Unboxing of the Nestle Special.T

OK, its in French, but it’s a fascinating watch!

More Nestle Special.T TV Adverts

New Nestle Special.T TV Adverts

Now making its way over the French airwaves, Nestle are certainly making an effort! Check it out:

Milk Teas in Hong Kong, Taiwanese Outlet: Gong Cha

Hong Kong’s love affair with milk teas and Taiwan’s modern take on regular tea continues with Taiwanese chain Gongcha now having several outlets in the city. Gongcha specialises in iced teas with a large dollop of thick cream on the top, an innovative take on creamy milk teas. They call these Milk Top teas (奶蓋茶).

I tried their green version of their signature Milk Top Teas which they can make with green, black or oolong tea. Ontop of the iced tea (with or without sugar) is a thick, almost double cream layer of creamy milk. The idea is that you drink your tea through the milk layer in the same way you’d drink a milky latte coffee. Milk Top teas, as you can see by the lunch time queue, are their number one selling tea!

Milk Top teas, it is advised, should be drunk as follows:

1. Take of the lid and drink the tea through the milk
2. Put the straw through the lid and drink the tea beneath the milk
3. Mix the two together and let the taste overwhelm your senses!

Nestle launches the Special T… Teapot/Lady Killer?

After much ado (in France), Nestle has launched its “Special T” its tea version of the super coffee concept, N’Espresso. Costing about US$127 for the machine and looking pretty classy, it remains to be seen if it make a good cuppa…

Since women make up most of the world’s tea drinkers outside of Asia, bets on for which sexy Hollywood male super star will be the George Clooney of tea!

The Special T launches with 25 teas including 8 black teas, 6 six green, 1 white, 1 blue (oolong), several breakfast teas and some tisanes.

The Chinese approach to enjoying Pu‘er tea

No surprise, the Chinese have drunk Pu’er tea for a while now. And with all that leaf brewed has come a certain, pickiness, a pickiness far beyond the focus on detail of all but the most refined of tea connoisseurs. The Chinese approach to tea quality has always seemed a bit of a mystery to me, so I decided to try to understand it. I finally found a fascinating approach to how they appreciate tea and I’ve done my best to outline it below!

Just in general, the Chinese have a fetish for leaf appearance. Leaf appearance, before brewing, during tea drinking and even after the cup is drained is an integral element of enjoying tea for many Chinese.

Here, applying the 5S approach (see right!) is how a typical Chinese tea bon-vivant would rate mature (shou) Pu’er tea.

1. (See)  Appearance

First, examine shape of the leaves, see if leaves are whole or broken, if leaves are old or young, if leaves are large or small. Also smell the leaves and examine their colour. Superior Yunnan Pu’er (if aged) will have an obvious aged nose (some have mushroomy nose, some medicinal, some like dried longan or even camphor). Leaves should be a deep brown, reddy brown (liver brown). Leaves should be shiny and bright. Leaves should be whole and there should be little dust in Pu’er cakes. Lesser Pu’ers will have an aged nose alone, lacking other aromas; they may even be slightly stale. Leaves will also often be darker, lacking shine.

2. (See) Liquid Colour

Here, depth of colour and resonance are the main things to look for. Fine loose Pu’er tea is a deep, shiny red. The Chinese say the colour is close to a red, vermillion lacquer. Lesser Pu’er will be shallower in colour and less shiny. Lesser Pu’er will also have dust in brewed liquor, some of which may even be quite dark, almost black.

3. (Smell) Aroma

Finer Pu’er teas will have a rich, long-lasting aroma. Aromas are typically a dry sweet aged nose. Lesser Pu’ers will have a slight astringency and may even be slightly metallic or mouldy.

4. (Sample) Taste

Fine Pu’ers have a sweet echo to them which is silk smooth. Secondary Pu’ers are shallow, less smooth and lack a richness to any echo.

5. (Study) Spent Leaves

Examine colour and leaf quality here. Finer Pu’ers shall have soft, shiny, browny-red leaves. There will be almost no dust, or smaller particles and no stalks. Lesser Pu’ers will have a lot of dust and small particles among used leaves and are often darker. Among lesser spent leaves you will also find telltale hard stalks.

Summary

The most obvious difference between the grades is often the age of the quality/wholeness of the leaves. Also, often, the younger leaves are the higher the grade. But more important it is how tightly the leaves are rolled, if they are broken or whole, how smooth they are and if they have suffered any shrivelling or mould.

So give it a go… see if this makes your cup of Pu’er tea a whole new experience!

Tea polyphenols show antiglycation promise for diabetics

By Jess Halliday, 26-Jul-2010

Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) could play a role in attenuating low density lipoprotein (LDL) and glycation in high-glucose, diabetes-like conditions, if the results of an in vitro trial hold true in vivo.

Polyphenols such as the catechin EGCG are understood to make up around 30 per cent of the dry leaf weight for green team; EGCG is thought to be one of the most beneficial catechins. Recent research on its benefits has looked as such diverse indications as arthritis, mental distress, oral health and weight loss.

A body of research has already investigated a possible link between green tea consumption and diabetes risk, and tea-drinking may bring modest benefits for glucose homeostasis and help keep the cardiovascular system healthy.

For a new study in the journal Food Chemistry, researchers from Taiwan set out to determine the anti-oxidant and antiglycation effects of EGCG under high glucose conditions that diabetes.

To mimic the in vivo situation, the human plasma was preincubated with EGCG. The LDL was then isolated and its resistance to oxidation was challenged.

The researchers observed an effective increase in LDL resistance to oxidation; a dose-dependent inhibition of HG-mediated long-term glycation of LDL to oxidation was also observed in the LDL-bound ECGC.

“This study suggests that loading plasma with EGCG is an efficient way to increase the content of this phytochemical in LDL, which may imply favourable in vivo activity of EGCG in diabetes,” they wrote in Food Chemistry.

They observed a different mechanism at work from conventional biological activities shown by polyphenols (free radical scavenging and chelating action for metal ions). It seemed to possess a “rather specific and somewhat different degree of antiglycative action and lipoprotein binding activity.”

They believe more investigation is required, and the next stage would be in vivo experiments in an animal model.

Source:

Food Chemistry

DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2010.02.008

Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) binds to low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and protects them from oxidation and glycation under high-glucose conditions mimicking diabetes

Authors: Chi-Hao Wu, Chi-Tai Yey, Gow-Chin Ye

A decent review at my favourite HK movie site… Starting”

“Here’s an exclamation you probably don’t hear very often: “Tea Fight!” Director Wang Ye-Ming’s Tea Fight is an original creation, though one would be forgiven if they mistook it for one of the numerous “based on manga” movies hitting the international multiplexes. Let’s see: it takes an exotic Asian topic (tea culture), applies bogus legends and cultural concepts, gives the whole subject undue reverence, and features oddball characters who seem to think they’re behaving in a perfectly normal manner. Undercranked chase sequences and a convoluted love pentagon seal the deal on this one. Tea Fight is basically a shonen manga brought to life, except it’s an original concept, and lacks the truly over-the-top craziness that one might expect of the genre. As silly manga movies are concerned, this is a rather low-key one, and earns cred not because it’s really that good, but because it’s so strange and so “special” that it entertains. Sometimes lowering your expectations is a good thing.

http://www.lovehkfilm.com/panasia/tea_fight.html

Origami tea by Emily Chang

Wah, too much holiday recently, ignoring my blog… but a friend told me of something sssssssoooooooooooooo nice today… check this out, the tea bag slowly unfolds in reverse origami style while the tea brews…. from http://emilychang.com/