Flights of tea, so you don't have to fly all over the world

Feel like you want to compare and contrast black teas or oolong teas, etc...?  The nice thing about flights of tea is that it allows you to taste, smell and see the differences within a type of tea.  Just think of the differences of an Assam black tea and a Darjeeling black tea.  Those teas are grown not too far away from each other, though they are grown at different elevations and use different botanical varietals (Assam the large leaf Assam varietal, Camellia sinensis assamica and Darjeeling the small leaf Chinese varietal, Camellia sinensis sinensis) and have very different tastes.  Add to that Chinese red (black) teas and other growing regions across the world and you will notice some subtle and pronounce differences.  


You could also included the same tea, but different methods of production (orthodox method versus the cut, tear and curl method).  Heck you could even have the same tea and between it being processed as a white tea, green, oolong, black, pu-erh, etc... though that may be harder to do, since that rarely happens or if it does it would usually would be a green and a black. Also rarely is the same tea produced in the CTC and the orthodox method.


This tasting of a type of tea can help someone who wants to gain more knowledge about tea in general, better knowledge of a variety of tea you already like or even to help you find the tea(s) that will become your favorite.  


So if you cannot afford or have the time to travel all over the world and enjoy tea, why not try a flight of tea.  Usually the teas come from various parts of the world and while you are sipping them you can pretend you are in the exotic lands they come from.

Tea is Hot ;-) or Hot Tea.....

Twitted about this article yesterday called 'Reading the Tea Leaves'.  It is becoming more mainstream in the USA or we are just catching up with the rest of the world.  As the article states and I have mentioned to astonished people that tea is the second most consumed beverage behind water.  Many Americans naively think that the most consumed beverage then would be coffee because for some reason they think that coffee has to be above tea.  They forget that tea is widely consumed in many parts of Asia (including China and India with over a billion people each) and most former British colonies, except the USA (darn Boston Tea Party....).  The irony is if the USA did not have the American Revolution with the Boston Tea Party, I bet we would be a more of a tea drinking country.  Oh well.  Not saying that the American Revolution should never have happened, just like tea.  Though if you go to the South, sweet tea and iced tea are popular.


On a side note.  I will be blogging on The Tea Review Blog.  Reviewing teas that are not from Rishi, the company I get most of my teas.  So all my tea reviews will be there, unless I occasionally review Rishi, which will be done here or gasp I may use my Steepster account for that.

Tea Basics

Had a bachelorette party on Saturday and was a little surprised how little some people know about tea.  They were definitely curious and asked a lot of questions, which I tried to answer to my best ability.  It was a nice reminder that many people do not know that much about tea and there was a time when I was like that myself.  It did feel good to teach them a little about tea.  The differences between white, green, oolong, black and puer-eh teas, nothing too in depth.

I was going to eventually have classes about tea at my place and this made the decision easier.  The ladies seemed interested and asked many questions, so it seems classes teaching general knowledge of tea would go over well.  Maybe some more in depth classes for people who have general knowledge and for anybody who has had beginning classes and want to learn more.

Potato Leek Soup not Glue Soup

I am writing this post about Potato Leek Soup.  The idea started when I was making Potato Leek Soup Monday morning.  We do a weekly soup that we let people decide.  We let them vote on our facebook page as a question (there are 10 choices of soups to vote for).  The soup with the most votes is the winner and now am letting the second highest voted soup be the soup made the week afterwards.

I used a masher to break up the cooked potatoes, instead of using a food processor.  I have heard about how a food processor breaks up the cells walls of the potato to produce a glue like consistency.  If you have made Potato Leek Soup with a food processor before you have probably noticed that it ends up like glue, tasty glue, but glue nonetheless.  The soup may be more chunky then a classic Potato Leek Soup, but it will not be like glue.  I did use the food processor for the other ingredients and an occasional potato that snuck in, so it did have some smoothness.

Flowering Tea, blooming right it is....

Flowering tea, blooming tea or even display tea are all names for tea that is tied together that unfurls into a visually attractive display.  They are usually steeped in a glass pot, so you can see it unfurl.  Tend to be white or green tea from the Yunnan area with mild flavoring flowers (chrysanthemum, jasmine, carnation, marigold, calendula, and osmanthus) inside the bundle.  They try to be visually gorgeous with colorful names like True Love Flower Tea, Royal Lily Flower Tea, Two Dragons and a Pearl Flower Tea, and Spring Marigold Flower Tea (the flowering teas I have at my place).  

I just recently learned that some people think that flowering tea is a recent invention from the 1980s.  Before hearing that I was told that it is of more ancient origins.  That tea was hand tied in intricate patterns to unfurl for emperors, special family occasions and other important events in China.  It was for display only and the tea was not typically drunk.  The tea tended to be from cheaper or inferior tea, the reason for not drinking the tea.  Only recently has the quality of the tea gotten better.

When I went to one of my tea classes to become a certified tea specialist we tried a flowering tea and was surprised on the quality of the tea.  The teacher of the class mentioned how the flowering teas typically were of lower quality, but she was also surprised that this flowering tea was pretty good. She assumed that since people were actually drinking the teas now that better quality tea would be used by some companies.  It made sense to me.

Brrrrrrr, Fall officially starts today & I need some hot tea.

It is getting colder and the days are getting shorter, one of my go to choices for Fall days is the Jade Oolong from Rishi tea and yes I do buy tea from Rishi for my tea house.  No matter what, I would seek out a oolong tea that is closer to a green tea that is my favorite tea type.  Jasmine and green teas are also some of my favorite teas, so the Jade Oolong is a natural choice for me.  Jade Oolong tea has a nice floral taste to it, which I love.  Though out of Rishi Teas I like the name of another tea the best.  How can you hate the name Iron Goddess of Mercy?  It just sounds cool and isn't bad either, but not my first choice.  Jade Oolong is.  Ok, many teas have cool names Monkey Picked Oolong, Longevity Eyebrow, etc....  Still just love the name Iron Goddess of Mercy.

Fruit Tarts

Mini Fruit Tarts make life a little more bearable, at least for me.

I recently made some fruit tarts with a lemon curd base and a nutella base.  The lemon curd ones have the blueberries and the nutella ones have strawberries.  The crust is a basic pie crust.  They tasted pretty good.

Hot Tea Baps Super Bug on the Nose

Read an article a few days ago about people who drink hot tea and coffee have less of a chance of MRSA in the nose (one way that doctors can detect MRSA) .  It was mentioned 50% less likely.  Iced tea does not have a significant effect.  It is only one study and not sure other factors are involved, but it is intriguing.

Also did a little reading about MRSA, because I am pretty ignorant about it.  It sounds kind of nasty and people with weak immune systems, the young, elderly, intravenous drug users and people who live in close quarters are the most susceptible.  It is resistant to penicillins and many other antibiotics (the reason why it is called a super bug).


Kinda interested what in hot tea helps ward off MRSA?  There are some antimicrobial properties in tea, but as the article states there are even more in antibiotics that do not work on MRSA.  I guess maybe it does not matter how many antimicrobial properties as long as you have the right ones?  Just a guess because I am not a doctor or scientist. Not conclusive, but well worth more studies to find out why hot tea and coffee have this effect, if at all.  It would be great to learn that just drinking hot tea would help lessen the effect of MRSA. 


So cheers to you with your hot tea :) 

What should I write....

Been so busy lately trying to open my place that I haven't been writing as frequently.  My goal is to write at least 1-2 times a week for the summer.  Hopefully by Fall things will be less hectic and I can get back to writing at least 3 times a week.  My goal is to write 3-4 times a week, but so far the 4 times has been rare and 3 times was happening on a pretty consistent basis until a couple weeks ago.  Also been having a hard time this week of thinking of something to write.  I do not want this whole blog to be about my tea house, but some interesting stuff about tea with some cooking and gardening thrown in too.  The irony is I am starting to get a few more people visiting the site.  Hope I can maintain if not increase it :)

Tea Plantation and becoming certified tea specialist trip, part 7 the end

Part 7  Tea, tea and more tea please the final part

I have to say I had a great time and wished there was more time to explore Charleston.  I found a great shop that is part of the inspiration for my teashop, Lesesne http://www.shoplesesne.com/ and ate food at some incredible places.

Me touching a tea branch and leaf.

Tea flower

Our bus back to Charleston.

Bye bye!

Father's Day myth started

My dad currently lives in San Diego, so I will not be celebrating the day with him.   


I tried to look up any interesting information about Father's Day, but could only find information that said in the early 1900s Mrs. Grace Golden Clayton celebrated it in Fairmont, West Virginia and Sonora Dodd is credited with the holiday becoming an official holiday in the United States.  No history about myths and legends.  It seems more recent in origin. 
So maybe I should start a myth about Father's Day?  What should it be about?  If it were my dad it would have Clint Eastwood in it and Julia Roberts or Reese Witherspoon.  He likes action and romance (he's Polish, who are known as the romantics of the North).  My dad was raised on a farm, so I got my love of gardening from him and he does drink tea (need to have the myth center around at least 2 of my 3 things I talk about in my blog).  
So hhhm here we go.  Ok, still trying to think.  Clint is a west coast/cowboy type of guy and we need him in something several hundred years ago.  For some reason Reese seems more period piece and dad really likes her more right now, so she's the main gal/love interest in this myth.  Maybe Clint as a Marco Polo type guy?  That at least makes it early enough to give it legend or myth like qualities.  Marco Polo also was in China and probably was in some rural areas where tea and gardening was happening.  We can make Marco a bad ass for dad's sake. 
Here we go.  You see Father's Day all started when Marco Polo (Clint Eastwood) went to the Wuyi Mountains in China to discover the origin of a magic elixir he had in Bagdad called tea.  He traveled far and wide to find the source of this exlixir.  He traveled to Ormuz and no luck.  He went to Karakorum and still no luck.  He went to Beijing where at least he was able to find some clues and a general direction.  Upon getting to Hangchow city after severals years of roaming he was warned that an evil man (Steve Buscemi, dad likes how he plays slimy guys so well)  illegally ruled the Wuyi mountains and is holding the rightful and just ruler's (Denzel Washington, dad likes him) daughter hostage (Reese Witherspoon).  The just ruler, Puer-eh offered vast sums of money to anyone who freed his daughter, Oolong.  Thousands died trying to save her and it had been several years since anyone tried.  Marco Polo heard all the stories about how the evil man, Coffee would torture the men who were only trying to save Oolong.  None of these stories dissuade Marco, he just said "I'm a badass!"  
In the meantime Puer-eh was at his wits end and was even going to try to save her himself.  This is when Marco Polo walks in the door and says, "I will save your daughter".  
Upon reaching the Wuyi Mountains Marco Polo sees a fireworks display and gets the idea to make a makeshift device that would use this gunpowder, he called it a gun.  Tons of gun fighting ensues or at least Marco does the gun fighting.  Since this weapon was never used before, Marco Polo was easily able to defeat Coffee and his army himself.  He is also able to rescue Oolong and return her to her father.  Puer-eh was so happy that his daughter was safe that he offered vast sums of money and his kingdom to Marco for saving his daughter, but Marco refused and only wanted to know more about the magic elixir called tea. His only other request was that Oolong escort him while he was learning about tea.  This seemed like such a small request that the daughter and ruler were happy to oblige.  Oolong escorted Marco to the tea growing areas and showed him the process of tea making.  During this time she became smitten with this just and kind man.  He had saved her life and could have anything he wanted, but all he wanted was to learn about tea and maybe look at the beautiful Oolong.  They slowly fell in love.  After Marco learned all he could about tea, he asked Puer-eh for his daughters hand in marriage.  Puer-eh saw how in love both Marco and Oolong were and was very happy to give his daughter to this kind man.  During the wedding ceremony they ate noodles to celebrate the festive occasion (the original spaghetti western).  Puer-eh gave the new couple a large tract of land to grow tea as a wedding gift.  


The new couple lived a happy life with many children on this tea farm.  They experimented with new ways to process tea until Puer-eh fell ill.  Marco and Oolong rushed to the ruler's bed to comfort him until he died.  Puer-eh praised Marco for saving his daughter and for saving his country from Coffee.  He also mentioned that he was worried about his country and wanted another just ruler to take his place.  Marco would hear nothing of it at first, he knew what Puer-eh was driving at.  Marco was completely happy on his tea farm with his family, but he also knew that a few of the Puer-eh's unsavory relatives were vying for the chance to rule the country.  So after a couple days Marco relented and told Puer-eh that he would rule the kingdom after Puer-eh dies.  Sadly Puer-eh dies soon afterwards.  
Shortly after Puer-eh's burial Marco is pronounced king.  The first decree Marco makes after his inauguration is to declare a new holiday to celebrate Puer-eh and all fathers who are just and kind.  He wanted the holiday to be June 19th to honor Puer-eh's birthday.  His second decree is to banish all Coffee from his kingdom (this is why Chinese people drink tea instead of coffee).  
Marco's life is good until one day Oolong has a particular hard labor and dies.  Marco is so distraught that soon after she is buried, he tells his oldest son (Mark Wallberg) that he is now king.  Once Lapsong Souchong, the oldest son is inaugrated Marco slips away one night.  He heads back to Venice to forget his life in China.  He tells the Venetians about his travels and the many things he learned, except anything having to do with tea and the Wuyi Mountains.  The one exception was the holiday called Father's Day.  He mentioned that the Chinese celebrate a holiday for fathers on the third week in June, he does not mention that he created the holiday.  The Venetians decide to adopt the holiday as one of their own.  
Marco eventually settles down and marries again, not even telling his second wife about his first wife.  Little does Marco know what a big influence he and his Chinese family were to tea.  Many tea names come from his family and coffee was never a big drink in China.

Tea Plantation and becoming certified tea specialist trip, part 6d

Part 6d Final part of historic Charleston

Loved the slate sidewalks.  My pictures of the brick streets and the harbor area were lost.

If you look closely the third tree is totally in the road (right across from the vehicle)

Just liked the red branches

Loved the iron work

Shhhhh, my secret garden

Sugar, ah no honey honey/You are my cupcake girl

Last Friday I met with Kelly Peloza  and she gave me two samples of her cupcakes and two chai cookies dipped in chocolate to see if I would sell them at my tea house.  She specializes in vegan cupcakes and does some other baked goods.  The cupcakes were a rose water lemonade and a salted caramel.  They were both delicious, but I really liked the rose water lemonade one.  The cupcake portion was light, moist and tasted just like a regular cupcake.  I have had some vegan treats before and some of them tasted totally different then non-vegan ones.  Was not a big fan of the frosting for either cupcake, but I am the person who eats cake that has the least frosting or scraps it off.  So if you like frosting that would not be the reason for not eating her cupcakes or dissuade people from buying her goods. The frosting did not taste off, but was too sugary for me.  The cupcakes were beautifully decorated, but the strawberry on the rosewater lemonade one was a little too old for adding as a garnish for the cupcake (it would be fine for making a strawberry sauce, jam or even in baked goods).  The chai cookie was decent and the chocolate it was dipped in was great.  I am a big fan of dark chocolate.

I really like that she is experimenting with different flavors and said she may let me try some other flavors.  Her dream is to one day open a vegan bakery and think she is well on her way.  She has a couple books already published and wants to start selling her goods to area businesses.  Any issues I have with her bakery is either personal taste or minor things, so I am using her.  Kelly is still in college, so I know that one day she will achieve her dream and think any minor issues will be resolved.

Oh sorry for the mangled Archie lyrics, well kinda.

Tea Plantation and becoming certified tea specialist trip, part 6c

Part 6c  Streetscapes

Mind your p's and q's

Or they impale you

News and more news

Thought I would share a couple of articles written about my soon to be opening place in the Third Ward in Milwaukee.  The first one is from OnMilwaukee and the other one is really recent article in the Journal Sentinel.  In the second article I am the Another Teahouse.

Tea or not tea

A friend asked me about tea and the difference between tea and herbal tea.  For some this would be obvious, but for many it is not.  I tried to give them a brief  run-down in a message.  It is hard to do in 140 letters or less (I will not disclose if it was on my personal or business twitter account for privacy reasons).  I would like people to feel comfortable to ask those questions and that their privacy is respected.  I told the person that tea is from the camellia sinensis plant and contains caffeine.  I also mentioned that herbal tea can come from many different plants and usually contains no caffeine.  That was about all I could do in 140 characters or less and had to take out two "is" to get it to fit.  I wish I could have given him a little more thorough explanation, but also did not want to fill his message box with messages or ramble on forever.

Tea Plantation and becoming certified tea specialist trip, part 6b

Part 6b  Great houses in old Charleston

Where they drink Mint Juleps I assume

Front of the house

Huge side porches are all the rage in historic Charleston

Tea Diver

 Creative tea infuser designed by Jung-Joo Kwon and Sung-Mun Yoon. Tea diver was inspired by the shape of a traditional Korean diving suit.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    I saw this interesting design on posterous.   From looking at the pictures, It looks like the leaves have some room to expand.  Does that mean you can have fun and enjoy tea?   Haven't tried it yet.  Darn clever and cute.  Reflections of Me  is where I saw this.                                                                                                                                     

Tea Plantation and becoming certified tea specialist trip, part 6a

Part 6a  A four part series within a series of my pictures of Charleston.

Old Historic Charleston near the campus of the College of Charleston

Near the College of Charleston

Thought the name of the street was funny (Coming Street) and close to the College of Charleston.

Marion Square near the college

Washington Park where I ate lunch the last day I was in Charleston.  A retired man told me what to see and the history of Charleston, while I ate lunch.

Washington Park from the bench I was eating lunch.

The corner of Meeting and Broad Street a block or two from Washington park

Gingerly eating ginger snaps, oh heck inhaling ginger snaps

I went to Molly's Gluten Free Bakery again and had a great experience or at least had some pretty good treats.  On this trip I tried the fudge brownie and the ginger snaps.  The fudge brownie was great though it was personally too cakey for me.  I like my brownies closer to the fudge then cake side, otherwise it was delicious and would rate it delicious even if it wasn't gluten-free.  It really was that good.  I also got lucky with the ginger snaps it tasted just like the ones my mother use to make and I liked that they were small.  The snaps were a little dry, but the taste was excellent and no off taste to it at all.  Went there about a week ago to try the hamburger buns and they were all right, but you cold tell they were gluten-free.  Maybe that is what surprised me on my last trip because the brownie and snaps were very good and did not taste like they were gluten-free.  Did have a sample of the lemon square and from the little taste they were good and would like to try the full square next time and maybe some of their muffins.  I am starting to feel real good about using them for my gluten-free choice though I haven't mentioned that to them yet (may when the time gets closer).

Hey, hey, good lookin

If you have noticed, there is a new look to my blog.  My website designer Kitty from Ink2Art wanted to make sure that my blog, twitter account and my website looked similar.  She also changed the font and other things to have a better overall visual to my blog.  I think she did a fabulous job.  They also go with the look of my place though there may be more color in my place, but the feel is still the same.

On other news, Monday I went to the place and took pictures of the build out and the progress of my place.  If you look really close at the first picture you will see my neck and body (head is optional).

storage area

The closet or aka my office

a front counter view inside towards office

front counter towards kitchen and storage area, oh yeah me on ladder

hopefully my tea wall