TeaBlogger

Currently I have this electric tea kettle from Cuisinart:

Growing up my parents always had a real on-the-stove kettle, and the sound of the gas stove pilot clicking became forever linked in my mind to the coming cup of morning tea.

Once I left the nest and went to college, I began to look for my own tea kettles, but met nothing but disappointment. Design school didn’t help. My best friend and I obsessed over tea pots and kettles of lovely designs and proportions and colors, but actually acquiring one of these never happened. They were either too expensive, nowhere to be purchased, or in reality just pretty but not usable.

After college, after lasting disappointment with my somewhat stylish but incredibly annoying college tea kettle, I finally gave in and got this Cuisinart electric tea kettle. It is really quite wonderful. Nice-looking, easy to use, reliable. It was a reasonable price.

And yet have I always missed making tea on the stove, the whistle, the clicks, the heat! Hitting a button and hearing a click has just never been quite the same. Tea is a ritual for many with many, many different meanings, and for me the electric tea kettle has always been just too… convenient? There is something visceral and old in a kettle over gas that I love. Not to mention that it makes the kitchen look great and is slightly better for the environment and cheaper too.

So now that I am married and have my own home, I think it’s about time that I found myself a good ol’ tea kettle. It may not be easy, but I’m determined! I’ll keep this blog posted on how it goes.

One of the reasons I haven’t posted in ages is because recently I got married. w00t! When my fiance and I were thinking about what to give out as favors, we naturally settled on each of our favorite things: tea and chocolate! We wanted a favor that:

• Most people would like at least part of
• People could enjoy during the event or shortly after
• They wouldn’t need to take home and give to GoodWill
• Was easy to assemble and acquire

We bought about a gazillion Ferrero Roches at Sam’s Club (gold was one of our colors – yeah!) and also tons of Andes candies at Wal-Mart. (We’re still eating them.) But how to pick just one tea? And what kind? Black, green, white, oolong? Loose or bagged? I toyed with the idea of getting a custom blend and putting it in little custom tea tins – but really that was way too much work!

To meet our requirements of things that most people would like and were easy to acquire we decided on a mix of:

• Twinings Earl Grey
• Stash Chai
• Stash Pomegranate Green

All lovely teas. A little variety so folks could trade if they wanted. Easy to acquire at our local Giant Eagle Market District. AND best of all — in our colors of gold and wine! ;-] Add a cute tag, some ribbon, and simple favor bags from Joann’s and viola! I loved them.

Tea and Chocolate favors (Image by Joanna Fassinger)

I recently tried this red tea from Celestial Seasonings. They have the most gorgeous packaging, and when some colleagues at work bought me this while I was sick, I was intrigued…. Red tea is not normally my thing, it not really being “tea” any more than any other herbal remedy, but the African inspiration of this blend kinda sucked me in. And the cool lion, of course.

It was pretty good. Something about the vanilla reminded me of other not-tea beverages, and gave almost a medicinal quality to it. It was okay straight but i decided to add milk and sweetener and in general I liked it. I still like how the ingredients all revolve around Africa – not something I have every day.

Will it replace Salada and Earl Grey? Not likely. But when I’m feeling fickle or bored, it may be just the thing!

The summer has flown by and of course I’ve been too busy to write much. But I haven’t been too busy to make pitchers and pitchers of iced tea!!

I never seem to be able to make it successfully by the pitcher though. The five tea bags in five cups of water never seems to achieve strong enough results. So all summer I’ve resorted to this process:

• Boil water.
• Get five cups, put five bags of everyday black tea in (or whatever kind you love).
• Pour five cups.
• Steep for a while! Maybe an hour or so.
• Combine into a pitcher with two cups of ice and allow to cool in the fridge.
• Mmmmmmmmmm Enjoy.

In April! What gives?

Actually I kinda like it. I love snow. I just hope it’s not killing all the little cherry blossoms and daffodils out there! Well… I guess I could use an excuse to curl up under a blanket with one more nice cup of steamy chai… mmm, now that’s cozy.

I have recieved a gift or two or a hundred over the years of many different kinds of tea. And really, I love it because I love to try them all. But invariably, there are at least a FEW I don’t like…

So what do you do with them? I have 19 tea bags here of Apple Raspberry tea, licorice tea, and vanilla chai. Don’t get me wrong. I adore Chai. I love vanilla. But not in tea. And not together!!

I don’t know what to do with them all…. Perhaps I’ll take them to work and hope people will aggressively steal them. If only I knew some needy tea drinkers out there that were just craving a nice Decaf Hazelnut?? Anyone?

Or perhaps they’ll collect dust until I think of a better use for them.

Thank heavens it’s starting to warm up. Usually I love the winter, but man… this one has just worn me down. Maybe I’m getting old (LOL an old 27!) – I’m just ready to be done! And this is half because, now I can switch to iced tea!!

When I’m at work, I love to go for a walk to cute little coffee shops nearby. Not particularly because I love coffee but because I love walks and coffee shops. (although coffee is pretty great – please don’t stone me for straying from the tea fold…) Now that it’s a bit warmer, I can get iced tea and walk around casually and get back to the office without my fingers falling off.

And there’s so many great ways to have iced tea! I absolutely adore a nice black tea with a little sweetener in it – and very cold. Lots of ice! But teas other than a classic orange pekoe can also be delicious, like Lemon Ginger or a nice Earl Grey. =) mmmm…..

And any iced tea loves a bit of fruit juice, lemon, or mint! Ahh, my first spring flowers are blooming–that’s close enough to summer for me! Time for the iced tea….

Goal for summer: figure out how mom made such fabulous sun tea.

Salon Teas has a gorgeous website with some beautiful branding–oh, and tea as well. And tea pots and other tea-inspired products. I’d love to try their Chai, “The WRITER,” or perhaps “The Natural Beauty,” which sounds like a delicious vanilla cinnamon rooibos combination. I must say I’m less excited to try the FOOTTEA! (Just kidding–a tea-inspired foot soak sounds intriguing…)

Signature Teas from Tracy Stern, Salon Teas

So I heard on TV tonight that pound for pound, coffee and tea contain the same amount of caffeine. So why does brewed coffee have so much more jolt than your average cuppa?

A pound (or so) of coffee might brew 50 cups, where as a pound of tea can brew more than 200.

Check out this site for a comparison of caffeine content across lots of yummy things.

Tonight, Food Network is playing an Unwrapped all about coffee and tea, and it’s fascinating! Watch chai being brewed in distillery kettles, and see how the professional coffee and tea tasters do their thing.

Pretty sweet. (Unless you like it black.)