Tea is a long delicious journey, which begins with a sip. Start your tea journey on Sunday, August 14, 2001 from 2 to 4pm at Viva la Vegan Grocery Store, 9456 Roberds St., Rancho Cucamonga. Boutique Teas, a premium tea retailer, is serving free black tea samples from China, India, Sri Lanka, and Kenya. These teas traveled halfway around to world to your cup. Your tea travels will start in China’s famous Yunnan province.

Harvested from heirloom tea trees planted over 1,000 years ago, Golden Yunnan black tea is malty, full-bodied, and bold with chocolate notes and a caramel finish. The ancient forest is rich in biodiversity, fertile soil and an ecological balanced environment. Historically, the Yunnan province is the oldest tea growing region in the world.  Chinese tea farmers exclusively produce this tea for export to western markets.  The next stop on our tea journey is not England, but India.

British colonists discovered wild tea bushes in Assam, Nilgeri, and Darjeeling regions of India in the late 1880s. All these regions produce fantastic black teas, but Darjeeling black tea is the Queen. This Darjeeling first flush black tea grew at 4000ft in a biodynamic tea garden. This tea brews a light amber liquid with apple and grape notes. Drinking this tea, you taste the clean spring water and fresh mountain air. Biodynamic farming philosophy believes a farm is a complete ecosystem.  Another country famous for high altitude black tea is Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan or Ceylon black teas are grown on mountains ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 feet above sea level.  Teas grown above 3,000 feet are considered better quality high grown teas. Americans refer to these teas by its leaf size—Orange Pekoe, Pekoe or Broken Orange Pekoe.  This Ceylon black tea is a special orange pekoe tea grown at 4,000 feet. This tea brews a bright cup with sweet floral notes. Usually, Ceylon black teas are dark and full-b

odied, similar to Kenyan small leaf black teas. Our last destination is Kenya.

Kenya is the largest black tea exporter in the world. This single origin Kenyan black tea has small leaves, yielding a bold full-bodied brew with a maple finish. Pure loose Kenyan black tea is rare, because most of the tea is put in tea bags or blended in Earl Gray blends. The sweet maple flavor is a nice counter balance to the citrus bergamot and malty Assam. This tea is Rainforest Alliance Certified, meaning the tea farmers use sustainable environmental and labor practices.

 Each black tea takes your palate on a new adventure, discovering new destinations, new flavors, and new traditions. Hope you will join us on this journey on Sunday, August 14 at Viva la Vegan Grocery Store.