A Time for Tea at The Sierra Madre Library

The Sierra Madre Library presented “The Joy of Tea” on Saturday, Feb. 26, giving area tea lovers a chance to sample tea and learn about the culture and history behind the beloved beverage.

The presentation was given by Linda Louie, owner of the Bana Tea Company. Louie is a "lifelong tea aficionado" and has had the opportunity to visit ancient Chinese tea gardens with tea master, Vesper Chan, a renowned Pu-erh tea expert and owner of The Best Tea House of Hong Kong.

Louie delved into a brief history of tea, including insight into a Chinese Gongfu tea ceremony and brewing techniques as well as showing a short film on tea cultivation from her trip to China. Participants got to sample Pu-erh tea (pure black tea), made from century old tea trees which, amazingly, still produce tea today.

Throughout history, tea has been touted as cure-all elixir with benefits ranging from purifying the body, helping digestion, lowering blood pressure and cholesterol to simply relaxing us. It is the second most consumed beverage in the world next to water and still to this day is used as a way to bring people together for pleasent social interaction.

But when it comes to health benefits, Green Tea is the best...right? Not so, according to Louie.

“All teas are beneficial,” she said. “Green tea has been made popular by Japan…but all teas have health benefits.” Louie stressed that green tea’s popularity stems from studies conducted at the University of Tokyo which showed the proven benefits of green tea. Louie feels that had similar research been conducted for other teas, similar results would be found. Why? Because of the 20,000 plus varieties of teas in existence, they all have one thing in common. “They all come from one base plant…Camellia sinensis.”

Louie brought to light several interesting facts about tea that casual tea drinkers may not know. For example, there are only 6 variations of tea: green, white, black, yellow, oolong and Pu-erh. So-called teas such as Jasmine and Chamomile aren’t pure teas; they're a mixture of flowers and herbs which are added to the tea.

As for the United States’contribution to tea? Iced tea and tea bags. South Carolina was the first place in the United States where tea was grown, according to Louie. It was a hard sell in a rather hot climate in summer months, so ice was added. Iced tea is still one of the favorite drinks in that area, as well as the rest of the nation.

“Tea bags were actually meant to be samples,” said Louie. “They were distributed that way and customers didn’t realize they were supposed to open them.” Though tea bags are still the most popular way to consume tea in the U.S., “loose tea is gaining popularity here,” Louie said.

Participants got to enjoy the aroma of several teas and view leaves in their whole form, as well as tea cakes (pressed tea wrapped in cloth) used for cultivation.

"I found it all quite interesting," said Ruth Torres, a Sierra Madre resident who enjoyed a taste of the Pu-erh tea along with her husband Adolph. "There were a lot of things I didn't know about tea like the age of these trees that still are still producing it. It's facinating! The tea tasted so pure to me. Very relaxing," Torres said.

Though the presentation was only supposed to be an hour, it ran over with questions about tea to Linda and satisfied tea lovers headed back for seconds.