Catching Up: Tea Tasting Class

I signed up for this AWA activity to learn all about tea.  Part of the fees for AWA activities goes to AWA supported charities so that's a good thing too. I can learn something and help support AWA Charities.

TWG (founded in Singapore) labels itself as the finest luxury brand of tea in the world. TWG presents teas classified by color: white, yellow, green, blue, black and red. They sell 800 different types of tea sourced from various parts of the world (48 countries produce tea). The largest producers of tea are Taiwan, China and India. I learned all about the tea plant, types of drying, which tea plant parts are used for what tea types and and why all the types. Through the class we tasted several types of teas and enjoying delicious scones, muffins and macarons. Their macarons are made using TWG teas and are delicious. Even the jam served with the scones had a hint of tea.

TWG feels that no tea should be in a bag, but if you must, it has to be cotton and it has to be large. The tea doesn't develop proper flavor unless it has room.

 I had no idea that every tea really has a strict water temperature and steep time for the perfect cup.

Since we've lived here I drink a lot more coffee than tea due to the wide variety and flavor of the coffees available. However, I really like TWG teas as well. At the tasting my favorite was a Yin Zhen White tea. And that's good because I am more likely to have tea in the evening. We were told that the white teas contain less "theine" (tea caffeine) than other teas. The other white tea we tasted is Pai Mu Tan. They didn't serve us any yellow tea, but I am pretty sure they showed some yellow tea leaves to us. It is the rarest and most expensive tea in the world per TWG. Only about 15 kg are harvest each year. I didn't ask the price.  The Tea Menu at this place is probably 10 pages. They also serve lunch, breakfast and dinner. And I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing but this shop is around the corner from where we live.

A prize I won for answering a tea question:
Samples of tea and a small box of macarons.