Diane Eddy

Yeah! It’s Tea Time again in Sun Lakes! Our first tea tasting class is November 21, 2017, at 10:00 a.m. in the Sun Lakes Country Club Navajo Room. Bring your teacup and saucer and be prepared for a rollicking fun time as we select good tea leaves, steep them correctly and taste their exquisite flavors, while learning to master several different black teas.

Whether you call it tea, bohea, thé or cha, black tea is so much more than just a drink. For many, it is a passion. The enchantment of black tea comes camouflaged in very ordinary-looking leaves that appear much like our ornamental Camellia Japonica shrubs, the tea plant’s more beautiful sister. Camellia Sinensis, the plant from which all true tea comes, is now grown in many parts of the world and is a widespread industry. The methods of processing tea have advanced to such a degree that tea drinkers from centuries past would not readily recognize today’s processed leaf.

Over the millennia, as tea processing adapted the leaf to shipping conditions, addition of additives like milk and sugar and international trade relationships, black tea became a national obsession in England and Ireland. Despite the American Revolution, black tea also caught on in North America and is now the preferred type of tea, often drunk as an iced beverage laden with sweeteners and lemon flavors.

This fascination with tea has made more tea choices available today than at any other time in history. How are we to know first-rate tea from mediocre tea? What are the nuances of outstanding black teas? Bruce Richardson, noted tea author, relates seeing two jars of tea in the artist Georgia O’Keefe’s New Mexico home. One jar was labeled “Tea,” the other was labeled “Good Tea.” The difference in those labels brings us to the question of what is good black tea. One enjoyable, entertaining and easy way to learn how to distinguish good black tea from ordinary tea is to attend our tea tasting classes.

Whether you are a tea enthusiast or a tea novice, learning the secrets and distinctions of fine black tea is both interesting and fun. What better way to spend a morning than sniffing and sipping teas steeped from some of the world’s most famous tea growing regions? With a bit of practice, you will quickly learn to master good black tea.

Students, please bring a teacup and saucer along with your sense of humor and adventure. Bring your friends and come join Global Tea Mart’s Certified Tea Professional Diane Eddy on November 21, 2017, at 10:00 a.m. in the Sun Lakes Country Club’s Navajo Room for a fun-filled morning of sipping and slurping terrific black tea. The cost of the class is $5 per person, and reservations are necessary.

Please call Diane at 480-219-6211 or email her at [email protected] for more information and to make your reservation.