La via del Tè
La via del Tè is a tea house from Florence. The teas are picked from the best, uppermost leaf shoots, and the range is built in the Tuscan craft tradition: small batches, precise flavour and beautiful packaging. Olivo carries loose leaf tea, cotton tea bags and the accessories you need to brew at home.
The types of tea, briefly
All true tea comes from the same plant, Camellia sinensis. The difference comes from how much the leaf is allowed to oxidise after picking.
White tea is the least processed: young buds and leaves, delicate and honeyed. Yin zhen is the classic.
Green tea is stopped before it oxidises. The taste is fresh, vegetal and sometimes floral – Special Jasmine or Special Gunpowder, for instance.
Black tea is fully oxidised. The taste is full and dark: Darjeeling, Orange Pekoe, smoky Lapsang Souchong and Earl Grey Imperiale with bergamot.
Rooibos and herbal infusions are not tea at all but other plants. They are naturally caffeine-free – Rooibos Vanilla, fruity Sogno d'Amore and Ninna Nanna for the evening.
Brew it right
Temperature matters more than anything else. Water that is too hot turns green and white tea bitter.
White 70–80 °C, 3–5 min.
Green 70–80 °C, 2–3 min.
Black 95–100 °C, 3–5 min.
Rooibos and herbal infusions 100 °C, 5–7 min.
Measure about 2–3 g of tea per cup and lift the leaves out when the time is up – tea left to steep longer does not get stronger, it gets bitter.
Matcha
Matcha is ground green tea that is whisked into the water rather than steeped. You drink the whole leaf, so the taste is full and the colour vividly green.
Use water at about 80 °C – boiling water makes matcha bitter. Sift the powder into the bowl, add a little water and whisk with a bamboo whisk in quick strokes until a foam rises. Olivo carries three organic matchas along with a bamboo whisk, a bamboo scoop and a matcha bowl.
The range at Olivo
Loose leaf teas and boxes of 20 bags, the Giardini Segreti teas named after gardens, iced tea for summer, organic matcha and tea accessories: a brewing mug, an infuser ball, a thermos flask and sugar crystals. The beautiful gift boxes travel well as a present.
