So You Want to Be a Magical Tea Quiz

Answer: Lapsang souchong

Lapsang souchong is the most well-known smoked tea. It has a very distinct flavor that is not everybody's "cup-of-tea". Black tea is dried over a pinewood fire that gives it a smoked pine aroma. The commercial name Lapsang souchong means Pinewood souchong tea, souchong being a category of tea leaves, usually the broader ones. Because of its potent flavor and aroma, it is often used in small quantities in tea blends, such as in Russian Caravan or Icelandic Moss blend.

Answer: Chamomile

Chamomile tea is made with the dried flowers of the chamomile plant which belongs to the Asteraceae family of plants, the same family as daisy, aster and sunflowers. It is not a tea, per se, since it does not contain the plant camellia sinensis, but an infusion, made by steeping the flowers in hot water for a period of time.

The health benefits of the infusion are known for thousands of years. It helps in a variety of medical conditions such as menstrual pains, digestive discomfort, mild infections of the eyes and mouth.

It also lowers the levels of blood sugar and improves sleep quality.

Answer: Mint

Moroccan tea is made with gunpowder tea, water, sugar and fresh mint leaves. Gunpowder tea is a green tea whose leaves are rolled and shaped like pellets. Traditional Moroccan tea is ceremonially poured from a height into a glass and not a cup and this creates foam.

The process cools the tea, mixes the ingredients and helps digestion. Moroccan tea can also be called Maghrebi tea since it is consumed in the Greater Maghreb Region of Northern Africa.

Answer: Mate or Yerba mate

The Guarani and Tupi people used the leaves and stems of yerba mate, a plant of the holly family found in South American rainforests, to make mate, an infusion that became the traditional drink of Latin America. It is made by filling a hollow calabash gourd 3/4 of the way with yerba mate, adding hot water and then using a silver or stainless-steel straw called bombilla to drink the liquid.

It is very bitter, caffeine-rich and it is supposed to boost energy, improve physical performance and help in losing weight.

Answer: decoction

Decoction is a method used to extract the potent chemicals that exist in the harder parts of plants by boiling them in water, sometimes other liquid. Ginger, cinnamon, fennel, elderberries, chicory, turmeric and mushrooms are some of the most well-known plants that their teas are usually made with decoction. For more fragile parts of the plants like flowers and leaves the method of infusion is used, steeping or brewing the parts in hot water or other liquid.

Herbal or botanical infusions are also called tisanes.

A tincture is a decoction where the boiling liquid is alcohol and it is almost exclusively used for medicinal purposes.

Answer: crocus

Crocus is a flower of the Iris family whose stigmas and styles are used to give us saffron, the most expensive spice in the world. The plant is cultivated around the Mediterranean in Southern Europe and Northern Africa. The best variety comes from the homonymous town of Krokos in Northern Greece and it is marketed under the name Krokus Kozanis by the Kozani Cooperative. Among the many crocus products marketed by the Cooperative, like gum, cosmetics, sweets, and spice mixes is an organic herbal blend made with honey, orange and Greek red saffron.

The blend has become very popular because of its aromatic flavor and antioxidant properties.

Answer: matcha

Specially grown green tea is used to produce the Japanese matcha tea. It comes in the form of a bright green fine powder and it is made differently from other teas since it is suspended in hot water and consumed with the liquid, not strained. The plants of camellia sinensis are grown under shade and this causes the leaves to become larger and produce more chlorophyll which explains the bright green color.

There are several grades of matcha tea and the highest quality is used in the traditional Japanese tea ceremony.

Answer: Red bush

Rooibos, Afrikaans for "red bush", is a plant found in the Cederberg Mountains in South Africa. The leaves are used to produce a fragrant, caffeine-free infusion with many health benefits, especially for the heart, liver and nerves. Like with many other locally grown plants and teas, the global popularity of rooibos in recent years has raised environmental concerns. Mass clearing of lands for the cultivation of rooibos has caused the destruction of wild native flora.

Answer: No

Masala Chai (chai being the Hindi word for tea) is a mix of black tea, sugar, herbs and spices boiled in milk and water, the favorite beverage in the Indian subcontinent. The most popular black teas used in making it are Assam or Darjeeling and the spices are usually ginger, pepper, cloves, cardamom, coriander and cinnamon. Chai has gained popularity worldwide and some version of it, often loaded with non-traditional ingredients like flavors and syrups, is offered in major coffee and tea houses all over the world.

Answer: Yes

Also called The Southern Silk Road, the Ancient Tea Horse Road was used for the exchange of a variety of commodities between countries and ethnicities since the early 700s. Lhasa was a very important station of the road since Tibetans traded horses and silver for tea, and that's how the road took its name.From Lhasa the route forked towards Persia and Nepal.

Other exchanges along the road were salt for tea, tea for yaks, ivory for gold, religious advice for food. Tourist packages following various branches of the Ancient Tea Horse Road are offered and they include travel routes of up to 1,000 miles, from Sichuan and Yunnan to Lhasa, the mountains of P'uer, Laos and Thailand. All along the paths there are remnants of towns, caravanserais, pagodas, and markets, as well as modern attractions.