Indonique Tea & Chai Blog

Smuggled tea captures market

2009-05-04T16:59:00.000-04:00

Smuggled tea captures market

Chai Walla India

2009-04-28T18:02:00.001-04:00

Tea Chemistry

2009-04-28T17:54:00.000-04:00

English Tea How To

2009-04-28T15:59:00.001-04:00

Temples, tombs and teabags

2009-04-23T13:28:00.000-04:00

Egyptology News: Travel: Temples, tombs and teabags

Indonique Featured on Triple Pundit!!!

2009-04-17T12:21:00.000-04:00

Indonique Tea & Chai Restarts After Katrina Washout - Indonique, Tea, Mercy Corps

MERCY CORPS profile of Darjeeling Estate Owner

2009-04-07T19:06:00.000-04:00

Indonique donates 10% of every sale to Mercy Corps to fund programs like the CHAI program in India. Check out this link to a MERCY CORPS article about one of the great tea men in India, destined to be one of the great humanitarians of our time.

Buzzing with Cosmic Energy | Mercy Corps

To buy his tea visit:

Makaibari Estate Black

Makaibari Estate Green

Tea and the Opium Wars

2009-03-26T14:53:00.000-04:00

Here's the setting, China having discovered tea thousands of years ago, reluctantly, at first, sells it to England. Refusing to accept international banking terms, China requires payment in silver at time of purchase. England, absolutely addicted to the stuff, imports so much tea that the drain of silver from the Isles threatens economic ruin. The Chinese further protected their tea trade by making the secret of tea a state secret. Discussing any aspect of tea or teaching Chinese languages to foreign devils was punishable by death.

Poor England, small country with a big addiction and a very big trading partner. China was the riches most powerful nation in those days. And so, under these dire circumstances, England, reluctant to wage war, devised, in the early 1800's a clever scheme to get the tea out of China and keep the silver at home.

England controlled much of modern day India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, where cheap opium could be had. England offered credit terms to shipping agents and brokers to sell India tea to Chinese merchants provided they only take payment in silver. This silver was used to settle accounts at English banks in Canton China. The same silver was used to buy tea also in Canton. Opium in, tea out and economic crisis averted. Unfortunately, the sudden supply of cheap opium created about 6 million Chinese opium addicts forcing the Emperor to ban its trade. Facing economic ruin again, the British did the unthinkable. They sent the gunboats in and surprised everyone with one victory after another in the first Opium War of 1842. A second war a few years later witnessed the greatest expansion of British economic growth ever, gobbling up huge chunks of China and seizing the Emperor's palace.

Seeking Coffee & Chocolate

2009-03-19T13:11:00.001-04:00

Indonique is seeking manufacturers of Coffee and Chocolate from estates/plantations that are accessible to NGOs like Mercy Corps or Feed the Children or others.

Please contact George Constance at george@indonique.com

Expanding Social Network

2009-03-19T13:05:00.001-04:00

Indonique has made donations to several organizations that work to end Human Trafficing and Child Prostitution. You buy the tea, we make the donations. Doing the right thing should be automatic, built into the business. Some organizations we work with are:

Not For Sale Campaign

Born2Fly

We're offering free tea to the first donors of $20 and $100 to either of these organizations. Donate, save a life, get some free tea.

2009-03-15T17:29:00.000-04:00

Assam, India

What's an Assam Tea?

2009-03-13T10:54:00.002-04:00

The 380 plus varieties of tea plant can be grouped into two main groups or subspecies of the camellia sinensis tea plant: Camellia sinensis sinensis and Camellia sinensis assamicus. The sinensis sinensis variety is a high grown thin leafed variety or JAT that is native to China. The sinensis assamicus variety is a broad thick leafed lowlands JAT native to Assam India. As would be expected, the assamicus leaf makes a much heavier malty tea than the lighter chinese variety, making it a perfect breakfast tea.

The Assam jat was discovered growing wild in abandoned patches in Assam in 1820's by a Scottish Company man whose brother, after his death eventually established a plantation in the 1850's. This discovery was by far the most important economically for 19th century tea addicted Britain. An addiction that threatened England with economic ruin and lead to two Opium Wars. That's a story for next week.

Indonique donates 10% of every sale we make to the communities where our teas are picked through NGOs like MERCY CORPS. A single box of tea can generate a donation large enough to provide a child in India with school lunches for one week.

GROG

2009-03-06T08:08:00.002-05:00

Several European nations claim to have invented Grog. Our favorite story involves the British version. Accordingly, in 1742, British Admiral Edward Vernon avoided near mutiny after cutting his sailors rum ration from one cup to a quarter cup, when his sailors discovered the watered down concoction actually tasted pretty good when the water was hot and steeped in tea. They named it after the Admiral, nick named Old Grog because of his penchant for water resistant grogram cloth. Unfortunately the story is probably not accurate as older references to grog have surfaced recently.

An interesting side story:
Because sailors rightly believed tea was a medicinal drink, they administered it to fever stricken ship mates. The sailor was put to bunk with his at the foot of the bed. He was then administered grog until he could see two hats. At that point the grog was suspended and he was left to sleep it off. The next morning, he was excused from ship's duties as he was considered "GROGGY". So now you know.

Indonique's Grog blend is as close as we can figure Old Grog's recipe. We blend several spices with a whole leaf black tea selected specifically for this Grog blend. Steep and add your own rum and brown sugar. We guarantee you'll re-enlist!

Indonique World Tea Party

2009-02-03T21:12:00.000-05:00

OK guys we've set a date for the next Indonique World Tea party: February 27 at Narcissus Chocolate Cafe in Wethersfield, CT. We hope our friends around the world will join us in their own parties and send us some photos or video. We have a theme for this one: Gave up coffee for Lent? Try TEA!

Remember, if you're having Indonique tea, a donation has already been made by Indonique to Mercy Corps to fund programs in the communities where our teas are picked. If not, use any tea and send a dollar per person participatinhg to Mercy Corps. You can make out a check to Mercy Corps with programT42 in the memo section and send to Indonique. we'll forward all the checks to them.

Go to www.indonique.com/wtp for details

Who we are: www.indonique.com

How we do it: www.indonique.com/t42

Watch for our Facebook account this week.

Twitter with us at www.twitter.com/indonique

snail mail at PO Box 1298, Glastonbury, CT 06033

Thanks, George

Woman overpowers thief with tea and sympathy

2008-07-09T08:55:00.000-04:00

Woman overpowers thief with tea and sympathy
| Oddly Enough
| Reuters

Healthy lifestyle triggers genetic changes: study

2008-06-17T11:04:00.000-04:00

Such small changes in our lifestyle can lead to a much healthier longer life. This article indicates that dietary changes can actually trigger positive health benefits on the genetic level.

Healthy lifestyle triggers genetic changes: study
| Health
| Reuters

Tea tree oil does not come from the tea plant!

2008-06-05T08:28:00.000-04:00

Tea tree oil - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Utah teapot - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2008-06-05T08:27:00.000-04:00

Utah teapot - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

One of the world's first computer generated 3-D images.

The Hindu : National : Tea factory to be open to tourists

2008-05-29T10:05:00.000-04:00

The Hindu : National : Tea factory to be open to tourists

Thousands of tourist riot when they discovered Happy Valley tea is actually only tea and Happy Valley is just the name of the valley.

OK no one rioted but Happy Valley tea - Highest in the world does sound inviting. It's actually an old tea estate reopened as a tea museum with cool vintage 1854 tea making equipment from the earliest days of tea in India.

Visit the link for more.