However recently having put some study into the matter I have been greatly relieved with my findings.

Using the information available from the National Organics Program or the NOP, I was able to find a simple answer to my questions.

The USDA National Organics Program allows the use of certain natural (non-synthetic) substances, including flavors in products labeled as “Organic” or “Made with Organic”, providing they comply with provisions established in the USDA National Organics Program.

These provisions include the restriction of synthetic materials that are formulated and manufactured by a chemical process. 

This also restricts use of things such as GMO’s, ionizing radiation, or artificial preservatives.

When Natural flavoring is used in a product which has been approved by the USDA this means only natural essences or extractives obtained from distillation or heating of the product to create flavoring.

I invite you to do your own research but I was greatly relieved by my discoveries, and feel a confidence in knowing a little bit more about a subject that I truly care about.

Fresh Brewed Rooibos

I love chai. The spices seem to me to be a perfect scientific alchemy, a balance of spices, designed to produce, not only a uniquely flavorful tea, but also one with a little natural pick me up.  This perfect harmony of spices seems to awaken the senses at first with smell then the taste, and finally a warmth throughout the entire  body.

The ancient wisdom behind the classic masala chai blend is as simple as it is complex, and it is in this that the magic happens. Often so many great things are made by finding just the right balance, and harmony in what is natural.

At Da Cha teas we are introducing our Masala Chai with one of the most naturally flavor full herbs available in the world, Red Roobios or Bush Tea from South Africa, we call it our Red Chai Rooibos.

rooibos bush grown Cederburg South Africa

Rooibos or Red Bush is a grass which when cultivated and dried makes a delicious caffeine free brew, with a natural sweet nutty flavor. The qualities of Red Rooibos South African tea is a perfect companion for the ancient classic recipe of South Indian masala chai.

Red Chai Rooibos is a perfect tea enjoyed night or day.

Looking for that right tea but want to avoid the caffeine?  Try and see if a little natural zip from the conjoining of these two ancient natural herbs and spices doesn’t do the trick for you.

It is simply being passionate about something.

The same holds true for tea.

It is being able to appreciate and identify quality. It is taking time out of this fast paced, stressful life, to stop and smell the roses (or mm’m is that lavender with earl grey?)

Fine teas are a luxury that anyone can afford. Besides, it is the second most consumed beverage (behind water) in the entire world.

So go ahead, become a snob. The world could use a bit more passion in it. If you’re the typical American who has yet to venture beyond the commercial grade iced teas, now’s your chance to branch out, expand your horizons! You might just find tea awakens some passions.

A recent trend magazine quotes  ”Tea fits into this trend because a buying market that is interested in higher quality, is open to learning about the benefits of loose leaf tea.  They are even excited about becoming a tea snob.”

This is good news for me, I clearly fall into the tea snobbery category.  Passion is the tool that moves me, and the world of tea is exciting, and fascinating.

I’m always interested in finding out more about tea, and sharing my new discoveries with others.

I hope you’ll enjoy some of our other blogs on tea, and visit us on our website.

www.dachateas.com 

H'mong picking tea by climbing old and ancient tea tree

These ancient tea trees are said to be 300 years old,  already well beyond a tea shrub when the American Revolutionary War was about to happen.   A rare tea leaf indeed, a quality premium leaf with a unique flavor full of deep rich maltiness. These tea trees are all organic and the trees have never been altered in anyway.

Da Cha Teas Organic Plumberry Iced Tea

With the tea flavor rich in malty goodness, and harmoniusly blended with the artistic combination of plums and berries, this can only make for an outstanding tea blend perfectly refreshing, flavorful and invigorating.

Refreshing Summer time exotic tea

Enjoy a flavor which has been cultivated generation after generation in Nam Lahn Mountains in Vietnam.

Enjoying my tea wherever I go

Recently I took a short trip, and being such an avid tea drinker I hate to leave behind my favorite teas. So on this trip I was able to take my much loved teas along with me, in fact I even took them to resturants, where to my surprise bringing my own tea was readily respected, “But of course madam some hot water?” I was really pleased to say the least.

easy to scoop

One of the little secrets that made all of this possible is a simple device I can carry in my purse, called a Tea Stick. It made the whole process of scooping the perfect amount of tea from a bag, and placing it in a cup to brew, a very simple and tidy experience indeed.

I truly enjoyed my breakfast so much more, having the tea that I love, which for me is a must to start my day.

quick and easy brew

This device is something I highly recommend.

A great start to what's looking to be a great day

If you, like me, enjoy having your favorite teas wherever you go.

One of summers delights

As summer gets near, outdoor events are all the more enticing. Few things are as satisfying as an iced cold drink which is as healthful as it is thirst quenching.

After Moon Peaches Black Tea is a perfect flavor combination of ripe juicy peaches, dripping with natural sweetness, with the brisk and full body of organic blended fine Indian black teas. This mouth watering iced tea blend is a crowd pleaser for family and friends.

ripe juicy sliced peaches

Personally I adore the rich flavor of black tea, especially a fine quality organic black tea, fresh and brimming with abundant malty flavors and briskness.  I love it hot and I love it iced cold.   I was very pleased to discover recent medical studies praising the healthful qualities of black tea. It is not often I find that what I enjoy most is also really good for me.

The studies and benefits: new research done by Milton Schiffenbauer of Pace University suggests that drinking either green or black tea can help wipe out viruses in your mouth, (like herpes), and also help prevent diarrhea, pneumonia, cystitis, and skin infections. He states that these teas “deactivate” such viruses.

Refreshing After Moon Peaches

Studies done at Rutgers University reveal that black tea may help prevent stomach, prostate, and breast cancer. The chemicals found in black tea show it may slow down cancer growth. A compound called TF-2 causes such cancer cells to “commit suicide” while normal cells remain unaffected.

Dr. Kuang Yu Chen of Rutgers states that TF-2 has very interesting properties for fighting colon cancer cells. His team revealed that when normal cells were exposed to the TF-2 compound, nothing happened, but when cancer cells were exposed they underwent a process called “apoptosis programmed cell death” and were destroyed. The antioxidant compound TF-2 can also help abate inflammation as well.

Quench your thirst with After Moon Peaches

Black tea can also help prevent heart attack and stroke by saving arteries. In a test done by Dr. Joseph Vita, of the Boston University School of Medicine, he had some heart patients drink plain water, and the others black tea. After a month, the patients who drank the tea showed impaired blood vessel functioning had improved by 50%. In a related 10 year study done in the Netherlands, men who consumed 3 cups of black tea daily decreased their chances by 50% of dying from heart disease. More health benefits of black tea are, helps prevent tooth decay, can lower cholesterol.

More research must of course be done, but I’m not feeling so bad about having that second glass of tea, the caffeine content is much lower than a cup of coffee, and doesn’t give me the crash. So it is a summer of delicious iced teas for me this year, I hope you have the same summer of fun too.

This fine tea is made exclusively from a selected picking of plump spring buds.

One of the truly finest tea experiences available is from traditional style bud-set white tea, or Bai Hao Yin Zhen, or you may know it better as Silver Needles.

With hand picking done in early spring before the buds have had a chance to develop into leaves, there is a limited supply each year.  Of course this tea demands a higher price, but the flavor, and the fresh experience is well worth it.

This tea has such remarkable and ethereal quality it was claimed as exclusive provenance of China’s royalty. Today we mere mortals can enjoy this pale silver brew, with it’s subtle softness, and tones of sweet melon.

In accordance with tradition, these bud-sets are hand picked and then open air dried only, in a shaded area with good circulation, such as a pavilion.  In this way “greening” (chlorophyll development from exposure to sun) is prevented. The fresh tea is able to dry quickly without the additional need of heat applied.

Organic SIlver Needles from Da Cha Teas

Bai Hao Yin Zhen or Silver Needles is light in color, with a cast of soft greenish-grey. The tender buds are covered with soft downy hair, that makes for a velvety appearance to the tea. The brew  is pale in color, with a delicate, and delicious flavor, which is reminiscent of ripe honeydew melon.

There is nothing quite like the fine flavor of this truly remarkable tea, one must simply have the expereince to know the scope of this rare tea. It is said of this tea from ancient chinese poetry “White like the clouds, green like a dream, pure like the snow”.

Da Cha Teas offers Organic Silver Needles. Try it for yourself, for a truly unforgettable tea experience.

Stay Warm with Hot Tea!

This winter is calling out to all of us to stay warm, and drink hot fluids.

But did you know black tea is especially perfect for the wintertime?  There is history here that since ancient days of tea baring caravans by horseback and Cutty Sark Clippers Ships navigating the high seas, black tea has been easy to transport and retain its freshness over a long season and for lengths of time.

The ancient tea sellers made black tea into compressed bricks as well as wrapped bushels of loose leaf and send it on long journeys, trading it with foreign merchants for other materials. In some cases, black tea has even been used as a kind of currency, and in some parts of Asia, a practice that persisted even into the 19th century. Black tea eventually made its way to the West, where today tea drinkers enjoy black tea in a variety of hot and iced specialty drinks.

Keeping each other warm.

Assam tea is a superior kind of tea grown in the Eastern Himalayas, where the Indian mountains meet China, Myanmar, and Bangladesh.

The Brahmaputra River – a large slowly meandering river that over millennia of spring and fall flooding has deposited a rich loam over the valley, dominates the Assam valley in Indian. The soil is a deep and sandy and the region has a very hot and steamy monsoon season, but equally important a relatively dry and cool winter. Perfect conditions for the Assam tea bush.  

Assam is a full-bodied tea with good malty flavor, which is good all day. This tea, most of which is grown at or near sea level, is known for its body, briskness, malty flavor, and strong, bright color. The warm and wet climate, cradles the tea leaves in moisture as they grow.

Assam teas, or blends containing Assam, are often enjoyed as “breakfast” teas, such as in our Organic Earl Grey blends or Organic Nicely Spiced Orange Black tea, or our Organic Classic Masala Chai.

Assam tealeaves that have wonderful antioxidant properties.

As your body functions, it constantly produces unstable molecules called free radicals that damage other cells in your body. Black tea antioxidants, like polyphenols, scavenge your body for these free radicals to neutralize them…and may even repair the damage they cause.

Organic Chinese Scented Jasmine Tea from Da Cha Teas

We enjoyed two different teas which enveloped us in scent and flavor as we were embraced by the beauty surrounding us. First we enjoyed Da Cha Teas uniquely fragrant and delicious Organic Chinese Jasmine (Fair Trade) tea. With leaving plans open to the wind, we were not sure were we might end up, and under what circumstances. This tea proved to be delightfully refreshing and a welcome thirst quencher even served hot. The tea itself ended up being a perfect choice and a totally enjoyable experience.

The next day, we awoke at 3:30 am to take a 2 and a half hour drive up to Haleakala Crater Summit. Once you reach the base at the entrance of Haleakala National Forest it is a 10,000ft climb. We felt confident in our rugged 4×4, as we caravanned with other vehicles which had converged in the dark for the long climb. As we continued after a while the very early light began to give shape to the darkness. Now every hair pin turn, and un-railed corner could be seen, as well as just how really very high 6,000, then 8, 000 and finally 10, 000 ft really is.

Sunrise Haleakala Crater

As a tribute to the beautiful Hawaiian Islands, Da Cha Teas offered to this very special occasion Organic White Hawaiian Blend. A most outstanding unique tea. Many who have tried this tea have  immediately fallen in love with it and have been devoted fans since. This special tea we felt was a perfect and honorable tribute to serve at such a rare and unique and truly Hawaiian Place.

view of the crater as the sunrises

View from Haleakala Maui to Maunakea Big Island