World Tea Expo, New Bottled Tea, Iced Tea

Hello! I had a lovely weekend. Hope you did, too.

On Saturday, I had the pleasure of meeting with an employee of Ito En (who also happens to be a fascinating person) over tea, sorbet, and cookies at one of my favorite NYC tearooms. Getting to talk tea with another professional in the field is (almost) always a joy. I was excited about the World Tea Expo before, but now I can't wait! A whole weekend of learning and talking about tea-- what could be better?

Besides the conversation, tea, sweets, and preparation for the World Tea Expo, there was another benefit to my meeting last weekend. I got a sneak taste of two of Ito En's new bottled teas, Jasmine White and Gyokuro. As I've said before, I don't usually like bottled teas (I much prefer the real thing!), but these were surprisingly good. They were completely unsweetened and they are made form quality leaves. Also, the blending of the Jasmine White was very artfully done. I've never had such a balanced bottled tea before. If your local markets carry Ito En's Sencha Shot, they'll probably pick these up, too. Look out for them!

On top of all that, I got to celebrate Mother's Day in Central Park with a picnic of delicious food and (of course!) iced tea (a floral black tea with tupelo honey and fresh lemon juice-- yum!). Now it's back to the work week, but I don't mind too much. I'm one of those terrible people who loves her job.