FAQ

How can I recognize quality tea?

a – The first thing is to let a trustworthy expert advise you.
b – The best guide is the tea leaves’ “tidiness”. The individual tealeaves should be more or less the same size, colour and shape. If the leaves are slightly broken then it is a sign of poor transport and storage, but not even better quality teas can avoid this. Tea is degraded by disproportionate leaf sizes as the various sized leaves release their individual tastes at differing rates. The tea should not contain fine tea dust and unscreened stalks. A slight dusty hue to the leaves usually testifies to old tea. On the contrary fresh tea has a steely sheen to it.

Which tea is the best one and why?

Everybody who is starting to familiarise themselves with our Dobra Tea’s range, on the whole, tries a tea that they have already tasted. Leaving aside teabags then it is usually black, aromatised or flavoured tea. As a rule customers start with black teas, then move on to the blue-green teas, followed by Japanese green tea and after that a number of Chinese green teas. It would be misleading for the customer to assume that the Dobra Devotee’s favourite is necessarily the right one for them as it depends on the stage in which the Dobra Devotee is in their own sampling, and their favourite might not necessarily be the best.
My personal view when asked what is my favourite tea is the following: it is difficult to say that one tea is my favourite. It depends very much on the time when I decide which to prepare. Different teas are made in the morning, afternoon and evening. The season is also important. Seasonal teas shouldn’t be drunk in winter as they have lost their flavour and aroma, in summer though these are the teas I drink. It is also important with whom I drink my tea. There is no simple answer. If I could recommend a tea for you then I would like to know what leaf teas you have already tried and when or rather on which occasions will you prepare them.

Which tea you wouldn’t recommend?

If this were the case then the company would not offer the tea; therefore this should not happen! With regards to the fact that there is no tea that has a detrimental effect on the organism, given that it is prepared correctly and drunk in a reasonable manner, it is necessary to ask the customer whether they have had a negative experience with tea. It is important to analyse their reply and find a solution in the sense of recommending a different suitable type and letting them taste it in the tearoom, under the supervision of the personnel.

Which tea is the best for losing weight, varicose veins, lowering blood pressure, etc.?

We do not stress the individual effects of teas on the organism. It is necessary to point out the fact that similar practices are usually used in the untrustworthy campaigns of some firms, whose aim is just to increase their turnover. Our motto is that, “regular tea drinking improves your body and mind!” which means that using any tea, when properly prepared and drunk regularly, leads to long-term positive effects. We do not offer any quick-fix or “guaranteed” recipes!

Which tea should I drink in the evening when I can’t sleep?
or
Which tea should I drink to keep me awake?

Certain teas, such as white teas, green teas and pu-er teas, have a lower stimulatory effect than others. The stimulatory effect of all teas can be reduced with the following method.
Generally it can be said that a small amount of tea left to infuse for a longer period than that recommended has a more calming effect, whilst a larger portion of tea infused for a shorter period has a more stimulatory effect.
For short-term wakefulness black teas can be recommended. If the tea is to be drunk throughout a long working night then it is better to drink a green or blue-green tea that can be repeatedly infused and reduce the temperature of the water when preparing it.

Which cheap tea can you recommend?

Our menu includes a wide range of teas both in types and prices. We remind customers that even most of the best quality teas have a very low cost per cup, i.e $0.50 more or less one dime for the first brew, which is not much more than the cost of many other staple beverages. Also, many high quality teas can be brewed three or more times.

Why is the tea so expensive?

Some customers not familiar with speciality teas can often be surprised at the price of tea, however it is necessary to bear in mind the following factors:
– tea is harvested and processed by hand
– many teas are transported by air to preserve its freshness
– tea is carefully packaged to preserve its main merits; aroma and taste

Can a beginner appreciate such a high price?

Obviously, the more tea one drinks the more one is able to appreciate the very subtle nuances in tea tastes. The customer should not however get the feeling that just because they haven’t drunk a certain amount of tea they are in any way handicapped in the tearoom.

Why don’t you have this tea on offer?

The taste of tea can be likened to a taste range or, even better, grade, similar to the colour hues of their infusions. Dobra Tea aims at not having two teas with very similar or the same tastes. If we didn’t have such a gradation the Dobra Tea would not offer up to a hundred different teas but thousands. With such an amount even we would get lost let alone the customer.

Does the word orange in the brand Orange Pekoe mean the fruit?

Tea labelling, especially Indian and Sri Lankan production with the letters OP, short for Orange Pekoe originates in the period when the Dutch East India Company dominated the tea market. Tea was originally imported as an exclusive good for the upper echelons of society only, which, naturally, included the king and his court. The Dutch king was called, due to one of his dominions (probably in France), the Duke of Orange. Therefore the best tea, reserved for the king and his court, gained this label. The second word Pekoe arose as a corruption of the Chinese pronunciation Bai Hao, in the Cantonese dialect pronounced Pe Ko, which means “white hair” and is used to indicate the underdeveloped buds of the tea plant’s upper leaves.

Is tea labelled Dust really sweepings from wagon floors?

Dust is a peculiar grade that arose when grading black teas. As a rule it is used in mixes for tea bags. In the resulting infusion it manifests itself through its distinctive colouring and adds its characteristically woody flavour.