Here's an article I had about a great cup of tea I tasted a few weeks back....
(check out their tea bag for restaurants over there - that's quality!)
Maybe it was the blazing heat and sunshine, but the cup of tea I had at Farm Fest 08 was simply stunning. It was no ordinary cup of tea - organic rooibus chocolate chai to be exact, and on a hot hot day it was perfectly refreshing.
I was introduced to the makers of my fine cuppa by an organic gardener studying to be a herbalist. He was doing work experience with Karin Wieland and Jorg Muller, who are both qualified medical herbalists. The couple run the nascent but still multi-award winning Solaris Herbs whole leaf organic tea company.
I have a hunch that tea houses will be the coffee houses of the next ten years, that people will go out for a clear, see through glass pot of loose leaf tea, whiling away the time in conversation in a way similar to pubs, wine bars and cafes today.
If that does happen, then Jorg and Karin will be well ahead of the game. They blend and prepare their own whole leaf teas in
The loose leaf teas themselves, their website, their brochures and their packaging all smack of quality. And they have the awards to prove it. They won three gold stars at the great taste awards 2007, and best grocery product at the SHOP national organic awards 2007. Only 30 out of 5000 entries won gold in the former, and only one product won best grocery product in the latter. So these products really are considered top of the range by their peers in the quality food business.
Their teas manage to combine health, environment and taste - a master blend if ever there was one. All certified organic by the Organic Trust and sourced in a genuinely careful way, the loose leaf dimension is quite deliberate from a health perspective. �whole leaves maintain their optimum levels of antioxidants � machine harvesting and processing oxidates the leaves, thereby reducing the antioxidant value of the tea� according to Jorg.
They specifically blended their herbal teas with different body systems in mind such as nervous system, digestive system and immune system.
The flavours that develop are fuller yet subtle, and without any of the sneaky enhancements other teas in the herbal idiom sometimes have. They pay a fortune for their teas, but don�t carry this over proportionately in their price. While large multinational tea companies can pay less than a euro per kilo when they but their tea by the tonne, �We pay 40euro a kilo for our most expensive type� according to Jorg.
The story of this most expensive of teas, the organic Jasmine Dragon Pearl Tea is exquisite. Spring fresh special grade green tea is sourced from the
This is, unsurprisingly, their most expensive tea, retailing at 9 euros and 55 cent on their website. Any yet you actually get 240 cups out of each one of their cylindrical containers of Dragon Pearls - �that�s 4c per cup of tea!� according to Karin.
Along with speciality green, earl grey, pu-erh, oolong, lapsang souchong and rooibus teas, they also have flowering teas, herbal products and tea accessories.
The flowering teas also tell a great story. According to their literature, �these premium white, tender tea buds are Jasmine scented and hand sewn into flower buds with cotton thread by artisans in
For a variety of practical reasons, restaurants prefer teabags to loose leaf teas. With this in mind, Jorg and Karin have come up with a delightful display box and unique bags for the individual teas. This �100% biodegradable silken tea bag range� comes in a presentation box containing 5 certified organic, 1st flush, speciality whole-leaf teas ranging from Herbal Tea blends to Green Teas, and Black Teas.
Right, I�m parched. I�m off to make myself a cup of that organic rioobus chai.
For more, (p) 091 586443 or just click here
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