Henrietta Lovell - Tea Masterclass, Brewing, Agriculture, Communities, Rare Tea, Matcha

Henrietta Lovell is the founder and CEO of The Rare Tea company, a tea educator and author of the book Infused: Adventures in Tea. Over a career of more than 20 years Henrietta has travelled around the foothills of the Himalayas, across China, Japan, India, and Malawi, sourcing some of the best teas in the world and learning from the communities that grow them. She has worked with world class chefs and bartenders, including supplying tea at some of the bars I have owned over the years. In fact we first met around 15 years ago when I opened the Worship Street Whistling Shop in London.

This episode is a tea masterclass that covers the basics of growing, processing, brewing and tasting tea, but also explores, history, economics, sustainability, agricuture, health, poverty, and some of the most expensive teas on the planet. Expect to learn where most of the world’s tea is grown - clue it isn’t china or India, why it is the Emperors Golden Eyebrows costs in excess of £250 for a 30g bag, why you shouldn’t ever brew good tea for three minutes, best practices for making tea infusions in spirits and for the bar, and much more.

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00:00 Cold Brewed Tea - Avoiding oxidation, Osmosis, Method
04:40 The Remarkable way that high end Jasmine Tea is Made, tasting, uses of Jasmine tea Noma
09:15 Tea as an Alternative to Wine - tasting Himalayan First Spring blended with Japanese Sencha
11:43 Tea Varietals, Colonial History, Early Tea Drinks in India, Blending Tea & Comparisons to whisky
17:30 Tea Types - White, Green, Oolong, Black, Pu’erh - Controlling Oxidation, Drying, Terroir and Agriculture, Fermentation
23:43 Where Tea Grows - Environment
25:00 East Africa, The Problem with Commodity Tea, Brokers, Responsible Tea Drinking, Direct Trade
31:05 finding the Best Teas - Flavour, Independent, Organic Practices (vs. Organic Certification), Polyculture Framing, Impact of other Flora on Tea
36:46 The Lifespan of a Tea Plant, Harvesting (Machine vs. Hand), Risk of Tech on Tea Communities
44:10 Perception of Tea - Taste Testing, The Problem with Tea Bags, Practicality of Brewing Tea vs. Coffee
52:35 Fruit Teas - Flavour Essences, Fruit Extracts
59:05 Trading Up on Tea - What to Look For, Margins on Tea
1:05:03 Tasting Coffee Leaf Tea
1:06:50 Pu’erh Tea - Pairing for Food, Flavour, Ageing Tea, Tea Cakes, Tea Collectors, Tong Mu Village, Emperor’s Golden Eyebrow Tea
1:16:40 Brewing Techniques - Equipment, Temperature, Brew Ratio, Time
1:27:33 Carbonating Tea, Salting tea, Pairing with Cheese
1:29:37 Matcha - Colour, Origins, Production (traditional vs modern), Commodity Matcha Syrups & Matcha Trend, Matcha and Coconut Water
1:39:42 Caffeine in Tea - Inconsistency, vs. Coffee, Decaf Tea,
1:43:12 Alcohol based Tea Extractions - Protocols, Flavour, demo with Gin Infusion, Tea Cocktails
1:51:30 Closing Words - Tea in the Present Day, Yerba Maté

🙏 This episode is sponsored by Fever-Tree

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📚 I've written quite a few books on spirits and cocktails - https://www.thecuriousbartender.com/