A tea infuser in the shape of the Titanic?
A friend pointed me toward this Teatanic tea infuser over at perpetual kid. I guess if you’re a big fan of the Titanic and tea you have a must have tribute to both. Personally, I don’t quite understand the obsession with the Titanic (I have watched the movie with Leo and Kate several times though), but I’m not sure how suitable it is to essentially poke fun at a tragedy. Or maybe I’m too sensitive. What do you think – tasteful or tasteless?
You’ve probably seen it plenty of times in movies or done it yourself when playing at being prim and proper – raising your pinky in the air while drinking your afternoon tea. But according to Miss Manners, raising your pinky went out of fashion a long time ago.
According to Miss Manners:
Even that perennially easy target, the pinkie in the air, has provocative implications having to do with international commerce and class strife.
The gesture dates from the 17th century, when tea began to be imported to England from China. It was so expensive that those who could afford it kept it locked up in so-called tea caddies. They drank it from Chinese teacups, which do not have handles but are held in the fingers. Because the thin cups transmitted heat from the tea, it was sensible to put as few fingers on them as necessary — hence the escaping little finger, and sometimes the ring and middle fingers as well.
This habit became a symbol of wealth, when few people could afford tea, let alone imported cups. It quickly progressed, along a path you will recognize, to becoming a symbol of pretentiousness. At that point, the pinkie in the air — no longer necessary because the West had developed teacups with handles — became bad manners.
Miss Manners is amazed that it is still cited, now that tea is one of the least expensive possible drinks available. She would be surprised if you had ever actually seen this gesture in real life.
Full article
I’m not sure why Miss Manners has never seen anyone raise their pinky. A simple search on Flickr shows many people raising their pinky, even though it’s most likely in jest. But why does the pinky in the air continue to be seen as something wealthy people do when we’ve obviously have had tea cups with handles for hundreds of years now and tea is readily available in every grocery store? You’d think that the practice would have been forgotten over time. What do you think, is it really a faux pas to raise your pinky? Or is it all part of enjoying your afternoon tea?
Okay, so this is not an original idea. I was in David’s Tea today and picked up one of their 24 Days of Tea Advent Calendar. It’s a great idea for an early Christmas gift for the tea lover in your life. They also had an 8 Days of Tea for Hanukka. Unfortunately both are no longer available online, and the 24 Days isn’t even listed anymore. BUT you can easily create your own, and one that you can use over and over again each year.
Here’s How:
or this 25 drawer box
.
. For the tea caddy, you can cover each section with felt or foam that gets removed on the day. Make sure to number each section or drawer.
or, if you’re like me, you could fill it with tea from your own cabinet.
We all grab a cuppa tea on the go at some point. And a lot of us add sugar to it, mostly from little packets sitting on counters and tables in cafes. Did you know that just one major coffee chain creates 8 million pounds of sugar packet waste each year in the United States? I hate to think what the amount is worldwide for all sugar packets. This made me think about just how much do I create with my little tea with milk and sugar addiction. (We’ll ignore the tea bag problem for now.)
Well, a brilliant and poised 16-year-old young woman, Hayley Hoverter, from East Los Angeles saw this when she was 6 years old and decided to come up with a solution – Sweet Dissolve. I was watching The Nerdist tonight on BBC America, and they had Hayley on as part of a segment highlighting projects from the LA Science Fair. I wish she had a website already to talk about her patented invention, but a simple search lead me to some videos of her talking about Sweet Dissolve. Basically they’re little triangle shaped organic sugar “packets” wrapped in an organic dissolvable starch. The “wrapper” disappears as you stir in your sugar, and the the wrapper doesn’t add any calories or flavor. And she plans to sell it in dispensers and packaging made of bamboo (a highly renewable resource) that also acts as a natural desiccate. Sweet!
I instantly wanted to try them out, but they’re not on the market yet! They’re currently in a pilot project in South California (6 hours from me – a tad too far just for a cup of tea).
Here’s Haley on CBS LA talking about Sweet Dissolve, and you can see what one of the packets looks like.
Here’s Hayley Hoverter presenting her business plan at the finals of the National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge. She’s currently in talks with the CEO of FUBU, Daymond John, (seen in the video) about investing in her company and taking it out of pilot stage.
Check out Haley’s bio on the NFTE competition site.
I’ve tasted my first tea direct from China, and it seems to make a difference. Back in December, before moving countries and a series of technological catastrophes, the good people at TeaVivre sent me free samples of their tea. After a few emails and reading information about their company, I found them to be a rather refeshing take on the online tea shop. TeaVivre is a group of tea lovers and aficionados from China, Canada and France, who all share a passion for drinking great tea. The name of the company plays on the French phrase, “Joie de vivre”, which means “joy of living”or “enjoyment of life”, and with TeaVivre their aim is to spread the joy of tea online.
TeaVivre packaging
This group of friends frequently travel through the country visiting China’s tea plantations so they can track down only truly exceptional teas for themselves. They follow a business ethic of honesty and trust, where the relationship and satisfaction of both customers and suppliers is a central focus. And wherever possible, they source 100% organically grown and produced tea. Because they actually visit the tea plantations, they can build relations with their suppliers and verify their growing and production methods and techniques. I find this approach something that is rare to find outside of China. I would think that not many boutique tea vendors outside of China can make the trip more than once a year. Perhaps that’s the difference that I’m tasting in the tea.
What the TeaVivre shipment looks like
You can buy directly from TeaVivre at www.teavivre.com. Each tea on their website includes a detailed description and reviews from customers. They offer several shipping options to the U.S. The USPS one seems a bit pricey to me if you’re only buying a small amount. My free sample was sent via China Air and it arrived ok, only a slight ding in the box’s corner that didn’t effect the tea itself, but the USPS option is faster.
TeaVivre's black tea brewing
On to the tea itself. I invited my friend over to help me sample the Yun Nan Dian Hong Black Tea – Golden Tip. According to their website, “Dian Hong black tea, also known as Yunnan black tea, is one of China’s most famous black teas. This is the highest grade Dian Hong generally available in China – called Golden Tip Dian Hong. [I haven't verified that, but I'll take it at face value.] It has lots of orange pekoe in the dried tea, and brews into an absolutely great tasting, golden coloured tea, with a very rich taste and aroma.” Each bag is vacuumed sealed and I would think helps keep it seem as fresh as the day it was packed. My sample was produced in May (it was December when I brewed it). How do I know? Well, I was surprised to see that their labelling is more detailed than most teas you’ll see in your average tea shop. The label has everything you need to fully appreciate the tea: the place of origin, manufacturer, production date, storage instructions, shelf live and brewing guide.
A closeup of the dry tealeaves
The tea leaves themselves are whole. Amazingly there was little to no breakage of the long golden leaves even though it was shipped in a small box across the Pacific (good packing!). The moment I opened the package a sweet hay smell escaped that I attribute to a recently dried green leaf. I brewed it following the brewing instructions and in a glass teapot to get a better sense of its color. Very quickly the water turned golden and then to deep amber – for me a sign of a good pekoe. If it weren’t for the tea press in the pot it would have gotten too strong for my tastes sitting in there while drinking a cup, so you might want to brew it in smaller batches if you’re only pouring a cup or two at a time. It’s a strong black tea, but it’s smooth with a malty sweetness to it that help to not be overpowering. Also, I felt like my taste buds were tricking me as there was a hint of pepperiness to it. My friends, a tea appreciator but not necessarily a connoisseur, liked it and said it was a good pairing with our scones, raspberry jam and Devonshire cream. I agreed. Overall, I highly recommend buying this as your first black tea from TeaVivre.
*I was not financially compensated for this post. I received a sample for review purposes. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.*
Given that we’re in New York for a wedding with a 10 month old in tow, we haven’t had a lot of time to explore tea houses as I would have wanted (excuse for another visit). But we did make it to Alice’s Tea Cup yesterday.
Alice’s has been recommended to me by many people, probably because I’m a huge Alice in Wonderland fan. It’s a cozy yet roomy tea house – as only a Lewis Carroll inspired restaurant could be. We went to ‘chapter ii’ on E 64th. There’s another location on the upper east side and one on the upper west. don’t expect it to be full on Alice a la Disney. It’s tastefully whimsical with a Victorian flare and quotes from the story on the walls.
The staff were incredibly welcoming and accommodating. We had our small umbrella stroller and left it downstairs at the tiny entrance, while baby was with us in a high chair upstairs. I got the impression that while they appreciate smaller strollers they would do their best to accommodated the SUV-esque ones that are popular. But there is very little room-you’re warned!
We arrived fairly early and breakfast was still being served. And guess what! They have a Mad Hatter breakfast tea – 3 tiers of breakfast favorites: a scone, eggs (mostly eaten in picture), and homemade granola with yogurt. Where else can you get a proper morning tea?
It was more delicious than expected. I had the buttermilk scone and hubby had the vegan coconut lemon scone – both were moist and yummy. Eggs were scrambled to perfection. The granola was slightly more browned than I’m used to but was flaky and nutty (how apropos for a Mad Hatter tea). All in all I give it an A.
Now for the tea. Their tea menu is a book. So when you sit down decide what kind of tea you want ( black, green, red, flavored, scented, decaf, etc.) and go from there. Since it was my first time I went with the house blend – Alice’s tea. It’s a black blend with a bit of green in it. I thought it was slighty floral, but maybe that was the jet lag. Either way, it was a nice compliment to the breakfast. Hubby had a vanilla caramel blend and it satisfied his sweet tooth. Baby is still too little for tea.
Will I go back? Yes. And I may make it a tradition for my daughter and me. Afterward we strolled over to the park for photos in front of the Alice in Wonderland sculpture.
Tomorrow we head out to NY for week or so. I haven’t lived in the NY area for over 10 years now, so there are loads of great new tea houses and cafes that I’ve never been to. I have a couple in mind to visit while I’m there, but if you have any suggestions – let me know!
It’s number 996 in the TeaGschwendner Book of Tea. 
It describes it as
An Austrian specialty steeped in the tradition of Vienna’s famous baked delicacies, most notably the “sacher torte”. Selected teas from Darjeeling and Ceylon are treated to a hint of bergamot and jasmine. Ingredients: black teas from Darjeeling and Ceylon, jasmine blossoms and natural flavor.
It’s a nice golden orange color after brewing it the recommended 2 minutes. There’s just a hint of bergamot and doesn’t overwhelm the palate as some Earl Greys can. And there’s more than a hint of jasmine, which I love. The stronger jasmine flavor/aroma could be due to the fact that the use full blossoms, not pieces as can be seen in other brands. It is slightly on the bitter side.
Oh my I haven’t posted here in a year – but I had a good excuse. I got pregnant and had a baby girl! And no we didn’t name her Tea, although it did cross my mind. But what better way to get back into blogging than talking about the best of the best teas in North America. The North American Tea Championship named 19 first-place winners in its annual Hot Tea Class / Fall Tea evaluation, which took place Feb. 22 – 23 in Las Vegas. Rishi Tea shone in the competition by winning a total of four 1st place spots.
It wasn’t just the well established brands that succeeded. Five newbies to the competition came out on top in each of their categories: Ajiri Tea Company, Globex America dba Cavallini Coffee & Tea, Rare Tea Cellar Inc., Tao Tea Leaf; and Yogic Chai.
Overall, competitors showcased an assortment of premium fall teas in 19 different categories – from Assam to Yunnan – and the renowned judges evaluated nearly 200 teas. (Imaging being lucky enough to drink all that tea!) The teas were evaluated blind and through organoleptic analysis of the following characteristics: dry leaf, brewed color, brewed aroma, brewed flavor, brewed mouth-feel, and brewed harmony. An overall rating on a 100-point scale was then calculated based on the ratings of each characteristic above. You can see the full list of winners, their ratings, prices (prepare for sticker shock for some) and links to the winners’ sites on the North American Tea Champion site.
First place “Signature Famous Teas” winners include:
First place “General Category Teas” winners include:
A Winners’ Tasting Circle will be held at 2011 World Tea Expo June 24 -26 for all attendees. Oh I wish I was going!
Next up for North American Tea Championships is an Iced Tea competition in May – just in time for summer! And then the Spring Hot Tea competition will be held in July in Las Vegas.