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Top Winter Teas
Karkady - The Red Tea of Egypt One of the gastronomic delights I had the pleasure of tasting recently in Egypt. While drunk cold in summer, karkady makes a fantastic hot drink for winter months. Check out our karkady recipe (recommended by Anna, the travelling Tea Lady) Tart, bright-red hibiscus tea, known in Arabic as karkady, has been popular in many lands for hundreds of years, especially in Africa - and nowhere more so than in Egypt and the Sudan. In most of the West, however, it remains virtually unknown. The Karkady plant, Hibiscus sabdariffa, is said to have come originally from Southeast Asia. Today, the tall two metre red cane is grown widely in Egypt and Sudan, as well as Thailand, China, Tanzania, Mali and Senegal and is known by different names in different lands. The main Egyptian karkady plantations (where Tea Total sources its hibiscus tea) are in the dry, hot regions of Upper Egypt (which is actually in southern Egypt) around Qena and Aswan and in the oasis of Fayoum; there are also some plants in the Nile Delta. The plant is a deep rooted annual, requiring fertile sandy soil, warmth and plenty of water. It also needs some 13 hours of sunlight during the first four to five months of growth. The tall slender red canes, with green, red-streaked leaves grow tall and when the days grow shorter and the sunshine les intense, small pinkish flowers appear at intervals all the way up. Opening at dawn, the flowers wither by mid-day. Once the seeds begin to form, the large, fleshy red calyces (they aren't petals) form around the seed pods and grow crisp and juice. It is this outer covering that is gathered and dried to make karkady. The calyces mature during the long, hot days of summer and the harvest begins in the autumn. Millions of seed pods must be snapped off the canes one by one, by hand. It is tiring, back breaking work. The seed pods are then laid out to dry for three or four days. After which the karkady is ready for market. What is Sencha? Sencha literally means roasted tea. An old name referring to the main processing stage once used in the making of this most popular of all Japanese green tea. In the modern sencha-making process, the leaf is initially steam treated before further processing by hot-air drying, rolling and finally light roasting. Steaming halts any fermentation (oxidization), the main difference between green and black tea production. Most Tea Total flavoured green teas have a sencha base. What is Rooibos? Rooibos or Red Bush tea is indigenous to the Cederberg region of the Western Cape of South Africa. It is the only place that it is grown in the world. This small shrub has needle like leaves and fine stems with tiny yellow flowers, much like our Broom. Rooibos, unlike the name suggests, grows as a green plant, only changing to red once harvested and dried. The Rooibos farmer can expect his first harvest after one and a half years. After three years the bushes will be in full production. Harvest time is during the summer and early autumn. Branches are cut by hand and transported to the certified production lines where they are cut to pieces of about 5mm. Next, the tea is wet thoroughly and bruised. The tea is then placed in fermentation heaps and allowed to sweat or ferment for 8 to 24 hours. After this the tea is dried in the sun on special yards. The dried teas are then sifted and delivered to the Rooibos Tea Board. Samples are tested by the Board for quality control and grading. The tea is also subjected to a very strict micro-biological test before being sent to distributors. Rooibos properties & benefits…. Rooibos is a herbal tea that is caffeine free, low in tannin and very rich in anti-oxidants. It has a pleasant sweet taste and a variety of health benefits such as relief of insomnia, stomach cramps and constipation, promotes healing of skin ailments such as eczema and acne when applied to the skin as well as promoting healthy skin in general it also reduces the negative damaging effects of free radicals such as aging skin. Rooibos preparation…. Use 1 teaspoon of Rooibos per cup in a teapot or infuser, add boiling water and infuse for 5 minutes. The same infusion may be used for additional cups of tea by adding more boiling water. Rooibos can be drunk on it’s own or by adding a little sugar, honey or milk if preferred.The Tea Lady in India  Not long ago I visited the tea estates of Darjeeling in northern India. What follows is an overview of tea production and our travels in this stunning region. Although the train from Calcutta is called the Darjeeling Mail the rail head at New Jalpaiguri is nowhere near Darjeeling. We located our driver after the 12 hour train trip. Bags loaded we started towards the hills of Darjeeling, hidden by mist. Although only 80km away, the trip takes around 3 hours. Half way up the 'hills' (even by NZ standards these are mountains) we understood the need for narrow mini vans. The roads are excessively windy and narrow. We also saw why jeeps are so common, the roads are appalling, potholed and subsiding in many places. Road is the only form of transport into this region, train is impossible due to the gradients and the constant mist and fog renders air operation possible only on clear days, therefore not a viable option. It was tried once and failed.Our driver took us directly to the Ging Tea Estate where the manager resides in pre-independence splendor compared to most other folk. Each tea garden has a bungalow built in times of the British Raj, around the 1840's. Some have had little maintenance since then, others have been well cared for with beautiful surrounding gardens lovingly tended, a past-time for bored and lonely managers wives. Tea estate managers are high up on the food chain in this very hierarchical society. With around 20 servants at Ging, doors are opened, luggage carried, beds turned down, drinks bought, food put on plates, 'bed tea' served in the morning at whatever time required. This is surely the ultimate lifestyle for those with an inclination to avoid the mundane activities of day to day living. The only problem being location.  Tea estates in Darjeeling are perched on the sides of mountains and range from 2000 to over 6000 feet in elevation on each garden. These are vertical farms. The managers bungalows are generally situated in the most picturesque location - the British weren't stupid. But they are also isolated by treacherous, narrow roads. A managers wife, having her household duties completed by others, cannot fill her time by simply popping next door to visit her neighbour or heading into town. It's an isolated existence, especially if the children are grown and away from home.  After the hot and horn filled nights of Calcutta, Darjeeling was bliss. Cold nights (hot water bottles provided) and cool days, around 18 degrees, were most welcome. Unfortunately the the snow covered peaks of the surrounding Himalays were invisible due to mist and fog - normal for the summer season. Winter, while cold, affords stunning views.  Feeling bold I asked our hosts why they had gone to so much trouble on our behalf, taking time out from their work to visit various tea estates, over an hour away by 4WD, but maybe only 10-15kms, booking hotels for us and providing a driver and car at our disposal. I'm not even a large volume customer. The reply was they hoped to do some more business, but more importantly because they live in an isolated environment, their neighbours being illiterate workers, they relish the opportunity to converse with educated people. Now I understood why nothing was too much trouble.  The tea production was more than fascinating, I'd never given much thought to the processes involved in getting a few leaves into my cup. Consider these facts: In Darjeeling an estate can range from 2000 - 6500ft, and it's seriously steep. Pluckers, all women, can fill their baskets once in the morning and again in the afternoon sessions, totaling around 20kgs per day, rain, hail or shine. The pluckers baskets include fine holes to allow air through the picked leaf - too much heat will destroy the quality, too great a weight in the basket will damage the leaf . In other areas of greater production and lower quality the pluckers pick around 80kg per day, their collection 'sheets' holding around 20kg - damage is immaterial to lower quality tea. In Darjeeling 100kg of green leaf yields only 20kg of product after processing. Of this only 10kg is top quality (FTGFOP - fine tipped golden flowery orange pekoe), the balance varying from tea bag grade up. Tea bag tea literally being the dust produced by the process of manufacturing a higher quality tea. The final tea packs must be carted by tractor to the main road, trucked hours down the hill then transferred to another truck to Calcutta. When I say truck, I'm not talking about an articulated Kenworth monster here, I'm talking about an old diesel Bedford. The Darjeeling estates have a much lower yield per acre than in lower, warmer regions. The altitude and coolness combined with plant variety (mainly Chinese origin) produce smaller leaves, taking longer to do so. Most of the tea bushes are over 100 years old. Tea is plucked 9 months of the year in Darjeeling, 10 months on the plains of Assam, the prized leaves being first flush (first harvest). The same bush is plucked around every 5 to 14 days, depending on growth patterns. After the first flush, the plants become 'bungi' or dormant for around 21 days. Tea taste and quality is dependant on many factors, plant variety – Assam or China, elevation, time of harvest and the type of processing which has four critical stages, withering, rolling, fermentation/oxidization and firing. All of which have a large manual component. There are few places in India which employ mechanical harvesting techniques. 80% of production costs are labour - tea pluckers earn NZ$2.20 per day. The balance of costs go towards fuel, petrol costs around NZ$2 per litre.
Apart from a thorough tea education we saw parts of the countryside and the culture not open to mere tourists, I feel truly humbled by the hospitality we experienced and long to return although we've barely left. The local newspaper made interesting reading the day of our departure, I quote from their facts and figures. "44% of India's 191 million households do not have electricity. 52% still use firewood to cook meals. Less than 30% have drinking water within their house. 64% of households do not have a bathroom or a latrine in their house although more people have TV's than latrines as these were a greater priority. 31% of households have a TV set, slightly more owned a radio but only 9% have a telephone. Only 2.5% own a car, 11% own a motorbike and 44% have a bicycle but 35% don't have any of the above assets. Only 50% lives in a permanent structure, mud makes up the floor in 57% of households. 40% of married couples do not have a room to themselves....... the have-nots still outnumber the haves by an unacceptable majority.....perhaps an accurate reflection of the reality of India".
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