GUEST BLOGGER: My friend and fellow flavour enthusiast Luke Owen Smith shares his expertise on fine quality craft chocolate, its similarities with tea and how to go about creating your own delicious tea and chocolate pairing.

The Tea Curator's purpose is to make it easier for to improve your wellbeing every day, through the beautiful experience of specialty tea. There is a very personal reason why wellbeing is at the heart of The Tea Curator. In this blog post, I share my personal story with you with the hope that this, and my continual sharing of what I have learnt, will help you strengthen and maintain your wellbeing and this knowledge will help you navigate the adversities and challenges you may face throughout your life.

As we head toward summer, cold teas are a wonderful way to keep us refreshed. And they can also act as an important, gentle reminder for us to take a nourishing break. Here’s my take on iced tea, with a few different variations to the traditional recipe.

In 2020 people around the world consumed 6.3 billion kilograms of tea. That’s around 2,080 billion cups of tea every year. That is a gargantuan amount of tea. But what’s even more astonishing is that most of us know don't know an awful lot about the plant we’re imbibing every day when we sip our daily cup.

In this month’s blog I introduce the tea plant and all the wonderful things about this special and somewhat clandestine shrub.

Tea is an ancient beverage that has been enjoyed for more than 4000 years. As you might imagine, preparation techniques have changed over this time. These days, there are two different brewing techniques used for specialty tea: eastern style of Gong Fu Cha and Western steeping.

By designing your own tea ritual you create an experience that feels personal and restorative. And its really easy to do.

How many tea cups, teapots and tea tools do you have in your house? If you're serious about your tea drinking, find out what tools you really need to steep loose leaf tea.

What do you REALLY need to prepare and enjoy tea? I was slightly shocked when I thought about this carefully. If you are generally preparing tea just for yourself, you only really need four things:

Do you want to introduce some beautiful-quality teas into your daily tea ritual? If you are looking to move away from the ubiquitous tea menu of English Breakfast, Earl Grey, generic green tea and herbal infusions, there is a diverse and flavourful tasting experience waiting for you. Here's how to get started in the world of specialty tea. 

Roasted green tea tastes completely different to a traditional green tea, with a soothing and sweet nutty flavour and a low caffeine content. 

If you have a goal of drinking more tea to improve your wellbeing, or for any other reason, here's the secret to successfully creating your new tea habit. 

Cold-brewed sparkling tea is the best way to steep tea this summer. When infused in sparkling water, the tea is lighter in body and flavour intensity than when it is hot-steeped, and any floral and fruity notes are accentuated. The result is a vibrant, playful, celebratory tea. 

Did you know drinking tea adds to your daily fluid intake? That it has an ultra-rare and clever amino acid that almost no other plant in the world has? Find out more fascinating science behind the humble tea leaf.