New Article: Tea in Austin

Some of you may remember my tea and food (and SXSW) trek to Austin last year (scroll down a bit to get to it). Well, my tea research from then (and from the last few weeks... and the last few years...) is now in print in The Austin Chronicle. Here are a few excerpts from my piece on tea in Austin:

(on popular tea types in Austin)
Iced (and often sweetened) tea

Trend starters: Southerners looking for respite from the summer heat

Who's catching on: Northerners and other non-native Austinites who love the icy, refreshing brew's sugar/caffeine boost

Where to buy it: Most restaurants and grocery stores carry bottled iced teas, such as local brand Sweet Leaf Tea. Spots such as the Steep­ing Room, Halcyon, Galaxy Cafe, and Chado Tea Market offer fresh-brewed, specialty versions of the drink.

Rooibos

(aka red tea or red bush tea) and honeybush (a close relative of rooibos), an antioxidant-rich, caffeine-free tisane from South Africa that's often used in fruity, floral, chocolaty, or otherwise sweet blends

Trend starters: South African expatriates and a new generation of tea blenders

Who's catching on: African-Americans who are interested in their heritage, people seeking an antioxidant boost or who love sweet, flavored blends

Where to buy it: Whole Foods' tea bar, Tea Embassy, Chado Tea Market, the Steeping Room

(on switching from coffee to tea)
The trick, said Amy March, tea sommelier and co-owner of the Steeping Room, is to wean yourself off coffee slowly as you replace it with the right teas for your tastes. She added that the mouthfeel, aromas, and flavors of coffee can be paralleled in tea, but "tea has a mellowing effect from L-theanine. It's never quite the same as coffee, even with the same caffeine level. You're clear and relaxed instead of hyper and jittery." Here are her recommendations for making a successful transition to tea based on your current coffee preferences:

Your coffee craving: Pungency, strong flavor, and full body, but not a lot of complexity

Teas to try: Kenyan black teas or Irish breakfast tea, with or without milk

Your coffee craving: Roasty, mellow flavors, as in South American coffees

Teas to try: Houjicha roasted green tea

Your coffee craving: Extra flavors (vanilla, chocolate, caramel, hazelnut, fruit, mint, etc.)

Teas to try: Similarly flavored teas

Your coffee craving: The richness of lattes

Teas to try: Malty Assam black teas or tea lattes

(on tea tasting for wine lovers)
Jeffrey Lorien, tea sommelier and co-owner of East Austin's Zhi Tea Gallery, said developing a tea palate can be easier than developing a wine palate because, "wine still hasn't been totally democratized here, but there's accessibility with tea. It's the people's drink." Here are some tasty suggestions for wine lovers from Lorien.

Your favorite wines: Spritzers or other wine-based drinks

Teas you'll love: Tea-infused cocktails or flavored teas

Your favorite wines: Assertive, full-bodied reds

Teas you'll love: Lightly oxidized oolongs for mouthfeel or Assam/Sri Lankan (aka Ceylon) teas for flavor

Your favorite wines: Mellow, balanced reds

Teas you'll love: More oxidized oolongs and high-quality, well-aged pu-erhs


You can read the rest of the article in The Austin Chronicle.

Photo from SXSW/Austin

For some reason, Blogger is still having major issues. However, I was able to get one photo to load. I'm hoping the issue will be resolved soon so you can see more (the amazing cheese plate, the great performances, etc.). In the meantime...


Delicious Nilgiri tea at The Steeping Room

Travel Day

Flying from Austin to LGA. Flights delayed due to flooding. I wish they had decent tea in this airport!

SXSW (or "South by" as the locals call it) was amazing. Austin is a very cool town. I look forward to visiting again! But for now, it's back to NYC where I will have friends visiting for the next two weeks. Can't wait to have my full tea collection on hand again...

Tomorrow I'll post more photos of SXSW, tea, and food.

More SXSW

So, I am finally ready to post more on SXSW. Unfortunately, Blogger is being weird and not letting me post all my photos. Once I'm on my own computer again, I'll try to remedy that.

I've been having way too much fun here! Between the great shows, fantastic (and, for a New Yorker, cheap!) food, and the gorgeous scenery, I've been having a blast.

Great Music

Slim Cessnic's Auto Club--The name sounds silly, but the band put on one of the best shows I've seen here! They played off of the Southern revival tradition and said things like, "This song is for good country folk like you and me" before launching into songs that can only be described as pure rockabilly fun.

Akron/Family--I saw a full set of theirs with some friends who missed them before. It was fantastic. They wore headdresses, got the crowd going, jumped into the audience, lead everyone on a march outside at the end of the show... Looking forward to seeing them in NYC (they're from Brooklyn) soon.

The 8-Bit Peoples Show--Gameboys and Segas and printers as instruments. Totally danceable. There were some sound difficulties with Anamanagichi (whose album I recently bought and love), but some of the earlier bands made it all worth it. Very cool.













Fantastic Food (and Tea!)



Vegan macrobiotic goodness at Casa de Luse (yoga center, spa, restaurant, etc.)



Genmaicha and an iced tisane blend at Casa de Luse






Foods from the local co-op (Wheatville):
Vegetarian Frito Chili Pie (a veg version of a Southern favorite that I have yet to see grace any NYC menu)
Sauteed greens (also Southern and delicious)
Tempeh taco (with all the local fixin's!)
Cashew-butter cookie





The local hangover cure











The original Whole Foods


One of the two local beers. The other one is Lone Star. Despite Lone Star's extremely cheap pricing and instant hipster points, I prefer Shiner. (Side note: Craft breweries are popping up all over the US. When I travel, I find that drinking local can be a fun way to try new things and stay more sustainable.)

I wish the other photos would load, but here's a taste:
More tea!
My friend Lauren's famous "Egg Goo" (the perfect post-bar snack)

Gorgeous Scenery


Barton Springs--This is an all-natural limestone spring the size of a football field. I went swimming when it was 91 deg F outside. The water is 68 deg F year-round. I can see why the locals love it so much!



Zilker Botanical Gardens bridge


Unlike NYC, Austin has way more birds than just pigeons. Here are some black ducks and grackles (mean but beautiful black and indigo birds)... and some pigeons.



Small skyline, but what a view of it!





Soon, you'll also see:
Tanaguchi (Japanese Tea) Garden
View from The Pedestrian Bridge
Flowering plants (NYC is still mostly barren)
Austin's rad landscaping

PS--Thanks to Steph for all the well-wishing!

SXSW Day 3

More on SXSW... In the last 24 or so hours, I:

Drank tea on a front porch









Drank some green powder beverage that had green tea extract and tasted disgusting (I much prefer the green energy bar that's also in the photo)












Saw a local bed & breakfast's tea offerings












Saw "Austin Tee Party" while waiting in line for an Akron/Family day show









Heard Akron/Family (Great show! Hippie meets hipster. Lone Star beers and a suggestion from the band to stay hydrated.)









People-watched on 6th (this street is SO much more crowded at night)









Drank tapioca pearl (boba) tea (The cup is atop an Onion stand, which you can find at practically every street corner here.)













Bought some cute stockings (If you like cool stockings, check out Sock Dreams. They're AMAZING!)












"Shoe-gazed"









Drank tea and Stella (and ate tasty vegan food and green tea ice cream) at a cute Japanese restaurant (Koriente, right next to Beauty Bar)
















Danced to dirty robot rock for hours at Beauty Bar (the uber-hipster joint in town)









Ate some Israeli-inspired food made by my ex-roommate Yinon and his friend Kelsey (who will start working for NPR soon... cool)












Despite the fact that it is not photo-documented, I will also claim to have:

Seen Dark Meat (hippie jam band merges with high school band and covers ska, punk, and metal favorites)
Seen The Raveonettes (good show, annoying audience... I'll just listen to their recordings next time)
Walked around a lot (even for a New Yorker)
Spent about an hour trying to hail a cab (and explaining to all the non-New-Yorkers that if the "Vacant" light is off, yelling and waving will NOT make the cab magically become vacant)
Slept in abundance

Today I'll relax and drink tea (Makaibari Second Flush at the moment) before catching some shows tonight. It's stultifyingly hot (peak of 91 deg F), so I think it will be wise to take it easy. More news tomorrow!

SXSW Day 2

A few quick updates. Photos and links soon.

In response to a reader question: The tearoom I went to yesterday was Jade Leaves on Guadalupe (or "The Drag," as the locals call it). I'll be writing a full review soon.

Last night I had dinner and talked about web design and NPR with my hosts and their friend. We headed into town and I broke the first rule of SXSW (hang out with people you like to talk with) and opted to break off on my own. I had all the info I wanted stored in maps and emails on my iPhone and in about 1,000 rated songs on my iPod (can you tell I'm a Mac fan?), so everything was great... Except that I left my iPhone at my friends' house and the only show I thought I knew all the details for (MGMT) turned out to be tonight, not last night. Unphazed, I headed to 6th Street to take in the New Orleans-esque debauchery and a bit of Kimya Dawson (the long-time low-fi queen who became über-famous after Juno) and Capsula (a rock trio from Argentina that put on a great raw and raucous performance). Soon enough, I found out the hard way that I am allergic to Austin's abundant cedar trees and, with some breathing difficulty, hopped a cab "home."

At the moment, I'm on a bus downtown to hear Akron/Family. Hoping to catch MGMT and some boba tea after that. Lots of great shows coming up tonight--tomorrow I'll tell you what I heard.

SXSW Day One

Arrived safely in Austin. Got the party rolling last night with my Austin friends and their friends. Today, I:

Figured out the local transit system (which is better than you might guess)
Interviewed Sweet Leaf Tea (based in Austin) about their RTD sweet tea
Saw an art exhibit on growing edibles in your yard (and on sustainability in general... Actually there was an overlap between this exhibit and one I saw in London at The Tate Modern last summer.)
Went out for amazing tea and food with my friend Austin (Yes, his name is Austin and he lives in Austin. He's also a grad student at UT Austin.)
Visited the local food co-op, where they carry tea-kettle egg timers
Bought a gun
Went show shopping
Swang on a genuine front-porch swing
Drank some "tea" soda that turned out to only have tea extract (lame)

Tonight I'm going to some shows. Tomorrow I'll tell you who I heard and how they were (IMHO--I'm a tea expert, not a music expert!), as well as any more tea news I might have.