'A HISTORY OF...'//'CASE STUDY: TWININGS'//OUGD504-SUMMER

GREEN TEA - FAIRY LADIES GOLDEN RINGS - TWININGS TEA TASTERS

WHERE IS FAIRY LADIES GOLDEN RINGS, GREEN TEA FROM?

The fabulously named "Fairy Ladies Golden Rings" is a beautiful, hand sourced tea from the Fujian province of South East China, specifically, the Tai Pu Mountains.

The story behind this tea is as interesting as the taste.  Tea growing in South East China is notoriously seasonal, meaning the plants are harvested in the summer months, when the weather is optimal.  However, in the Tai Pu Mountains, there is a crop all year round.

The locals will tell you that a local mountain fairy had blessed the region, and when trying to catch her to pass on their thanks for the all-year availability of their crop, they only managed to grab one of the golden locks of her hair - hence the name Fairy Ladies Golden Rings!

WHAT IS GREEN TEA AND FAIRY LADIES GOLDEN RINGS?

The less enjoyable truth behind the all-year crop is more likely to be the geothermal activity in this location, keeping the soil nice and warm all year round.
You may think this is a white tea, but it's actually classified as a green tea. This tea is hand-harvested and then processed in the green tea method.

Thanks to the artisan skill of the Chinese, the tea is then hand-rolled using thin pencil-size rods when the leaves are slightly moist. This produces beautiful tight curls of Fujian Province, China.

Green Tea

tea, which brew into a fabulous light and mild liquor with a slightly nutty taste with undertones of melon. For this tea taster class we use tea tasting crockery (which will shortly be available to all our Tea Taster members) and also a diffuser in a mug, probably the way most people will brew this tea.

WHAT IS GREEN TEA?

• The Myth: Green Tea comes from the Green Tea plant

• The Truth: This is not the case. Green Tea in fact comes from the same plant as other teas; the Camellia Sinensis, it is simply treated differently.

• The Myth: Green Tea is in fact, not a tea at all

The Truth: Green Tea is most certainly tea, and a pretty special variety at that. Coming from the Camellia Sinensis, it comes from the original tea plant, but is treated in a specific way to give it that unusual flavour we know and love.

• The Myth: Green Tea is only grown in China

The Truth: Green Tea is mostly produced in China, where 80% of the world's Green Tea comes from, but there are some excellent Green Teas available from the Far East, and a little from South India, in the Assam region. It is exported from some regions of South America. The expertise in Green Tea do however lie in China, where they have been producing it for years.  Take a look at our New Green Teas or venture further into the Twinings world of Loose Tea.

BREWING, TASTING AND CHARACTER

Place into your crockery a heaped teaspoon of Fairy Ladies Golden Rings. (for one cup)

Interestingly with this tea, we would recommend you boil the kettle, just as it starts a rolling boil, stop the kettle and allow the water to cool for a minute.
We pour our water 'at height' over the green tea  to aerate the water as much as possible, producing wonderful bubble patterns in the crockery.

For best results brew Fairy Ladies Golden Rings for just a minute and a half. As with any fine loose tea, you can steep your leaves up to three times.

With brewing complete, you are now ready to have a taste. As the tea rests you will immediately smell the aromas circling up to your nose, peachy, woody notes - it's like a tea extravaganza!

Looking at the steeped tea, you can see those beautiful tight curls of leaf are now relaxed, plump with water, having exploded open but still keeping a rounded shape having also released their flavours and colour.

A QUICK GUIDE TO MAKING YOUR GREEN TEA

• Add a good spoonful for each person (maximum 4 spoons for a 6 cup teapot)
• Boil Your Kettle -  but stop the kettle just before a rolling boil
• Heat your teapot with a drop of the hot water and discard
• Pour the water on your white tea leaves and steep for between 1.5 minutes (depending on your taste).

The wonderful thing about loose tea is that you can re-use your tealeaves two or three times. In some households the tealeaves always goes into either the compost, on the roses or around the base of a hydrangea helping to turn the colour of the petals to a deep blue (try at your own risk).