TeaBlogger

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.)

As quoted at the Tea Stop:

tea leaves
tea loves
loves tea
lives tea
leaves tea?
never.
~ Uniek Swain

Byoo-tea-ful! Hurray for Valentine’s Day!

Some interesting teas for Valentine’s Day, by the tone of the event :

• Lemon Ginger Tea - For an independent Valentine, celebrating singledom! Invigorating as well as exciting.
• Twinings English Breakfast - Warm, comforting… classic. For well-established romances.
• Celestial Seasonings Raspberry Gardens - Green tea that’s both mellow and tart… for those bittersweet situations.
• A nice, steamy Oregon Chai - For creamy, dreamy love, and cuddling on the couch.

Also, some Valentine’s history, as well as a recipe for Love Potion Tea. Cheers, to all! Tip back a good cup of tea in honor of the wonders of love!

There’s nothing so classic for Valentine’s Day as flowers and candy, preferably chocolate. But sometimes classic can be boring, whether it’s a dozen roses or your millionth cup of Earl Grey. With that in mind, here’s a few interesting-looking twists on the traditional old Valentine’s Day gifts, especially suited to tea lovers and those who adore them:

• Green Tea Dark Chocolate - If the chocolate is as nice as the packaging, I’ll love it. Seems like a reasonable price too!
• Torn Ranch also has Tea Infused Chocolate Indulgences, with flavors like Masala Chai and Jasmine Green… Intriguing!

• Flowering teas! I don’t know whether these various videos makes flowering teas look awesome or terrifying, but some flowering teas can be truly lovely.
• This beauty from Adagio (who refers to them as ‘display teas’) looks gorgeous!
• And there’s also quite a selection at Mountain Rose Herbs.

Besides their beauty, the nicest thing about flowering teas is that they are really easy to try. Steeping is nearly the same to any other tea, and all you need is a glass teapot so you can watch the magic. Numi has some instructions for brewing teas, including flowering teas, but all you really need to know is:

1. Without a strainer, place your tea flower in your glass teapot.
2. Boil water. Pour over.
3. Watch & Enjoy.

Like many teas, many flowering teas have a brewing time of 2 - 3 minutes, but they can also be reused. Can silly old roses work magic like this?

Romantically inspired haikus and poems leading up to Valentine’s Day….

pure is my love of
you. pure as the elixir
that your sweet lips sip.