TEA Lovers

Happy International Tea Day ✨

Tea is a beverage made from the Camellia sinesis plant. Tea is the world's most consumed drink, after water. International Tea Day is marked on 21 May each year across the globe... Happy international Tea Day to

Thai Iced Tea Recipe 🍃🥤

Ingredients 👉

*2 tablespoons loose-leaf black tea
* 1 pod star anise
* 2 pods cardamom
* 1/2 cinnamon stick, optional
* 1/8 vanilla bean, optional
* Tamarind powder, to taste, optional
* 1/4 teaspoon almond extract, optional
* 1 cup boiling water
* 1 tablespoon sugar
* 1 tablespoon sweetened condensed milk
* 2 teaspoons evaporated milk, or coconut milk, or whole milk

Steps to Make It👉

✅Gather the ingredients.

✅2 tablespoons loose-leaf black tea, 1 pod star anise, 2 pods cardamom, 1/2 cinnamon stick, 1/8 vanilla bean, tamarind powder (to taste), and 1/4 teaspoon almond extract (if using) in the boiling water for 5 minutes.

✅Strain the tea through a fine mesh sieve and discard the tea leaves and Stir in 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 tablespoon sweetened condensed milk until both are completely dissolved.

✅Fill 2 tall glasses with ice. Pour the tea over the ice, leaving an inch or so of space at the top for the evaporated milk.

✅Top up with more ice if needed, and then drizzle with 1 teaspoon of evaporated milk on each glass of tea.

Lots of Thai iced teas get their flavor from a prepared syrup or powder, but this one uses real spices and high-quality black tea to give it that authentic flavor. Making it at home is both easier and more affordable than buying it by the glass, and you can adjust the taste by tweaking your spice blend

📌 How to changed the 137 years old Colombo Physical Tea Auction from its famous outcry system to a digital auction system. 👉👉👉

✅The first Tea Auction in Colombo was held on 30th July 1883 in the office of Somerville & Co., down Queen Street now renamed Janadhipathi Mawatha.

✅Prior to this, many tea plantation people shipped Ceylon teas to the London Tea Auction or sometimes directly to overseas buyers.

✅The Auction itself was only modestly successful with only one lot of Kabaragala un-assorted tea selling for cents 45 a pound whereas the other 4 lots remained unsold due to either lack of bids or due to bids received not meeting the Broker’s expectations.

✅Despite debacles, Somerville & Co. and the other brokers persisted and were able to conduct auctions on a regular basis from 1885. In 1894 the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) set up the Colombo Tea Traders’ Association to formulate rules for the conduct of the Tea Auction. They promoted the common interest of buyers and sellers in the Colombo market.

✅With modest beginning, Colombo Tea Auction (CTA) grew to be the largest tea auction in the world in terms of the number of lots sold. Mombasa in Kenya has for several years been the largest tea auction in terms of the volume of tea traded.

✅CTA saw many changes over the years meeting changing circumstances. Auctions were originally conducted in the CCC Building in Chatham Street on one day of the week on a regular basis in one auction room.

✅As more and more tea was being sold through the Colombo Tea Auction and the number of lots increased the auction split over to the second day. With the further increase in the number of lots the CCC Board Room was converted into a second auction room.

✅The new CCC building at Nawam Mawatha made provision for two custom built auction rooms, but in the course of time this too proved to be insufficient and today the Colombo Tea Auction is conducted on two days of the week concurrently in three auction rooms.

✅Today with tea factories increasing the number of grades to meet buyer demand the number of lots are correspondingly increasing placing a further strain on the system.

✅As it is an auction on two full days namely Tuesday and Wednesday results in a severe strain on buyers having to taste, grade and evaluate up to 12,000 different lots of tea during the other days of the week, so that they could be prepared to bid for teas at the next week’s auction.

✅COVID19 changed the 137 year old Colombo Tea Auction from its famous outcry system to a digital auction system. Once again, the industry showed its resilience by rising to the occasion in digitalizing the auction in a very short period of time, which was facilitated by the Colombo Tea Traders' Association (CTTA) and supported by the Colombo Brokers' Association (CBA) and CICRA Holdings.

✅With no auctions for two weeks due to partial shutdown to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country, the industry has been scrambling to take the online route to ensure continuity of supply and demand and cash flow. The e-auction enabled sellers and brokers to catalogue teas electronically and buyers to bid online.

✅Online auction has been spoken about in Sri Lanka many years, but the industry had failed to reach an agreement. However, given the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to keep the economically-important tea industry going, the trade and brokers united. E- Auction was possible after multiple discussions between various stakeholders, mock runs and training by electronic platform provider CICRA Solutions. According to CICRA Solutions, over 300 buyers have registered on the online system along with eight brokers.

✅The Sale No. 12 of 2020 which was scheduled as a manual auction for 24/25 March 2020 eventually commenced on 4 April 2020 as an electronic auction and was concluded on 8 April 2020. The first auction took five days as the users had to be trained so they could adopt the technology. With the users being trained on several occasions, today’s e-Auction is held for two days per week.

Happy International Tea Day 🤍🍃☕️

Tea is a beverage made from the Camellia sinesis plant. Tea is the world's most consumed drink, after water. International Tea Day is marked on 21 May each year across the globe... Happy international Tea Day to

Black Ivory Coffee is a brand of coffee produced by the Black Ivory Coffee Company Ltd in northern Thailand from Arabica coffee beans consumed by elephants and collected from their waste. The taste of Black Ivory coffee is influenced by elephants' digestive enzymes, which breaks down the coffee's Black Ivory Coffee is among the world's most expensive coffees, at US$2,000 per kilogram .

Kopi luwak coffee is priced high because it comes from the partially digested coffee cherries excreted by civets. It requires a tedious harvesting process and laborious farming methods. This coffee costs up to $1,300 per kilogram. There’s a high demand and low supply, further increasing the price.

You must have a fantastic palate to be a professional Tea Taster 🌱☕️

Tea is a beverage made from the Camellia sinesis plant. Tea is the world's most consumed drink, after water. International Tea Day is marked on 21 May each year across the globe... Happy international Tea Day to

You Know??? What are the types of Korean Teas??????? 😮☕️👉

In Korea, you will find teas made from leaves, roots, flowers, fruits, grains, edible mushrooms, seaweed, and more. So, let’s learn about the different types of tea. Below, we only listed 10 types of Korean teas.

1. Citron Tea (Yuja-Cha)

Korean citron tea is a herbal tea made by preserving the yuja fruit (citron in English) with sugar and/or honey. This preserved fruit is actually very similar to western-style marmalade. Then, once preserved, people in Korea spoon the marmalade-like citron tea into a cup of hot water. It will dissolve, leaving only bits of the fruit that you can chew on as you drink the tea.

2. Barley Tea (Bori-Cha)

Korean barley tea is made from roasted barley steeped in hot water. Often, this drink is consumed cold. like iced tea
Remember, barley is not gluten-free.

3. Chrysanthemum Tea (Gukhwa-Cha)

This type of tea is made using chrysanthemum flowers that are collected when they are still budding. At this point, they aren’t fully opened. Then, the flowers are blanched, washed, and dried for later use. When you make this drink, place a few flowers in a cup and pour hot water over them. Then, the flowers will open in the glass.

4. Jujube Tea (Daechu-Cha)

This jujube tea is made similarly to citron tea. To make this tea, you make a marmalade-like mixture using dried or fresh jujube (dates) and honey. Then, when you want to drink the tea, you mix it into hot water until dissolved. Often, people in Korea mix other ingredients into this tea as well

5. Corn Tea (Oksusu-Cha)

In South Korea, they make corn tea from dried and roasted kernels of corn. Then, they add the roasted kernels into boiling water. The kernels sit in the boiling water it turns turns yellow. You then strain the tea and discard the kernels. On one hand, people like to add sugar to this drink. On the other hand, many people believe this tea is already slightly sweet without adding the sweetener.

6. Corn Silk Tea (Oksusu-Suyeom-Cha)

While you make the tea above from corn kernels, you make this tea from the silky part of the corn husk. Isn’t it great that they use this part of the corn versus just throwing it away? People often find that corn silk tea is slightly sweeter than the roasted corn kernel version.

7. Tartary Buckwheat Tea (Memil-Cha)

To make this tea, you use roasted buckwheat that you then steep in hot water. Like most traditional Korean teas, you can drink this either hot or cold. Recently, tatari (tatary) buckwheat grown in the northern Gangwon Province of South Korea is becoming increasingly popular. This type of buckwheat is nuttier.

8. Plum Tea (Maesil-Cha)

Plum tea is made from Korean plum extract! To make this drink, combine the plum extract with cold water. Then, serve the drink with some ice! This is perfect during the really hot months of the year.

9. Honey Plum Tea (Kkul Maesil-Cha)

While the plum tea above is made from plum extract, this is made from plums preserved in honey. Like the citron and jujube teas, you make this plum tea by preserving plums in honey. Then, you can spoon out the tea and add it to hot water. Finally, stir the mixture until the honey dissolves.

10. Job’s Tears Tea (Yulmu-Cha)

In South Korea, you make this tea from a combination of powdered Job’s tears grains such as walnuts, black beans, black sesame, almonds, corn, and brown rice. Then, you add sugar to make the drink sweeter. This is a healthy tea you can enjoy anytime!

Viharagala Bungalow, Wellawaya

Located in Viharagala Tea Estate and surrounded by gardens and grass lawns, the 125-year old Viharagala Bungalow....