pairing or something you already embrace? For this series of tea and food pairing ideas and suggestions, I thought I would start with cheeses. I am all for prolonging conversations and connections and a cheese board helps that. Helpful, I think, for…

Zero Waste – For Your Everyday Cup of Tea

Tea is our ‘go-to’ drink, from that first much needed cup to that last one that will lull us into dream world. Not to mention all the ones in-between. Small changes in how we brew and dispose of our everyday tea will make a difference too. Loose tea v. Tea bags – There are now…

5 Benefits of Ceylon (Sri Lankan) Tea

The tropical island of Sri Lanka with its lush rain-forests and mountains to turquoise seas lies just south of the tip of India. Tea has been grown for more than 150 years. Ceylon tea has a world renowned reputation and it’s a brand in itself. The terroir of the rich mountains and rain-forests give Ceylon…