World Tea Expo

This post is dedicated to the World Tea Expo. It was, as usual, fantastic. Here are a few highlights from my week in Vegas, from the Expo and otherwise:

Seeing so many tea people -- I love learning about what everyone is up to, talking tea and connecting with people and ideas in the industry. Connections took the forms of chatting between classes, touring the show floor, interviewing like mad, holding a TweetUp, sending the obligatory "where are you now" texts to find fellow attendees... I only wish I'd had more time to spend with everyone!

Trying new teas -- ITO EN's new shincha (sold out already), Hawaii-grown teas from Sherri Miller, oolongs from Teas, Etc. and much more... Along with the people, this is one of my favorite things about the Expo each year!

Interviews -- I held about two dozen interviews over the course of the Expo. Some were informal talks, some were sit-down-with-a-recorder interviews and some were video interviews. The videos were with notables like James Norwood Pratt, Jane Pettigrew, Bruce Richardson, Kevin Rose and Steve Schwartz. They'll start showing up on World Tea News soon.

Classes -- My favorite class was Rona Tison's Japanese green tea cupping course. Tasty! A few of my other favorites were with Charles Cain (TeaGschwendner USA), Michale Cramer (Adagio) and Elisabeth Knottingham (The Teacup in Seattle, WA), who held a fantastic class on hiring and keeping great employees.

Leaving the Strip -- Sometimes Vegas is just so... Vegas-y. This year, I got off the strip on a few occasions. Downtown Vegas' First Friday with my husband, my World Tea News boss and her husband (and his beautiful flower shop, set to open soon) was fantastic. Red Rock Canyon was gorgeous! And tapas with the Gamila Teastick crew was was tastier (and cheaper) than most of the strip fare.

What was your favorite part of the Expo? What are you looking forward to about next year?

Shincha

Yesterday, I received an email announcing the arrival of Shincha (first flush, "New Tea" sencha from Japan) from ITO EN.

Here's a taste of ITO EN's two Shincha offerings (from ITO EN's email):

Chiran Yutaka Midori Shincha
This YUTAKA MIDORI varietal is grown in the CHIRAN region of Kagoshima Prefecture. The warmer climate of the southern most island lends a more flavorful and vegetal quality to the teas grown here. This CHIRAN YUTAKA MIDORI SHINCHA is no exception, with an intoxicating aroma and vibrant green color, that only hints at the wonderful flavor that awaits you.

Tanogashima Shincha
Tanegashma Shincha comes from a small island off the coast of Kyushu. This Shincha is noted for its deeper flavor and rich palate, ending in a clean finish. With a complexity that is both unusual and delightful in a Shincha, Tangegashima is one that we hope you will enjoy this spring season.


What a wonderful heralding of spring! I can't wait to see more first flush teas at the World Tea Expo and at various retailers over the next few weeks as they are plucked, processed and imported fresh from the source. What's your favorite first flush tea? Is the first flush your favorite?

Tea Sales

There are a number of tea sales going on right now. Here are a few I've found. Feel free to add to the list!

Teas, Etc.'s Earth Day sale
Through April 26

ITO EN's Shipping & Handling sale
Reduced standard (UPS Ground) shipping & handling prices for volume orders. Save 20% on shipping & handling for orders over 70lbs or save 25% on shipping & handling for orders over 120lbs through May 4, 2009.

The Tea Table's $3.95 flat rate shipping sale
$3.95 flat rate shipping on all orders through May 1st at 5PM Mountain Time. Through???

Zhi Tea's Mother's Day Sale
Free Shipping on all tea orders for Mother's Day. Use Coupon Code IHEARTMOM.

Urbana Tea's Half-Off Black Tea Sale
All black teas half-off. Through???

In Pursuit of Tea's specials list
Various teas and teaware. Ongoing.

Enjoy!

World Tea Expo

After attending an awesome webinar today (Charles Cain talking about how to purchase tea), I'm am getting really excited about the upcoming World Tea Expo. I'll be attending classes, interviewing some top tea experts, watching demos, writing for the show dailies, leading a tearoom owners' roundtable and orchestrating a TweetUp (follow me on Twitter to attend). My classes are:

Hire & Keep Great Employees (A challenge for most businesses, tea or otherwise...)
Focused Tasting: Oolong (I went to last year's oolong tasting an wanted to go again. Oolong is such an amazing tea!)
Focused Tasting: Puer (Attended Guang Lee's (non-tasting) session on puer last year and wanted to learn more, especially after writing about puer for World Tea News.)
Sell Your Tea Online Successfully (One of their most popular classes. I can see why!)
Skill Building: Japanese Green Tea Cupping (With the fabulous Ms. Rona Tison of ITO EN -- I'm sure it will be amazing!)
Model a Successful Teashop (With Charles Cain. Once again, I'm sure it will be great.)
Price It Right and Sell it Smart (I think this is an important topic, especially now. Can't wait to learn more!)

When we're closer to the event itself, I'll tell you more about who all I'm interviewing. Hint: It's going to be awesome!

Are you attending? What are you taking? What are you looking forward to the most?

Sen So'Oku, Chanoyu "Rock Star"

I recently had the chance to interview tea master Sen So'Oku, who Rona Tison ("The Matriarch of ITO EN") dubbed a tea "rock star." Fun! Here's an excerpt (where WTN = me):


WTN: Have the reasons for studying tea changed?
Sen: Several generations ago, people learned the way of tea to learn etiquette and how to behave, but today people are interested in learning in order to acquire knowledge about tea and art, in order to enjoy.

WTN: Is there a renaissance of tea culture in Japan?
Sen: There is a lot of interest in tea. Magazines for young people that have nothing to do with traditional art and tea are doing stories about tea ceremonies. You could call it trendy or a mini-boom, but there are many people in creative businesses, like art directors, art curators or artists, who want to get involved in tea.

WTN: Is chanoyu more expressive than it was?
Sen: There was a time when the tea ceremony was very rigid and people’s impression of it was very formal, so young people especially didn’t like it and stayed away from it. That attitude is changing. Now, you can be creative with tea. In order to make a new style or be expressive, you have to have the basic form. I think there will be two directions of tea in the future. One direction is, you keep and protect the tradition of tea. The other is to enjoy the tea in a contemporary setting, to make a special moment in ordinary life.


You can read the full article on World Tea News. He'll be presenting at the World Tea Expo. I saw his lecture and demo at The Japan Center in NYC and I highly recommend you check him out in Vegas!

PS -- It looks like I am a finalist for Top Tea Cocktail, though the final results will be announced next week. Thanks to all of you who voted and passed on the link!!!

Modern Teaism

Last night, I saw a lecture on Modern Teaism at the Japan Society. Fascinating! It was given by Sen So'oku, who Rona Tison (of ITO EN) refers to as a sort of "tea rock star." He is really shaking things up in the tea community of Japan by trying to place the tea ceremony into the context of everyday life while elevating its status so it is special without being extraordinary, rather than the other way around. Great stuff! He was introduced (and joined in tea) with Ellis Avery, the author of The Teahouse Fire. I had the chance to interview Sen So'oku and hope to interview Ellis Avery soon. More on that later!

ITO EN Kai Visit

I have a confession to make. Although I have lived in NYC for 2.5 years, drunk tea around the globe, written extensively on tea in NYC and tried many an ITO EN tea, I had never actually been to Kai (ITO EN's flagship store restaurant) before this week. You see, if tea is not a separate item on the menu, I often just skip the venue. Now I know that (unless you just hate amazing Japanese food) this is not a valid excuse. Fortunately, I do NOT hate amazing Japanese food; in fact, I love it. Although I generally have a strict vegetarian diet (no chicken broth, nothing with gelatin, etc.), I have made occasional exceptions for seafood over the last four years thanks to the irresistible nature of seafood in Japanese cuisine. Kai was one of those welcome exceptions. I'm sure you'll see why!













The orchid on each table and the very Wabi Sabi bamboo hot-towel holders visually kicked off the attention to detail that was present throughout the meal. The decor was lovely -- I was particularly enamored with a washi (Japanese handmade paper) hanging that could be seen in the restaurant and the store.












The Kai bento box (for me) and the sushi-tempura lunch (which my friend Evan adored). Before this arrived at the table, we were both served fantastic miso and I was served wonderfully creamy silken tofu with spring onions and ginger. Yum!











Here are some of the goodies from the bento box. The salmon was absolutely amazing. You can't see it in the second photo, but there are two cubes of steak behind the grilled fish. I gave those to Evan. There is also some tempura-fried pumpkin and lotus root hidden in the first photo. Yum!



Throughout the meal, we were served houjicha, which was a perfect pairing for some of the stronger flavors in the meal (wasabi, tempura-fried green pepper, grilled fish). I loved the leaf coasters for the teacups. The silverware pictured here was for the dessert. The forks remind me of some of the handcrafted silver from Penland School of Crafts.












The assorted sweets were a satisfying visual and culinary finish to a delightful meal. They were: yuzu cheesecake (great texture; loved the bits of yuzu zest in it), chocolate cake (rich and creamy with a bit of crunch from a whole walnut), fruit jelly (slightly-sweet agar with fresh fruit, fresh mint and bits of gold), matcha almond (I kid you not, these are legendary. I'm talking cult following here.), raspberry sauce accent.

I wish I knew enough Japanese to give ITO EN an articulate thank you for this meal, but for now I'll just say "Oishii!" (Delicious!)

PS -- ITO EN has a well-curated selection of loose-leaf teas available through their flagship store and online. Expect to pay top dollar and receive top quality. In the past I've bought their Qing Ming Dragonwell, Makaibari Muscatel, Ureshino Tama Ryokucha and Taiping Houkui, all of which were amazing, and this time I bought a magnificent Uji Sencha (a store exclusive that has the marine notes and richness of Uji Gyokuro with the softer, sweeter notes of sencha) and their Linden tisane (which I have yet to try, though in general I love Linden, and the fact that it's where my name comes from). I also bought their new Oolong Shot, which is served hot or cold. I tried it hot, and quite liked it for an RTD.

Another Sale

Oi Ocha Dark, a new, darker version of Ito En's best-selling Japanese green tea, is on sale. It's $30 per case (24 bottles, usually $36) through Jan. 31st. Have you tried it yet? What do you think? Also, if you hear about any good sales, please send me an email at vee at veetea dot com. I'd love to include them for the rest of readers. Thanks!

Tea Sales

There are some good tea sales going on right now. Here are a few:

Teance has free shipping for orders over $50 through September 30.
Urbana has half off all rooibos through the end of October.
ITO EN is selling cases of Oi Ocha, Japan's #1 RTD, at a discount through September 30.

Do you know of any others? Let me know and I'll post them!

P.S.1

Did anyone make it to the Michael Pollan lecture at P.S.1 over the weekend? I didn't get to go, but I DID make it over to P.S.1 on Saturday for Warm Up (their weekly Summer music event) to (finally) see their green "farm" installation. It was very cool! Plus, they had ITO EN's Pure Green Tea outside and more tea selections in the cafe. (I am thrilled to see more museums choosing quality teas for their menus.) Images from Warm Up:
























Solar energy plans












Green design plan









Planting pattern




















Planter structure




















My friend Laura enjoying the greenery

Warm Up runs every Saturday through September 6th. You can check out the P.S.1 calendar online.

Tea at Google

Last week, I had the pleasure of eating lunch and drinking tea at the NYC Google office. For those who haven't heard already, Google takes exceptional care of its employees and includes fantastic meals as a company perk. A Google friend was kind enough to invite me for a meal (incredible raw beet-cabbage puree with cranberries, tasty polenta-crust pizza, fresh berries, raw vegan Swedish meatballs) and tea. Most of the food was local and they give employees the option of joining a crop share with a local farm. It was very interesting to see their tea offerings, as they are thought of as a more "energy drink and espresso" kind of place. They offered: ITO EN's Fruit Tea, ITO EN's Teas' Tea, Honest Tea, yerba mate, brewed tropical black tea (not actually very good), Mighty Leaf pyramid bags, and kombucha. Good selection! They used to carry ITO EN's Sencha Shot, but my Google guide said she hadn't seen it around in a while. Too bad--they're very good and they parallel the whole "energy drink" thing well. Perhaps they'll pick up Oi Ocha now that it's widely available in the U.S. They also offer a casual afternoon tea service with finger sandwiches, sweets, and Mighty Leaf. I think it would be really cool if they did cross-cultural afternoon teas that introduce employees to foods and teas from around the world! Apparently, they discussed it, but it hasn't come to fruition yet. I'll let you know if I hear any more on the topic.

Shincha is Here!

Ito En recently announced the arrival of their coveted Shincha, or Japanese spring tea. It is a fresh and (I think) delicious first flush green tea that tea aficionados tend to get dreamy over. It's also very high in vitamin C and the antioxidant catechin. From Ito En's press release:

"We are happy to announce that we have received our first lots of Shincha, the prized first flush of Japanese green tea, from Kagoshima Prefecture, one of Japan's main tea growing regions, located on the island of Kyushu. Shincha's fresh character makes it one of the most anticipated teas of the year. Supplies of this tea are limited and frequently sell out. We are currently taking orders for Kagoshima's Premium and Superior Grades.

Kagoshima Premium, 3 oz. in our signature canister, $30
Kagoshima Superior, 3 oz. in our signature canister, $40

Unlike the widely available Sencha style green tea, Shincha is only lightly steamed, which gives the tea its lively taste. This gentle processing also means that Shincha's signature taste remains at its peak for only a few months. Devotees insist that Shincha should not be consumed after the end of the summer."

Mmm... You can get Ito En's Shincha on their tea retail site or, if you're in NYC, at their physical location, 822 Madison Avenue (at 69th Street). I'm hoping to go buy some this week. I'll let you know what I think!

Coffee & Tea Festival: Ito En & Tafu

Two major Japanese tea companies were represented at the 2008 NYC Coffee and Tea Festival: Ito En and Tafu.

Ito En was unveiling two new products, Mint Green in their Teas Tea line and Oi Ocha, which is the #1 selling RTD (Ready-to-Drink, a.k.a. "bottled" or "canned," depending on the packaging method) tea in Japan and was only available in specialty stores in the US until now. The Mint Green seems like a good tea for soothing the stomach or for a new tea drinker. The Oi Ocha is a robust tea, best-suited for more serious tea drinkers. It is double brewed for maximum catechins and a strong umami (astringent) taste.
Oishi! <--Japanese for "delicious."

Tafu was promoting their NYC tearoom, which serves a variety of teas and tea sweets. Their tea sweets are made by Kyotofu, which (of course) serves their tea and uses their tea to make delicious tea sweets (think white chocolate matcha cupcakes, black sesame sweet tofu with houjicha green tea sauce). They also flew in their 7th generation tea master, who spoke at several events and freshly roasted houjicha especially for the event. (I bought some. It's fantastic.)


Matcha cupcake with lecture notes and some sequins on one of my salwar kameez (tunic, pants, and scarf outfits) from India





Tafu's 7th generation tea master roasting houjicha





Tomorrow, I'll talk about some of the lectures at the Coffee and Tea Festival. Until then, drink up!

Coffee and Tea Festival, Day 1, Post 2

Day one has ended, and it was wonderful. I'll be filling in more details over the next week, but in the meantime here are some more highlights from today:

Tea Blending (and the infamous "Better Than Sex" rooibos) by Nina Ordoubodi of Tay Tea
Tafu Tea's freshly master-roasted houjicha and house-made matcha cupcakes
Tea Classics' Korean gourd strainers and Korean Tea Ceremony (They showed great poise despite audio issues--very admirable!)
Georgia Bakeshop's incredible French macaroons and mini souffles
Talking with Yoshie Yano-Pennings of Ito En about the company history and the Umami Festival
Talking with Elin Headrick (whose writing you've probably seen in TeaMuse) about tea, Chicago, and NYC

Tomorrow I'll check out SerendipiTea, Tafu's presentations, Chris Cason's "The Future of Tea," and the short film "From the Ground Up." Exciting! If you see me there, come say hello!

SF: Day Five

Today was my last full day in SF. I'm going to miss it when I'm gone.

Tajee and I began the day with a trip to the Ferry Building to visit Rona Tison, the "matriarch of Ito En." We arrived in a taxi. In the square across from the Ferry Building, there were people selling jewelry and t-shirts and that kind of thing. Right out front of the building, there was a farmer's market that was doing a lot of business. (It looked good, but I hear there's another one that is less expensive with just as good quality food across town.) Inside, it was even more packed and busy. (Ah, tourists!) Though it felt crowded to me, I realized after a few moments that it was NOTHING compared to NYC's subways. I am getting spoiled out here! Tajee and I found Rona quickly amidst the bustle. She showed us around a Japanese prepared food market where she was training her goddaughter to run a sample table for Ito En bottled teas. Then she walked us through part of the Ferry Building, introducing us to people as we went. We visited a food specialty shop (where they carried Savannah Bee Company's Tupelo Honey--my favorite for tea!) before settling in to another of Imperial Tea Court's shops. It was less traditional than the original, but quite lovely in its own way. (See SF: Day 4 for my visit to the original location.) Over our gaiwan-served teas, we had a great chat about tea, blogging, tennis, Ito En, SF, NYC, and more. Sadly, Tajee and I had to run--we were late for our brunch reservation!

We arrived fashionably late to meet my friend Justin. My friends Kevin and Austin arrived, well, fashionably later. The food was divine, but once again there was the tea issue . . . (If I move to SF, the first thing on my agenda is convincing the best restaurants in town to carry teas that are worthy of their menus.) We all laughed a lot over the meal. Tajee is from Japan, where there are very few drugs. She asked us which drugs in America are the worst (most addictive and most dangerous), which meant we all got to tell her why and how "crack is whack." I suggested she just stick with tea. I also got to learn more about coffee (aside from being a tea fanatic, I'm also allergic to coffee and know very little about it) from my friends (Kevin, Austin, and Justin are all coffee addicts . . . I don't know why I hang out with these people!).

After brunch, Tajee left for a tennis match. The rest of us headed over to Ritual, which (though it's a coffeehouse) has some good teas (supplied by Red Blossom, also of SF). Kevin and Austin both work for Google. They ran into a coworker (who Austin knew before he joined Google, from UT Austin, where he's in school (yes, really, Austin goes to Austin)) named Joe, who joined us for a while. When everyone went their own ways, it turned out that Joe's way was the same as mine. He ended up joining me on a trip to the Asian Art Museum.

The Asian Art Museum is pretty solid. I prefer NY's Ruben Museum of Art and Asia Society and Museum and I wouldn't have minded visiting SF MoMA and the de Young Museum while I was in town, but I'm glad I went here instead. They had two current exhibits (one of Tezuka and one of Japanese woodblock prints) and the permanent exhibit was pretty impressive. My favorites were the teaware, the Japanese tearoom (an actual tearoom behind glass--rad), and the Hindu sculptures.

Actually, a funny thing happened. About a month ago, I had a dream about Ganesha, a Hindu god who is also worshipped by some Jains and Buddhists. He is commonly considered to be the "remover of obstacles." In my dream, there was a beautiful painting-in-progress that had an elaborately designed geometric layout. Ganesha was sitting in the center of the painting and there were other elements (including lotus blossoms and fire) around him. There was a strong triangular shape with a rectangular base supporting him in the composition. The whole painting was moving and evolving, more like a video installation than a painting. It was incredibly beautiful and I awoke feeling refreshed and ready to face just about anything.

When I was at the Asian Art Museum, I saw that the visitors' guides had Ganesha on the cover. I started thinking about my dream. As soon as I reached the top floor of the museum, I saw a large Ganesha sculpture. (Actually, there were three, but I was immediately drawn to one of them.) There was a slot where you could place donations to Ganesha. (This was the only donation box I saw for an individual piece/deity the whole time I was there.) I reached into my wallet and pulled out a dollar bill, which I gave to Ganesha in thanks for the dream. (A small price to pay!)

Later, when I was waiting for the bus to take me back to Tajee's place, I realized that I had given my last small bill to Ganesha and that I would have to scrounge up enough change for my $1.50 bus ride. (This never happens. I am usually very aware of what kind of bills I am carrying.) I saw the bus approaching and began to scramble to get the appropriate change together. Unsure of whether or not I had enough, I boarded the bus last. As I started to feed the coins I had gathered into the bus' money slot, I realized that someone before me in line had given one extra dollar. After I fed in 50 cents, my fare was paid. As I walked to my seat, I glanced into my palm--there wasn't enough to have paid my fare alone. Ganesha had repaid my dollar and removed my obstacle! Pretty cool, huh?

I arrived at Tajee's place to meet her friend Kristopher (who runs Zooomr) and go get groceries for a party she was throwing for me. (She's so sweet! I heart Tajee!!!) We picked up some fresh fruit, ingredients for Japanese udon soup, sorbet (which we forgot to eat), crackers, and red pepper hummus. (Normally, we make our own hummus, but we didn't have time. Actually, Tajee is obsessed with hummus! I taught her to make it years ago and something clicked. For her, hummus is as essential to life as air and water.)

Over the next few hours, guests (my friends and hers) came and went. We talked about all kinds of interesting things, ate tasty food, and drank pu-erh (from Imperial Tea Court's--I was amazed at how popular this was with everyone, considering that most people consider pu-erh to be an acquired taste) and Eight Treasures Tea (from Teance--a delicious blend of dragon's eye, red dates, goji berries, green tea, rock sugar, gensing, and two other things I'm forgetting at the moment), both made by yours truly. It was a lovely end to my time here in SF.

Well, I have to be at the airport at 6AM, so I had better get to sleep.

SF: Day Three, Part Two

On to part two of my wonderful day in SF!

As I was saying, I was on my way to see a tea wholesaler. Actually, it was much more interesting than that. I was on my way to drink high-quality teas with a tea importer/teaware designer, who happens to be an artist on the side. Exciting!

I met Chongbin Zheng of Red and Green Company at the World Tea Expo last weekend. His company is based in SF, so when I told him I would be visiting SF this week, he was kind enough to invite me to enjoy some of his fine teas with him. I already knew through my friend Beau of Ito En that Chongbin is a Chinese calligraphy painter who shows his work around the world. Tea and art are two of my favorite things, so I was more than glad to accept Chongbin's invitation for tea.

As I walked from Samovar to Red and Green Company, I wondered what the office would be like. I was surprised by what I found. It was tucked away in an unassuming building. Inside, there was a small, dim meeting room, with two chairs, a low table, and some shelves. The focus of the room was clearly on what filled the shelves--hundreds of gorgeous Yi Xing pots, jade bowls, and carved wooden serving trays. I was pleased to learn that Chongbin used his art background to design the majority of these beautiful pieces of teaware. After I spent some time looking at the teaware, Chongbin offered me some of tea. Over the next few hours, we drank three exquisite Chinese teas. My personal favorite was the King's Wild Forest Oolong, which is harvested from the wild only once a year in remote regions of China. It made me want to plan a trip to China as soon as I get back from India. Delicious. Over tea, we talked about the ethics of tea buying and growing, trends in the tea industry, and all kinds of other tea geekiness. I'm glad to report that Red & Green is a very ethical company with some excellent teas, beautiful teaware, an intelligent and thoughtful owner, and (as I already knew from my days at Takashimaya) packaging that people love. It was great to get to talk with Chongbin and I look forward to seeing him at the Fancy Food Show next month.

After tea, I took a walk around the Castro, then hopped on a bus to the San Francisco Botanical Gardens. After exploring them a bit, I moved on to my real target: The Japanese Tea Garden. I had read about Japanese tea gardens before. I knew that they were very carefully designed so that each path provided the visitor with a range of visual plays/surprises throughout. What I didn't realize is JUST HOW BEAUTIFUL this is. You round a corner from one direction and you see a simple tuft of bamboo next to a Japanese maple. You might see bamboo leaves give way to a bridge, which (as you walk further) reveals more trees, and then (further yet) a pond with stepping stones, statues, and koi. Hidden in the greenery, there are rocks and statues that you may only be able to see if walking from one specific place to another. Walk a different path and you'll have a completely different experience. It's more witty (in the sense that it is intelligent and in the sense that it is amusing) than most of the supposedly witty art in SF MoMA. (And I love SF MoMa. Just not as much as NYC's MoMA.) At $4 admission and $3 for (OK) tea, (tasty) crackers, and (decent) cookies, I'd highly recommend it.

When the tea garden closed, I took a bus through Haight-Ashbury into town. I visited a cool used bookstore (where I found a copy of All the Tea in China for $9!), then walked to a restaurant to eat dinner.

This restaurant isn't just "a restaurant," it's Absinthe, quite possibly my one of my very favorite restaurants. It also happens to be where my good friend Justin works. I was seated in his section, so I got the lowdown on all the best veggie options. The meal began with the basics--bread and butter. The bread was fresh and whole grain, but the butter was divine. I don't even LIKE butter most of the time, but I was loving this. Then, I had a refreshingly frou-frou non-alcoholic beverage from their famed "bar chef" staff. It was a layered concoction made with ginger beer, lemonade, and cranberry juice. Yum! Next was the soup, a chilled English pea soup with mint oil and cream. It was perfect after being out in the sun all afternoon. The soup was followed by grilled portabella mushroom slices, grilled to the point of charring with balsamic vinegar and a parsley/garlic puree. Very nice. My favorite dish was the camembert with black truffle oil. It was a small plate with warm camembert, toasted walnuts, and a fresh, in-house-baked fruit and nut bread drizzled with black truffle oil. So simple, but SO GOOD. I ended the meal with a pot de creme with creme fraiche. It was made with Scharfen Berger, which is not my favorite chocolatier, but it was still excellent.

Sounds great, right? But I know what you're thinking. "No tea?" Nope. They have tea on the menu. From the description of the food, you'd think they might have a fresh shincha, a malty second-flush Assam, a full-flower chamomile, and some other tea goodies but, like most restaurants, their tea does not match their food. They have a few selections from Might Leaf. I don't have anything against Might Leaf--they make good quality bagged teas--but after a camembert and black truffle oil small plate, you really want something a little more, you know, special. I decided that I'd had enough tea for the day (Wait, what am I saying? Is that even possible?) and walked to a park near my friend's house to read some of All the Tea in China.

Despite the tea let-down at the very end of the day, today was really amazing. It left me wondering how my travels ever revolved around things other than tea.

Tomorrow, I get to see formal gaiwan and gong-fu cha ceremonies. Yes!

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.