of tea, and both shu and sheng puer types are made from a sun-dried green tea called saiqing mao cha. "Like Champagne or other regionally specific foods and beverages, puer is a geographically indicated product, and it can only be produced and fermented in Southern Yunnan with sun-dried green tea from certain tea varietals found in Yunnan, Laos, Burma and some parts of Thailand and Vietnam. Puer tea, with its unique bold and earthy character, is becoming very popular all over the world as a health and wellness tea," Bernstein says. "It is regarded as a slimming and naturally safe dieter's tea throughout Southeast Asia, where it is an integral part of the food culture.
of their most popular being Harvest Moon, which features almond oolong, pumpkin spice, tiger eye and cocoa nibs. Andy's Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies is a "chocolaTea" that features chocolate, peppermint and vanilla. India's Assam and Ceylon teas also continue to play a key role
BEST FOR BLENDS "It offers the right combination of tea flavor without overpowering the flavors it is our intention to add," Cramer says. "Good Assams have malty characteristics, which we find
Adagio Teas feature thousands of tea blends with one "
Blueberry Fields Forever from TeaSource features dried blueberries and cornflower blossoms.
in today's tea blends. According to Michael Cramer of Adagio Teas, Ceylon tea forms the base of Adagio's black tea blends.
are less suited to being mixed with other flavors." Bill Waddington adds that Assams bring a weighty/hearty
presence to a cup of tea. "They also bring a marvelous deep, dark red color to the cup," Waddington says. "Ceylons also have a lot of presence in the cup. They oſten add a bright (some say astringent) note
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