[-] January is National Hot Tea Month, according to the Tea Association of the United States of America. While their campaign targets retails, Ruth and I think it's worth celebrating at the consumer's end.



Tea Etc. offers a brief article on the weight loss and germ-fighting potential of tea, but personally, I drink tea because it suits my palette better than coffee, sodas, or even water. (Gasp! I know, I know. Nothing is better for me that flavorless, plain water.)



Tea is a social icon in some cultures. There are formal – and I do mean FORMAL – tea ceremonies, and is there anything that says "linger and chat with me" like a pot of tea and cups on a tray? I still cling to my childhood image of the whole of Great Britain stopping at 4pm for a national moment of tea. In my little vision, blue collar and blue blood alike pause for a cuppa' with their companions, share a crumpet or scone or two, and return to the rest of the evening with a smiling, calm about them.



My fantasy is reality-based. As a very young girl, the lady of the next farm over – we'll call her Lady B – made afternoon tea a part of my reality. There was a small confrontation when my mother foolishly suggested that my toddler body couldn't handle tea. I don't recall it, but clearly, my mother lost the battle and my tea tradition began. Lady B was a schoolteacher, and when she arrived home in the afternoons, I would find my way to her house. We had tea in the enormous, country kitchen in the cooler months, and on the long back porch in the warmer ones. It was always the same black tea, served with a single sugar cube, and a splash of real cream. (The cream was delivered by a real milkman, thanks much.) I was taught on the first afternoon where to place my spoon, although I'm pretty sure Lady B allowed two tiny hands to grip her china cup.



I don't ever recall her daughters – all in their late teens by the time I came to tea – or any of my family being present for our tea parties. I remember watching birds and horses, and even before I went to school, I'd learned to flip through her bird guide until I found the matching image. There are no memories of discipline, although I'm positive I was expected to be a delightful young lady and was corrected if I wasn't. When I was older, I was taught to serve Lady B tea, and I remember feeling VERY grown up the first time I was allowed to pick up the saucer with one hand.



Don't let my prim and proper introduction to tea give you the impression that tea is a stuff beverage. At my house now, you're most likely to find me sipping from a chunky, extra-large mug, a room away from the teapot. The pot is hunkered down under one of many cozies, depending on the weather. That's the true beauty of tea. It's at home in cast iron and fine silver, bone china and plastic. I still take my hot, black teas with sugar and cream (or Splenda and milk), but I like my hot, green teas plain. Tea is perfectly content to be whatever you want it to be.



Stay tuned. I'm proposing a few topics for anyone so inclined to talk tea with me.



January 1 - 7 Please share your favorite hot tea memories with me. Who introduced you to hot tea?



January 8 – 14 Describe your perfect cuppa' hot tea. If you're like me and it depends, share as many different scenarios as you care to.



January 15 – 21 Do you have a favorite tea source? Do you shop online or in a local store?



January 22 – 31 Please share a favorite tea snack, especially if it is a treasured recipe!

Won't you join us? Please use Mr. Linky below, so that we can have a big ol' virtual, hot tea party!



New Year, New Plan - http://knit1tea2.blogspot.com/feeds/1673353025117830639/comments/default

[-] Description (from adagio.com): Oolong tea from Taiwan. Formosa, meaning 'beautiful' was what the Portuguese explorers called this island. The oolong tea grown here continues to be called as such. The exquisite bouquet of Formosa Oolong tea is regarded to be the finest in the world. Complex floral notes echo on your palate as you enjoy this product of Taiwan's Ali mountain. Light bodied and softly sweet with an underlying complexity, this oolong will surely come to haunt. Perfect for multiple infusions.

Review: This is delicious. To be honest, I am really not in the mood for green oolong right now. I spent yesterday with 5 infusions of Seven Cups Oriental Beauty, which is sooo perfumey, and I am really not in the mood for more....but I can never turn down an oolong and this one is the next review up.

This Ali Shan is very gentle. I made mine too strong, but it has very present floral notes and is a bit perfumey...not unlike Oriental Beauty, which is more musky than this. This has a leafy, grassy aftertaste that I actually find quite pleasant, whether or not it is supposed to be there. I think this is a great tea for multiple infusions, because over time it becomes so much more delicate.

This Ali Shan is very smooth and refreshing. It has the same soft flavor many excellent green oolongs do -- lightly rolled, the leaves unfurl beautifully and create a sweet, soft and complex flavor. I did not know what to expect from this, but it is pretty good. If you oversteep, it begins to turn bitter and chalky, so do NOT oversteep, even a little bit. Otherwise, good job Adagio.

The Good: delicate, soft, floral notes
The Bad: none
More Information/Buy: Adagio Ali Shan

Adagio Ali Shan Oolong - http://authoritea.blogspot.com/feeds/2950970564747250382/comments/default

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Aunts can be very wise.

They are frequently maligned, but they can provide great wisdom, encouragement, and stuff your parents could never let you have, like a cotton candy sandwich.

Ten years ago, I’d just bought a house on my own, was working fourteen-hour days on a high-profile project, and a good friend was dying of incurable cancer.  Within three months, my central nervous system went into a tailspin, and my main symptom was daily, severe, unrelenting nausea.

“Ginger tea,” Aunt Bettie suggested.  “Works wonders.”

I’d never heard of such a thing, but decided that at worst, it would be harmless, and I picked up a box of Lipton Ginger Twist Herbal Tea at the grocery store.  The next morning, I tried it out.  Whoa.  My nausea didn’t disappear, but it did recede for the first time in months.

I got curious about the tuber and read up.  It seems that ginger root in many forms has been used for thousands of years to treat nausea, the common cold, and even menstrual cramps.  Who knew?  Well, Aunt Bettie did.

Although my nervous system has more or less righted itself, my addiction to ginger tea remains.  In the morning I push the cat off my face, roll out of bed, and stagger downstairs for the thing that keeps me going, my morning cup.  My grocery store no longer carries the Lipton brand, so I go out of my way to get Yogi Tea at Whole Foods.  This is a bit more peppery than Lipton, but is stronger, and I love it.

What’s next?  Some people make their own out of ground ginger, or ginger juice.  Sounds good to me!  Aunt Bettie will approve, I know.  In fact, she’ll probably want me to make some for her, too.

Ginger tea and my Aunt Bettie - http://www.tching.com/index.php/2009/01/01/ginger-tea-and-my-aunt-bettie-2/

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Happy New Year - http://friendshiptea.blogspot.com/feeds/932908559453846735/comments/default

[-] Happy New Year's Eve everyone! 2008 is speeding to a close and I wanted to take a few minutes to reflect on our year at Tea Pages.

First of all, I want to thank all of you for your continued readership. You inspire me each day to find new and creative ways to talk about tea. Each cup I drink I feel that I am sharing with you. You help to keep my tea journey populated with friends and good conversation. So thank you for a great 2008 and I look forward to an even better 2009.

I also want to thank the vendors, publishers, authors, and others who have shared their wares with me and made sure I always had something to write about!

2008 Tea Pages Highlights

• 215 blog entries, including new series on "Who's Who in Tea," teaware, and tea growing regions
• Published a wide range of book reviews including fiction, mysteries, non-fiction, and children's books
• Favorite find of 2008 - Pleasant Street Tea in Gloucester, MA.
  
• Favorite find that had a sad ending - Cafe Aiello in Lowell - closed shop in July 2008.
• Most fun to do - The multi-part tea-infused chocolate review
• Unforgettable experience - Attending the Sri Lankan Charity Tea Event at the Boston Park Plaza and meeting Pearl Dexter, editor of Tea: A Magazine.
• Unforgettable experience #2 - Tour and conversation with Elliot and Hartley Johnson at Mark T. Wendell.
  
• Special night - The tea dinner I prepared for my one year blog-iversary on October 8.
• Biggest disappointment - Silk oolong. Enough said.
• Post that garnered the most response - Starbucks Green Tea Latte review
  
• Opened an Etsy* store and a Cafe Press shop with Tea Pages merchandise - the proceeds of these shops and income from orders through featured advertisers has been donated to the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network.

* The Etsy store is currently on hold. New products will be going on sale shortly. Keep watching!

The 20 Teas that Made my Year
These teas represent the best that I tried this year. A few caveats - 1) I did not include tea bags. 2) There are many other teas I liked but these struck me as particularly special. 3) I focused on teas that I brewed myself in my home so they were thinks I tried on more than one occasion. 4) Within their categories, they are listed in alphabetical order, not by any particular ranking system. (You can find all of these reviews by using the drop down menus on the left side of your screen and searching by company.)

Black Teas, Unscented
Cheericup Ceylon - Mark T. Wendell
Golden Monkey - Aura Teas
Hao Ya "A" Superfine Keemun - Upton Tea
Okayti Darjeeling Autumn Flush - Mighty Leaf
Puttabong 2nd Flush Darjeeling - Upton Tea
Yunnan Jing Mao Hou Select - Upton Tea

Black Teas, Scented
Out of Africa - Spotted Leopard
Paris - Harney & Sons Tea

Green Tea
Dragonwell - Tea Zone
Fukamushi Sencha - Rishi Tea
Genmaicha Extra Green with Matcha - Den's Tea

Yellow Tea
Jun Shan Yin Zhen - Upton Tea

Chai
Kashmiri Chai - Tealuxe
Masala Chai - Indonique
Organic Masala Chai - Yogic Chai

Oolong
2007 Autumn Oolong - Just 4 Tea
Formosa Fancy Champagne Oolong - Tea Zone
Formosa Mingjian Osmanthus Guihua Oolong - Aura Tea
Nantou Oolong - In Pursuit of Tea
White Tip Oolong - New Mexico Tea

Happy New Year!

The New Year's Eve Post - http://teapages.blogspot.com/feeds/2779927679681060708/comments/default

[-]

Happy 2009!! Hope one of your New Year Resolutions is to

DRINK [more] TEA!!!!

Happy New Year! DRINK TEA! - http://uniquelytea.blogspot.com/feeds/610578164573151121/comments/default

[-]
It really was.

And it was so unassuming, almost lost amid an army of neon macaroons, fluffy pastel marshmallows, lime mousse cakes, buche de noels and chocolate-dipped candy canes (festooned with impossibly small gingerbread-men sprinkles, of course) at the Taj Boston's (15 Arlington St.) annual Christmas brunch buffet.


But this almond thumbprint cookie, filled with raspberry jam, is what put the other sweets to shame.

It was everything a dry, crumbly, packaged Pepperidge Farm cookie dreams of being: tender, moist and sweetly flavored from the almond, with a burst of bright berry sunshine in the middle. One bite, and it made me gasp.

(The four plates of savory food beforehand might have had something to do with feeling unable to breathe, but it was just all so good- sushi, seaweed-sesame noodles, aged goat cheese, sauteed salmon, mashed potatoes, roasted carrots and baby beets, pumpkin-cheese tortellini, the best mattar paneer ever to pass my lips- how could I resist?)

I'm a seasoned buffet glutton, but it was actually verging on painful to cram in any dessert at all. I did need something to go with the tea I ordered, however, since I had already made short work of the almond thumbprint cookie.

So I loaded up a few more small plates, brought them back to the table and started food styling for the photos while I waited for the tea to arrive.


"Don't you dare talk trash on your blog about this tea, just because it's bagged," my sister whispered to me as the waiter arrived and started pouring it from a tall silver pitcher.

I assured her I wouldn't. And I really won't, because as I explained, where- and with whom- you have a cup of tea is what makes it pleasurable (or not). The strong, black English breakfast blend that we sipped from the ivory china cups was surprisingly well brewed, but even more important, it was capping off the best meal of the year, enjoyed alongside those I love most dearly.


It was a welcome reminder of what, in the end, is all that matters.

May your 2009 be filled with tea in good company. And cookies.

The Best Cookie of My Life - http://teaspotnyc.blogspot.com/feeds/6735663657525706512/comments/default

[-] I have quite a reading year ahead of me. I joined the 999 Challenge, which means attempting to read 9 books in 9 characters in 2009. I started already, reasoning that as long as I FINISH the book in 09 it counts. Besides, I've barely cracked 60 this year, so I need all the help I can get. By the way, that doesn't mean I read less. Between Middlemarch, Bleak House and a number of other mammoth-sized books, I've held my own. Joining the challenge, though, is more fun than work for me. It's a great way to keep organized, and to finally tackle all the TBRs piling up at home. I'm rubbing my hands with excitement! I can totally face a cold, bleak NY for the next few months - and it's a relatively cheap undertaking, since I don't have to further pay for these books. I'm stocked.

Without going nuts, here's a summary of a few books that have kept good company with me through this rather tumultuous part of 2008:

Devil's Brood, by Sharon Kay Penman

I waited years for this one. It's been some time since its predecessor Time and Chance came out - was I even blogging yet? I don't know. Anyway, it's the long saga of Henry II of England, his wife the legendary Eleanor of Aquitaine, and all their sons. If Henry VIII had issues due to lack of sons, Henry II had his troubles resulting from a surfeit of strapping young men, all eager to take on their inheritance while resenting the control of their capable but clueless father. It's hard to side with anyone. Penman manages to make nearly everyone sympathetic, in a less sappy way than Jean Plaidy did in her many historical novels (though I still love her). DB went on forever, but I still felt reluctant to leave the early Plantagenets at that point. What happens next? Well, I know what happens, but I want to hear it, or read it, from Penman's mouth, or, well...pen.


John Lennon: The Life by Philip Norman

Another massive, massive chunky book. Backache Backache! Also, another subject I'm well versed in but don't mind reading about once again. Thankfully it was well researched and neither gushy nor nasty. There's only two things I wasn't crazy about: the author seemed to enjoy stomping on George Harrison's legacy, claiming all his inspiration was derived from Lennon. Now I wasn't there, but even if it was, it's just not nice. Also, delving into John's Aunt Mimi's love life was a little uncalled for. TMI!!! I did NOT need to know that. I'm sure some people love that kind of in-depth analysis, so they can have it. I'd leave it.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

I'd heard that if you liked 84 Charing Cross Road then I had to read this one. Yeah, sort of. This book, of course, is fictional and isn't just about books. Basically a writer develops a correspondence with a group of people on the Channel Islands, who experienced Nazi occupation during World War II. She becomes really intrigued by their story, and the nature of their forming a literary group, and the story goes from there. It was the book I read while in Florida, so I guess this counts as my beach read of the year.

I could go on, but I kinda feel like diving into the 2009 books.

Books!Books!Books! End of 2008 - http://queengata.blogspot.com/feeds/7485052772495652249/comments/default

[-] At long last, I'm here to present tasting notes for our two new Wuyi Yen Cha. I started introducing this tea in an earlier post, so I'll only add a bit more info with regards to its origins. As I mentioned in that earlier post, Da Hong Pao is both a "finished" tea type and a genetically unique cultivar of tea plant. However, the history and origins of the Da Hong Pao cultivar are labyrinthine and hotly-debated. Guang at Hou De Asian Art has written two extremely illuminating articles about the origins of the Da Hong Pao cultivar (Part 1, Part 2), so I won't go too in depth regarding the history. Suffice to say that, yet again, there are plenty of tea merchants in China who are willing to pass off cheaper, often inferior Wuyi oolongs as "Da Hong Pao" and selling them to ill-informed customers at much higher prices than they deserve. This problem is compounded by the fact that many skilled Yen Cha tea masters have different opinions about which cultivar is proper for making a Da Hong Pao. This makes Da Hong Pao shopping very difficult for consumers, especially in the West. After trying as many "Da Hong Paos" as possible, I'm beginning to gain a modest understanding of Da Hong Pao's unique flavor profile. To me, Da Hong Pao is typified by a fruity, floral flavor that comes across as very "high," and acidic (i.e. lively and stimulating in the mouth). Of course, these characteristics can vary based on the innumerable other factors involved in processing, but the best Da Hong Paos I've tried all seemed to exhibit this flavor while the others tasted like overly-roasted generic Yen Cha. Outside of searching for Da Hong Pao's unique flavor, choosing a good example is a matter of meeting the criteria that all Yen Cha should meet--balance between roasting and tea flavor, mouthfeel and body, and aftertaste.


Enough tea geeking--let's move on to the task at hand: tasting our new Da Hong Pao! As you can see in the above picture, the leaves are large, complete, and dark in color with a light frosting. Large, complete leaves is a good sign--it means the tea has been handled with care and will be much more forgiving when brewing (broken leaves make strong, astringent and bitter tea much more easily). After loading up the gaiwan and pouring off the first quick infusion, the leaves smell incredible--the roast comes through first in the aroma, with a gentle, warm charcoal note which is followed (especially if you inhale deeply) by a pointed touch of flowers. As the infusions wear on, the roasted aroma backs off quite a bit--by the second and third infusions, the floral and caramel notes begin to rival and overpower the roasted ones. The flavor of the initial infusions is less dominated by the roast. At the first brief steep, it's nice and light, with a bit of acidity edging in. Later, the acidity comes into its own, combining both aspects of fruit and flowers in a way that is unique to Da Hong Pao.

The final infusions begin to taper off in strength at just the right time--right when you're ready for the tea to back off. As you can see in the picture the infused leaves are a sight to see! Even with multiple infusions, the leaves of a good Yen Cha will retain their stripe-rolled shape, never fully unfurling without help. The unfurled leaf on the left is MONSTROUS. By far the largest leaf I've found in so far in the entire batch--it measured 4 inches! Also of note is the difference in coloration--this tea's heavy oxidation leaves some of the leaves greener while some take on a darker, brownish color. As you can see in the final picture of the gaiwan, by the end of a brewing session, the leaves are positively overflowing. In my experience, a lot of leaves is the best way to ensure a long session with a Yen Cha, but short steeps are a must. If you only want a couple of good steeps out of your tea, reducing the leaf weight and lengthening the infusion time will also provide very good results with this tea.


Finally, I'll draw attention to this close-up picture of one unfurled leaf. In the macro picture (please excuse my camera's quality) you'll see some bubble-like blisters on the surface of the leaf. This sort of appearance is evidence of the tea's roasting level--lighter-roasted Yen Cha will show pretty much no bubbles on the leaf surface, while "traditional" Yen Cha will sometimes be covered in such blisters. If flavor alone isn't enough to accurately reveal to you the tea's roast level, inspecting a nice whole leaf is usually pretty reliable. "Traditional," (in the parlance of Wuyi Yen Cha) means heavy roasting. As I understand it, most Yen Cha used to be heavily roasted, and lighter and lighter roasts have only more recently come into fashion. Today, "tradional" connotes a high roast. If the tea's good, though, you should be able to taste and smell much more than just charcoal without trying too hard! I would consider this Da Hong Pao to be a Traditional-style Yen Cha, though its firing wasn't extreme. Hopefully sometime in the future we'll be able to offer a lightly-baked Da Hong Pao--the difference can be very educational and can be illuminating for entry-level Yen Cha drinkers who might think all Wuyi oolongs taste the same! Stay tuned for tasting notes for our Wuyi Rou Gui and, more importantly, have a happy new year!


Elliot

Da Hong Pao (Big Red Robe) Tasting Notes - http://mirotea.blogspot.com/feeds/6472612122672717039/comments/default

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And we usher in the new year, I encourage all my readers to celebrate in a healthy way, enjoying a nice cup of tea (or tea cocktail, if you choose) to bring us into 2009.

I hope that 2009 will bring you good health, lots of happiness and, of course, great tea!

So from all of us at Tavalon,

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

As the ball falls… - http://tavalon.com/blog/?p=202