Below is an excerpt from our website that reverses that position, and busts a number of myths about tea and caffeine. Our thanks go out to Nigel Melican for his constant hard work in trying to get the “real” information about tea and caffeine out there, as well as all his other hard work related to tea.

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“There is a lot of controversy about caffeine in Tea. In the past, the majority of tea retailers and wholesalers have reported that the levels of caffeine in black tea is higher than in green tea, and caffeine in Green tea is higher than White tea.

Studies and information have recently brought to light that this is NOT necessarily the case! There are some White teas that actually have more caffeine than Black teas, and Greens that have more than any other teas.

Because of this recent information, TeaFrog is joining a growing movement to fight the Caffeine myth in tea. We want to ensure that consumers receive the BEST and most UP TO DATE information regarding caffeine in tea. With that in mind, the following are a couple of myths about caffeine in tea that you should be aware of:

MYTH: You can decaffeinate tea by steeping it for 30 seconds and discarding that brew.
FACT: This is just simply not true. A study was done in 1996 that showed a 30 second decaffeination only removes 9% of the caffeine in the cup. This was data based on steeping of 6 different teas, each done three times to account for errors. The same study showed that on average, it took a steeping time of over 5 minutes to remove 80% of the caffeine, and more than 15 minutes (on average) to remove all caffeine. Needless to say, this would also remove all the flavour of the tea in the process!”

read more busted myths about tea and caffeine…

In the past year, I have put together a guide that answers all of these questions and more. This guide is a work in progress, and by no means is a definitive guide to every tea, and each nuance of those teas, rather, it is an overview of everything a new loose leaf tea drinker should know.

If I were to publish and sell this guide through the bookstore, you could expect to pay upwards of $25 for it. Because I want it to be accessible to EVERYONE, I am offering it absolutely FREE! Let me be clear here. You do not pay one single penny for it. There is no shipping fee, there is no taxes to be paid. You can download it, pass it around, print it out, and share it on torrent sites, do whatever you would like with it (short of claim it as your own!), and it costs you, nothing.

Simply go to our Beginners Guide to Loose Leaf Tea page, and download this superb value, and if you like it, let me know. If you don’t, LET ME KNOW! Submit your comment here, or just email me directly, I would love to hear your feedback! Remember, this guide is ABSOLUTELY FREE! No cost to you! Simply click through to our Beginners Guide to Loose Leaf Tea page, and you can be reading this amazing guide in minutes!

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With that out of the way, we have just posted a brand new recipe that uses a Rooibos infusion for stewing beef that has been braised in oil and flour. It is a fantastic tasting stew that includes cinnamon and ginger flavours, and is paired with sweet potatoes (want to really go wild? Try using one of our Flavoured Rooibos Teas instead of Rooibos Original!).

You can see this brand new recipe in the “tea culture” section of our website, under “Recipes” (or just click right through to it from here: Rooibos Tea Braised Beef with Sweet Potatoes).

Be sure to check out other recipes in our culture section, as well as a bevy of other useful tea related information!

Happy Steeping!

Beginning your journey into loose leaf tea can be daunting if you do not have the right tools and advice.

Loose leaf tea is continuing to grow in popularity all across North America. As a result, more people are searching for a way to get introduced to loose leaf tea, but become discouraged by the choice is out there. It can be daunting when you are faced with a selection of 10 different type of green tea, or a selection of estate black teas, but just don’t know where to make the plunge!

With that in mind, TeaFrog has introduced a starter set for new loose leaf tea drinkers. This starter set includes everything you need to start brewing good loose leaf tea, except the kettle and water! You get a BrewT™ Infuser, and a selection of good teas. You can choose from Green, Black, Rooibos or Tisane/Herbal sets. In each set you get a variety of 3 teas, each one specifically chosen to give you a variety of choices and flavours in that category.

Eliminate the fumbling to open a tea ball, not to mention the nightmare getting the loose leaf tea out of the mesh! The BrewT™ Infuser keeps the leaves where they belong, out of your cup. It is easy to clean, BPA free, and functions both as the infuser and the teapot in one.

There really is no easier way, or cost effective way to get introduced to loose leaf teas. Most stores force you to purchase large quantities of a tea, before you even taste it! This way, you get a small quantity of several teas, allowing you to determine, without a big investment, which ones you prefer.

This is also a great gift for a friend or relative that you want to introduce to loose leaf tea. They will appreciate the quality of the tea and the BrewT™ infuser, and it does not cost you an arm and a leg! Visit the TeaFrog store today, and see how easy it is to start drinking loose leaf tea!

Flowering teas are tea leaves, wrapped around a flower or flowers that appear as the leaves are infused and swell while absorbing the water they are in. These artisan products are each individually hand sewn, with each one taking anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes to create. It takes years of practice for an individual to truly master the art of creating blooming teas.

Produced almost entirely in China, there are of course, differing qualities of flowering teas on the market. The differences lie mainly in the quality of tea leaf that is used as the wrapping, and the actual quality of the sewing used to combine the leaves with the flowers. While there is no way to guarantee that each and every wrapped tea will open up perfectly, TeaFrog has spent a lot of time testing varying flowering teas to ensure that we select only the highest quality leaf combined with the highest percentage of success rate for the flowers to open.

As such, we are introducing 2 brand new flowering teas. First, “You Are My Sunshine Flowering Tea”. This display tea is wrapped using high quality white tip tea leaves, sewn around exquisite Jasmine Blossoms. As the leaves slowly unfurl, the Jasmine flowers appear as if they were the sun rising on a beautifu spring morning. The infusion has a light Jasmine flavour with notes of honey, and will stand up to multiple infusions.

The second flowering tea that we are introducing is “Dancing Angels Flowering Tea”. This treat for your senses consists of green tea leaves wrapped around an Amaranth flower, with an arch of Jasmine blossoms waving over it. This is an amazing display tea to watch, as well as being a delight to drink as well.

Flowering teas (or blossoming teas, or display teas as they are also known) are fun to experience by yourself, or with a group of friends. They are definitely a conversation piece when you bring them out at a party!

If you want to use the flower as a centerpiece, or display it on a shelf or in your kitchen, simply brew it as normal, leaving it to infuse for 10-12 minutes. Then replace the water with clear cold water, and add a bit of vinegar to preserve the flower and halt the infusion. The flowering tea should keep for 3-4 days for you to enjoy!

You can read more information about Teafrog’s flowering teas at our website:
learn more about flowering teas »

This Orange Pekoe tea is from the Mahagastota Estate in the region of Nuwara Eliya in Sri Lanka.  The estate is also known as Lovers Leap, after a well known story.  The story goes, that there was a daughter of a king who fell in love with a commoner.  This partnership was  forbidden, but she did not care, and ran away with her lover.  They ended up together at a high rock wall and jumped to their deaths to escape to an afterlife together.

This estate is one of the best estates in Sri Lanka.  It is known for it’s high quality Orange Pekoe teas, and this is no exception.  Graded FBOP (Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe), this tea is slightly astringent with lively flavor that is robust and tasteful.  

We recommend that this tea is taken without milk, to experience the full flavor it has to offer.  It can be consumed as a hot tea, and also makes an excellent iced tea.  You can enjoy this tea with dinner, or as an afternoon delight, tho it does hold up as a good tea for any time of the day.

You can purchase this Orange Pekoe tea from our website 24/7/365 for delivery direct to your door!

Afternoon Tea - A British meal eaten in mid afternoon, consisting of sandwiches, scones,and pastries accompanied by tea.
Agony of the leaves - The unfurling of tea leaves during steeping.
Assam - A major tea growing region in India. These black teas are known for their strong malty flavor.
Biscuity - Tea taster’s expression, often used with Assam teas that have been fired well.
Brick Tea - Tea leaves that have been steamed and compressed into bricks. Pu-erh is a common brick tea.
Camellia sinensis - Botanical name of the tea bush.
Coppery - A term describing a reddish infusion, associated with black teas of high quality.
Dhool - A term describing the coppery, fermenting tea leaf.
Earl Grey - A Black Tea blend flavored with Bergamot Oil. -
Flush - Refers to the timing of the tea harvest. “first flush” is the early spring plucking of new shoots. “second flush” is harvested late spring through early summer, yielding more body and full flavor. Autumnal flush is the late season harvest.
High tea - A meal served late afternoon to early evening which is a mixture of afternoon tea and dinner.
Light - A term describing tea that produces a weak infusion.
Orange Pekoe - Referring to size of leaf, not quality or flavor, this term indicates a larger-size grade of whole leaf teas.
Orthodox - Traditional method for picking and processing teas in India without using CTC technology.
Pungent - A term describing highly astringent tea.
Smoky - A term describing teas fired over an open fire, resulting in exposure to wood smoke.
Tannin - A term referring to the astringent polyphenols of tea, producing a bitter flavor.
White Tea - Rare teas of fine quality. White teas are known for their high antioxidant content and subtle flavor.
Yixing - Pronounced Yee-shing, a region in China known for its purple clay, and the unglazed teapots produced from it.

These are just a few of the more than 130 terms that are defined in our tea glossary on our website. Be sure to visit it and increase your knowledge of tea culture!

The oxidization process for white tea is halted almost immediately in white teas, often right in the fields, through heating or steaming. This allows the leaves to retain high concentrations of catechins and other anti-oxidants. Some estates go so far as to shield the buds from the sun to reduce chlorophyll formation.

In recent studies, white tea has been shown to have additional calming and detoxifying effects on the skin, as well as showing the same cancer fighting and anti-oxidizing properties that other teas show. White teas have as much as 3 times as many anti-oxidant polyphenols as other teas, due to the lack of oxidizing that takes place in the processing of this tea. It is much more effective in cleaning up free radicals in the body, which cause skin to sag and age.

Because of the extra high concentrations of the anti-aging and anti-oxidant polyphenols found in white tea, many cosmetic companies are utilizing concentrated white tea in new anti-wrinkle and anti-aging products. Whether these products are effective or not has yet to be proven.

With cancer fighting properties, and anti-aging properties, the velvety smooth taste you get from a quality white tea is a surprising bonus to this extraordinary tea - who says that healthy has to taste bad!

Because the young leaves and buds are used for white tea, it is much more rare than any black or green teas, and is often more expensive. As the health benefits are more widely recognized however, it has become more mainstream, and more available to the western public. TeaFrog has started flavouring white teas to great success, as can be found in our Blueberry Flavoured White tea, Coconut Vanilla White tea and brand new Pink Grapefruit White tea.

So give it a try today. You can purchase a high quality white tea directly from the TeaFrog online store, and have it delivered right to your door!

Green tea leaves are rolled into tight pellets, reminiscent of gunpowder pellets, and thus the name Gunpowder Tea. This is a fairly recent name for this tea, as it has been produced as far back as 600AD, when gunpowder had not yet been invented. It was introduced in the 1800’s to Taiwan, and it is surmised that it gained the name Gunpowder Tea shortly thereafter.

Gunpowder Green Tea produces a clear golden liquor when brewed, and has a grassy, slightly nutty, full and rich flavor. It is often blended with peppermint leaves to produce a favorite middle eastern tea referred to as “Morroccan Mint”.

When preparing Gunpowder Tea, use slightly less that the usual green tea amount called for (1 tsp) as it expands to many times it’s rolled size. In fact, the tea expands so much, it almost looks like your Gunpowder Tea is “exploding”!

Overall this is a tasty green tea, and will brew to a nice iced tea as well as the traditional warm tea. Consume this tea any time of the day, and it goes well with just about any type of food. Be extra carefull not to over steep this tea, as it will very quickly get very bitter, ruining the flavor of the tea.

To order Gunpowder Tea and brewing accessories, visit the TeaFrog Gunpowder Tea page.