Lauren Olson: Before we get into it, we just want to do our land acknowledgement so as an organization within the land grant institution dig the campus garden coalition acknowledges the gabrielle you know and tanga people's as a traditional land caretakers of the longer.
Iris Yip (she/they): Okay, so first off.
Iris Yip (she/they): I found some tea facts online.
Iris Yip (she/they): i'm just going to share with all of you.
Iris Yip (she/they): And tea, is the most widely consumed beverage in the world, next to water.
Iris Yip (she/they): The source of this, though, is like that the tea organization so like I don't know that it's not very it's not very objective but yeah that's awesome Wikipedia.
Iris Yip (she/they): Black long White and Green tea all come from the same plant but they're just process differently.
Iris Yip (she/they): The oldest ever discovered are around 2100 years old, and those are found in China.
Iris Yip (she/they): chucky has the highest T consumption per capita at 6.96 pounds per person in a year and in almost all languages, the Wer T is derived from two words either the major transformation chop by the time we transition to.
Lauren Olson: Having some difficulties.
Lauren Olson: Okay, so there were supposed to be a video on this slide apparently I did not embed it correctly also I got a little notification saying it wasn't going to let me share a sound um so I might just have another leader play this video for me at the end for now we're going to skip it.
Lauren Olson: just keep things going I don't want to keep you guys waiting here forever.
Lauren Olson: to watch a little video okay so we'll just get into it so um the different types of tea, as you probably know, there's like black tea green tea there's also white tea which isn't very common.
Lauren Olson: I don't think i've ever had white tea it's yeah I barely see it anywhere either.
Lauren Olson: But all these kinds of tea actually come from the same plant, which I did not know it comes from the chameleon sinensis plan what's different about all these teas, though, is when they're picked and how their process so black tea is like.
Lauren Olson: We think of it as like an English breakfast or like long is what kind of black tea it's more like in between green tea black tea, the way that is made, but.
Lauren Olson: it's obviously a darker to you when you make it um so he's like this the leaves are picked when they're fully grown.
Lauren Olson: And then they're allowed to will a little bit so that like take some of the moisture out of them and then they're rolled up to release enzymes.
Lauren Olson: I personally do not know exactly what that does to it i'm not.
Lauren Olson: Very science minded I don't know that much about biology, so I don't know exactly how it would change the flavors or whatnot.
Lauren Olson: And then they're laid out to oxidize and that's what gives it its color and then they're dried and packaged and they make it to your House and whatnot.
Lauren Olson: and green tea are the young leaves of this plant and then they get picked and they follow a similar process, but their steam to kind of preserve the color and.
Lauren Olson: create a bit of a different flavor and then white tea are like the buds and, like the little baby leaves of this plant and it's called white tea, because when the leaves are small they're kind of like white and they have like little fuzzy on them.
Lauren Olson: And so that's how it gets its name and they follow a really similar process to their picked and dried and.
Lauren Olson: yeah so really the big difference is just how their process but they all come from the same plant, which I thought was interesting and it's something that I didn't know even though i've been drinking tea my whole life.
Lauren Olson: And then macho also comes from the same plan, I thought this was the most surprising because it looks so different from any other D.
Lauren Olson: And, but monta has a ghost or a really different process and the other ones so um before it's picked the T trees and that's another name for the plan that amelia sinensis plant.
Lauren Olson: They are also known as like tea trees or treat T bushes, and so they get shaded for three weeks before the leaves are picked.
Lauren Olson: To give them that really bright green color and then also increases the caffeine, and the dancing and the plants and the thing is what gives it that.
Lauren Olson: Really unique flavor and then after their PIC leaves or steamed and then dried immediately and then it's ground up into a really fine powder for us.
Lauren Olson: And also Another thing I thought was interesting is there, like different grades of macia um.
Lauren Olson: I kind of found this out the hard way like i've used to really like monster like going into coffee shops and getting it because it would be like good quality.
Lauren Olson: tastes delicious and then I tried to get some from the store one time and I made it for myself and it looked more like the picture on the right it tasted weird wasn't enjoyable.
Lauren Olson: So much, I really does make a difference where you're getting it from and and then Lastly, there is herbal tea, so these generally don't have caffeine.
Lauren Olson: And they're made from herbs or flowers or other plans, but not the not the trees, not the chameleon menses plant and and that's what makes it an herbal tea.
Lauren Olson: And they are often used for their medicinal properties.
Lauren Olson: Okay, so if you're going to be growing your own tea.
Lauren Olson: You could in theory grow yourself a chameleon sinensis plant and harvest your own tea and process it and all those different ways, depending on what kind of tea you want.
Lauren Olson: But that is supposed to be very tricky and I feel like herbal tea, is something that is fine, because you can kind of like experiment more and create things that taste very different.
Lauren Olson: without necessarily doing a ton of work and some of these things you might even already have in your garden.
Lauren Olson: So if you were wanting to grow your own tea some plants, you could use our cameo lavender rose.
Lauren Olson: JASMINE peppermint ginger can you stevia um So yes, it's exactly like the sweetener it's just the plant that it comes from, and you can like add a few leaves to your team and acts as a natural sweetener.
Lauren Olson: bazell lemon balm time so Andrea Rosemary and really any herb obviously I didn't list every single herb on here but pretty much any herb you like you can use an A tea.
Lauren Olson: and
Lauren Olson: A lot of these teas are really easy to use once you've grown them, you can use them fresh or you can dry them and save them for leader.
Lauren Olson: can also if you don't want to grow your own team, you can go foraging for it.
Lauren Olson: So some like natural wild plants that you could use for tea are raspberry leaf, and so the leaves of the raspberry plant.
Lauren Olson: and wild raspberry plants in particular are supposed to be good for cheese i've never had it, so I don't know exactly what it tastes like and then, of course, it can also use wild berries.
Lauren Olson: You can use pine or spruce needles and you can use dandelions people will make like dandelion root tea and dandelions you can also use.
Lauren Olson: The leaves and the flowers people use the flowers and teas as well, and then the leaves are supposed to be kind of similar to Spanish so you want, you can go around picking dandelions i'm sure nobody's gonna bother you for that, because you're pretty much waiting for free.
Lauren Olson: And then you could use it, however, you like, and then also red clover is another plan that's um can be pretty easily found and can use an empty.
Lauren Olson: But I would just like to give a warning if you're planning on foraging for T on there are lots of plans to have edible parts, but also poisonous parts so you're going to want to do your research before you like just grab something and throw it into a pie and.
Lauren Olson: take it away and so like to be extra safe, you might want to invest in a foraging guide or or like find a trusted source to consult and then.
Lauren Olson: This image on the right here is actually a website, I found where people can plot points where they found things well for Jay is a map of westwood so.
Lauren Olson: Even in a city and and really populated area like West would you can find stuff I looked at something like little points.
Lauren Olson: And it wasn't like any of the things listed here, it might be hard to find wild berries in westwood but they had things like oranges and lemons and avocados so probably you're going to find like a lot of trees that have maybe been neglected or.
Lauren Olson: You know they're kind of on the edge of somebody's property and they baby, you know it's kind of up for grabs.
Lauren Olson: Okay.
Lauren Olson: So yeah once you've either collected your tea or.
Lauren Olson: Oh yeah I can't see the chat function, by the way, so if anybody has any particular questions related to what i'm talking about you can also unmute yourself.
Lauren Olson: So for preserving and storing your tea once you've grown it or forage for it.
Lauren Olson: you're going to want to make sure to rent it pretty thoroughly, especially if you're using it for sun tea which i'll talk a bit more about later and then you're going to want to dry it out, you can just lay it out flat spread them out, so they have enough room to breathe.
Lauren Olson: And then you can use the sunny spot help you drive faster well I like to do is to.
Lauren Olson: lay out a few paper towels on like a cookie sheet, or you can use normal tallow Su.
Lauren Olson: And then, like scattered over and then leave it out to dry and then, if I need to move if it's in a bad place and I can just you know move it around my kitchen, as I need.
Lauren Olson: And then, once it's dry, you can kind of break up the pieces help the flavors come out in the brewing process kind of like the images on the right.
Lauren Olson: that's a probably a pretty good consistency for like loose leaf tea if you've ever had loose leaf tea that's just that's the kind of consistency you're aiming for so um so you don't get like big chunks of it if you're not straining it.
Lauren Olson: And it also helps it to brew of it if it's broken up.
Lauren Olson: And yeah so you can mix whatever herbs and flowers you want and store in airtight container for later.
Lauren Olson: And if you don't want to make like your own tea blends specifically I always think it's nice to add like a few fresh herbs.
Lauren Olson: To a store bought to you to help freshen it up, I like to add, like rose leaves or maybe like a little bit of mint or you could use stevia if you don't want to use like honey or sugar in your tea.
Lauren Olson: um yeah and then, if you're breaking loose leaf tea it's a good idea to use a strainer if you have one.
Lauren Olson: So, then you don't end up you know needing to use while you're drinking your tea, that would be pretty unpleasant, but you obviously don't have to um for the most part they should settle to the bottom and don't be fine.
Lauren Olson: Okay, so some good tea blends if you are going to be making your own herbal tea.
Lauren Olson: These are some good herbs to mix together, so if you want a tea for like sleep or relaxation.
Lauren Olson: i'm sure everybody wants out right now with midterms at least I do, and you could use mint can meal lemon balm lavender.
Lauren Olson: They go nicely together and they should help calm you down a little bit um lavender especially is really good for that.
Lauren Olson: And then tea for health, so you can use dandelion you can use the route or the flower and ginger and raspberry because they both have like really good antioxidant properties on so do blueberries most berries do, and then the tea for concentration.
Lauren Olson: You could mix peppermint and Rosemary and lemon peel.
Lauren Olson: I like using the peels of citrus fruits if i'm like making my own tea because usually you don't use them if you're like eating an orange or using a lemon or whatever so it's a way to kind of use some of your food that my other wise go two ways.
Lauren Olson: To use lemon peel it you could either.
Lauren Olson: You could like use a slicer and just get like the top part of the peel or you could like zest it i'm not this is dry either way um and then for sun tea, this is personally my favorite kind of tea, because then you know you can drink tea in the summer.
Lauren Olson: So you could use raspberry and red clover if you're going to do some foraging hibiscus orange peel honey on it makes for a nice combination, but one thing about growing santi.
Lauren Olson: Is that the because you're sitting it out like in the sign and it's kind of like room temperature like maybe it's a little warm it's kind of the perfect temperature for like bacteria to grow.
Lauren Olson: So you're supposed to make sure that the container you're using is really clean and just be sure to like.
Lauren Olson: Clean off all your stuff, especially if you're like using tea that you've gathered from your garden in may not be as clean, because it hasn't been as process as much as like a bag tea.
Lauren Olson: So for 70 what you're going to do is you're just going to mix everything together.
Lauren Olson: In a jar with some water and let it sit out and as it steeps.
Lauren Olson: Or, as it warms up the tea steve's and one thing that son, she is really good for is if you're going to do ice tea.
Lauren Olson: Even if you're just like throwing a few bags of like black tea and they're like lipton tea.
Lauren Olson: If you're doing sun tea because it's like not eating as quickly and it's not reaching as high of a temperature it's not quite as bitter so it's nice if you're doing an iced tea, because then you know if it's not super warm it's going to be harder to like dissolve sugars in it as well.
Lauren Olson: And then, of course, you can always experiment that's part of the fun of growing your own to you can kind of make your own blends with what you like and see how it turns out.
Lauren Olson: Okay, and then T reading that's another thing you can do with your loose leaf tea that you made.
Lauren Olson: So it's best to use a loose leaf tea on you could try to use like tea from a tea bag and like cut open throw it in there, but the pieces might be too small to like it here to like the bottom of the cup when you're when you drain it.
Lauren Olson: So it's best used loosely to you, but absolutely if this is something you want to do try it out with with whatever you have.
Lauren Olson: And so what you're going to do is you're just going to.
Lauren Olson: place your loose leaf tea directly in the cup you don't need to put a strainer in because you want beliefs, to say at the bottom and you're pouring your water.
Lauren Olson: You let it steep and then as soon as it's cool enough to drink you start drinking it and in a way to readings really similar to like reading tarot cards if you've ever done that.
Lauren Olson: So as you're drinking you're supposed to think of your intentions for your reading so you know, is there something specific that you'd like you want answered, or is there more like general aspects of your life that you want clarification on.
Lauren Olson: And then, when there's just a few sips left of your tea, you know after you've been drinking and thinking about what you want from this reading.
Lauren Olson: you're going to swirl the T three times clockwise so, in other words right to live like you're gonna switch your tea around a few times and then you place a napkin over the top of it.
Lauren Olson: This can be cloth or paper cloth might work better, because then it's not going to like split open with the weight of the water.
Lauren Olson: But there should only be a little bit left anyways so you place a napkin on top, and you flip it over and you let it drain so you drain all the water out and then return it back up right.
Lauren Olson: there should still be.
Lauren Olson: Your tea leaves gathered at bottom.
Lauren Olson: kind of like a picture on the right each other kind of come together you're probably not going to get an image is clear is that.
Lauren Olson: But they should be generally towards the bottom of the cup but don't move them around however they land that's how they're supposed to land and then, once it's back up right you're going to.
Lauren Olson: want to turn the handle of the cup towards acquiring which is just another word for that person and ask the question so maybe like you're doing this with a friend.
Lauren Olson: You get a cup of tea boyfriend and you're going to do the reading but they're the one who was like meditating on these questions like what do they want answered, and then the handle is gonna be pointing towards them.
Lauren Olson: So it's pointing towards whoever was asking the questions and focusing on their intentions drinking the tea.
Lauren Olson: So then, once you have your cup ready to go, you can start interpreting it.
Lauren Olson: So the locations, I believe in the cup indicate like what point in time, the reading is referring to.
Lauren Olson: So if, like you're looking down into the cup and handle facing you then the right side would indicate.
Lauren Olson: The future so and you leaves on the bright side of the handle are talking about future events and any leaves on the left side of the handle are talking about past events and then.
Lauren Olson: The distance from the Center of the cup is kind of going to talk about like how close in time that event is so um.
Lauren Olson: So if it's close to like the Center of the cup or yeah like this, when you're looking down the Center if it's close to the Center that'll be.
Lauren Olson: Closer in time and if it's further out towards the rim and it's going to be further in time so like, for example, if you have like if you see a little something in like the.
Lauren Olson: right side of the mug and it's kind of up towards a Ram that'd be something that's going to happen in like the distant future.
Lauren Olson: And then, like when you're looking for symbols in your leaves some things to look for our dots because those signify money or abundance circles which signify the end of a cycle, or the completion of something.
Lauren Olson: And then dashes indicate opportunities.
Lauren Olson: And then these aren't like the only symbols, you can look for really This is just about.
Lauren Olson: You know, maybe, if you don't know where to start these are things you can look for but.
Lauren Olson: You can really just lie your imagination and your intuition guide you because there's no like right or wrong way to read tea leaves you really just take what you want from it um.
Lauren Olson: And you can use this for like serious her business like some people will use us to like guide them in like their decisions but it's also a way to just kind of like self reflect so you can use it, however, you want.
Lauren Olson: Okay.
Lauren Olson: yeah so that was the end of the presentation going to see if we can show the video now stop share real cool.
Lauren Olson: i'm in the meantime did anybody have any questions we'll have more time for questions later to I just don't want to leave you guys sitting here staring at the screen.
Lauren Olson: Calling all tea lovers this one's for you this aromatic drink tends to be more.
Iris Yip (she/they): than just a beverage.
Along with health benefits tea represents togetherness in countries around the world let's take a look at the different types of tea and the many traditions that are paired with.
Iris Yip (she/they): From the birthplace of all T comes were.
Iris Yip (she/they): grown for thousands of years and the United province and Southwest China where tea tree is our worship this tea is legendary.
Iris Yip (she/they): it's made from the leaves of the tree, known as the wild old tree and is fermented anywhere from weeks two decades, this means somewhere can cost a fortune the tea is typically sold as compressed cakes like fine wine, where is best enjoyed slowly in small steps.
Iris Yip (she/they): yorba Mata is the perfect go to when you're looking for a boost of caffeine, but want to skip the coffee.
Iris Yip (she/they): Traditionally, the beverage is prepared in a gourd that is shared among gas the drink is typically consumed, out of a bump via or a metal straw made of silver copper or stainless steel.
Iris Yip (she/they): rose is a caffeine free herb that is indigenous to the cedarburg region of South Africa, it has been harvested and brewed in the mountainous region for hundreds of years.
Iris Yip (she/they): In fact, South Africa is the only country in the world that produces robust once brewed the tea is red in color and has a bitter taste similar to your tomato.
Iris Yip (she/they): it's, also known as red tea or red Bush tea bubble tea, also known as boba or black Pearl T is a popular iced tea drink from Taiwan.
Iris Yip (she/they): It was created in the late 1980s when milk tea had already been common in Asian countries.
Iris Yip (she/they): bubble tea combines a base of milk tea sweetener and two bubbles, which are small balls made from tapioca or fruit jelly.
Iris Yip (she/they): bubble tea is made by shaking the ice tea based drink with milk to produce a rich silky texture the air bubbles created by the vigorous shaking are an essential element of the drink.
Iris Yip (she/they): in Morocco automate the process of brewing and drinking tea is a ceremonious tradition that symbolizes friendship hospitality and a level of comfort with guests.
Iris Yip (she/they): Moroccan mint tea combines a base of green tea with fresh mint leaves and sugar the tea is poured from a height of 12 inches over the small glass.
Iris Yip (she/they): greeting a foam on the top of the drink assemble that the team has been brewed long enough if there's no foam on the surface of the team it's returned hubspot and steeped longer the ritual of pouring hot tea from a great height is an impressive sign of an experience toast.
Iris Yip (she/they): A London fog combines Earl grey tea steamed milk and vanilla syrup it was created in Vancouver after Mary loria who was pregnant at the time, requested an alternative to coffee.
Iris Yip (she/they): The drink, also known as a Vancouver fog now has many different varieties, but remains popular, especially on cold rainy days.
This berry T is called Omega CHA it's made from Dr magnolia berries AMI job means five flavor Barry so you can expect this to to be salty sweet sour bitter and pungent.
The tea has been primarily used for medicinal purposes such as lowering blood pressure and detoxification because of its vibrant color oh media chat makes a great face for fruit punch it's typically sweetened with honey or sugar.
After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire important coffee grew in price, and what is now known as Turkey made a cultural shift to drinking more tea.
Turkish tea is served in glasses that are distinct to Turkish Chai meant to show off the t's rich mahogany color so drinkers can admire this and also manage the preference for the T strength.
Chai in Hindi means tikka masala Chai is a spice tea originating from India and combines black tea with aromatic spices like cardamom cinnamon ground clothes ground ginger black pepper corn milk and sugar.
Traditionally, the milk used to make a solid shy comes from water buffaloes the drink has become widely popular and is best enjoyed the snacks.
Instead of steeping dried leaves and boiling water much hailing from Japan is created by grinding young green tea leaves into a bright green powder.
though much is known for its strong levels of caffeine, the ritual of preparing the beverage is respected as a calming choreographic technique.
The Japanese tea ceremony is called john are you first the match a powder is measured with a small wouldn't label called a Cheshire coo.
It is brewed in a table called a Chai wan and water is slowly, combined with the powder by using a chess set a handmade Bamboo with.
The ceremony is about directing attention to the aesthetics, of the process and motions created with your hands the host of the ceremony has the guests interest in mind with every movement matches enjoyed with Japanese sweet treats to offset the bitter taste from the drink.
Lauren Olson: Okay, so I was just a little video to kind of show like how many ways to you can be enjoyed on that's one thing that I think is really cool about T is that it's.
Lauren Olson: Very important to like a lot of different cultures and it can mean so many things like can be about everything from like hospitality to like your status in society.
Lauren Olson: It just think it's really interesting like how diverse, it is just like and the amount of the different kinds of people that drink it.
Lauren Olson: And then the different ways to drink it you could see like it's literally made from infinite amounts of like plans and like ingredients, so a lot can be done with tea.
Lauren Olson: And then to close us out we're going to do a little buzzfeed quiz because I think those are fun so it's a buzzfeed quiz about which T, are you so.
Lauren Olson: give everybody a few minutes to do it and then we'll come back and guys can share your responses, if you want they had some interesting teas on there so give everybody a few minutes to that and there'll be a link sent out, I believe.