Posts filed under 'Tea The Beverage'
Or why Tea Party Girl knows more than the ‘O’ Magazine’s editors.
I continue to be amazed how often I hear people tell me brewing looseleaf tea is too much work. I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me in an age of microwave popcorn, baby carrots, and tubes of minced garlic. But just like most of our products grown from the earth, when we let technology take out the prep work, the quality diminishes.
And while The Tea Spot receives high marks for a fancy website and an ‘O’ recommendation, may I encourage my readers that you do NOT need an automatic teapot to brew your tea. First, it only holds 20-ounces, scarcely three cups of tea. This is barely enough for one serious tea drinker, much less two. Secondly, the only step in the tea-brewing process it claims to take care of for you is removing the tea leaves at the proper time. So in other words, for $69.95 you can own an expensive, fancy timer. Which, I might add, won’t even work for green tea despite their claims, as most green teas are recommended to be brewed for two minutes and the automatic tea pot is set at a three-minute minimum.
Now yes, the teapot will take the leaves out of the water for you if you happen to be brewing tea while making your bed, curling your hair, sweeping the front porch, or whatever other multi-tasking you find necessary during brewing time. But as many wise tea lovers have stated, if you are too busy to wait the few minutes for the tea to brew, life is too busy and you’re the one needing to slow down and drink tea the most!
Granted, learning to brew looseleaf tea takes a little time. You may make a couple mistakes and have to ask a few questions. But may I encourage you that it is worth it! If you have any skills at all in the kitchen (Do you use knives? Pour milk in your cereal bowl? Know which buttons to push on the microwave?) you can brew looseleaf tea. It will cost you less and I guarantee, please you more.
Won’t you give it a try? And instead of spending $69.95 on the automatic teapot, treat a friend and support your local tearoom. Even this amount of money can purchase one afternoon tea for the Palm Court at the Plaza Hotel in New York City; unfortunately, you will need to pass on the lobster, black truffle, caviar and a chocolate pot de creme.
If you need a primer on looseleaf brewing, be sure to read my article “The Beginner’s Quick and Simple Guide to Brewing Looseleaf Tea“. Or feel free to ask questions in the comments below.
Fellow tea brewers, do you agree with my assessment of the automatic teapot? Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.
April 11th, 2008
Just in case you’re either one (rich and/or famous) and read this blog, consider purchasing from this incredible New York company, MarieBelle. And no, I don’t receive a cent for promoting them (yet!). But if you celebrate Valentine’s Day and ever give chocolate, wouldn’t you just love to give works of art as pictured on their homepage? I found the picture of their chocolate at Adagio Teas’s website and Christine Rillo’s article, “Love, Tea is in the Air“. And then to my delight, as I went to MarieBelle’s homepage, one of their headings listed Cacao Bar/Tea Salon. Could it be true?
Oh, that I could hop coasts in a day like the rich and famous (much less purchase chocolates such as these) and visit. Imagine! Unfortunately, they call their afternoon tea “high tea” and their hot chocolate bar is larger than their tea selections. But I am enamored simply because they have elevated tea to “foodie” status, those of us who pay good money for fewer bites of the best ingredients understand. Yes, we would rather taste less of the best than drink gallons or eat buckets of the cheap fare. Instead give us artisan chocolates, local produce, free-range meat, real (yes, that means raw) cream, bakery whole-grain bread, and small-farmed coffee and tea.
By the way, my new FAVORITE book about eating this way is Alice Water’s The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution. If you read cookbooks for fun or want to enjoy food while still watching how you eat, this is a must-have.
In a world of wine and coffee bars, co-ops and CSAs, finding a decent cup of tea out in public is rare indeed, especially outside a Victorian-decorated tearoom (and often not even there!). I hope MarieBelle’s Cacao Bar and Tea Salon knows how to make great tea. But at least I could sit among twinkle lights and the fragrance of rich chocolate nibbling their homemade pastries while I found out. It is worth noting as well, that the first time I tasted decent tea in public was at Alice’s famous restaurant, Chez Panisse, at five dollars a pot (and this was before people paid this much for adulterated coffee drinks). “Worth every penny,” my mom encouraged. She was right!
Anyone else who lives a little closer to New York City want to find out for me? Don’t worry, you can take your coffee-only friends along. MarieBelle’s Cacao Bar/Tea Salon offers espresso as well.
Have you read this book yet?
February 5th, 2008
I’m asked this question often. The simple answer? Yes and no.
Someday I may sell my own line of tea from this website. But I need to choose to jump through the health department’s hurdles first, and I’ve chosen not do that. Some teas I purchase in bulk at wholesale prices and sell locally to friends and family to pay for my habit of drinking multiple pots per day. These are not teas, however, I can sell over the Internet. Yet.
In the meantime, I try and point you, my readers to teas I do recommend. In September, for example, I reviewed some of the dessert teas offered by The Art of Tea. You can read the the review here. And when I list teas in my writing, for example the list of looseleaf teas for the beginning brewer in the article, “The 23 Best Gifts for the Tea Party Enthusiast” I link so you can purchase them.
Tea Party Girl does not offer paid reviews. In other words, I won’t give you a good review of a product whose company has paid me to write said review. Sometimes companies approach me and ask to send me free tea-related items to review on this site. I almost always say yes, as free tea items are a definite perk to this job, wouldn’t you agree? But it is in your best interest for me to give an honest review. And your best interest is foremost in my mind because if I don’t have readers, what’s the point? So my commitment is to offer you my authentic perspective on tea and tea-related items so you can make informed purchasing decisions.
Recently, Choice Organic Teas sent me some samples. They sent me teabags, but they do sell looseleaf teas on their site. Their teas stand out to me because the company claims that over half their tea offerings are fair trade certified,”far surpassing the numbers of any other tea company in the United States,” their website claims. It’s quite inspiring to read their web page, “Why Fair Trade” and remember how the choices of those who have money (us) can affect those who don’t.
They sent me four different teas: Organic Himalaya Green Tea, Organic Magnolia Oolong Tea, Organic Earl Grey with Lavender Blossoms, and Organic Lemon Lavender Mint Herb Tea. I tried the Earl Grey first. The individual teabag packages do not have brewing instructions on them. I did find general brewing instructions on their website and maybe they offer them on the boxes of teabags they sell. For an Earl Grey black tea, I would brew it with a rolling boil of filtered water for four minutes. My result was slightly bitter, but with the distinctive Earl Grey flavor. I tore open the teabag and not surprisingly found very small leaves, if one can call them leaves. In the green tea, the texture was like rough sand. This may explain the bitterness, as I may have brewed it too long.
The story was the same with all four teas regarding the size of the leaves inside the teabags. Teabags most often package tea leaves that resemble crumbs, often because they are less expensive and provide a quick infusion. I cannot vouch for their looseleaf teas, though I would assume the tea leaves are more intact. I cannot overemphasize, though, how wonderful it is to drink with a clear conscience, knowing my cup of tea is not at the exploitation of the one who picked the leaves for it. I would look more closely at this line of teas for that reason alone.
I’m curious, do you buy any of your tea online? Why or why not? I would love to hear from you in the comments below.
January 17th, 2008
While I was gone this weekend, MzRita asked a great question:
“I know I will probably make someone gasp when I ask this question, but I am planning a huge tea party at Christmas, with over 30 ladies in attendance, and I am wondering if it’s ok to brew the tea in one of those 50 cup coffee makers? I could dispense the tea from the big coffee maker directly into the tea pots. Will it taste ok this way?”
No one is gasping here at Tea Party Girl, MzRita. In fact, I’m applauding your choice to host a Christmas-themed tea and planning now! Good for you! I want to help you all I can (Christmas decoration article on its way.)
First, to answer MzRita’s question. Yes, you can use a 50-cup coffee maker with a few exceptions:
- Most likely, it’s already been used to brew coffee. Stick your nose in the brewer and take a whiff. It will need to be cleaned thoroughly because the water will pick up the coffee odors. The best way to do this is to run it through an entire cycle of baking soda and water, then rinse any residual baking soda out and take another whiff. Make sure it worked! Ideally, you would use a coffee urn that had never been used for coffee.
- Also, I recommend that you use the coffee brewer only to hold the water and still brew the tea in each individual pot. This is not ideal, as coffee doesn’t need the water to be quite so hot. Black and herb teas really need water as close to boiling as possible. But it will work.
- Before your event, line up the pots you will use. Measure out the amount of tea each pot needs in your strainer of choice and have them all ready to go. Right before serving, fill your pots with the water from the coffee brewer and brew for 3-4 minutes. Discard the leaves and serve.
Does that help?
This weekend, I visited two Bed and Breakfasts listed with Select Registry, meaning they’ve passed a thorough inspection (with 18 pages of rating, I’m told) by “secret sleepers” in order to be included as a distinguished inn of North America. I toured one and stayed in the other (more to come this week on THAT story!).
I mention it because these two inns of distinction had to “fake it” when it came to tea. Both inns provided a thorough refreshment bar of treats. The inn where I stayed laid out nuts, candies, chocolates, port and sherry, fresh cookies, and a number of instant hot drinks including tea.
They could have made looseleaf tea available. However, my guess it that too many of their guests wouldn’t know what to do with it. The majority of American tea drinkers still look for teabags, which both of these inns at their refreshment bars offered. Both inns offered two of the best and well-known teabag options, Mighty Leaf and Tea Forte. Mighty Leaf calls their teabags “tea pouches” not made of chemically-treated paper but a fabric I couldn’t find identified at their website. They keep the tea leaves as whole as possible. Tea Forte was the first, I believe, to introduce the pyramid-shaped silk infusers. Pricier than the typical paper and stapled teabags, sure, but both inns provided the best one can find in single-cup convenience tea.
At the inn where we stayed, they also provided us with a simplified tea bar in our room (and a plate of appetizers with a bottle of wine, but that’s another story). Here’s a picture:
The little chest you see was filled with a different flavor of Mighty Leaf tea pouches in each drawer. The teapot and mugs were provided, as you can see, AND a beverage water spigot for instant boiling water.
The bottom line? Sometimes you have to “fake it” when making tea for a crowd or on the road. Do what you can to provide the best ingredients, water, and ease while still maintaining the quality. Your guests will thank you (”Thank you, Dunbar House, 1880!”).
October 29th, 2007
Here in the Northern California, leaves and rain fall, a pumpkin patch was visited yesterday, and I’m bringing tea to a number of gatherings of friends. Friday night, eighteen of us gathered around a friend’s kitchen counter assembling spring rolls and sipping Watson’s Nutty Green out of Asian gaiwans. We laughed and celebrated a friend joining us for the first time since her stroke almost a year ago and wept over another friend’s recent breast cancer diagnosis. Saturday morning found me huddled in 39 degree weather at the CLASSIEST yard sale ever hawking my wares and encouraging people to hold a cup of my Caramel for Hobbits to keep their hands warm while they browsed.
Like wine, tea garnishes all kinds of occasions, and knowing how to choose one greatly helps to enhance your experience. This article is the third in my series, “How to Choose Tea Based on…”. I’ve already covered:
Are you looking for your signature tea, the one you grab over and over again? You should be. Look for yourself in the following personality descriptions. Are you already sold on tea (like Emma Thompson) and looking to convert your friends and family? Consider them as you read through the following.
First, let me talk to you coffee lovers. You’re the ones convinced nothing can ever replace your brew. You bring your own thermos when visiting certain homes (I’m talking to you, Grandpa Russ!). If this is the case, I would like to make a few suggestions. The best teas to serve coffee lovers are the rich and robust Ceylons and Assams. These are black teas named for where they are grown. They serve as the basis for many tea blends (also recommended for coffee lovers) like Irish Breakfast. Less well-known, but equally effective converting teas include Sikkim and Yunnan (see my article on tea definitions for more information). If the coffee lover adds milk and sugar or loves their lattes, encourage them to try a chai tea, traditionally brewed in milk or another flavored black, like Chocolate Raspberry.
If you plan to serve tea to your grandmother, or anyone over the age of sixty, they will most likely enjoy something more traditional. Most likely, they were served tea growing up, or may still drink tea on a regular basis. They probably won’t be able to appreciate bubble tea or flavored blacks as much as Darjeelings, Earl Grey, or English Breakfast. If you want something with a touch of flavor you both enjoy, Black Current is more traditional or something with just a hint of vanilla. Remember, Grandma most likely knows her tea, so be sure you know how to brew it!
If health trumps pleasure for you or your guest, choose teas with properties known for their benefits. Examples of these include organic, rooibos, green, and white teas. Look for ones that do not include natural or artificial flavorings in their list of ingredients. If the teas are truly flavored naturally, they will list what they used for the flavors, as in jasmine, orange peels, or mint. Another popular green tea forthe health conscious is Genmaicha, named for the inclusion of puffed brown rice, giving it almost the flavor of popcorn.
Can tea be romantic? Absolutely. Are you one who celebrates your senses and enjoys snuggling? The movies always show the couple in front of the fire with the wine glasses. But maybe it’s a weekday night or one of you needs to abstain for health or personal reasons. Or you switch to tea during pregnancy. Cozy up together over the dessert teas of caramel, chocolate, or fruit-based teas filled with a variety of tropical flavors like mango, pineapple, and papaya. Choose teas with wild, in-your-face names because they will probably have wild, in-your-face flavors to help add zip to your time together. anyone?
Maybe romantic nights of the past filled your home with children in the present and you just need a break. I’ve written before to encourage the many sahms who read my blog to incorporate a tea break into their day. Tea is something you and your children can enjoy together. Then they can run off and play while you enjoy a relaxing second cup. Most mothers I talk with want to completely avoid caffeine for their children and I introduce them, as I have here, to rooibos. Rooibos is a South African crop so gentle the Africans give the tea (tisane) to their babies. Rooibos has become more widely available in almost every flavor imaginable. Children love mint, lemon, vanilla, and berry-flavored rooibos. If you want to make absolutely sure to give the purest tea available to your child, I recommend a locally-grown organic peppermint leaf tisane.
Lastly, there are those who are either already tea snobs (they’ve made it clear there’s little you could do to impress them) or those who express that microwaved tap water with a teabag is perfectly fine, thank you, and they see no need to change their ways. For the tea aficionado, you want a tea with a number of letters behind its name (Darjeeling SFTGFOP1, for example), a tea that has been carefully created by hand (like Jasmine Pearls), or a rarer tea you can’t buy in the grocery store like an oolong or Lapsang Souchong. For the teabag user, they are usually introduced to looseleaf tea through someone else. If that person knows how to properly brew tea, the teabag user is pleasantly surprised. I heard it over and over again last Saturday, “Wow! This tea is really good.” For the teabag user, I recommend a strong fruity black (like apricot), earl grey, chai, or a traditional english breakfast (for those Lipton lovers out there…there must be some of you!).
Did you recognize yourself in any of the above descriptions? Which tea will you try? What tea will you serve to your next guest? Leave a comment and tell me all about it.
October 8th, 2007
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