“There is no love sincerer than the love of food” ~George Bernard Shaw
Two of our more recent tea trips abroad have borne particularly delicious fruits. One is Huang Cha Delicate Yellow Tea, one of the world’s great, rare teas from China; the other, a mouth-watering rooibos recipe book from South Africa’s leading chefs.
To celebrate our two finds and this month’s Organic Fortnight, we are offering a variety of Special Offers, featuring some of our finest green and rooibos teas, as well as the ‘Touch of Rooibos’ cookery book.
Best wishes from all at Dragonfly
Huang Cha Delicate Yellow Tea is a particularly fragrant and sweet tea. Tea Masters slowly steam the leaves and the ancient process of “men huan” or “sealing the yellow” gives the characteristic yellow colour of the infusion.
The Chinese began to steep whole leaves in the 14th Century at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. Until then the custom was to drink powdered teas, similar to the Matcha Tea still enjoyed by the Japanese today in their tea ceremonies.
Coincidentally, yellow was known as an Imperial colour, the “Colour of Magnificence”, in China and was actually reserved for the Emperor’s Court. Because of this and the tea’s delicacy, yellow tea was offered to emperors as a tribute.
Yellow tea is very rare, as it is only produced in a few small mountainous areas and following the social upheavals in 1949, drinking such fine teas was considered elitist. Fortunately these more relaxed times have seen a renewed interest in high quality tea. This gem of China’s tea culture is now re-emerging as tea makers rekindle their skills and pass them on to younger generations.
After looking for many years, we have finally found an affordable fine quality yellow tea and for convenience, we have broken up the leaves of this China tea for serving in tea bags. Click here to buy on-line.
Organic Twinpack for £3 Choose two packs from a range of nine of our finest organic teas, including ‘Slimmer’s Tea’ Pu’er for £3, saving up to 20%.
With culinary roots stretching to Europe, Asia and across Africa, and produce from a bountiful coast and a myriad of climates, eating in South Africa can be both delicious and surprising.
We were delighted to have been sent the recently produced rooibos cookbook, ‘A Touch of Rooibos’, a compilation of recipes from fourteen of South Africa’s leading chefs. They all regard rooibos as an important ingredient, complementing and intensifying the natural flavours of food, making perfect bases for marinades, sauces, soups and stocks.
We want to share some of these recipes with you and so, from nearly 100 recipes, we have selected a few, giving details on our web-site, including:
Cool down and freshen up with our delicious summer drinks
With a 100 year family history of not only growing, but drinking plenty of rooibos in the sunny climes of South Africa, we have some favourite thirst-quenching and hydrating recipes that are all naturally caffeine-free.
Also, unlike iced black teas, rooibos iced teas won’t go bitter and will last in the fridge as happy as penguins for 3 days.
To get you started we’ve also come up with some Summer Offers so that you can enjoy them all!
“There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.” Henry James The Portrait of a Lady
Recently Afternoon Tea has been called the ‘new going out’ and tea referred to as the new, smart coffee. Fine quality teas, accompanied by delicious cakes, scones and sandwiches, are all becoming increasingly popular.
So, with this in mind, we have paired some of our luxury teas with traditional Afternoon Tea fare and introduced new Fine China Teas, together with some great Easter offers. We hope you enjoy.
Best wishes from all at Dragonfly
White Tea - Brownies or chocolate chip cookies, anything with chocolate. The darker the chocolate, the more delicious the combination.
Moonlight Jasmine and Jasmine Dragon Pearls Tea - Pastries or flapjacks. Jasmine is an exquisite match with slightly fatty foods.
English Breakfast, Darjeeling, Earl Grey - Scones or afternoon tea sandwiches, a truly classic combination. Try Rooibos Breakfast, Evening Blend and Earl Grey for naturally caffeine free alternatives.
Moroccan Mint Green Tea - Pistachio, sesame seed and honey cakes, all a great match for this refreshing tea.
Traditional Indian Chai or Cape Malay Rooibos Chai – Dundee and Banana Cakes. The fruit helps to enhance the luxurious spices of these teas.
Pu’er Tea - Round off any meal with this traditional and intriguing Chinese digestif.
On our most recent travels through mountains in China, we found three more of the country's finest teas, that we have selected for both quality and value. Uniquely, for convenience, these fine tasting, superior quality leaf teas are broken up for serving in tea bags.
Lung Ching Refreshing Green Tea China's most famous and historic quality tea, grown only in the high ground overlooking the beautiful West Lake and the ancient city of Hangzhou. The leaves are picked in early spring, when master tea makers skilfully turn the leaves by hand in hot pans, producing a tea renowned for its fragrant aroma and full, rounded, distinctively sweet, nutty taste.
Huang Cha Delicate Yellow Tea One of the great rare teas of China, offered as a tribute to Chinese emperors for centuries. The uniquely pale yellow liquor is attained by the additional step in the tea process, ‘men huan’ (sealing yellow). The leaves are slowly steamed to enhance fragrance and sweetness.
Chung Mee Pure Green Tea China’s favourite, everyday quality tea. Traditionally rolled, skilfully producing fine, taut and curved needles, which give the tea its name, ‘Chung Mee’ or ‘Precious Eyebrow’. A particularly clear infusion, with a light, smooth and mellow taste. There is absolutely no bitterness, but a hint of fresh plums with a pleasant, lasting fragrance..
Choose any two packs for £3 Black Teas - Traditional English Breakfast, Classic Earl Grey, Golden Himalayan and Traditional Indian Chai Naturally caffeine free Rooibos Teas - Breakfast, Earl Grey, Evening and Vanilla
You will also receive two complimentary sachets of our Organic Traditional English Breakfast Tea, when buying a pack of any of the teas featured above. More info
“The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, someone to love and something to hope for”
We agree with the Scottish writer, Alexander Chalmers and so our February letter has some lovely ideas for St. Valentine’s Day that we hope you’ll enjoy.
Best wishes from all at Dragonfly.
Includes eight hand-crafted ‘Hearts of Tea’ from a skilful tea maker in China’s Yunnan Province. Watch the leaves of each heart unfurl in a pot of tea for two. This high quality green tea is light, refreshing and particularly delicious.
Our hand-made Hang Tao teapot heightens the tea drinking experience. The glass perfectly presents the colours of the tea while the separate internal glass chamber allows gentle infusions, free of leaves. With two quality, designer cups and saucers and a complimentary choice of one of our organic teas.
Our highly ﬁnished, solid wooden cases, from renewable Poplar, are ﬁlled with some of our ﬁnest teas. Choose either 6 or 9 different teas from our ranges of Traditional Organic, Dragonfly Selection and Caffeine-free.
For UK deliveries, please order by 8th February to avoid disappointment.
“Oh lover of mine! Forget the wine, Pour me Dragonfly, so divine”
So says the winner of one our previous competitions. Again, we would love to hear of the wonders of your valentine and if Dragonfly or Tick Tock get a mention, then all the better. We are offering a wooden case of six of our teas to the winner and a Tick Tock mug to the two runners up. Entries by email by 28th February.
Tea in Japan isn’t simply a cuppa. Watch Japanese people sipping tea; the tea has their full attention, as if the whole body is part of the taste and fragrance experience. The finest teas are treated with veneration. Often hand-rolling 300gm of the finest tea takes six hours to complete. We spent a day with one of Japan’s finest artist-craftsmen tea masters, near the ancient capital Kyoto. He hand-rolls Japan’s finest Gyokuro
green teas for the personal use of the Emperor. Last year Dragonfly Teas were honoured to supply the tea to the Emperor of Japan during his stay, with his retinue of 80 courtiers, at London’s famous Claridge’s Hotel.
This Gyokuro is said to be the highest grade of Japanese tea and one of the very finest teas in the world, with leaves that are screen-shaded from the sun, to increase their sweet mellowness and greenness. The leaves are so fine that the infusion is traditionally eaten as a delicacy with the addition of ponzu sauce.
There are said to be only three people left in Japan who still roll tea by hand in the ancient way. It is said to take at least ten years to learn these ancient and traditional skills. The Gyokuro tea is rolled in quantities about the size of a loaf of bread, on a slightly heated paper-covered table.
Bruce Ginsberg reported that the lengthy process was carried out with huge enjoyment and great good humour, producing the most wonderful and extraordinary aromas. After Bruce’s visit to Japan, it was agreed that Dragonfly should be the tea master’s exclusive British Supplier. Emperor’s Pearl Dew Gyokuro has to be really fresh to be enjoyed at its optimum. We have again received a small, limited quantity of this remarkable tea. Try this wonderful and unique infusion.
Chinese National Tea Champions
Tea for us is an enchantment that draws us towards all sorts of tea gardens around the world. In China’s Szechuan province earlier this year an old Chinese Tea-master told us, the week before the earthquake in April, of the concept of ‘tea-friends’, that people who like tea, wherever, instantly have a friendship. Exactly our feelings.
We like to personally spend time with our growers, tea masters and suppliers, find new teafriends and deepen our insight into this long tradition that looks back to a reputed 6000 different teas, all with their own specialist techniques to create a subtle uniqueness.
One of our most entertaining discoveries, of late, came to our attention on a trip to China. Traditional Chinese tea houses are places of music and chatter. They are also invariably very busy places. The combination of these two factors has created a bizarre and wonderful national sport – tea pouring!
Competitors, dressed in 19th century attire and small circular hats, and bright satin scholar gowns or bright brocade trouser suits engage in an elaborate tea pouring ritual whereby hot tea is poured from brass teapots with 2-foot-long spouts over great height into tiny cups, without a drop being spilled. Over the shoulder, across the body, across the table with different acrobatic poses and contortions all incorporated to demonstrate pouring skills.
A national competition, a type of “Strictly Come Pouring” is televised across China, with competitors from well-known teahouses across China. Don’t try it yourselves; this year’s new champions showed us the scars on the backs of their necks from when it all went wrong. See the video
We thought you may be interested in the results of the first ever human clinical trial on rooibos, conducted by the American Botanical Council. The tests were on whether the tea can possibly lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. More Info
Lest we forget, the festive season is upon us once again! Browse our website for gift ideas a-plenty for the discerning tea drinker, including our exclusive poplar wood presentation boxes to arrive filled with your choices from a selection of our finest teas. More Info