Be classy

There is no denying it Christmas is just around the corner, the river bend, the rainbow and it would just be inappropriate at this point not to bring it up.
Some people around Christmas prefer to drink eggnog, apple cider, or a big glass of milk (disgusting in my opinion) but not here, here we drink tea.
If you are contemplating what tea to serve at your Christmas gathering I have a few suggestions.
-First one that comes to my mind is Pine Needle Tea. This is a tea I used to make when I was little. You go outside and you collect pine needles. I f you are not in a place where you can so easily collect pine needles I would just say look around your house for it, it's Christmas, you will find some pine needles. Next boil some hot water. Then clean the pine needles, as who knows where they've been, and then wrap them up together and put them in your boiling water. Let sit for like five minutes, and then take out the pine needles. This is pine needle tea. I won't lie to you, it doesn't taste like much... BUT if you smell it it smells like a Christmas tree which in my opinion is the smell of the Christmas Holiday.
-I would say any sort of spicy tea... such as Chi, Cinnamon, or really anything that is warm and has that very allspice taste, which is the taste of Christmas.
-Peppermint tea. Is there anything more Christmasy than Peppermint?
-I would say any type of black tea... It's warm, it's cozy, it's elegant, and i don't know about you, but that's what Christmas is like in my household...

So, yeah, as you can see some of the most Christmasy things in the world are teas. So forget about all those other drinks and just drink TEA



Tea of the moment: Cinnamon Tea...mmmmm....

An Elite Tea Experience

So once again I dropped the ball... it has been too long. But you should know that I had good intentions. Every cup of tea I have had in the last month I have thought of you, and thought to myself "I should really post" but, you know, like sands through the hour glass so are the days of our lives...
To make it up to you, once again I have a personal story. It was a few weeks back and I was with my friend, who’s a descendant of President George Washington, and we decided we were in need for some tea. So I thought quickly, she was from out of town so we couldn't just go to some Starbucks or something stupid like that, it had to be elite. And what popped into my head but Alice's Tea Cup.
Alice's Tea Cup is a place of magic, charm, delight, and of course tea. We went to the one on the west side... 68th and Broadway. There are two other locations in the city if this exact spot doesn't fit your fancy.
So we met up with some others who were also in the need for some tea and walked in to Alice's and said "we would like a table" and they said "two hours"... so that kind of sucked. But it was ok cause we went and got Burritos. Two hours later we were back and this time we got a table. We were taken to our table which was in a wondrous yellow room that was decked out in Alice in Wonderland. Very nice. Although, between you and me (side of mouth voice) I've been to the one on 64th and Lexington and that one is decorated similarly but in my opinion is better (side of mouth voice). But the one we were at was still delightful.
Once seated, we were given menus that were full of delicious tea food, such as, cakes, cookies, scones, and for those looking for something a little more filling, sandwiches. AND, there was also a whole menu purely devoted to tea. SO MUCH TEA. I got the Rooibos Coconut Tea. At this point I should tell you that although I consider myself to be a lover of all teas, I am also a person of habit. I have gotten Rooibos Coconut tea every time I have gone to Alice's. I'm sure I would love every tea Alice's has to offer, but most likely I will not try them, I love this Rooibos too much to venture.
Other teas featured at our table were Lapsang Souchong Superior and Birthday Tea. Both Black Blend teas. I tried them both and can tell you they were both enchanting. I really wanted someone to get Lavender Earl Grey so I could mooch as that sounds b-r-i-l-l-i-a-n-t... but I was refused, so maybe next time.
We also got the Green Tea Chocolate Cake. And let me tell you that it was heavenly. I could try to explain it but words would not do it justice. So, I won't.


So the overall message of this post is if you like tea, and I assume you do, otherwise why are you here, go to Alice's.


Tea of the moment: i guess... Rooibos coconut is appropriate.

The low down on CAFFEINE!!!

This one goes out to Haley in Galveston

so lots and lots of people love tea but don't necessary love the caffeine, so I have come up with a few tid bits to help you, my lovely readers, cope with this little situation.

A. One of the most impressive ways of getting rid of some of the caffeine is just in the brewing style. It is FACT, pure fact, that 80% of the caffeine is released in the first 30 seconds of brewing. Soooooo to get of rid of 80 percent of the caff, brew it somewhere else (doesn't even matter where) for 30 seconds and then in the mug of hot water you are planning to make into your delicious cup of tea! There is still a lot to be brewed into tea in that little tea bag but not as much caffeine! ; )

B. Drink an herbal tea that doesn't have caffeine... but if you want to add milk and sugar... you can't use herbal tea, naturally. So then I would use red tea. It tastes pretty much the same as black tea but doesn't have caffeine. PERFECT!

C. I would just say get over it. Tea has 60% less caffeine than coffee. So you are doing a lot better than all those coffee drinkers out there Anyway. That's good enough.



Tea of the moment: Hong Kong Style Milk Tea... yum yum yummmmmmmy

Rats are pretty nimble

Next time you see a rat, if you are in the city you see LOTS i'm sure, have a cup of tea with it. Don't just try red rose tea though like in the video. Mix it up. I'm going to try some green tea myself. Please do it! Hava cup of tea with your pals!

Tea of the moment: the moment has changed, FINALLY! so it is now starbucks holiday blend.

bobapearlsbubblesCHOOBA

Ok so I figure it is finally time for me to introduce you to BOBA TEA!
also known as:
-Pearl Tea
-Bubble Tea
-tapioca tea
-Chooba tea (this one is new to me but that's what I'm told and I LIKE IT)

So I'm sure you've heard of it. It has become PRETTY popular over the last couple years here in the USA, but just for your 411 it actually came to be in the 1980s in Taiwan. So we, who are here in the USA went without for a pretty long time.

Some of you may be those people who are afraid to try it. A lot of people are. Those weird little ball things look pretty weird! But just try it! I mean it's just tapioca in a milk tea. It doesn't even have to be milk tea, it can really be any kind of tea you want.. COLD OR HOT. Oh the o-p-p-o-r-t-u-n-i-t-i-e-s. I swear once you try it you will eventually come to love it. This I am sure of. I say eventually as I have not met very many people that have love Boba on their first try. It is just too different. But just keep trying it cause it is just a fun drink.. you really just can't miss out on it.

LOVE,
L.J.M


Tea of the moment: Although I should say Boba, I can't cause I can't lie to you and know I can't fool you. My last post was just like 5 minutes ago... so it's kinda the same moment. So basically it's still my free tea... naturally.

an adventure

Before I do or say anything.....I'm sorry about my time away...you know... out of sight out of mind... I guess. ;)
To make up for the abandonment I have decided to share with you a personnel story... A story of surprise, beauty, a dash of shame and OF COURSE TEA!
So... the other day I am walking down 86th street, to be exact I was on 86th between first and second... in New York ... (for my out of town readers) well asI am walking I see lots and lots of garbage bags, although they do not seem to be garbage.
Before I go on I would like to give you some background information of myself. You know those people that make a living going through other peoples garbage and then either sell or use the stuff they find.. I think they are called... well I forget... they have a name though. Well although I don't judge at all, OBVIOUSLY, I am not one... background info done.
Well I see these bags of "garbage" and what is in it but tons and tons and TONS of unopened tea... I look around and think who would do this? and then I see I am standing right in front of a grocery store, so I figured they must have been overstocked and thrown the extra rest out... so I took some, I took a lot. Now I am not shamed because I figure it was completely sealed and tea does not go bad and it is inappropriate to throw away perfectly good tea... so no i am not shamed.
this is a list of the tea I got.
-Green Tea Ming
-Red Bush Herb Tea
-Cranberry Apple Zinger
-Green Tea Apple and Spice
-Green Chai
I put all this tea in my bag and then went home.
I had A LOT of tea to start with so now it is absurd but the good kind of absurd!
My moral of my story is keep your eyes open on the street for tea, it is there, you just have to find it. :)

Jealous? Kinda?



Tea of the moment: my free tea...c'mon!

Tea and a movie

Now some of you may say, "does this really have anything to do with tea" and my answer to this is, "yes, yes it does."

Here are my convincing reasons as to why.

A. It is called the DARJEELINGlimited. What is Darjeeling? oh, it is a type of TEA... Now you might say when they named the movie they probably weren't thinking about the tea but the train they are on in it, which is called the Darjeeling limited...this is probably true... But I bet when the train was named they were thinking about the tea, or more the place where the tea is grown but really, same thing... so in a round about way this movie is in fact named after tea.

B. Through out the movie they are continuously asked if they would like some tea. So they drank a lot of tea throughout this movie. You might say tea was the fourth main character. The three brothers and their cups of tea.

C. This movie is as wonderful, magical, beautiful, quirky and as sweet as every other Wes Anderson movie. What else is wonderful, magical, beautiful, quirky and sweet? Yep, TEA!

I think those are more then enough reasons to show how much the Darjeeling limited has to do with tea.
So go get your favorite cup of tea and sneak it into the movie theatre and see "The Darjeeling Limited" you will be happy if you do and probably be a more peaceful person for the rest of your life. So I would suggest doing it.


...also... well you are at the theatre breaking rules by bringing in a cup of tea you might as well break another rule and sneak into another movie and see "Into the Wild" too... This really has nothing to do with tea... there is no tea... the main character, or any other character are never shown drinking tea...but...i'm sure at one point in their lives they did... so go see it! It really is so good.



Tea of the moment: Vanilla Cream naturally flavored black tea loose leaf

a dash of milk?

So although I have talked a lot about putting milk in your tea I have yet to mention the rules. Oh yes, there are intense rules when it comes to milk and tea, and all avid tea drinkers obied by them.

This recently came to mind when I was given green tea with milk and sugar. I didn't say anything cause I'm not a pretentious tea drinking beast. I quietly drank my couldve been delicious green tea that now tasted like lukewarm dishwater...bah... This is no good, no good at all. Teas like green, white, oolong, jasmine or any kind of herbal should never have milk added to them. They have such a mild taste already that if milk is added it completely drowns out the flavor of the tea. Making it pretty much tastes like you are drinking hot water with a dash of milk, which is just gross, and not tea at all.

Although you can add milk to black teas, and in my opinion should, you have to be careful about it. Lots of people just put in the milk as soon as they add the tea bag, or even worse, before they add the tea bag. Milk stops the tea from brewing, so if you add the milk too quick the tea stops brewing and again you just have hot water with milk... BLEH. Black teas should be left to brew for at least 3 minutes. Once 3 minutes is up add your milk and sugar and it is magic.


So don't make dishwater tea because you couldn't wait for it to brew, dishwater tea is not tea at all.

Danke!






Tea of the moment: jasmine downy pearl tea.... no milk please

bakin' with tea

One of my favorite things about tea is the food that goes along with it. I love cake, and pie, and lemon curd and ginger cookies but really any kind of cookie, and of course I can't forget the savoury little sandwiches. Now if your having a gathering where you are serving tea you can always use the food items I have mentioned above, but you can indeed go above and beyond and not only make things for the tea but make them with the tea. Yes, use tea as a main ingredient for a delicious dish!
The recipe I have decided to share with you is Spicy Coconut Tea Cake... really you can eat it at any time it's just not as sweet as your normal cake but equally as scrumtuous.
Also this is a vegan dish so you can share it with all your animal loving friends.

Spicy Coconut Tea Cake:

This cake uses an Indian Masala Chai as its flavorful base. If you do not have bagged chai tea, then you can make your own by boiling 2 bags of a strong black tea (or 2 tablespoons of loose tea) like assam in a saucepan with 1 stick cinnamon, 4-5 cloves, 4-5 pods cardamom, 5-6 black peppercorns and several thin slices of ginger.

Ingredients
dry-
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup grated coconut
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon each:
clove, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger

wet-
1 1/2 cup strong chai tea
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 tablespoon ground flax seed
2 tablespoons oil or butter subsitute (for an extra coconut burst, you could use coconut milk!)

Pre heat oven to 350
Then combine the wet and dry ingredients in seperate bowls. Next, combine the wet with dry and stir gently and don't stir too much. (whenever baking vegan don't over stir it, it will turn out tough) Then put it in a pan and bake for about 25 minutes, depending on your oven.

Now you have an amazingly yummy cake to serve with your tea. If you like tea and coconut you will love this cake, and since I am a tea and coconut monster it is one of my favorites.
Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





Tea of the moment: Coconut vanilla twinings.

Chatting So Delightfully!

Although I love all tea oh so very much there is one tea that edges out the rest of the competition. That very beauteous tea is English tea. Now, this is not really a specific brand/type of tea (although always use a black tea), but really just a way of making the tea. I have been making English tea my whole life and at about five to ten cups of it a day, I would definitely say, I have perfected the art of making the perfect cup of English tea.
I could write a step by step approach explaining how to make this perfect cup of English tea… but I could also let this You Tube video do it for me!











Tea of the moment: Mango Black tea from Trader Joe's.

Tea time!

I'm a tea obsessed, tea addicted, all around tea lover.

This being true, I have created a blog that exists for one reason and one reason only, to talk about TEA!

It shall be a great adventure into the magical world of tea!