Gray & Seddon Premium Teas News & archived articles

Teashop & Café publishes articles on traditionally made regional teas and tea-pottery. News & information in Teashop & Café are regularly updated by the company and we hope it will be useful to those in the business of providing & serving seasonal teas of origin. For further information on Chinese & Japanese teas please refer to our print & on-line newsletters, The Tea Business and CyberTea News.

G&S Original Teas

Gray & Seddon distribute seasonal teas of origin to teashops, tearooms & restaurants that are seeking to improve tea menus. For more information on our premium teas, availability & prices contact us today. Please state your business name, address & contact details. Thank You!

Make an original tea menu with seasonal teas of origin
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The elegance of serving premium tea in fine handmade porcelain tea-ware. Porcelain teapot made at Mikawachi, & bearing the famous blue & white karako pattern.

BUYING PREMIUM TEA
& THE PRICE PER CUP

Contrary to the popular view, specialist teas are very cheap! From 1kg of tea you can make a minimum of 600, 5floz cups (most give 1000 cups & more). Generally you need 4 to 5g (0.2oz) to make a pot of tea, i.e. a two cup-size teapot (where 5floz is the cup size). Gray & Seddon's bulk tea prices (teas sold in 1kg lots) start as low as US$30 per kg & apply to many of our green and black teas. The cup cost is then, 5 US cents! For most of our herbals & some oolongs, the prices are between US$40 and US$50, & cup cost around 6.5 to 8.5 US cents. At the very top end of our range, which includes the specialist Anhui greens, Japanese spring teas & Taiwanese oolongs, where prices are at the US$100 level, the cup cost is a mere 16 US cents. Tearoom proprietors & menu planners should also consider that all premium teas can (and should) be infused several times (a minimum of three times), making a Pot of Tea extremely inexpensive to serve, & a great value-addition to any teashop, cafe or restaurant. Choose a menu of the premium tea, choose seasonal teas of origin!

G&S Jasmine Tea Range
Jasmine tea (Chinese pin yin name Mo Li Hua Cha) is known throughout the world for its refreshing and fragrant character. The tea favoured in China is a melange of green tea with the fragrances of jasmine flower (although black tea and oolong jasmines are also manufactured). The quality of all such perfumed teas depends on the grade of the base tea as well as the quality of the scenting. The finest jasmine teas are manufactured in the south of China (in particular in Fujian Province), although today considerable production of high quality jasmine teas occurs in Zhejiang Province to the north, and in Hunan and Anhui Provinces. Methods of production vary considerably with region, but basically involve blending of pan-fired green teas with flowers of jasmine. Sometimes blossom is directly mixed with the tea, other techniques require the use of scenting stacks. To get the perfuming right, blending occurs at night, using specific proportions of tea to blossom. It's a highly skilled operation & the best Jasmine teas are rare and expensive!

For further information on Teashop & Café contact Gray & Seddon. Please Note: All enquiries should state the business name, postal address and daytime telephone number. Thank You!
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AUSTRALIAN ORGANIC
HERBAL TEAS

Gray & Seddon now has a special range of premium quality herbal infusions in addition to an exclusive listing of teas. We feel this offers an opportunity for those who are new to herbals, or indeed those with a passion for good herbal infusions, to obtain some of the best now coming to the market. The herbals we have selected possess an intriguing assortment of colours, flavours and textures, which would tantalize the palate of even the most dedicated tea drinker. And not a caffeine molecule in sight! Each of our herbal preparations, as well as being delicious and quality guaranteed, is certified organic (level A) by Biological Farmers of Australia. We have been fortunate to source a range of certified organically grown herbs from Tasmania, an island State off the south coast of Australia. They are great hot or iced! Some facts about our herbal infusions 1. All are Tasmania origin. 2. All are certified organically grown. 3. All are hand harvested. 4. All are extremely high quality & pure. 5. All types are sold as loose flower or leaf. 6. All are caffeine free.

FRAGRANT WHOLE-LEAF AND
LEAF-BUD GREEN TEAS
A listing of the most highly
rated green teas produced in China

Nearly all the teas Gray & Seddon source from Anhui come from tea gardens located in the mountains to the south of the province. These locations are far from heavy industry & traditional farming practices are still followed. Many green teas on offer this year have been certified as "Organic" by the Institut fur Marktokologie Switzerland. The balance of the Anhui teas come from tea gardens which have not yet been inspected for certification, although tests for chemical residues are routinely conducted and all teas have been found to have either undetectable levels or levels well below those permitted. Huangshan ("Yellow Mountain") is a famous Buddhist mountain, and many Chinese and Japanese tourists in particular are drawn to its spectacular scenery. Much of the mountain range is included within a national park, and it is possible there to drink pristine fresh stream water without first boiling it! [Anyone who has been to China will understand how extraordinary it is for people to be prepared to drink unboiled water!]. In the approaches to the national park it is quite common to see small tea bushes dotted amongst the prevailing vegetation. Most of the green teas described here come from this famous tea region.

[KEEMUN] [FUJIAN BLACKS] [JASMINES] [LAPSANG SOUCHONG] [OOLONG & TIEGUANYIN] [EARL GREY] [GOLDEN PEKOE]
[MINT TEA] [POWDERED GREEN TEA] [SENCHA GREEN TEA] [GYOKURO GREEN TEA] [HERBALS] [PU'ER AND COMPRESSED TEA]
[JAPANESE TEAPOTS] [GLASSWARE] [TEA CADDIES] [YIXING] [STONEWARE] [FINE PORCELAIN]