lahikmajoedrinkstea

teascapades of a tea newbie

2012-01-27T14:01:00.000-08:00

a note from your regularly scheduled teablogger: this post is written by Jim. You will immediately be able to tell that Jim is not a tea drinker. Why on earth would I turn the reigns of a teablog over to the likes of this guy? Why indeed.

Well, I write this blog partially with the tea newcomer in mind, and he's curious about tea. He writes some very funny non-tea-related blogs, and I knew he'd do something entertaining with it. And that he certainly did.

One important thing to remember: this is just the beginning with Jim and tea. He's already agreed to be a recurring character on the teablog. Without further ado, I bring you our guest teablogger:

I like to try new things, and while tea isn’t “new” to me,having access to someone who might know a bit about tea is. In the past, I tried teaas a substitute for coffee, specifically, Lipton tea. Everyone knows that Lipton is thename in mass produced tea. Right? Right?

So I tried it, and honestly it made me sick to my stomach.Not initially, but after a couple cups. I found it was a little harsh on an empty stomach(much like coffee can be) and eventually I gave it up as a bad job.

Nearly a decade later, enter Twitter, toss in a mildlyhumorous and nearly contentious miscommunication spawned from incorrectly linking topeople’s blogs. . . and I found Ken. And in finding Ken, found someone to ask all myannoying questions about the mysterious world of tea.

I tapped that resource for the first time in the middle of agrocery trip this past weekend. Without copy and pasting the exchange, essentially itamounted to this: Assuming Ken was more or less waiting by his phone/pc for my tweet, Isaid, “quick, I’m at the store, what tea should a newbie try?” and he, apparently actuallysitting by his phone/pc waiting for my tweet began to guide me to the best of his abilitiesto my best choice.

Yeah. . . so there are a lot of options. And I triedtweeting this picture to Ken, but I was in a wifi-less store, and it kepttiming out. So after Ken had asked a couple questions about what sorts oftastes I preferred, he offered me four or five options. And believe it or not,the store only had one of them. I mean, are you looking at that shelf? That’sjust the Stash choices I could fit in the picture. . . Anyway, we settled onStash English Breakfast.

Ken wanted me to get filters, but I couldn’t find teafilters to save my life, so that apparently put loose-leaf tea out of the equation.But fear not, regardless, of whether this tastes like ass, I will totally tryloose-leaf tea because it’s different, and I like trying different things. Notass. That was probably misleading how I wrote that in there. But differentthings.

So I had the tea. Now I drink coffee in the mornings ordinarily,and I won’t lie, sometimes when I finish my gigantic travel mug full o’ joe, Ifeel a little bit like I’m going to throw up. That doesn’t stop me from doingthe same thing the following day, mind you, cause my mama didn’t raise no quitters,but I knew I wouldn’t try tea on a day that I was already queasy from caffeineoverdose. Today was that day!!

The very first thing I did was find my finest heirloom porcelaintea cup. Because tea evokes all sorts of images in my head of cultured snobbypeople drinking tea out of fine

china with their pinkies in the air.

Mission accomplished. I filled it with ~~the finest~~ tap water ~~moneycan buy~~ and prepared my ~~tea kettle~~ microwave.

Ken had told me to heat the cup, and essentially what I did was.. . heated the cup and water in the microwave until it boiled. Once it boiled,I removed it from the microwave and plopped the tea bag in it.

Ken (and the packaging) said to steep it for three minutes.I set my duck timer (the duck timer is win/win/win. 1) “When Timer Ends Duck.” That’sfunny. I can see people actually ducking when the timer goes off (as instructed),2) ducks are funny, 3) when I use it with my kids I can blame the duck for whythey have to finish doing whatever it is they’re doing, “sorry kids, the duck quacked.”)

So I steeped. I’m not going to lie. I didn’t trust Brownianmotion to disperse my tea evenly throughout my hot water, so I. . . in theabsence of Ken’s learned guidance. . . bobbed the tea bag up and down in thewater a couple times. I didn’t continually do it, because Ken’s instructionshadn’t explicitly spelled out how I was to steep, but he hadn’t mentionedbobbing, so I felt certain I was going outside the framework of accepted tealore,but I fucking did it anyway, because sometimes, in the absence of instructionsto the contrary, you just go with your gut. Plus I’m American, and if historyhas taught me one thing, it’s that when Americans get a hold of tea, they dounexpected things with it.

Further to my discussion of Brownian motion...when the timerwas done, and the duck quacked and I had ‘ducked’ and then chuckled at howfunny I think I am. . . I threw the bag away and I stirred the tea. Because itseemed to me at the time that if I didn’t trust Brownian motion to disperse mytea evenly through the water, I may as well help the process of mixing and geta good uniform dispersion. Ken had told me not to squeeze the bag out so I didn’t.

Finally, I was ready to drink my tea. But, as I was about totake my first sip two things

occurred to me. 1) It was so hot I was going to burn theshit out of myself, and 2) pinkies

up, yo!

Something they don’t teach you at tea academy is that ifyou’re using a big giant Bugs Bunny coffee mug as your fine china, it’s reallyheavy and you should be careful not to be too cavalier with your pinky erectionlest you spill hot tea all over yourself when the mug slips from your grasp.

pinkies up, yo!

pinkies in the air...like you just don't care

Okay, I don’t know what the tea pros say, but when tea is soscalding hot you can barely tolerate it in your mouth? It’s also too hot totaste. So I waited a while longer. Because to quote Ralph Wiggums, “It tasteslike burning.”

It, okay and don’t hate on me here, tasted like Lipton.

Now Ken suggested that if I drank coffee with cream and sugar,I might enjoy tea the same way. I suspect so, and for whatever reason it nevereven occurred to me to add cream to tea. But my next attempt will be to add alittle and see if I like it better. The short answer to the question of isEnglish Breakfast a better choice than crappy ol’ Lipton may, unfortunately,have to be “no”. At least at this early tea age, I’m not really tasting any difference.

Jim pretending to enjoy his tea goodness

Teai Boynoy? Huh?

2012-01-26T04:27:00.000-08:00

Teai Boynoy? What's that?

First of all, it's been just a bit hectic here. There was a time when I posted something on the teablog everyday because I read somewhere that if you want to build readership, you should consistently have new content. Although I enjoyed doing it, the result was that I wrote a lot about tea, but I incorporated things going on in my life and how they (often tangentially) related to tea. If at all.

Then there was a time when I posted every second or third day, and that's actually more my goal. The last post about predicting someone's taste in tea based upon their other tastes is going to be a recurring theme. It's something that interesting to a lot of people and that hopefully will create a bit of dialogue.

After writing it, I realised that tea sellers must do this sort of thing all the time. Someone wanders into the shop, says that he's curious about tea, and the tea seller has to decide what might be the best option for this stranger. What does one do in that situation?

So because I write quite a bit about luring people over to the leaf-side here, and because I talk with quite a few non-tea people over on twitter, I get a lot of questions. For example, at the weekend there was an urgent message from a blogger I know called Jim. It read, 'quick! At the store...Name a couple of good commercially available teas for a tea virgin to try.'

I asked him my questions about how he took his coffee and whether he liked spicy food, and he responded with, 'coffee bold/rich cream and a bit of sugar, food spicy'. Now we were getting somewhere. He gave me a list of what was available, and I told him the brand I knew best.

But in the process I mentioned it on twitter, and of course there were people who responded to my query with pleas that Jim not go the way of teabags. That he wouldn't get the full experience and that it'd turn him off of tea entirely.

But there was Jim, standing in the aisle, not knowing where the tea filters were, or if there even were any, and not much more time to bother with hunting for tea. I'd gone to the website of the brand I knew best, and recommended the nicest loose-leaf teas I could imagine from their selection, but ultimately it was just too much. A package of English Breakfast blend was chosen, and I think it was the right choice.

My position on all of this is that the less fussy we are at the outset, the more an individual can develop his own tastes. I've suggested Jim try a sip or two of the tea before he adds any cream or sugar, but I actually think that drinking his English Breakfast blend with a bit of cream and sugar will slowly get him used to the taste of tea.

Why do I think that? Well, that's how I got into tea. I didn't start out by walking into a specialty tea shop and walk straight over to the High Mountain Oolong. Not sure how I would've responded to all that in the early days, anyway.

So the photo up above is something I've written about briefly in you needn't climb a mountain. It's not Teai Boynoy in English...that's actually Greek Mountain Tea. I'm rarely ever ill, but I've had a light cold and held onto this package for just such a situation. Unlike Geoff Norman (@lazy_literatus), who drinks his with proper Greek honey, I've had to settle for good old German honey. With a bit of Vitamin C powder for good measure.

Here's the package turned round to display the script you can likely more easily read:

queries of a tea-drinker profiler

2012-01-19T13:12:00.000-08:00

Why blogabout tea? Why indeed?

I could easily drink tea and share it with my friends. Whentravelling, I could visit tea shops/tea rooms and write aboutthem on a travel blog or just keep it to myself.

Several years ago, I was talking to a friend about social mediaand blogging. The prevailing wisdom that we were talking about was: blogabout your passion. Although I studied music and literature and am quite passionate about both, Icouldn't fathom having a blog about one or the other. Or not exclusively abouteither.

What was I knowledgeable about? What sort of thing did I feel Ihad to offer? For a long time I kept telling myself, 'As much as tea intrigues you, you simplydon't know enough about it to be a successful teablogger.' I'd read others' work on tea and lookat their beautiful photos, and thought I simply didn't have the expertisenecessary to add anything. But then my friend made an off-hand remark that in amoment changed everything.

She said, 'You could makeyour discovery of tea the focus of the blog. You know, to document learningabout tea.' That was theangle I needed. That was my focus. Early on, that and my enjoyment for the teaI'd been drinking was what propelled me. The longer I've done it, the more Isettled on my own personal voice.

When I travel, I search out tea-related things and blog aboutthem. In my daily life, I introduce friends and clients to tea. I joke aboutluring people over to the leaf-side, but the timesI've done so have been truly joyful. Either people who already drank tea butdidn't have experience with loose-leaf tea, or even people who had neverconsidered drinking the beverage.

In the process of doing this, I often think of the LasseHallström film Chocolat.In it Juliet Binoche's character VianneRocher looks at a personand divines what sort of chocolate they'd most like. I have no illusions thatI'd be able to do anything of the sort when it comes to pinpointing the perfecttea for a person.

Here's the trailer for the film (you can see JudiDench go into a moment ofrevelry around :43-48):

However, I've toyed with the idea foryears that I could ask someone a few questions about his or her food/drinkpreferences and then be able to predict what sort of tea they'd like. I'vewritten about it on this blog a bit, as well as discussed it with tea drinkersin a variety of forums.

Here are some of the questions I like toask:

Howdo you take your coffee? little milk/cream or a lot? Sugar/honey? Or black?

Doyou like spicy foods? If so, what sort do you like most?

Anyvegetables/spices you really adore? That you crave? Or the opposite: any thatyou loathe? That you avoid?

Isn't that an interesting topic? Can youthink of any other questions that might illustrate any more taste preferences?

As my friend Cevie hassaid, I'm trying to be a profiler of a kind. Not a serial killer profiler, buta tea-drinker profiler.That doesn't sound so bad. I can live with that.

fasting tea - herbs that clean you from within

2012-01-15T11:24:00.000-08:00

the green balloon is a symbol - what'll happen to the green ballon?

Let mestart out with two very weighty disclaimers. I'm writing about products thatmarket themselves as tea, but have absolutely nothing to do with the Camellia sinensis plant. They call it 'fasting tea' and although I'm awarethat plenty of you will take issue with the terminology, I'm just not preparedto go through the entire post and keep writing 'fasting tisane'.

Theother thing is that I have no personal experience with any of these products. Idon't drink tea to enhance my fasting. You'd immediately be able to tell frommy less-than-svelte appearance thatI haven't fasted in years (if ever).

Why amI writing about it then? I saw something about fastingtea in a complimentarymagazine called Schrott&Korn, which you find in many health foodstores in Germany. Typicallywhen I see something tea-related in my daily life, I make some sort ofattempt to incorporate it here. Before I go on about it, here's the originalarticle:

Fastentee - Kräuter, die von innen reinigen

Here's another disclaimer. 'Jeez, there are a lot of those so early into this,' you say?Actually, I think this is important enough to make quite a bit of it. The health benefits that are claimedtea drinking will bring you are often laughable and sometimes even downrightdeceptive. So much so, that I spend half of any post I write on this subjectstating and restating that I'm neither a medical doctor nor scientificallyversed enough to verify any of the things upon which I'm reporting. You've beenwarned.

The first point the article makes is that the fasting tea is only going to be asgood as its ingredients, which is nearly too obvious for me to repeat. Yet thepoint that's made is that when you're fasting, your body is particularlyvulnerable to products that might've either been grown with pesticides or handled in someother improper way. Apparently, the herbs shouldn't be fumigated or irradiated either.

As a rule Germans takethis sort of thing rather seriously. Not sure wherever you are in the worldthat you'd even know if they'd been doing these things to products, but here...here,this sort of thing is checked quite carefully.

What's the result ofherbs in tea?

According to the article if you're intention is topurify and detoxify your system, then it's your liver, gall bladder and kidneys thatneed the most attention. What ingredients do the most for those organs? Theusual suspects that are in many fasting teas are: stinging nettle, birch leaves, and juniper berries.

Now, remember: Am I a doctor? No. AmI recommending that you go stock up on stinging nettle, birch leaves, and juniper berries? I most certainly am not. Justtelling you what I've read.

Dandelion is a diuretic and Milk Thistle is helpful in liverregeneration (it's the FlavonolSilymarin that does it, but I assure you there'll be no test). Whodidn't know all that? (I didn't)

Elder berries take away theinflammation and decreases sweating, while (pepper)mint will calm your upset stomach and make yourdigestion more regular (actually, I knew that last one).

In the rhythm of a day;typical fasting herbs

From my understanding, you should be avoiding coffeeor true tea (you know, anything coming from the above-mentioned Camellia sinensis plant) ifyou're doing a proper fast. For some reason, that's why so many fasting teashave Mate in them.

There's both caffeine and Theobromine in the Mate, and I'm only just now realisingthat Mate needs it's ownpost. There are plenty of people out there in the tea world talking about Mate, and I'm sure none of you canforget Lisa Galaviz's trip to Teavana in How NOT to go to a Tea Shop, where she came backwith Mate and I insisted you Don't tell her it's not tea.

But the real point of this whole post was to comeround to talking about stingingnettle.

If you didn't bother clicking over to that Wikipedia link, there's a veryhumourous bit about CompetitiveEating in which they describe:

In the UK, an annual StingingNettle Eating Championship drawsthousands of people to Dorset, where competitors attempt to eat as much of theraw plant as possible. Competitors are given 60 cm (20 in) stalks ofthe plant, from which they strip the leaves and eat them. Whoever strips andeats the most stinging nettle leaves in a fixed time is the winner. Thecompetition dates back to 1986, when two neighbouring farmers attempted tosettle a dispute about which had the worst infestation of nettles.

Doesn't that sound like a lot of fun?

So stingingnettle is a very curious plant to me. Again, thanks to Wikipedia Iknow that it's a dioeciousherbaceous perennial. Really? A perennial?How lovely.

There're few things I'd rather avoid when I'm out innature in the summer than stingingnettle, but I've often heard that it's not just nutritious when cooked, butused in many alternative health remedies. Specifically in a fasting tea. 'Oh, are we back to that?' you ask.

Well, yes. That was the original point of all this,wasn't it?

The article itself made quite a bit of noise about a brand of fasting tea that you probably can't even find anyway, unless you're in Germany. Purportedly, the five different sorts they offer are created for either the specific time of day or a unique aspect of fasting. To my eyes, it looks like clever marketing, but I'm not going to advertise the brand here. You can go to the link if you're really curious.

Would I recommend you use either this or any other product to aid whatever fast you might endeavour to take part in? I would NOT. I'm only passing on the information as I found it.

Do I think you should have a Competitive Eating contest in which you consume stinging nettle? Now that is something I can stand behind whole-heartedly.

remember the green balloon? that's all the bad stuff you get rid of when fasting

Nice's La Route du Thé

2012-01-10T15:58:00.000-08:00

outside looking in

The other day, I mentioned that I was particularly thrilled about a tea shop I found in Nice. Decided that including La Route du Thé in a post with the others was not giving it the attention it deserved. I'll actually go back and link to this post in the earlier one just to make sure no-one overlooks this place. That's how convinced I am.

A tea shop is a tea shop, right? They're all offer pretty much the same thing. Why make such a fuss about this one or that one? Well, once you've seen enough different establishments, there are some that just stand out. Sure the quality of the tea and tea ware they offer is paramount, but there's something intangible that draws you to certain places.

This place has that intangible thing for me. If I lived in Nice, this would definitely become one of my regular haunts.

plenty of selection

For one thing, the tea seller himself (Alain Bantwell) is clearly passionate about tea in general. But when he talked about his tea, his eyes lit up. You'd expect that always, wouldn't you? And let's face it: if you've dedicated yourself to having your own tea shop, you're most likely quite convinced about tea. Once again, this guy had that and more.

He spoke enough English and I spoke enough French that we were able to get our basic thoughts across to one another, but when he started showing off his tea...well, did I mention the 'eyes lighting up' thing? Pretty sure I did.

Then, he let his lovely assistant, who spoke English quite well (and insisted that I not include her name) tell me about the shop. She spoke highly of a Salon du Thé in the beautiful Cimiez neighbourhood of Nice called L'Altro Cose Cosi. I really must check that out next time I'm in town.

But back to the tea shop. That's what you're here for, right?

tea ware and gift packages

I'd not heard of the brand of tea La Route du Thé, but it's a relatively small company with five shops in Paris. You know I'm going to visit at least one of those when I'm next in the French capital.

This is the only shop carrying their tea outside of Paris. Although he'd left me in very capable hands, Mr Bantwell came rushing out from the back of the shop because he clearly wanted to tell me something else that was important.

It seems that all of the flavoured tea is made with all natural ingredients. He insisted that as a small company, they refused to use chemicals in any of their flavourings. Again, that this was important to him-that he made such a point of it, made me appreciate this shop all the more. He also knew I was based in Germany, where artificial flavourings are frowned upon. Most certainly.

I asked him about his selection of Darjeelings, and he showed me a Darjeeling Puttabong whose leaves were so fragrant that I almost fainted. When I enquired what reliable tea was that he'd 'go to' nearly everyday, he opened a canister of golden-tipped Yunnan 'Celeste' that almost made me want to swear off any other Yunnan. Almost, but not quite.

lovely teapot with a box of the house tea brand

Oh, before I forget about those flavoured teas: he showed off some Réglisse Thé (licorice tea) that almost made me forget I'm not very keen on flavoured tea. The Amandes Thé (almond tea) also smelled divine, as did the several sorts of Earl Grey that he had. Not my sort of thing, but the leaves and Bergamot oil were very fragrant.

If you're in Nice, or anywhere nearby for that matter, I'd highly recommend taking a look at La Route du Thé (9 bis rue de Rivoli 06000 Nice Tel : 04 93 16 94 33). You'll be glad you did.

a bit of Nice tea shopping

2012-01-07T08:17:00.000-08:00

So a year ago, I wrote A few Nice places for tea and that piece dealt with places to drink tea in Nice, France. Try as I might've this time around, I don't have much to add in that regard. And the few new places I do have to recommend each deserve their own individual blogposts.

But let's say you do roll into Nice (or fly in, whichever the case may be) and you realise you didn't pack enough loose-leaf tea at the beginning of your trip. Are you really going to be forced to go to Galeries Lafayette and buy a box of tea leaves from a major French tea brand? Well, you certainly can do that. Am not entirely sure how long the tea's been sitting on the shelves, but it'll certainly do in a pinch.

a wall of Mariage Frères

Kusmi Tea and Dammann Frères

They have Mariage Frères, which is quite good. Then there's Dammann Frères, which I don't know well, but I see there boxes all over. Finally, there's also Kusmi Tea.

Xavier's done some research on Kusmi, and here's his post on a radio interview that he transcribed and translated (An interview with Kusmi).Their tea (that I've seen) is flavoured and a tad pricey , so I've not taken the plunge and tried them. Nevertheless, I've heard good things about this company, and I'm sure one day I'll give it a go (Xavier assured me that they have unflavoured tea. I've not actually seen it).

The next place you might try is Bjeteman & Barton (11, rue Maréchal Joffre 06000 Nice +33 1 (0)4 93 92 70 22), which is apparently a high-end Parisian tea brand. Their shop in Nice is centrally-located and they have quite a good selection of both loose-leaf and bagged tea, as well as plenty of attractive tea gear. It's not an Asian specialty shop, but for nice Wester-style teapots, cups and saucers, this is definitely an excellent destination. Again, this is an upscale establishment. I certainly didn't say you'd be able to leave without lessening the weight of your wallet.

Here's a photo of their front window:

Bjeteman & Barton

The place I was most impressed with last year and even more so now that I've gotten my hands on a copy of the book The Tea Drinker's Handbook, which was written by Francois-Xavier Delmas the founder of Le Palais des Thés (3, rue de la Liberté 06000 Nice +33 4 93 81 56 16). Beautiful book (also written by Mathias Minet and Christine Barbaste) and beautiful shop.
This place knows what they're doing. I'd say this was the French answer to Teavana, but it's likely the other way around. I suppose that the American chain could've modelled itself on this French one rather than vice versa.

Though I was discouraged from taking photos inside, which I didn't really understand, I did get off a few shots before being scolded. I won't share them here. If they weren't happy about me taking photos, imagine their position on me throwing them out on the teablog. Incidentally, if you were impressed with the way Le Palais des Thés were doing things, you could actually purchase a franchise from them, or so I've been told. Though I'm not remotely in the market for such a thing, I can't imagine a more ready-made business idea.

Here's a photo of their storefront:

Le Palais des Thés

tea ware at Le Thé

Around the corner and several hundred metres away in rue Pastorelli is yet another tea shop. This one's called Le Thé (39 Rue Pastorelli 06300 Nice +33 04 93 80 45 79), which is clearly more Eastern in appearance. They have an impressive selection of tea from around the world, but the tea ware (exquisite clay teacups and teapots) is clearly of the Asian variety.

Xavier noticed something before I did: many of the distinctive flavoured tea from Le Palais des Thés were identical here at Le Thé. To be clear, it's most definitely not a franchise. Le Thé is selling tea under their own name, but the exact same names indicate the same source for their more auspicious blends.

To be candid, the few teas that we compared at both locations were a tad more economically priced at Le Thé, but it definitely wasn't substantial. Not sure it's worth going out of your way for the minuscule difference, but it is worth noting.

you can find the shop easily under the bright green sign

And now I have a bit of a cliffhanger for you gentle readers. The whole time I've been here, I've walked by one last teashop, but always at the wrong hour. The shop is open often enough. It's just that I was there too early or too late. Even today on my last day, I arrived right in the middle of their midday break. Here's the thing, though. I was so impressed with La Route du The that I've resolved to write an individual blogpost for this shop. It was that extraordinary.

So, even though I've given you a rather thorough review of some of the teashops in Nice, you'll have to wait just a bit longer for my review of the one I enjoyed the most. You can barely contain your anticipation, can you? I know you all pretty well.

searching for tea in choclate-y places

2012-01-03T15:45:00.000-08:00

deceptively tea-related

Last year when I was in Nice, I wrote a post called A few Nice places for tea, where I mentioned some of the possibilities for drinking tea here in the South of France. Earlier today, I walked by the Café Indien that I wrote about then and it appears business is still thriving. There are actually a few new tea shops as well as a Salon de thé or two that I've seen and I plan to talk about some of them in the coming days. You can hardly wait, right?

Today was the first day that some tea shops finally reopened after the Sylvestre (New Year's) holiday, and Xavier and I were on a mission to find good tea-related things to report on. I'd circled the block looking for a place a year ago, and I was persistent in my desire to locate it this time around. With Xavier's help, we got much closer. But it still eluded us, and I'm hoping it's a more enthralling story than that the place simply went out of business.

Then we scouted out a few more places, but either they weren't open till afternoon or they were obviously inappropriate. Here's the thing: just because a place is called a Salon de thé in France, that doesn't necessarily mean that it has anything to do with decent tea. It might, but it's definitely not guaranteed.

From what I can tell, Salon de thé only means 'an indoor place to sit and have something to drink and possibly eat'. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I wish they wouldn't include tea in the name. It's not only confusing-it's also a bit disconcerting.

A place I avoided the first time I scouted out good locations was Seizième De Soupir, which to my eyes looked like the sort of place a socialite might go to take a break in the midst of her shopping. But we were starting to get desperate as the other places on the list seemed less and less suitable. Or less and less open.

So here we were:

Looks more like a chocolate shop than anything tea-related, doesn't it? Well, there was definitely some other-worldly looking chocolate creations, and when I become a chocolate blogger, I'll definitely be returning to this place.

But I can assure you...this was quite a good find to get a cup of tea, as well. You want to read more on that, don't you? This is a teablog, after all.

The tea on offer was from a company called Mighty Leaf Monte-Carlo, and I have no idea if they're connected to the Mighty Leaf Tea in the United States. Will try to find that out. The choices were: a 'Himalayan Peak' Darjeeling, an Earl Grey, a very good Hojicha, something called 'Green Tea Passion' (something to do with green tea and tropical fruit), another green tea called 'Jasmine Mist', as well as a 'Marrakesh Green Tea' (gunpowder mixed with peppermint), and finally a very radical thing called 'Coco Chai' (Rooibus with coconut, red pepper and other spices).

What would you guess we went for? Well, we both wanted to try the Hojicha. And a good portion of our afternoon was spent talking about this tea in particular and Hojicha in general. To anyone but a tea obsessive, that sounds like a dull afternoon. For us, it was anything but boring.

Again with my translation of the French (aided massively by Xavier):

'This green tea is quite popular in Japan. It's rather tasty due to the manner in which it is roasted. Woody with an aftertaste of hazelnut.'

Here's how the leaves looked (I thought they looked more like a highly-oxidised Oolong than a typical green tea):

The first infusion tasted nothing like a green tea, which is a common reaction to Hojicha. Only in the second infusion were we able to detect the hazelnut aftertaste.

But the whole experience? The tea, the location, the beautiful sunny day in the South of France. Would we recommend it? We definitely would. Right Xavier?

Here's how it looked under the chandelier:

add tea preparation to her feminine wiles

2012-01-02T07:54:00.000-08:00

she can make me tea anytime she likes

Xavier showed up the other day with a book in tow. He asked, 'How good is your French?' and in retrospect, I suppose it's not as good as the impression I gave him it was. Although I understood most of what I was reading, my translation is questionable enough that I had to double check it with him.

The book is Le thé dans l'encrier, which is nicely displayed here: Grillon du foyer. And immediately I was drawn to an essay about Honoré de Balzac and the seduction of tea. It talks specifically about one of his later books La Cousine Bette and what sort of tea drinker Balzac was in reality.

The essay starts with a Chinese proverb which has been translated from the original Chinese to French to German and finally to English, but here it is:

'You can forgive a murder, but never a mistake while preparing tea.'

And the author (Gilles Brochard) discusses two sorts of people when it comes to tea drinking. Again with my pigeon translation:

'I want to give them the opportunity to express themselves. We shouldn't confuse those who can or will be entirely seduced by tea for the entirety of their life and then those who alternate between both coffee and tea. I believe that Balzac was in the second category.'

This is a curious topic on which I find tea drinkers go back and forth. Some of us are even a bit hesitant admit that they even drink coffee. Some tea drinkers have never had coffee or when they have they simply didn't enjoy it.

Why is this even a topic, right? If you like drinking both coffee and tea, why should you have to somehow hide it? Not with me you don't. There's been some enjoyable joking in my circle of acquaintances about how drinkers of the bean and the those drinking of the leaf can live in some sort of harmony. From my perspective, I certainly cannot see why we can't.

Even more interesting was the Cousine Bette translation that I found online. I've gone on at length about how men shouldn't feel ashamed drinking tea in masculine tea drinking. The masculinity of drinking tea continues to attract not only the most readers but also the most comments on this and other teablogs. Even with the assumptions and stereotypes of women and tea drinking, I was intrigued by how Balzac handled the topic.

'Just then, Valérie herself brought Steinbock a cup of tea. This was more than a mark of attention; it was a special favour. There is a whole language in the way a woman performs that office, and women are well aware of this. And so it is interesting to study their movements, their gestures, their looks, and the pitch and intonation of their voices, when they perform this apparently simple act of courtesy.

From the question, 'Do you drink tea?' 'Would you like some tea?' 'A cup of tea?' asked coldly, and the order to the nymph presiding over the tea-urn to bring it, to the eloquent poem of the odalisque coming from the tea-table, cup in hand, and offering it submissively to her heart's pasha, in a caressing voice and with a look full of voluptuous promise...'

(source & more about Cousine Bette at Google Livres)

Not only that she asks 'Do you drink tea?', but it's the manner in which she asks it. She may add tea preparation to her list of feminine wiles. I looked up the definition of wiles to make certain that it doesn't always have a negative/sinister connotation. It doesn't. Well, it doesn't necessarily have to.

Is the entire question of the femininity of tea drinking or tea serving completely outdated? Am I going to get a lot of feminist blowback for even asking if a discussion can be made of this?

If we were talking about the book itself, the theme of tea drinking would hardly come up in discussing Cousine Bette. It's a bit of a stretch for me to even write an entire blogpost about it. This text is a blend of a morality tale full of vice and salaciousness and a study of mid-19th century Paris society and culture.

Having already excused myself for stretching this into a theme, is there such a thing as feminine tea drinking? Is it even worth mentioning?

(update: here's something that @elaine4queen sent me as a response to this post: Catherine of Braganza. I'm pretty sure I saw something on either Leafbox Tea or Tea Trade about her a while back, but it's good to be reminded of this again.)

tea out of egg cups

2011-12-30T14:57:00.000-08:00

Don't know many tea drinkers where I live. I'm sure they're out there, but for the most part my tea community is online. There are some really nice tea places in Munich, and one of my goals in the new year is to spend some time visiting the different options and reviewing them here.

Yet I have made some friendships online that've transitioned into the real world. Wrote about meeting a few of you at the 1st annual Tea Trade gathering, which was quite a joy. I mentioned to Xavier then that we're often in Southern France for New Year's, and there was talk about maybe meeting each other there. Or here I should say, because Nice is where we are.

I'm sure there'll be plenty more about tea in the days to come, but in the meantime, we had a very nice Gong Fu session with some simple Dung-ti Oolong. I packed a Gaiwan for this very purpose, but knew I'd have to improvise when it came to tea cups.

The flat we're staying in had the perfect-sized egg cups, so that's what we drank out of. Unconventional as they might've been, it worked perfectly.

you can brew tea in cold water?

2011-12-27T09:42:00.000-08:00

that's Tie Guan Yin on the left and Silver Needle on the right

This is really a post for summertime. So all of you in the Southern Hemisphere will be happy. The rest of you are probably asking, 'Why not wait until it's seasonally appropriate? What's the story on a summer topic in the opening days of winter?' Well, in my defence, I started thinking about this in summer. And if I try to wait for the right time, I just might forget.

Over the summer, I read people talking about cold-brewing tea. Putting leaves in cold (not remotely warm) water and waiting until the leaves naturally steep into some delicious goodness. You can do that? It works? I'm here to tell you that it does.

Those of you that already know this are going to think it's a non-story. Of course it does. Why wouldn't it? Now I know that...but it was somehow beyond my understanding. My mother made sun tea when I was a child. In her case it was tea bags in a container of water that was set out in the sun. After several hours, the warmth of the sun had brewed up a really strong tea (that people ruined with ice cubes and various forms of sweetener), but that's because of the heat. Right?

If you want to make tea, you need either hot water or you need to add some sort of heat. Isn't that correct?

Not necessarily. Why have I been sitting on this since summer? Well, it's simple actually. I had to try it. I had to know it was true before I went off half-cocked about it (I know that's not my normal way-I'm well-known for going off half-cocked). And once I got started experimenting with cold-brewing tea, I couldn't stop. It became a sort of obsession.

That's why it was so timely when in the comments of a recent post Tea Trade Peter mentioned drinking white tea cold. Here's how he said it:

'Let’s start with why does tea have to be drunk hot? I like white tea, but when it is hot, I find that I cannot appreciate the flavors, but when it is just warm, or at a temperature just slightly above the room temperature so you still get the aromatics (though, I think they still come through at room temp). I’ve gotten to the point where I’d rather let my white tea cool off before I drink it, it just seems better that way.'

Now, he's talking about brewing it hot and letting it cool. It's not the same thing. But when I read what he'd written, I had unintentionally been doing exactly that with various white teas. After I got as much out of the leaves as I could with hot water, I went on and soaked those same leaves in cold water overnight. With astounding results.

It's not the same as tea brewed with hot water. There are times when the result is something like faintly-scented water. It's subtle...a lot like what I've recently written about white tea in general. There are also times that I've left leaves in cool water, forgotten about them entirely, and after a day or so, the resulting tea was as strong and flavourful as any hot-brewed concoction.

Here, let's move in a little for a closer look:

Don't really drink the leaves, ok? Pour these through some sort of filter.

My question is: Have you tried this? What were your results? Though I don't think I'd do this with any black tea, it's had unbelievable results with Oolong, green tea, and white tea. How about you? Any experience?

brain is on holiday with the rest of me

2011-12-24T12:21:00.000-08:00

Christmas tree in front of the Neues Rathaus in Munich

Don't think I did any sort of Christmas post last year, and I'm not sure why. For one thing, they really celebrate Advent here in Germany right up until Christmas Eve. The tree typically doesn't even go up until the 24th. Then you keep it up for the whole Twelve Days of Christmas. It's how things are done.

What tea-related thing am I up to for these festive days? Well, for the most part my tea consumption carries on exactly as it always does. But I made a mince pie earlier and as it was nearly ready, I thought to myself, 'Which tea would go well with this?'

Then I remembered...the first Rooibus I was introduced to was during the holidays. I always associate these festive times with this Rooibus with caramel pieces. Actually, I like it so much on occasion that I often have a little package of it sitting waiting for me year-round.

It's also one of those things I reach for when I have a sore throat and want to add a lot of honey to my mug. You don't think I'm going to ruin a cup of genuine tea for that, do you? Absolutely not.

But here I am not remotely ill, nibbling on a piece of mince pie, and sipping away at this caramel-smelling concoction. I do like the taste of Rooibus. It is a nice change every once in a while.

I've been reading limitless articles and blogposts about the holidays, and to be perfectly frank, as nice as they all are, I just can't bring myself to pile this one on top of them.

I was really touched by Geoff Norman's Tea Gift Gratitude, and I really racked my brain trying to think of some ideas to help Rachel Carter manage to review all of her tea samples. You can read about it in Vacation, Resting, Relaxing, Tea Drinking, Tea Reviewing, Need Your Ideas-Please, and if you have any thoughts on that, please let her know. It's like my problem solving brain is on holiday with the rest of me.

Have just realised my mug of honey-soaked goodness has run dry. Before I go replenish my Rooibus, I'll wish you all a safe and peaceful Yuletide.

give us a slug of that Builder's Tea, yeah?

2011-12-22T12:59:00.001-08:00

imagine the tea these builders might've brewed

A friend recently mentioned Builder's Tea to me, and I realised that I've never bothered writing about this before. It's not common parlance outside of Britain (not that I'm aware of), but it's such an evocative term. Here's what Wikipedia says about Builder's Tea.

It describes so brilliantly that milky, sugary sludge of black tea that your everyday typical British construction worker carries to the building site in his flask everyday. Sure, some drink it without milk and even more rare is a flask filled with Builder's Tea that has no sugar. The stuff is too strong. Too bitter.

You can drink it black, but it can't be good for you.

If you didn't have a look at Tea Trade Peter's account of drinking insanely strong black tea in Kosovo while he was serving in the army, do yourself a favour. Go read it. You can find it at:

Russian prison tea, Outpost Terminator and me

Go ahead and look now. I'll wait while you're gone. It's ok. I have time.

Doesn't that sound enticing and dangerous and delicious all at the same time?

I love these sorts of tea that people drink in such an unassuming manner. A little like the Grandpa Tea that I wrote about months ago. Throw leaves in a pot, add boiling water, wait a bit, drink it down, repeat with the same leaves ad infinitum.

You could be drinking all day from the same pinch of leaves if you do it right. Doesn't that sound great? It's the simplicity that gets me every time. Just me, some decent tea leaves and boiling hot water. What more could you want?

The Prison and the Cult of Tea

2011-12-19T09:55:00.000-08:00

Not sure exactly what I can say about the death of Vaclav Havel, but I do try to keep this blog topical. What on earth does that have to do with tea? Well, I'll let him explain it in his own words (translated of course-I don't speak Czech, do you?) Here's what the late playwright had to say about drinking of the leaf:

'When I was outside, I didn't understand the cult of tea that exists in prison, but I wasn't here long before grasping its significance and succumbing to it myself. . . . Tea, it seems to me, becomes a kind of material symbol of freedom here: (a) it is in effect the only fare that one can prepare oneself, and thus freely: when and how I make it is entirely up to me. In the preparation of it, I realize myself as a free being, as it were, capable of looking after myself. (b) Tea - as a sign of private relaxation, of a brief pause in the midst of the hubbub, of rumination and private contemplation - functions as the external, material attribute of a certain unbridling of the spirit and thus as a companion in moments of focused inner freedom. (c) The world of freedom considered as leisure time is represented by tea in the opposite - in the extroverted and therefore the social - sense: sitting down to a cup of tea here is a substitute for the world of bars, wine rooms, parties, binges, social life, in other words again, something you choose yourself and in which you realize your freedom in social terms. . . . I drink it every day. . . . I look forward to it, and consuming it (which I schedule carefully, so it does not become a formless and random activity) is an extremely important component in my daily ''self-care'' program. From ''Letters to Olga.'' '

(source: The New York Times 8 May 1998 from an article by Michael Scammel called The Prison and the Cult of Tea)

It turns out that this is referenced multiple places on the web, but I found it thanks to Thomas Kaspar, whose a member of the Facebook group 'Teefreunde'. He has an intriguing teablog Siam Teas, which if you're not careful, you might lose an inordinate amount of time perusing.

sometimes good things happen when you run off and forget your tea

2011-12-18T10:17:00.000-08:00

Eight Immortals Phoenix Oolong

If you asked me, 'Do you want to try an Oolong you've never had before?', there's little doubt that I'd answer in the affirmative before you even got the question entirely out of your mouth. A High Mountain Oolong? I'd climb that mountain if I had to. But I have to admit, I like climbing mountains. It's not like that'd be a burden or anything.

While writing about white tea and the Teekampagne, I've actually been drinking a lot of quite good Oolong and working my way up to writing about it. When Jo Johnson sent me her beautiful children's book The World's Special Tea, which I wrote about several weeks ago, she mentioned that she'd thrown in a couple of tea samples. One of them was the Eight Immortals Phoenix Oolong from In Pursuit of Tea, and receiving it was like being asked the question up above. 'Would you like to try a really exceptional High Mountain Oolong?' Well yes. Yes, I would.

Their photo of the leaves is nice, but look how my sample looked:

I'm not going to do a tea review here. Not now. I read something that Alex Zorach said a while back about really getting to know a tea before reviewing it, and that's exactly what I'm doing with this one. Although I'm savouring it the way I would any exquisite tea, I'm also being a bit brutal with it to see if it can withstand the abuse. So far, it has stood up valiantly to every test.

Recently read about the origin of the term Wu Long (Oolong) in The Tea Drinker's Handbook, and thought it'd be a nice way to close out this post. Here it is:

'In Chinese, Wu Long means literally "black dragon" and refers to the very dark colour frequently taken on by the leaves during drying. However, according to legend, there's a different explanation for the origin of the colour: Wu Liang, a Chinese planter, was harvesting his tea one day when he saw a stag. He interrupted the harvest to give chase and arriving home with the carcass he got busy skinning and cutting it up and quite forgot to put the tea leaves out to dry. A few days later he remembered his precious crop and noticed that the leaves had changed colour. He fired them nevertheless, then infused some and was very surprised by the unusually soft and aromatic fragrance they gave off. The secret of his discovery spread around the entire province and the name Wu Liang was transformed into Wu Liang Cha or "tea of the black dragon."'

(source: The Tea Drinker's Handbook by Francois-Xavier Delmas, Mathias Minet, and Christine Barbaste)

does white tea intimidate you?

2011-12-15T15:08:00.000-08:00

an entirely unrelated plant that reminded me of white tea

Like I said last week, I'm going to keep bringing up the topic of white tea until I feel like I have a better grasp of how to make it more accessible for tea newcomers and the tea curious. I've mentioned the Google+ Hangout before, and this last week I asked the others taking part about their take on this topic.

Got a lot of positive feedback for even bringing the topic up, and I wanted to share a few of the ideas that I liked. First of all, no matter what other information is gleaned, the early favourite for 'best introductory white tea' is clearly Pai Mu Tan (or Bai Mu Dan or White Peony, as it's sometimes called).

The general consensus is that, for a white tea, this is a much more accesible tea than some other possibilities. I can certainly agree with that. Actually, David Galli from the Portland Tea Enthusiasts' Alliance had an interesting perspective, and it helped reinforce what I'd already thought about this type of tea. He said he was introduced to them as an intimidating tea, and avoided them for the longest time. Now he drinks them as much as any other teas.

He suggested trying a Tai Mu Ye Sheng white tea from Jing Tea, which you can find here: Tai Mu Ye Sheng. I can't personally recommend it, because I haven't tried it. Nevertheless, the description has made me very thirsty.

But the fact that white tea intimidates some tea drinkers is exactly why I keep coming back to this topic. There's absolutely no need to let the mere thought of white tea freak you out. I'll be going into more detail about brewing it in a later post, but it's really not a big deal. If I can do it, anyone can. Really.

Another opinion that some members of the hangout had, which I think it's important to voice here, is that the ridiculously high price for some white tea makes it hard to rationalise buying the stuff. More than one person said, 'If I'm going to spend that sort of dosh, I'd rather get an above-average Oolong or decent Matcha.' I can see their point. I don't necessarily agree, but I do understand that position.

May-King Tsang (of May King Tea) said that she found that people who were already accustomed to drinking green tea transitioned more easily to white tea. She also suggested a Silver Needle white tea with a bit of jasmine in it. I might actually try that when I introduce people to this type of tea in person. As long as the jasmine wasn't overpowering.

And finally, Laine Petersen said that she's noticed women gravitate more easily to white tea. She insisted that she didn't want to perpetuate any stereotypes. The opinion that a few shared was that some men already had enough of a grudge against the assumed femininity of tea drinking. That a woman was more likely to go for such a subtle tea. Again, I can definitely see this.

We keep coming back to that. The subtlety of white tea. Like David said: the way in which white tea was talked about made the whole topic intimidating. I'd like to try and help counteract that. Any ideas about how I might help make that happen?

it's not a tea problem, it's a Darjeeling problem

2011-12-12T10:15:00.000-08:00

a kilo of the good stuff

A while back I talked about how impressed I was with Günter Faltin and his Teekampagne. Actually, in the US it's called the Boston Tea Campaign, and I wrote about it in tea entrepreneur. While I promised I'd come back to the topic, I couldn't talk about it in any way but theoretically. The unavoidable truth was that I'd not had the tea. No matter how good it might be, I couldn't say so without personal experience.

The thing is I have quite a bit of Darjeeling in my possession. People know this stuff is my weakness, so they send it to me. Even when I already have plenty of Darjeeling, the thought of more increases my heart rate and I'm pretty sure my eyes even dilate. I don't have a tea problem. I have a Darjeeling problem.

That's why as excited as I might be about this extraordinary company, the thought of actually going out of my way to get this stuff was really impractical. Just didn't make any sense. That is until my friend Dermot reminded me that he's been ordering this tea for nearly as long as they've been sending it. If you want to know about the Boston Tea Campaign, go take a look at their American website. Really, go check it out. The vision as well as the history of this organisation is very well explained.

Decided to take this opportunity to do a very informal interview with Dermot and ask him how he learned about Teekampagne, as well as some other tea-related things that you might enjoy reading. It's not a very German name my friend has. If you guessed that he was Irish, you'd be right. You've likely heard this, but the Irish drink a lot of tea.

His description of how tea was prepared when he was a child in Ireland would make some of you tea obsessives recoil in horror, but we have to go there. This teablog doesn't just deal with the light and pretty aspects of tea. When it's ugly, I intend to show it in all of its gory detail. If you're sensitive about steep times and such matters, you may want to avert your eyes right now.

It's actually very simple really. Add tea leaves and boiling water to teapot, let it steep, and then drink the tea till it's gone. Don't take the leaves out. They stay in the pot to the bitter end. Literally.

I asked him if the tea was a sludgy abomination by the end of the pot, he insisted that no. It never took that long to finish said pot of tea. That made sense. Not so gory. Those who looked away can come back now.

How did Dermot learn about this source of Darjeeling goodness? He said he moved into a Wohngemeinschaft (shared flat) years ago, and that they already ordered their tea from Teekampagne. Even when he moved away, his taste for this stuff had developed.

Evidently, he has a tea problem, as well.

He told a funny story about going to his doctor years ago, and devising which medications he could take while still drinking coffee. He came to the conclusion that it was easier just to switch to drinking this above-average Darjeeling than have to worry about duelling medications.

He insisted that what he liked most at the outset was Teekampagne's economical price and convenience. If it'd cost more for the fair-trade status, he truly doubted that he'd have become such a loyal customer. I got the impression that only later he realised that the quality of the tea was so noteworthy.

What about the fact that the tea changes from year to year? That each season's tea really has it's own character?

He smiled from ear to ear, and assured me that that was in fact the very best part.

overly satisfied customer

do I really have to like white tea?

2011-12-09T07:16:00.001-08:00

the perfect ride for white tea drinking

Not only because I keep saying that I write this teablog partially for tea newcomers and the tea curious, but also because I interact with so many non-teadrinkers, I get asked a lot of really good questions about tea. Andreas Heinakroon (@heinakroon) asked about white tea recently. Though I can't remember what his exact question was, I'm going to write this post as if it was, 'Hey, what's the best white tea to start with?' See? That's not such a bad question, is it?

Well, Cody Lynn Clark (@codylynnclark) certainly thought so. Her response when I asked the question was, 'I want to be a jackass and say that my advice to newcomers is to not try white tea at all... but, maybe you'll like it. I don't.' Then she continued, 'It always tastes a bit... musky? to me. And it's finicky.' Please, Cody, don't hold back how you really feel, ok? That is a certainly one way to look at it. Actually, I understand this position quite well.

Musky? Not the first word to come to mind when I think white tea, but I get it. Finicky? I definitely see this one. Normally, these are some incredibly sensitive leaves. Very finicky.

The first several times I brewed white tea, it didn't taste much different than hot water. It's exactly what Jarrod said about it when I served it to him. You don't remember him? I talked about him in luring them over to the leaf-side. He's always eager to try something new, but this clearly wasn't to his liking.

What did I serve him? A tea called China Snow Buds that I got from Claus Kröger in Hamburg. I find most white tea to be rather subtle, and this is far from an exception. It certainly didn't taste remotely like hot water to me. It's certainly not a bold tea, but there's a light, sweet flavour there. Here's how Claus Kröger's website describes the China Snow Buds:

'An exquisite white tea from the slopes of the Taimu Mountains. This tea has not only a clear and fresh taste, but especially nice is a certain sweetness.' (my translation)

If I had to say, I'd admit that I liked the China Snow Buds, but I wouldn't go for it first thing in the morning. I have to be in the right mood for this sort of tea, but it's not unheard of that I brew it. Really.

Although this isn't a tea review, I'd like to show you the leaves. They're beautiful.

China Snow Buds leaves

If you look really closely, you can see a white furry substance on the leaves. That's not a bad thing. In this case, that stuff provides tasty goodness.

Here's my question for you gentle readers: how would you introduce someone to white tea? How would you deal with the observation that it practically tastes like hot water? What'd you say in that situation?

As always, comments are welcome. They're very much appreciated. (Was that clear enough?)

an as yet unheralded tea people in Munich

2011-12-06T10:23:00.001-08:00

Altes Rathaus in Munich

Peter at Tea Trade had an idea this summer that I'd already considered, but it was nice to hear it from another source. When tea lovers are going to Munich, I want them to think Lahikmajoe. Of course many of you would. You know I'm here because I write about it all the time.

But I was doing an internet search this week, and on a whim I searched 'Munich' + 'tea' expecting to see myself well represented. Go ahead and try it. I'm not represented at all. This has to be corrected.

For one thing, I don't often include the word tea in my tags. And even though I've written about teashops and tea salons here in my adopted home, I should keep talking about my favourite places and their tea here. There's quite a selection.

If you happen to be travelling through Germany and find yourself here in the capital of beer consumption, I want you to know of your tea drinking options. If I happen to be in town at the time, I'd love to meet you in one of those shops to share a pot of tea or three. When you think 'Munich' and 'tea', I want you to think Lahikmajoe. I don't think that's too much to ask.

Let me remind you of some of my favourite places here in the Bavarian capitol:

a general sense of well-being

That's all about the Tushita Teehouse, which is normally first on my list of places to take people here. There's also the sweet little shop around the corner called Laifufu, which I wrote about here:

Oolong Nirvana in the next street over

What about teashops? Well, my local shop is called teegalerie in Munich-Neuhausen. I was so excited this summer when he had some Flugtee for me:

finally a cup of first flush

There are quite a few other tea drinking and tea selling places here, and I plan to go into much more detail about them. From now on, I'd like to be much easier to find when people are looking for tea people in Munich.

holding my gift tea hostage

2011-12-01T02:26:00.001-08:00

I should really be quiet about this. I got my package from the Deutsche Post and it'd likely be in my best interest to be grateful. And shut up. Right?

Wrong.

As a teablogger, I feel it's my responsibility to talk about the good, the bad and the surreal when it comes to tea. So here goes.

Last week, a letter from the Deutsche Post arrived and I was simultaneously pleased and perplexed by news of an unexpected package from China. I get plenty of tea and tea writing to try (and potentially review), so that part didn't surprise me. But as far as I could tell this package was unannounced. I couldn't remember anyone telling me this one was on its way.

Well, anytime I receive anything in Beamtendeutsch (bureaucratic German), I get nervous. But for a document of this sort, this one was actually rather straightforward.

'We're holding your undeclared package for you,' they assure me. 'In order to get through customs, the value of the package has to be displayed on the outside of the package.' They provide their hours and location...it's in Garching! Garching? That's nowhere near where I live. Not remotely.

That's quite a trek for me to be able to tell them, 'It's an unsolicited gift of tea and I have no idea the value.'

But I digress.

They inform me that they'll hold my package for 14 days, and then it's back to wherever it came from. When you read a warning like this from a German office, you take it seriously. 15 days? It'll almost definitely be gone.

Later in the document, it says that they charge €.50 per day for holding my tea. Holding my gift tea (that I hadn't asked for) hostage, I might add. And I have the honour of paying for it. Did I mention surreal? Oh wait...if it's less than €5, they'll waive the charge. That's what I call incentive to resolve this immediately. Well, that and there's gift tea involved.

They provide a checklist for what I need when I trudge all the way out to godforsaken Garching, and I don't like the looks of this at all.

a. invoice/proof of payment (it's a gift-that's why it's called gift tea. How on earth will I manage this?)
b. any pertinent documents (what's pertinent in this case? shall I list all the fictional people who might've sent me tea?)
c. cold hard cash for Customs (like you didn't see that coming)
d. any additional documents as a result of this process (they think of everything...these bureaucrats)

I'm told I can send a Vertreter (someone in my stead), which is all well and good. Can you imagine that conversation?

me: 'Hey! I want you to go to Garching and pick up a package of gift tea for me, ok?'

my imaginary Vertreter: 'Uh, ok. That sounds a bit suspect...are you sure this is all legal?'

So I guess you can see why I'm not sending someone there for me.

Then the document continues: 'In the event you can't/we can't verify all of this info, we offer the following services...' My ears perk up. Here it comes...'Send us the necessary documents or an explanation and we'll take care of everything.'

Pay dirt. This is what I wanted to hear. They'll take care of everything. Then they say something indecipherable about how far the Deutsche Post office is from the Customs office, but by this time I'm not even paying attention.

They're going to take care of everything. No worrying over here.

I send in my 'It's gift tea that I didn't know about and I don't know how much it's worth...please send it to me soon, though' explanation. That's all that was necessary. Yesterday, the package arrived at my front door.

Turns out I did know of this shipment of tea, but had forgotten about it entirely. It's from Teavivre and I can assure you I'm going to talk much more about this company. Here's how attractive their very practical packages are:

The last thing on the form is really the most practical thing I learned from this whole experience. The document states in bold!:

Please inform anyone outside of the EU that anything sent here should prominently display an invoice on the outside of the package. In most cases when this is done correctly, such packages can be delivered more easily directly to your door.

That's good to know, isn't it? Don't ever let it be said that this very whimsical teablog doesn't sometimes provide a bit of useful knowledge. There's your knowledge for the next little while.

But then I turned the package to the side, and what did I see? Here's what I saw:

That, my friends and fellow teabloggers, is exactly what it looks like. An invoice stating very clearly the value of the contents of the package. Did they truly fail to simply look on the side of the package that they'd been holding hostage? Yes. Indeed they did.

Jerks.

The World's Special Tea

2011-11-28T11:30:00.001-08:00

How early can one get into tea? And how might one go about it?

I'm sure there's no need to encourage a child. If you're seen drinking tea, eventually the small person is going to ask for a sip of that steaming hot beverage. It's inevitable, right? Earlier this year, I had tea with my niece and wrote about it in:

tea party with Amelia

But I stand by my initial thought on this. I have no qualms about a child having a sip of my tea but if a child isn't accustomed to tea, I'd start with an herbal blend. It just seems like the more natural introduction.

Still, I wondered then what I'd say if she wanted to know about the history of tea. How did people start drinking tea? for example. Or Why does your tea have such funny names?

So imagine my surprise when Jo Johnson asked if I'd like to see a book she'd written that specifically introduced tea to children. I enjoy tea samples and receive my share of them, but I think my writing about tea books has (correctly) led people to believe I'm as interested in tea writing. In case it wasn't completely clear, I'll say right now: I love tea books. They're good for the teablog, they encourage conversation about tea, and finally they're books. One of my weaknesses.

The book is called The World's Special Tea, and it's exactly what I'd want to have had in order to introduce Amelia to tea. It tells the history of tea from it's earliest Chinese origins through Japan and on to Europe. There's a brief explanation of the Boston Tea Party, as well as the English replanting of Chinese tea seeds in India.

The book tells about the Camellia sinensis plant, from which all tea is made, and even mentions herbal or Tisane without getting mired in a discussion about what is and isn't tea. I like that. I've mentioned it here before: although I understand the hard-line position that we should only refer to tea as that which comes from the tea plant, I find it's often pedantic and nit-picky. With an adult, I might get into a discussion about this topic, but with a child? A Tisane is tea.

beautiful gift packaging

And the best part? The book comes with it's own special tea for children (hence the name). Exactly the sort of thing I wanted for Amelia when I served her tea. An herbal blend with a mixture of Rooibus, bits of apple and ginger, as well as orange peels and cinnamon among other things.

Would I drink this tea? If I were drinking tea with Amelia, I'd drink it happily. Although I rarely think to myself, 'I want some delicious tea,' and then reach for an herbal blend, that's not the point here. Having said all that, I did brew up The World's Special Tea and I could taste many of the flavours that were described in the ingredients.

Most importantly, this is an inventive answer to my original question: What would I serve a child who was interested in tea? There's a bit in the book about planning a tea party. Not so sure how well I'd manage that one, but I might give it a try.

The book itself? The World's Special Tea? I can definitely recommend it. Happily.

tea awakening in the Chicago Tea Garden

2011-11-26T10:09:00.001-08:00

Chicago Tea Garden

Several weeks ago, one of my non-teadrinker friends, who happens to live in Chicago, had signed up for a tea tasting at Chicago Tea Garden. My ears perked up and because I write this teablog partially for the tea newcomer and the tea curious, I asked Sue (@sepilipa) if she'd take a notebook along with her to the tea tasting and record her impressions. Sue, being the eager scientist that she is, quickly agreed. For the sake of science. And my teablog.

So because of her diligence, I can essentially mail it in today. Or cut and paste. Thanks Sue. First of all, here's the inside of Chicago Tea Garden:

Here's what she had to say:
First let me say my expectation was that Tony (Gebely) would be a much older guy, but he's probably younger than I am. He was very welcoming to my friend and me and to the other group of five ladies that attended (they were together). His shop is small but cute and his table was set up so there were essentially two groups; one on either side of the center where he worked. The people were all tea novices and there were no mr-know-it-alls in the group, so everyone was comfortable and friendly.

Tony worked on a tea table and had us use a snifter cup for each tea. He gave us basic tea information as he went along and was quite knowledgeable. He told us what plant tea comes from (Camellia sinensis) and told us that everything that does not come from this plant is NOT tea (I didn't know that).

He briefly described the leaf and anything significant about it each time we started a new tea (ie, white tea smells very floral because it's withered a long time, oolong leaves are bruised and have 15 processing steps, black is fully oxidized, etc). Overall, it was a very pleasant experience. My friend and I had a very good time and learned a lot....well, relatively speaking, of course.

Below are the 7 teas we tasted.

Name: Wu yu

Type: green

Notes: used a gaiwan to serve

1st steeping @ 175F; tasted a bit like dusty spinach to me.

2nd steeping @175; a little less dusty tasting but I still didn't love it.

Name: Silver Needle

Type: white

Notes: kinda furry, used a gaiwan to serve

1st steeping @ 175F; light and feathery, not a strong flavor but enough of a flavor to keep me interested. This one was my favorite of the whole bunch.

Name: Tie Guan Yin (Iron Goddess of Mercy)

Type: oolong

Notes: rolled into little balls, used unglazed clay pots to serve

1st steeping @ 190F for 45 seconds; smelled a bit like a root vegetable; I could barely taste it.

2nd steeping @190F for 45 seconds;; felt "meh" about it.

Name: Mi Xiang (honey orchid flavor)

Type: oolong

Notes: rolled long ways, used unglazed clay pots to serve

1st steeping @ 190 for 45 seconds; darker in color, tasted a bit earthy

2nd steeping @190 for 45 seconds; more flavorful. I definitely like the second steeping better than the first.

Name: Golden Bi Luo (tiny snails)

Type: black

Notes: hand rolled into snail shapes, used a gaiwan to serve

1st steeping @195F (instructed not to steep longer than a minute or the tea would be bitter); smelled ricey to me but Tony said "malty vanilla finish".

2nd steeping @ 195F ; sweeter and smoother taste, a nice strong flavor. I liked the second steeping better.

Name: Chrysanthemum Toucha

Type: pu-erh

Notes: bird nest shaped; Tony said it makes a good cold brew, used a gaiwan to serve

1st steeping @ 208C for 45 sec to 1 min; Very dark. Tasted like a forest floor. A comment was made from one of the other attendants that it was like "licking the bark of a tree". I did not care for this tea at all. He made another one that was even darker and more disgusting but I didn't write down it's name.

Name: Yue Guang Bai (moonlight)

Type: white

Notes: Hmm. curiously I didn't make one single note about this one except it's name and type. I don't know why.

1st and 2nd steeping @ 175F for 1 minute

Really nice descriptions for a tea novice, don't you think? I think Sue did an excellent job. Although she's still a coffee drinker with a healthy curiosity about tea, I wonder how long it might take us to lure her over to the leaf-side. Thank you again my Cubs-loving, bicycling, outsdoorsy friend.

Tony Gebely and our staff tea reviewer

Mago Merlino and his tea world

2011-11-20T13:33:00.001-08:00

On the way back from visiting the tea shop that I mentioned in the previous post, I stumbled upon this little establishment:

Mago Merlino Tea

The manner in which I found it was a bit like something out of Lewis Carroll...almost felt like it sprouted up out of nowhere while I was still teadrunk from a bit earlier. While taking photos from outside, there was a gentleman lurking ominously outside. Turns out he was the proprietor of Mago Merlino Tea, and I was in for an experience.

Here's a bit more about the fellow in his own words:

As he says, 'My name is Rocco Raffaele Jacopini. Some people-they call me "Bellino". Some people-they call me "Mago"...magician, you know? Because when they enter this place and they go to the tea house, they breathe a kind of atmosphere of the long time gone...I want to show my little touch of class. Imagination. Fantasy. It's very important.'

This guy's fantastic. If he were a teablogger, I'm sure we could get him to be a Beast of Brewdom.

The little shop above is at: Via Matteo Palmieri, 21/r. But I don't find that anywhere else on the web (thus my surprise at it's very existence). Instead, I think he wants you to come to the Mago Merlino Tea House which you'll find at: Via de Pilastri, 31/r. You might want to call ahead (tel. 055/242 970), because I'm not sure when exactly the tearoom is open.

I went there this evening, but imagine my disappointment at its darkened, shuttered entranceway. There's quite a lot written up about this place on the web, and it looks like a lot of fun there.

Maybe next time I'm in Florence, I'll get to check it out.

The best part of finding Mago at the shop was the tea he had on offer. After showing me some very delicious smelling Tie Guan Yin leaves that I balked at buying, he measured out a nice amount of what he called King Oolong. I had very low expectations of this tea when I brewed it. Boy, was I wrong.

I brewed it and brewed it and brewed it again. This tea was sturdy and delicious and a very nice, delicious Oolong. Seven infusions and that same fresh vegetale flavour that makes some tea obsessives focus exclusively on this sort of tea.

Here I was thinking I would be penalised for not buying the top-shelf tea he offered, but instead I walked away with an unforeseeable gem of an unknown tea. I'd regularly buy tea from Signor Jacopini were I living in or near Florence. And I'm sure he has some stories to tell. Both stories of the tea-related as well as the non tea-related varieties.

quite a selection of tea ware

One more view of this tasteful little shop

La Via del Te

2011-11-19T05:26:00.001-08:00

La Via del Te

It's not in the city centre where the tourists pack the tiny streets. Even in late November, Florence is overflowing with packs of Asian tourists and even those loud American teenagers (or recent teenagers) that you encounter in any popular European city. As I expected when I first looked at this shop on the map, it's a bit of a hike to La Via del Te. Dare I say...it was well worth it.

You round a corner, see an outdoor semi-covered market with stands selling fresh vegetables, cheeses and meat, as well as cheaply-made designer knockoffs. Next to this market is a very unassuming tea shop sign that I doubt I'd see were I not looking for it.

the sign

There's been quite a lot of walking and standing looking at paintings. As much as I'm ready for tea, my feet are even more ready for a break.

beautiful tea cannisters

A charming little shop and tearoom greets me as I push through the door. I already read that they've been in business for decades, and it's obvious that this is a place serious about tea.

For a moment after I order a King of Pu-erh, whatever that is, I worry that she thinks I want two cups of the same tea. Yet as soon as I land on the words 'due infusioni', the tea server's eyes light up with understanding. Infusion is a universal term in the world of tea.

One of the things I like most about good tea: the first infusion only has a hint of how nice this tea will actually become.

Before I leave I decide to take small portions of what they call Oolong Fleur d'Orient and a simple Keemun. Am glad I remember this, because I like to carry a memory of a nice tea shop home with me.

My body is warm and content. My feet are grateful for the rest, and I'm back on my way into the welcoming streets of Florence. Via the Way of Tea.

one last glimpse of the shop

basic tea gear for a tea newcomer

2011-11-15T14:04:00.001-08:00

Several weeks ago, I received a question from someone new to my blog. It was just a general 'What's the best way to brew this stuff?' question, but my heart sank a bit when she indicated that she, her name's Elizabeth, only had teabags and really only wanted to brew up a cup at a time.

Nothing wrong with that, despite what Robert Godden might tell you, but once you've really been convinced about loose-leaf tea, it's difficult to get excited about teabags. I've been suitably polite about how some teabags from some brands aren't that bad, but even I have a hard time actually believing it most of the time.

Today, I got another question from Elizabeth. It was more along the lines of, 'How do I get into tea?' Which really means, 'What sort of stuff do I need to do this right?'

I'm going to keep this blogpost as short as I can. I 'd like to keep it as simple as possible. One of the things I try to do with this blog is to pass exactly this sort of information on to people relatively new to tea. Well, loose-leaf tea especially.

Firstly, I'll ask you loyal readers how you'd answer this question. How would you introduce drinking tea brewed from whole leaf?

I use filter bags quite a lot. Especially when I travel. And I like to have them around for everyday use. Especially with most black tea, I don't think it really matters.

But with any whole leaf tea, some enjoy watching the full leaves open up as they steep almost as much as they like actually drinking the tea. For that, a glass teapot where the leaves can swim around freely would be ideal. If you don't already have one, I'm not sure I'd recommend going out and getting one.

Let's make sure you like this tea drinking lark first, ok?

So my advice is to get a Finum Brewing Basket. The largest size is ideal because then you can make both smaller and larger amounts. There are certainly other brands. This is simply the one I know. And I'd get that permanent tea filter basket first before choosing a teapot. Just to make sure they fit one another.

Here's my Finum Brewing Basket

And what sort of pot? I don't know what the rest of you think about this, but the simplest ceramic pot should be good for starting out. Why not?

I'm sure you can find a Brown Betty or something similar from a variety of sources. I'm not a teapot fanatic, so maybe one of the rest of you has better advice for this question.

Ok Elizabeth, once you have a few basic pieces of tea gear, we'll move on to the actual tea. Curious how easy this is for you specifically and if anyone else reading this has additional ideas generally.

tea for the long slog of a campaign

2011-11-12T10:38:00.001-08:00

patriotic sculpture atop a hotel in Washington D.C.

Was spammed by a relatively new blogger, whose twitter avatar was still an unassuming egg. He was doing his very best at using Social Media to grow his audience. Unluckily, he happened upon Lisa Galaviz and me. We subscribe to the old-fashioned method of ridiculing twitter spammers to grow our audience.

But his was a political blog, and I thought, 'I can do that.' Poorly, but I can certainly do that. But the thing is: how can I talk about politics on a teablog? Quite easily actually. I rarely let an unrelated topic keep me from pontificating on it at length.

Now, I live in Germany & love it here. I'm obsessed by their politics and the curious way they go about things here in my adopted homeland. And I read a lot about the machinations of the State in the United Kingdom. Not sure I could write eloquently about that topic, but I could certainly give it a go.

But the reality is that most of my audience is across the ocean in The United States, and even those living elsewhere are bound to have read at least the bare minimum about those Republicans vying for the opportunity to run against Barack Obama to become the American president.

Just as a quick aside, I don't understand why anyone would actually want that job, but that'll be my one attempt at an actual political opinion here. Instead, I'd like to ask what sort of tea each candidate might most enjoy. If I leave someone out, please don't freak out. This is anything but scientific or serious for that matter.

Had to consult with Lisa Galaviz and her friend @Whoremongers on twitter for the exact ingredients of Texas Tea. I have bad news for you tea lovers. This stuff doesn't actually have any tea in it. As Lisa said it's, 'gin, tequila, vodka, and rum. Oh, and a splash of Coke.' (That's Coca Cola people. This is a respectable teablog). Any idea who this might be for? Well it is Texas Tea, after all. That one's for Texas Governor Rick Perry.

What about Herman Cain? No idea where his tastes might lay when it comes to tea, but I'm going to assume he likes strong flavour. Maybe a smoky Grand Yunnan to go with that cigarette smoking ad his campaign put out. That should be just right.

Representative Ron Paul, also from Texas, refuses to acknowledge that tea really has to come from the Camellia sinensis plant. I'm going to give him a nice Caramel Rooibus, but I'm certainly not going to volunteer the fact that it's made from a Red Bush in South Africa. Maybe the absence of caffeine will help him from getting overly excited.

What about Representative Michelle Bachmann from Minnesota? Maybe she'd take a drop of milk with her tea, and the nicest Ceylon I know that goes well with a bit of milk is Ceylon Adawatte. How's that? I hope she'd like it.

And I don't have any idea if Newt Gingrich would bother with my offer of tea, but I'd certainly make an attempt. He's seen as an intellectual, so what'd I consider a tea for a thinker? How about an Assam Khongea, which is strong but not too malty.

I'm afraid Rick Santorum might see taking hot tea as being a bit too effeminate, so I'll save him the fear of embarrassment and offer him a nice glass of iced tea. You think his Google search results are uncomfortable now, just imagine if 'tea drinker' came up in connection to him.

What in the world is Mitt Romney going to drink? Now I'm in a bit of a quandary. He similarly won't want to be seen drinking a cup of tea, but simultaneously wouldn't want to offend me by turning it down. He's probably got a decent palette, so I'll go ahead and serve him my best 2nd flush Darjeeling Singbulli. It's flavourful but is rather subtle about it. No joke, this is some nice tea. Even if we are out of the camera's eye (update: my friend Denise has informed me that as a Mormon, Mr Romney cannot have caffeine in any form. Really? That's unfortunate. A better teablogger might edit his choice, but I just can't be bothered to think of a decent tea without caffeine).

I've saved the most difficult decision for last. See, Jon Huntsman was actually the US Ambassador to China, so he's most definitely had some decent tea in his time. But he's likely had to stick with the best of mainland tea. My favourite tea from Little China (Taiwan) is an Alishan Zhu Lu Oolong. I've waxed poetic about it here before. I'm rather confident that he'll enjoy it. If he doesn't, I'll have what he doesn't. It's that good.

Did I miss anyone? No idea. But now I've done my political teablog. It's going to be a long slog of a campaign. I'm sure this tea will see each of them through. That is if they even accept my offer.

there's tea for hard water?

2011-11-10T13:16:00.001-08:00

Was at a Markt der Sinne this last weekend, which translates (poorly) as 'market of the senses' or in a more racy way 'sensuous market'. I know some of you are going to have fun with that one.

But unlike its name might suggest, the Markt der Sinne was mostly artists and artisans selling their wares. I stumbled round trying not to look some of them directly in the eye. Although some stands were selling only homemade objects, there were a few shops that had set up their wares.

And instead of buying a necklace made of monkey teeth or a candle that'd help me align my chakras, I found one shop that had different products from The British Isles. I didn't expect to find anything I really wanted, but then I noticed some packages of loose-leaf tea.

What caught my eye was a package from Yorkshire Gold. I've mentioned before that I think this tea from Taylor's of Harrogate is a reliable blend of black tea that might be a good beginning for someone just getting into tea. But this package had something written on it that I hadn't seen before.

It was tea for hard water. Wow, really?

Now, maybe you come from a place with hard water and you've seen products specially made for this sort of thing. I haven't.

I know the water's hard here, but does it really affect the taste of the tea? There was only one way to find out. Something I didn't know even existed a few minutes earlier? Now, I had to have it.

Then on my way home, I thought, 'Wait. Is the tap water in Munich even very hard? I know it has a lot of chalk in it, but does that make it hard?' Luckily, I found this website that explains Tap Water Quality in Munich.

No idea how accurate that information is, but at least I felt more confident that I had the right hard water for my new tea.

How does it taste? Hm...I brewed it. I've actually brewed it a few times. Even served it to a few people. It's ok. The reaction from others has been that it's a bit weak, but...

This isn't a tea review. I'll do that more seriously when I've had a chance to try it with varying amounts of tea and lengths of steeping times.

I mainly wanted to ask if you'd tried tea specifically blended for certain water where you live? Have you even heard of this?

third cup of tea means it's time for you to go

2011-11-07T12:25:00.000-08:00

tea hospitality

Got into an intriguing discussion with some fellow tea obsessives and something made me stumble over to my bookshelf and pull The World of Caffeine down. It's a book by Bennett Alan Weinberg and Bonnie K. Bealer that I sometimes turn to for reference.

We were specifically talking about the first mention of tea in Europe, and whether there was anything worth noting before the Dutch started bringing back by ship. Other than Marco Polo mentioning it in relation to its use being taxed (1285), one particular Venetian wrote about tea while describing his travels to China.

He was called Giambatista Ramusio, and he reported about tea in 1559 in Chai Catai (tea of China) which is part of his posthumously published Navigatione et Viaggi (Voyages and Travels), after he heard about it from a Persian caravan merchant Hajji Mahommed (Chaggi Memet). So that's the first time tea was officially referred to in Europe.

But while the Venetians were going the overland route, the Portuguese discovered the quickest way to China was around the Cape of Good Hope. Rather than get more specific about the general history, I'll include an entire paragraph about the Portuguese Jesuit priests and their relation to tea.

'The Portuguese traders and the Portuguese Jesuit priests, who like Jesuits of every nation busied themselves with the affairs of caffeine, wrote frequently and favorably to compatriots in Europe about tea. Strangely enough, there is no record of their sending tea shipments from the East for the enjoyment of their countrymen. In 1556, Father Gasper Da Cruz, a missionary, became the first to preach Catholicism in China; when he returned home in 1560, he wrote and mentioned the first mention of tea in Portuguese, "a drink called ch'a, which is somewhat bitter, red, and medicinall." Another Portuguese cleric, Father Alvaro Semedo, in 1633 wrote an early account of the tea plant and the preparation of the beverage in his book about China, Relatione della Grande Monarchia della Cina (1643). He mentions the custom, initiated at the Hann Pass by Yin Hsi, of offering tea to guests, and explains that when it is offered for the third time, it is time for the guest to move along.'

(source: The World of Caffeine pp. 61-63)

There are two things I like about this. Firstly, did Jesuits of every nation really busy themselves with caffeine? Isn't that a weird turn of phrase? I must admit it's the first time I've found myself daydreaming of being just such a Jesuit priest. Purely for caffeine reasons, I assure you.

And the other thing? Well, of course it's the three-cups-and-you're-out-of-here part. Isn't that curious? One of the above-mentioned tea people, I think it was Michael J Coffey, pointed out that this was a funny spin on Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea.

The first cup-you were a stranger. By the second you were a friend, and simultaneously while I serve you that third cup, you're both family and I'm going to give you The Bum's Rush. Here's your hat-what's your hurry?

the dragon sleeps tonight

2011-11-05T15:41:00.000-07:00

Sleeping Dragon leaves presteeping

Relatively often, I hear about what a wonderful community we tea bloggers have. Tea obsessives go to the World Tea Expo or World Tea East and wax poetic about the generosity of the people they meet there.

Although I've met many tea shop owners here in Germany (and some in England and The United States), most of my experience with the people who populate the world of tea has been here in cyberspace. I'm not complaining. Am sure I'll make it to a trade fair at some point. Until then, I intend to continue taking advantage of the fantastic opportunities to connect with tea drinkers online.

A week or so ago, I read about a tea tasting that Courtney Powers (otherwise known as @ThePurrfectCup) was hosting where she'd be introducing several sorts of green tea. Jokingly, I said that I wish I could magically transport myself to Upstate New York and try the tea she was talking about.

Like I say, I was kidding. There was no way I was going to make it the next day to Courtney's little tea shop. But she offered the next best thing. She got my address and sent samples of the tea along. What an unexpected surprise.

I read her recent blogpost (A Green Tea Tasting) with a different perspective, because I knew that soon enough I'd be able to actually taste the tea she was describing. My plan was to actually brew up each of the teas she served and pretend I was there.

Alas, it wasn't to be. I got distracted steeping and resteeping Sleeping Dragon from Adagio Teas, and then ended up writing a tea review about it.

I'll link to the tea review when it's been published, but suffice it to say I enjoyed this tea.

Not sure why they bill it as a tea for a green tea novice, but as advertised it wasn't remotely grassy.

The best part? Well, the time that I set aside for multiple teas, I spent really focusing on just one. The last few weeks, I've been drinking tea functionally. Good tea-no question. But tea on the run. Tea for the train ride. A pot for the other musicians and me before a rehearsal.

In this case, I really gave my full attention to each steeping of this Sleeping Dragon. It was worth every minute. Even got a little tea drunk in the meantime. As a result, I think I might even sleep as well as the dragon.

Thanks Courtney.

prostate awareness on a teablog?

2011-11-03T17:39:00.000-07:00

a bit of facial hair

There's plenty of tea drinking going on hereabouts, but there's a topic some of us male teabloggers are delicately weaving into our narrative. The month of November has something to do with prostate awareness. You'll certainly be hearing more about it in the weeks to come, but I'm going to let Robert Godden explain it better than I can:

Tea and the Art of Manliness Maintenance

So, here we go. I'll still be talking about this tea drinking lark here. Quite a lot actually. But there'll be plenty about a healthy prostate, as well.

Here's an explanation over on Joy's Teaspoon blog: We Challenge You to a 'Mo Off' and I just found this description on the Movember website of what we're doing. Here's how it's written:

'During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in the US and around the world. With their Mo’s, these men raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.'

And here's Our Movember Team. Go check us out and donate indiscriminately. Or discriminately.

why drink tea?

2011-11-01T13:04:00.000-07:00

Enough with my measured, careful claims about tea and its benefits.

Why should you drink tea?

Immortality of course. If you drink tea, especially good tea, you'll live forever.

No death. Minimal disease. You'll be invited to all the best parties. Can I prove it? Nope. Do I have any empirical evidence? Evidence schmevidance.

You'll live forever. Basta.

Smile. Enjoy yourself. It's going to be a long one.

(Warning: the claims made in this blogpost are not remotely based on fact or any connection to reality whatsoever. That doesn't necessarily mean they're not true)

this stuff'll kill you

2011-10-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

an apothecary in Munich

I've been reading a lot recently about the health benefits of tea. It's rather remarkable what drinking this stuff will do for you. Most of the time I reject these promises outright. The proof, if there is in fact any proof, is often flimsy. Or misleading.

So I went searching for the most ridiculous promises of tea's magical properties, and a funny thing happened. Many of the sources I found wrote their claims in such a way that they can't be disputed.

'Drinking tea might delay Alzheimer's' or 'Green and black tea can slow down the spread of prostate cancer' or 'Tea may lower cholesterol and protect against heart disease'. You get the idea...this stuff just might happen...maybe...actually, the place I read those provided sources for many of the claims and they look reputable enough. You want to see it?

It's at a site called 2BASnob. Aside from recommending that you should drink loose-leaf tea whenever possible, but if you're on the go and have to drink instant or bottled tea, you should just drink more...yeah, aside from that, it seems like there's a lot of good information.

I can hear you saying, 'That's not funny. What was the funny thing that happened?' Well, I was getting to that. So then I found a site based upon the Wikipedia page about health benefits of tea. It's a page with some content (the first column) and then a selection of google ads and related stories (the second column), which appear to send you to similarly written articles. Then there's another section for ads and video news and some more ads and then a listing of breaking news (the third column)...What the hell is your point Lahikmajoe?

(revision...I don't want to drive any, or any more, traffic to that site, so I've resolved to link to Alex Cazort's article Health Benefits of Tea, which actually has reliable information not written in such an annoying and meaningless style)

I'm sure this site is driving lots of traffic to and fro, but is all of this really necessary? It's so busy...I'm almost unable to focus on the reason I came here. Health benefits of tea, right? (Again, I've taken the link out to that site. If you really want to see it, I'm sure a quick search will bring you either to it or somewhere as useless).

Once I pay attention, my eyes zero in on this sentence:

One should consult a doctor before using high concentrations of tea for disease prevention.

Really? I drink a lot of tea, but not necessarily for disease prevention. I'm still ok, yes? My doctor's going to think I'm nuts if I bring this to her.

'Doc, I have to be honest,' I hear myself saying, 'I drink a lot of tea.'

'Yes, and...,' she answers. 'What seems to be the problem?'

So then I tell my doctor what I read next on the Science Daily website:

'Ingestion of large amounts of tea may cause nutritional and other problems because of the strong binding activities of tea polyphenols and the caffeine content, although no solid data exist concerning harmful effects of tea consumption.'

Did you hear that doctor? I'm doomed. It's all over.

'I have good news and bad news,' she tells me. 'Which do you want first?'

Oh my, it's worse than I thought. Ok, I can take it. Give me the bad news first.

'The bad news is that you are, in fact, going to die,' she acknowledges.

I knew it! All that bloody tea. What was I thinking? Ok, what could possibly be the good news?

'Well, the good news is that it's very unlikely going to be from tea consumption. It's possible, but highly unlikely. And probably a long long time from now.'

Oh. Really? Well that is good news, isn't it? I'm going to celebrate this by brewing a pot of tea. Would you like a cup, doc?

The Tea Effect over at Indonique

2011-10-27T13:40:00.000-07:00

spring flowers for after the hurricane

Wanted to dip into Katrina Ávila Munichiello's new book The Tea Reader last week in the build up to her book party. But I got distracted by the beautiful weather at the weekend and then Lisa Galaviz and her trip to the monkey-picking tea shop. If you read Lisa's account that I spoke of here recently, you can see how hard it was for me to stay focused on what I'd wanted to cover.

Nevertheless, I'd mulled over what new treasure I wanted to share from the many I found in Katrina's book and finally decided on The Tea Effect by George Constance. I should be up front about the fact that this wasn't the first contact I'd had with George and his love of tea.

Years ago, when I first decided to get more serious not just about drinking tea but writing about it as well, George was one of the first tea people I reached out to. I knew him only as @Indonique over on twitter, and he was quite generous with advice about what books might help me on my quest of understanding tea better.

Here I am flipping through the pages of The Tea Reader, and I find an essay that George has written about the shop and Hurricane Katrina and everything before and after those things intersected. Most importantly, he recounts how they came up with a term for the positive impact tea had had on their community.

The backstory of the shop was that he'd originally had the idea of selling wholesale tea to cafes in New Orleans. No-one was interested, so he and his wife/partner Daya opened up their own tea shop/cafe in Magazine Street.

Slowly, other cafes in the area wanted to be a part of the tea scene. Over to the leaf-side, as it were. And they wanted tea only from Indonique. Reading this account, I feel the pull and I'd like to try some of that very tea.

This attraction and desire to be a part of something positive in the community is what they call the Tea Effect. Now I have to rely on George's words to tie this up:

'Post-Katrina, we considered ourselves fortunate--fortunate that we live in a wealthy nation that offered a place to which we could evacuate, and the help of friends and family to rebuild our lives. So many around the world don't have these resources. Tea-producing regions in particular are vulnerable. The tea industry does little to alleviate this. Indonique was rebuilt with this in mind. We pledged to return 10% of every sale we make to the communities that pick our tea through Non-Governmental Organizations like Mercy Corps that can most effectively make change and provide oversight. Our accounting records are open and our website is dedicating percentages to organizations that fight the trafficking of children. We believe that if all industries did the same, we could alleviate poverty, disenfranchisement, extremism and the need for large military expenditures. We're rebuilding Indonique as a cause. The trick for us is to recreate that Tea Effect, so easily obtained in our shop, and duplicate it in cafes and retailers around the nation, to make the cause as infectious as the Tea Effect. We're in discussions now with brokers and venture capitalists to do just this. Perhaps the storm that caused so much misery will lead to something that will alleviate misery everywhere.

Fingers crossed.'

I couldn't have put it better myself.

Another thing I found about Indonique tells the whole story in much more detail. You can find it here:

Cause Capitalism

If I haven't already said it, you really should get your own copy of The Tea Reader. Really.

you don't really want to know how this tastes, do you?

2011-10-25T15:40:00.000-07:00

autumnal background to go with my Karakorum Cha

Have been stewing about something for the last few days and rather than try to be clear and measured, I'm going to scrawl a bit.

A few nights ago, I stayed up relatively late so I could do another Google+ Hangout with several tea people. And something Michael J Coffey said got me thinking. We were talking about the physical properties of tea. Specifically about the way the chemicals in tea react in different people's bodies.

And the next thing he said was something I'd considered but not heard anyone ever mention. Similar to this variety of chemical reactions to tea, there's also the fact that what you taste might really be unique to you. The example he used was that you read a tea review and it says that there's a taste of something (let's say peach) but no matter how much you try, you just can't taste any peach.

I can't tell you how many times I've read about a tea, whether it was a similar tea or the exact one I'm drinking, and the description was so wildly different from what I was tasting.

This isn't a complaint about the phenomenon. I actually like the fact that two people drinking the same tea can have wildly different opinions of what they're tasting.

I guess what I'm getting at is that I'm questioning the whole prospect of tea reviews in general. I do understand that there are strong flavours that some tea has that everyone drinking that tea might agree on. I also get it that if I'm excited about, or even disgusted by, a particular tea I've drunk, I want to write/talk about it as descriptively as possible.

The idea of tea reviews in general makes sense to me. But the actual practice is sometimes another matter. I read a blog recently that questioned if people reading these reviews actually read other tea blogger's reviews. I wish I could link to it but try as I might, I just can't find where I read it.

So many teablogs. Information overload.

I can already hear some of you: I not only write tea reviews, I read them, as well. Really? Does it affect your future purchases? Do you care about the way it's written, or do you just want the information?

And as long as I'm putting words in your mouth, here's what you say next:

Why is this irritating you so much? You're getting hot and bothered about something that really isn't such a big deal.

Well, a few posts ago I mentioned that I'd be reviewing Karakorum Cha. The truth is that I've been drinking it on and off for months. It's a tea that can easily get quite bitter. So I've been toying with it and finding the best way to get the most flavour without too much puckering.

Actually, that'd probably be an interesting thing to document. How difficult it was at the outset to make this tea not too bitter. But describing what it tastes like? Do you really want to know?

I'm really wondering how useful that information is.

Don't tell her it's not tea

2011-10-23T12:57:00.000-07:00

There were so many things I wanted to do on the old teablog this weekend, but great weather got in the way. As did the Rugby World Cup, and Manchester City beating Manchester United, and did I mention the weather was really very nice? I was outside as much as possible. Not much time for teablogging.

But luckily, I have done my little part for the teablogging community in the past, and some of it has started coming back to me. I've said it so many times, but it needs repeating...as much as I like tea drinkers reading what I have to say, it's nearly as much of a joy to find out that the occasional non-teadrinker comes to visit.

I've made no secret of the fact that I enjoy luring people over to the leaf-side. So when I find out someone's actually taken any of my advice seriously...well, it makes me simultaneously proud and a bit nervous for the individual.

Several times over the last few months, Lisa Galaviz has threatened to actually attempt to put some of her newfound tea knowledge to the test. If you know anything about Lisa, you know that if she goes through with something, she's going to blog about it. Without further ado, here's the account of Lisa going to Teavana:

How NOT to go to a Tea Shop

Teablogging doesn't get much better than this, eh?

Let me just say something about Teavana, because I hear/read some unflattering things. As a matter of fact, Lisa's blogpost wouldn't be so telling if it weren't similar to quite a few other experiences I've heard about shopping there. It's the most common complaint I'm aware of.

But to be fair, a lot of people only get into tea because they stumble into a Teavana shop. There are things this company is doing right, and I've been impressed with some of their practices. I'm sure there's an entire other blogpost I could devote to what I like about Teavana. Maybe another time.

Having said all that, you can really imagine those hippies hollering about antioxidants, can't you? I certainly can. Stay tuned for more on Lisa's experiments with tea. Her endeavours with that Samurai Chai Mate are magic waiting to happen.

Let's not mention that Yerba Mate isn't really tea, ok? I can just see her flying down to the Galleria demanding her money back, setting the Oolong-plucking monkeys free and riding away into the night.

For the sake of all that is proper, just don't tell her it's not tea.

Karakorum Cha Cha Cha

2011-10-20T11:53:00.000-07:00

I went a bit overboard with my praise for Greg Mortenson and his incredibly popular book Three Cups of Tea last year. It appears the incredibility of the book's popularity was more incredible than at first suspected. There was a huge scandal about Mr Mortensen and his questionable handling of his charity in general and his books inflated sales in particular.

Before all of that, I was rather taken with the ideas he espoused in the book (still am actually) and paraphrased his main ideas here: Tea Alchemy.

Once people find out you're into tea, they start bringing you tea samples. That's exactly what happened when a friend went to see Greg Mortensen in person. The Karakorum Cha pictured above was on sale after his presentation, and it was purchased and brought to me.

Although I'm always grateful to receive tea that I don't know yet, I wasn't particularly impressed with this tea. It took a long while before I figured out the way to brew it that brought out its best qualities, but I'll save all of that for the tea review I'll be writing over at the Tea Review Blog.

But the bigger questions are: Can we still support Greg Mortensen's ideas without supporting deceptive method of collecting charity? Can we still like the tea regardless of the bizarre circumstances that it came to us?

My answer to both is: Why yes, of course. I still like the idea of our relationship going from stranger to friendship to family while drinking several cups of tea. It continues to be a naive but powerful idea.

And as much as I love high quality Darjeeling tea, it's a pleasure to get to know other tea from the Himalayan regions.

So, I'll talk more about how it tastes in my tea review, but you want to see the leaves, don't you? Here they are:

Karakorum Cha Cha Cha

Red Rose Tea memories

2011-10-18T15:44:00.000-07:00

Periodically, I'll hear someone ask how I got into tea. Or it's a common interview question when tea obsessives are interviewed. Logical question, isn't it?

Because I've written this blog with the tea newcomer in mind, I'm always looking for things that'd be interesting for just such readers.

I've mentioned Cara in Cleveland before when I wrote Must one study tea to really appreciate it?, and she's told me a bit about a brand I've not yet tried called Red Rose Tea.

The thing is I can't really call Cara in Cleveland a newcomer to tea, because she's shared tea with her grandmother most of her life. Part of this blog's mission is to lure people over to the leaf-side. Although she already associates tea drinking with pleasant memories of loved ones, she's not really convinced on this whole tea drinking lark.

I'm rather certain that if we find the right sort of tea, Cara in Cleveland will gladly come join us on the leaf-side.

More on that at a later time. What I want to do today is let Cara tell us in her own words what tea drinking means to her. I asked her to tell me about the tea that reminds her of the times she's had with her grandmother. Here's what she wrote:

I neverslept well away from home and Grandma always seemed to know when I was awakeand nervous. We would sit in the front room; in the dim light of a flickeringorange bulb meant to simulate a candle. She would bring small crackers coveredin butter and mugs of Red Rose Tea.

I didn't like the tea then;it was strange with an earthy smell and tasted like the oak leaves that got inmy mouth in the fall when I jumped in large piles my Grandfatherraked but slightly sweeter. I drank it because I got listen to Grandma hertell stories. Sometimes she would talk about my mother as a child or mewhen I was a baby but if I was very lucky and she had just purchased anew box she would give me the figurine.

Red Rose Tea started inCanada in the late 1800's as a loose leaf tea and came to the States in the1920's in bags. The company started a promotional give away in the 1960's; each box of tea included a Wade figurine. These smallfigurines became highly collectible and my collection lived on Grandma'skitchen windowsill for years. I still get excited now, some 30 years later,when I open a box and find my figurine. My most recent purchase included aminiature Uncle Sam which now sits comfortably in my shadowbox next to a kittensitting on top of a Jack-o-lantern.

Grandma used Red Rose Teafor her iced tea as well, she would set a large container of water and ahandful of floating tea bags on the back steps in the summer to steep in thesun. I remember that large container with yellow daisies painted on it andthe bright yellow lid. It was usually a blur as I burst out of the back doorand skipped down the steps to make my flamboyant entrance in the pool. Mysummer lunches included that sun tea (with extra lemon and a heaping tablespoonof sugar) and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

My wonderfuladventures with my Grandfather stopped four years ago and tea with myGrandmother is now just a few precious times a year. I have grown accustomed tothe taste of Red Rose Tea and drink it more for nostalgic reasons than anything.That strange taste, I've never quite grown to like, on my tongue releaseswonderful memories of times I miss.

tea drinking in Weimar

2011-10-15T15:42:00.000-07:00

What Goethe & Schiller need is a nice cup of tea

Spent several days in Weimar this week, and if you know anything about me and this blog, you know that my first question was, 'What sort of tea shops are there in this historically/artistically rich city?'

Well, I have good news for you. For a city its size, there's quite a tea presence. Nothing tea-related made the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, but that certainly shouldn't keep you away.

Weimars Teehaus

The first place I found was Weimar Teehaus Jürgen Teuner. Here's their site. It's a shop filled with tea from Ronnefeldt among a few other tea brands, and it reminded me of my trip to Stuttgart last year where I wrote more about this brand: In defence of a brand of teabags

I've been positive about this brand, and I'd like to repeat that I've been impressed with the reliability of this company's tea. They offer it in many hotels here in Germany, and I can see why it's so popular. If you find one of their teas that you like, you can be rather certain that when you buy it again, it'll taste nearly or exactly the same.

If you're fascinated with the unique taste of a tea from a specific estate and how subtle the taste changes from year to year, then you're probably better off going to a specialty shop. Which is exactly where I went next.

Tee Boutique

Around the corner from the Schiller Haus is just such a shop. It's called Tee Boutique, and I had a really enjoyable conversation with its owner Frank Krebs. He's actually who I was referring to in my last post when I mentioned passionate tea sellers. He's exactly that and more.

The selection of tea at the Tee Boutique was quite good (especially for a city this size) and his answers to tea questions I heard put to him while I was there were both succinct and comprehendible. Not always the case in tea shops. You can see more about this shop here.

But please dig a bit deeper...you'll be glad you did. If you look at the Fotogalerie and scroll all the way the down to the bottom, you'll see his mobile teapot. He's added a handle and a spout to his car, and voila...an art car I'd happily drive. I must say I was quite envious when I saw the photos.

Although I've mostly talked about these two tea shops, I was also pleasantly surprised at how nicely tea was served in numerous cafes I visited.

Both the Frauentor and the ACC Cafe-Restaurant served loose-leaf tea in beautiful Japanese cast iron teapots with Kandis and plenty of water for multiple infusions. Doesn't sound like something worth mentioning, does it? But that's just the point. There was thought put into the presentation. As a tea drinker, I felt like these cafes had made a special effort. As a result, in the few days I was in Weimar, I went back to them again and again.

There was an anecdote in a book I leafed through about whether Goethe preferred coffee or tea, but I'll leave that for another time. Something for you to look forward to.

proof that I sometimes put milk in my Ceylon

tea obsessives handling the leaves

2011-10-13T15:18:00.000-07:00

arriving in Weimar

Things are afoot hereabouts. I mentioned that I was talking to a tea review website a few weeks ago and considering writing for them. After telling you about it, I really should've mentioned that I decided to do it. I'll link to them when I write proper reviews there, and give you more stories and whimsy here. It's certainly what you've come to expect, isn't it?

Here's a link to The Tea Review Blog. You'll be seeing plenty from me over there soon enough.

Another thing I've decided to start doing here is something a bit like the interviews I read on other blogs. Rather than it always being in a question and answer format, I might ask someone to write a guest blogpost or even print out a conversation I have with a tea seller or fellow tea obsessive.

Got to thinking about it after a very interesting chat I had with a guy who happened to be both. We were in his tea shop in Weimar this week, and afterwards I began to marvel at how many incredibly passionate people there are in tea.

When I travel to places both here in Germany and farther afield, I make a point of searching out both tea shops and nice places to actually have a cup of tea. More often than not, I find myself deep in conversation with astoundingly passionate tea people.

Think about it. You have a shop where you greet people throughout the day with wildly different levels of experience regarding tea. Many have stumbled in off the street curious how a whole shop could be dedicated to something they associate with a simple bag of leaves.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have tea snobs who saunter into your store and assume that they know more about tea than you ever will. Then there's an entire range of people between those two poles.

Peter (at Tea Trade) and I have talked about the incredible novelty of this whole loose-leaf tea endeavour several times. The fact that the customer is not only able to interact manually with the product, but that it's actually an integral part of the whole process. Handling the leaves, I mean.

So that's what I've been thinking about recently. The remarkable nature of what we're doing here. I'm sure model railroad enthusiasts and stamp collectors and Magic: The Gathering World Champions are all very passionate, as far as it goes. But I'm not into those things, so I don't get remotely interested in their passion.

Oh, one last thing. Alex Zorach wrote something funny (and mentioned this blog in the process), so I thought I'd send you all over there. Tea, Like a G6.

Enjoy!

caffeine in green tea

2011-10-11T16:08:00.000-07:00

a very green path to Weimar

I've made a point of writing this blog partially for people new to tea drinking or curious about tea. Periodically, someone will ask me a question, whether it's in my daily life or on twitter, and I assume that others are wondering the same thing and just not asking.

So earlier this evening @allisonjp asked me, 'Is there caffeine in green tea?'

Let me be very clear on this one (it's important for a couple of reasons)...there is definitely caffeine in green tea. Definitely. Yes.

Why is he making such a big deal about this?

Because there's a lot of misinformation out there about caffeine and tea.

Some examples of things that're absolutely NOT TRUE:

Most of the caffeine comes out of the tea in the first steeping. After you've steeped the tea once, it's safely decaffeinated (This is completely false. There might be less caffeine the second or third time around while steeping a tea, but it's not without caffeine).

Green tea and/or white tea doesn't have caffeine (Again...no way. Don't believe it).

I've read a few reliable studies about how much caffeine is in different sorts of tea, and at some point I'll blog more thoroughly about it.

In the meantime if you don't have a problem with caffeine, enjoy that green tea. With all of its delicious caffeine.

Drinking tea for a second wind

2011-10-09T15:21:00.000-07:00

Arrived in Weimar for completely non-tea-related reasons, and an already long day stretched out ahead of me. There was an Onion Festival going on over the last three days, and to be honest I couldn't wait to drop off my bags and go see what the fuss was all about.

Before rushing back out the door, I decided to quickly brew a flask of tea. I'd been sent some Darjeeling teabags from Hampstead Tea, and this is exactly the sort of situation I've chosen to use them. Perfect on the go.

Then there was a lot of walking. I have a pair of eager-to-run hunting dogs (Hungarian Vizslas). I know quite a bit about walking. This was a demanding amount of walking even by my standards. But I endured. There were onions to be sampled. Onion soup, onion bread, onion cake...if this were an onion blog, I'd have quite a blogpost for you.

But it's not. It's a humble teablog. So? What do I have to say about tea?

Well, at some point the sun was shining, my legs were rebelling, and I was getting unexpectedly irritable. At that point, a park appeared before me like an oasis in the desert, and I suddenly remembered the flask of hot, delicious Darjeeling in my bag.

Quite simple when such an opportunity presents itself. Sitting in the sunny rays and sipping that brown luscious goodness, I was once again surprised by something I've experienced again and again and again.

There's nothing that'll give me a second wind quite as nice as a cup, or even an entire flask, of tea. It's somehow simultaneously relaxing and invigorating. Sometimes I'm curious how that works exactly. Today I was simply grateful.

your teablogger just before enjoyment of tea

hear the call of Lörelei

2011-10-06T14:10:00.000-07:00

Quite a lot has been written lately about pure tea. Camellia Sinensis. And that's all.

I've asked before why it seems like French tea shops have so many flavoured teas, and on a number of occasions in the last several weeks I've heard someone say that Germany is a source for a lot of the flavours that're used in these teas. I don't have any data to support that, but in this case I'd rather just bring up the topic.

Many shops offer a great variety of both flavoured and pure tea. If I were a shop owner and I knew that my customers liked Caramel Rooibus, I'd stock it and sell it happily. The same goes for any of the other flavoured teas that're available.

But me? I steer clear of the stuff. I drank Earl Grey years ago, but have weaned myself of that Bergamot-soaked concoction. Actually, I just slowly got tired of the taste. Became more interested in tasting the leaf and nothing but the leaf.

The funny thing is that I see a lot of flavoured tea being reviewed, sold, talked about...I'm still open to try the stuff. Bergamot comes from oranges. It's not as if it's an unnatural substance. I've heard that there are noticeable gradations. That someone attuned to it can tell if poor quality Bergamot oil was used. I can believe that.

I don't want to have to drink enough Earl Grey again in order to learn that distinction. There are plenty of tea drinkers/reviewers who actually like drinking it. I'll leave that experience to them.

But I am still curious about curious about the flavoured tea I see here and there. When Xavier came to visit this summer, he brought a curious package of a tea from Le Palais des Thés that I would've never bought for myself. It's called Lörelei, and here's what they're website says about it:

Lörelei

'The warmth of cinnamon, the mild sweetness of vanilla and the subtlety of almonds.' To some, including me, that'd normally be something to be avoided. Pure tea for me, please.

But a funny thing happened when I tried it. It wasn't so bad. It's a nice change. I've served it as a dessert tea, and it's been rather well received.

I still worry that any flavoured tea is using the flavour to cover up subpar tea. That's a concern, right? But this helps my resolve to stay open to these things I'd normally turn up my nose at.

Doesn't mean I'm going to go out of my way to drink more Earl Grey. I've had more than my share of that.

A Tea Cup of Friends

2011-10-04T14:51:00.000-07:00

tea party in the making

I mentioned Katrina Ávila Munichiello's new book last week when I wrote the first steeping of the Tea Reader. I'm still excited about digging deeper into this book. Rather than read it straight through cover to cover, I've resolved to pick and choose the essays that jump out at me. But where to start?

Well, I saw Stephanie Lemmons Wilson's blog announcing the same book. You can read it here:

Exciting News: Tea Reader

Even more interesting? Stephanie's written one of the pieces (A Tea Cup of Friends). What better place to start reading this book might there be? Yeah, I thought so too.

It's a sentimental, in the best sense of the word, look at saying goodbye to tea friends in one place and moving across the country. Not knowing new people to share her passion for tea with, she initially feels lonely...even more distant from her friends back 'home'.

These aren't Stephanie's words, but she makes it clear that her text/words shouldn't be used without her permission. You'll have to rely on my retelling/paraphrasing. Eventually, she meets another tea lover. She's invited to speak at the next planned tea party, and she begins to feel much more a part of the community thanks to the tea friends in the new city.

The piece ends with a poem that tells the same story in verse. It's quite nice, and I can definitely see why Katrina chose to include it.

reunify around one sort of black tea blend

2011-10-02T15:16:00.000-07:00

You know I can't let German Reunification Day go by without at least touching on it a little bit, right? Those of you who read this blog even semi-regularly must've expected some mention of this one. Although I posted this a day early, the actual date of commemoration is 3 October.

Not only is it a very important historical moment, but I have the day off tomorrow.

'Wait, you always have the day off. Are you even employed?', I hear you asking.

Definitely employed. I'm so gainfully employed that I'm already relishing the wild and limitless impending celebrations. Celebrations that every last German will be participating in with enthusiasm and fervour. Well, maybe not.

Actually not at all. Many Germans I talk to say they can't imagine a Germany still divided. But that doesn't mean these Germans are actually celebrating reunification. They're speechless when they hear surveys cited where some former East Germans even say that they wish they could go back to the time of the Berlin Wall.

The response to this from the people who've been paying a Solidaritätszuschlag, which is a tax levied on many West Germans to help ease the transition of East Germany to a modern economy, is that it'd be nice to let those unhappy with the present situation go back to the old ways (if you really want to know more about this Solidarity surcharge, look at this Wikipedia article on Taxation in Germany).

But I'm getting far too deep into history and/or politics for a teablog. My obvious question is:

What tea does one drink for German Reunification Day?

I refer you to my middle of the road blend post from the summer. The perfect tea for both East and West Germany is an Ostfriesen Blend. No matter what one thinks about the politics or the Solidarity surcharge, all can agree that this sort of blend is something Germans can be proud of.

drink it to the last leaf

2011-09-30T13:08:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I read about Nicole Schwartz's plan to rid herself of some excess tea in the blogpost The tea pound. (You might know her as @AmazonV over on twitter). I liked the idea, but I've continued to blame my distance from most of the rest of you as a reason not to get into direct tea trading.

But it just so happened that I went digging into the back of my tea depot, and I have much more of a Choice Formosa Oolong than I realised. My solution today was to just drink as much of it as I can. This isn't a burden, as I really like this tea. It was my introduction to Oolong, and for a long time it was the tea I turned to much more readily than any other. Here's an autumn photo that makes me think of this Formosa Choice Oolong's dark brown leaves:

autumn in Bavaria

So I regularly order little 100g or 200g packages of as many teas as possible, but if I really like a tea, I'll order as much as a kilogram. This is exactly one of those situations. But the next time I ordered, I forgot that I'd already ordered it, so I had another 500g sent along with my selection of other tea.

What's my point here exactly? Well I have a question for you.

When you have a lot of a specific tea you like, do you go overboard drinking it like I do? You don't always meticulously ship it off to others, do you?

I assure you that I'm not trying to sell off this tea. Am genuinely curious whether you ever order too much of a tea you like and, like I do, power through to use every last tea leaf.

the first steeping of The Tea Reader

2011-09-28T13:48:00.000-07:00

A Tea Reader by Katrina Ávila Munichiello

I've taken a while to mention this because I wanted it to be closer to the publishing date, but I've since been informed that it can already be ordered. So here's my announcement of a book I'm really excited about.

The Tea Reader is by a writer called Katrina Ávila Munichiello (She's also known as @TeaPages over on twitter) and she's really put together a gem of a book. It's not only essays and readings by a varied assortment of authors, but she's added her own introduction explaining how she got into tea, as well as an essay for each of the five sections of the book.

The Sections are cleverly called steepings, and the first steeping is 'Tea Reveries'. If you've read this blog for even the shortest of time, you know I'm one drawn to anything with reverie in the title. So many of my blogposts began with me staring off into space and pondering what I'd write about.

This is actually why I'm most thrilled about this book. I add material to this blog rather regularly, and sometimes I'm really at a loss for ideas. One of the reasons I'm not going to go into much more detail about this book now is that I'm sure I'll be coming back to it repeatedly.

The entries are short, for the most part, and I can already see myself dipping into one of the many readings for not only enjoyment but inspiration, as well. Am sure for those of you who like where my mind wanders, you'll appreciate where The Tea Reader is going to take me.

Margaret hoping and hoping

2011-09-26T14:38:00.000-07:00

Have been in a contrary mood all day and while I was deliberating what Iwanted to blog about, I happened upon RobertGodden's most recent post

Where there’s life, there’s Margaret’s Hope.
He calls Margaret's Hope a gateway drug...ok, he doesn't say drug, butit is in a way. His point is that you can get this tea almost anywhere. Evenif one doesn't know much about Darjeeling,they can probably name this estate. And once you've tried it and gotaccustomed to the taste of this Darjeeling, you'll be more likely to appreciatethe subtleties of an even better one.

I like the story he tells about the origin of the name. I wrote about it when I was relatively early on my teablogging path, andstill in the throes of said gateway drug. Here's what I had to say:
Margaret's Hope? Brew it again.

I've wondered more about this little tale, and I'm glad The_Devotea has reminded me of it. There's been a lot of talk lately in my circle of tea obsessive friendsabout inexperienced/unknowledgeable teashopassistants. Not just the way some of them are lacking the mostrudimentary facts about tea, but that they're willing to recklessly make stuffup in order to sell more tea.

So I'm going toplay the part of the completely dumfounded teashop assistant answering thequestion: Where does the nameMargaret's Hope come from?

See, this is thestory of a girl called Margaret, who desperately waits and waits to no avail. She'ssays to herself, 'Why do I have to wait?' But there's no answer. Nomatter how often she asks or for how long she waits.

Many years go by and she gets so busy with her daily life that she forgetsshe's even waiting. She enjoys the small joys in her life, as well as thebig milestones. Every once in a while she has a quiet moment where sheremembers that gnawing feeling that used to be so strong.

But only after decades have passed and she's sitting quietly with her tea,does she look back and realise she's had her answer all along. She'dhoped that she made a difference, but it was when she wasn't trying so hardthat she had the most impact.

She'd tried to say the right things in her life, but it was when she saidas little as possible and let her actions speak loudest that she was mosteffective.

Margaret's Hope was that it hadall meant something. That it wasn't yet another story of yearning andreaching that was never resolved.

The customer looks at the teashop assistant and sighs. 'Whaton earth are you talking about?,' he asks. 'I just wanted to buy sometea. I didn't want some metaphysical journey. I thought it'd besome simple story.'

Yeah, ok. Here's thereal story:

The plantation owner had two daughters. One of them, Margaret, loved itthere so much and hoped to one day return. Sadly, she died and the plantationowner was understandably devastated. To honour her, he named the plantation andthe tea that was grown there after her and her dreams of returning to theirland. To this day, Margaret's Hope tea is associated with highquality tea from Darjeeling.

'Perfect,' says the customer, 'I'll take that.'

Five More Things To Do with Tea

2011-09-24T16:24:00.000-07:00

Please don't ask me how I found this, but I was perusing the Canadian version of Reader's Digest, and stumbled upon Five More Things To Do with Tea.

1. Enhance Your Compost Pile

I don't have one of these. Although this is city living, I guess I could consider doing some composting on the terrace. But I'd only be willing to compost the leaves. Pour tea out onto the pile of decaying matter? I'm not sure I'm willing to do that. Even when a cup goes cold, I still drink it.

2. Cool Sunburned Skin

This I might be willing to try, but I rarely get sunburned. It's not as if my skin's immune to sunlight. I just don't stay out in the sun for too long. Even when I hike or take the dogs for a long walk, I'm either mostly covered up or protected by sunscreen.

3. Condition Dry Hair

Really? I've tried washing my hair in beer. It did give it a nice shine. But tea? Although I'm dubious, I'll really give this one a go. Why not? I wonder which tea'd be best for this one. Assuming I haven't already poured it on the compost pile or slathered my reddish hide with it.

4. Dry Poison Ivy Rash

I like the idea of all of these, and I'm sure they all came from trial and error. Somebody encountered poison ivy, had some tea left over from breakfast. The teapot was the nearest thing when the person walked in the door with fiery skin. The most natural response when you think about it. And although any cool liquid would probably be a relief, I wonder if there's anything in the tea that'd actually heal the skin.

5. Clean Wood Furniture and Floors

Again, this one might've been discovered accidentally. You have a nice wooden table, spill some tea on it, and as you wipe it up, you realise it hasn't damaged the wood in the least. Maybe it even looks better. So you take a rag and wipe tea over the entire surface. Or the same thing with your floors.

I spent quite a bit of time today on household chores. I brewed a pot of tea, swept a bit, had a sip of tea, mopped the whole place, took a little bit longer break with tea and a few biscuits, then cleared some clutter I'd let get out of hand...you get the idea. Had I known I could be using my tea for more than just the drinking.

tea before I'm fully conscious

2011-09-22T13:47:00.000-07:00

tea on the train

Sometimes I wake up on the train. Not because I fell asleep there the night before. Instead it's because I got up, got dressed, made tea and somehow made my way to the train before I was fully conscious.

But when I consider what I've done on automatic pilot, it's really quite remarkable. I preheated the flask, somehow measured out a reasonable amount of tea leaves. Then I steeped the tea while staring out the window. There was either the still dark sky or the coming sunrise to behold while I waited for the tea timer to bleat out that my dark brown nectar was ready.

Not to mention that I made it out the door and all the way to the train station without stopping somewhere and laying my head against a wall or down on the pavement. To say nothing of manoeuvring my way through the main train station with one foot still planted firmly in dreamland.

But suddenly there I am on the train with my trusty orange flask of tea. It's just tea, right? The most convenient way I've found to distribute caffeine to my blood stream.

I'm a relatively tolerant person and try to stay open to opinions and perspectives that I may otherwise disagree with, but this is anything but just tea.

Anything.

I think I might be awake by now.

he can't even review tea, can he?

2011-09-20T15:05:00.000-07:00

I am drinking Green Pu-Erh Tuo Cha and relaxing a bit after a long day.

along the green Nymphenburger canal

Recently I responded to an offer to write tea reviews for a site. It looks like an interesting opportunity, but I don't want to say any more about it until it's a done deal.

I was asked what sort of tea I liked...the site was explained to me and like I say, it looks promising. So I wrote back saying I was interested, and I mentioned this tea blog. You know. As in, 'You want to see how I write? Go check out the teablog.'

Despite how informal and slipshod it might appear, I put quite a lot of thought and care into this teablogging lark.

Here's the thing, though. I don't do many tea reviews. I do some (I used to write many more), but for the most part I start reviewing a tea and I go off on a tangent. It's not that I can't simply review a tea. But one of the ways I like to set this blog apart from others is to make it otherwise entertaining. It's certainly a blog about tea, but I like to see how far away from tea I can get without completely losing my readers.

If I've done my job well here, you'll periodically say to yourself, 'I wonder what ridiculous nonsense that Lahikmajoe has been writing about lately.' That non-teadrinkers regularly come here is something that continues to please me to no end.

But I like to try new tea and despite all the evidence to the contrary, I enjoy reviewing tea. That's actually why I think it'd be a good thing for me to write tea reviews in a more organised setting.

A place where I'm not trying to be clever and distracting and boundary pushing. Because as much as I'd love to tell you about how this Green Pu-Erh Tuo Cha tastes, I've already exhausted myself. I am curious if the folk at the tea reviewing site took one look over here and said to themselves, 'Who is this guy? What the hell is he talking about?'