I’m a huge fan of tea, so I was totally delighted when my friend and site director Becky shared NPR’s Tea Tuesdays. This weekly column on National Public Radio’s food blog, The Salt delves into the history and mystery of tea, and it makes for delightful reading. Prepare your perfect cup of tea, and let’s dive in!
Each week for the past few months, The Salt has been hosting a new feature called Tea Tuesdays, and it’s a really fun and interesting look into the history of tea and how it’s shaped our palates and our politics. Tea Tuesdays explores the ancient and modern science, history, culture and economics of one of the world’s favorite brewed beverages.
Tea is an ancient beverage that is infused with history from the many tea-producing regions of the world: India, China, Japan, but it also has a strong cultural hold on the tea consuming areas of the world: England, US, Russia and beyond, and this series aims to share them all.
A bit about tea: did you know that green tea, black tea, oolong and pu-erh tea are all the same plant? Camellia sinensis is the tea plant that produces all types of tea. The type of tea that you drink depends on how early the tea leaves were harvested, and whether the leaves were dried, cooked, or fermented before it was packaged for you. The best part is that tea has all this variety, culture, history AND it’s super good for you. There are tons of health benefits from green tea and black tea, and if you ferment it into kombucha you get an even more potent health tonic.
Check out all the featured articles thus far on Tea Tuesdays:
- High Tea, Afternoon Tea, Elevenses: English Tea Times For Dummies
- As American As Iced Tea: A Brief, Sometimes Boozy History
- In The Japanese Tea Ceremony, Politics Are Served With Every Cup
- Sip It Slowly, And Other Lessons From The Oldest Tea Book In The World
- Tea Tuesdays: Cold Weather, Gogol And The Rise Of The Russian Samovar
- Tea Tuesdays: Matcha-maker, Matcha-maker, Make Me Some Tea
- Tea Tuesdays: Butter Up That Tea, Tibetan-Style
- Tea Tuesdays: Tea-Drinking Tips For A Longer Life
- Tea Tuesdays: Tea, Tao And Tourists — China’s Mount Hua Is Three-Part Harmony
- Tea Tuesdays: The Evolution Of Tea Sets From Ancient Legend To Modern Biometrics
- Tea Tuesdays: How Tea + Sugar Reshaped The British Empire
- Tea Tuesdays: Gift Of The Moon, Bane Of The Spanish — The Story Of Yerba Mate
- Tea Tuesdays: The Scottish Spy Who Stole China’s Tea Empire
- Tea Tuesdays: Kenyan Farmers See Green In The Color Purple
- Tea Tuesdays: The Chemis-Tea Of Pouring The Perfect English-Style Cuppa
And our favorite tea recipes cover a big swath of flavor too! Here are some of our favorite tea blog posts:
How to Make Ginger tea from fresh ginger
How to Make Homemade Kombucha Tea
How to Make Barley Tea
Homemade Ginger Mint Tea
Homemade Red Chai
How to make Umesho Bancha Tea
Tea Cocktails from Eat Drink Better
Learn about Earl Gray Tea from Eat Drink Better
Review about Choice Organic Teas from Eat Drink Better
Beauty Uses for Teabags from Feelgood Style
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