Black Currant Rooibos - 52Teas Week of May 16, 2011 Blend

Welcome summer with Frank@52Teas latest blend, Black Currant Rooibos:

Image used with permission/copyrighted
www.52teas.com
Only $7.99 (including shipping), but check out other in stock blends with this master blender.

Tea Trade - Give it a Chance

Tea Trade is now available for tea bloggers (fellow tea dorks like me), and those who want to buy and sell tea.

At first my friends and I were wary of the process. We enjoy tea swapping with tea enthusiasts on sites like steepster.com. Most of the time we just cover the cost of shipping to the person and have the philosophy that we'll "get the $ back" when the person returns the tea favor. Or we just enjoy swapping teas and sharing them.

Tea Trade offers a forum for people to actually sell tea that they have accumulated through regular purchases, gifts and swaps. Some steepster folks are signing up. I did as a test run - with the blog.

I am not a fan of Wordpress, which is the format used by Tea Trade. However some sites are able to be mirrored. (Like mine.) Others can be domain mapped, as Pete (founders) explained in a post. Leafbox is an example; it's hosted by Tea Trade but has its own domain. Pretty cool. Eventually I may do that with Keen Tea Thyme. Maybe.

Pete added in the comment that Tea Trade hopes to work with businesses too. That will be a bonus, maybe we can get samples, etc. Details are still under development. But they've got an awesome, informative FAQ page. 

So you can look at this a few ways:
-a Tea Yard Sale, in a way, where you can clear out unwanted teas
-a place to sell your own custom creations
-a place to find new teas
-a place to avoid, because you don't have an open mind. ;)

Give this place a chance. Let's see how Tea Trade will do. We'll check back with them in six months and see how the business is going.

Meanwhile, there are some rooibos tea I need to part with. Any takers?

The Case Against Rooibos

from Mountain Rose Herbs

I've been drinking tea for years and have established only one Tea Foe: Red Rooibos (RR). (People seem to disagree on the spelling. This is the most common way to spell I could find.)


Why is RR a Tea Foe? Because for some reason it gives me a headache. Just the smell of RR can send my head spinning. I am prone to migraines - I get at least four a month, if not more - so I am trying anything and everything to avoid headache triggers. RR is definitely one of them.


It began when I tried a RR from Adagio. I don't remember what kind. I just remember ordering it as a caffeine-free alternative to other teas. Once I opened the lid of the little sample and I smelled that woodsy/sawdust flavor my head started to pound. 


I threw it out, thinking it was old. Tried again, this time at Teavana, with the Sweet Amore blend. I don't believe they have this blend anymore, but this was heavy in RR. I couldn't take it. I gave it away, knowing it wasn't tea going bad, that's just how it smelled. Ugh.


Fast forward to about a month ago, when I realized there is another variety of Rooibos - green! I've tried it and am satisfied: NO HEADACHE.


So what gives? What is in the RR that triggers my headache? The answer is: Tannin. Tannin is a pesky trigger for people who suffer from chronic headaches and migraines like I do. I have to be careful when drinking red wine, too, for high tannin levels. According info provided to Wikipedia, with the exception of tea drinking, imbibing large amounts of tannins isn't recommended. For example, red wines are produced with a larger amount of tannins to preserve the color and flavor (i.e., of the wood barrel).


From http://www.ochef.com/197.htm:

"Tannins are substances present in the seeds and stems of grapes, the bark of some trees, and yes, tea leaves. They are described as interfering with digestive processes, and until more effective synthetics were found, were used to tan animal hides and turn them into leather."

Gross! Used to make leather? Astringent? What else is in the seedy history of Rooibos?

From http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A12644020:

"For centuries, rooibos tea was drunk by the Khoisan tribe of South Africa, who used it as a herbal medicine. 
In 1904, a Russian immigrant called Benjamin Ginsberg began to offer Rooibos to a worldwide market, calling it 'Mountain Tea'. 


(cont.)
In 1968, a South African mother named Annique Theron accidentally used some leftover rooibos tea in her baby daughter's bottle and discovered that it had a calming and soothing effect, relieving the baby's chronic restlessness, vomiting and stomach cramps. She advertised in her local newspaper and found other mothers whose infants had similar problems, and these provided a testing ground for her theories about the healing properties of rooibos tea. Wanting to share her discovery with the rest of the world, she wrote a book on the anti-allergic qualities of the Rooibos plant called Allergies: an Amazing Discovery. She later created a range of skincare products containing rooibos extract, which are used to treat dry, irritated and allergic skin.


(cont.)
In 1997, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) awarded rooibos a gold medal for its anti-allergic properties, and in 1998 it awarded Annique Theron 'Woman Discoverer of the Year'."


Crazy! But it makes sense - some say that rooibos HELPS their headaches: http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?t=1804

The investigation continues... for now I just avoid RR, my sole Tea Foe, and focus on its new sib, Green Rooibos.





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For more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_wine_headache
http://www.widomaker.com/~jnavia/tannins/tannexpl.htm
http://www.relieve-migraine-headache.com/tannins.html