Japan Trip

My trip to Japan was a success! I'm still catching up, both from the two weeks away from my usual tea work and with writing about what I learned during the trip. For now, here are a few tea highlights from the trip:

* Learned to brew super-premium gyokuro & sencha the old-school way.
* Hung out with organic tea farmers who market directly to clients (a rare thing in the Japanese world of tea agents, wholesalers, retailers, etc.). Harvested bamboo shoots, wild mountain herbs and tea with them.
* Tasted Japanese kocha (black tea, also very rare).
* Went to a tea museum in Shizuoka. It left me far more impressed than my visit to London's tea museum.
* Tasted more tea-based foods than I can even remember. Learned that if it's a greenish pastry, it probably has matcha in it.
* Saw what I'm gonna go ahead and call the most beautiful tea shop in the world. Three floors of dizzying caffeine highs and absurd attention to design detail. Drank delicious koicha (thick matcha), usucha (thin matcha) and ocha-presso (sencha brewed like espresso) amongst the gorgeous sights there.
* Interviewed a tea researcher whose institution discovered theanine, an amazing sado (Japanese tea ceremony) specialist from one of the revered (but lesser-known outside Japan) tea families, multiple tea farmers (one of whom started a collective to fight for fair tea prices and increase organic production), a chanoyu museum curator, a famous tea production expert, people from one of Kyoto's most famous tea shops and other amazing tea people.
* Got my mind blown on multiple occasions, including a visit to a tiny tea shop in Kyoto (it looks humble, but was amazing enough to be featured in the French Michellin Guide) and a chic Tokyo tea cafe (where the tea sommelier is perhaps geekier than me about tea -- he even designed a custom tea brewing vessel for his cafe that's unlike any I've ever seen).

And here are a few non-tea-related highlights:

* Visited "Okonomiyaki Street," where most of the restaurants serve pizza-like okonomiyaki or its gooier relative munja. My friend Yuka (who works for one of Japan's top restauranteurs) and I ate at one of those you-make-it kinds of restaurants. She brought her okonomiyaki-making skills on in full force. Sooo good...
* Made new friends and reconnected with old ones. Had a great time hanging out with a long-time tea penpal (who makes an iced tea that tastes like a gin gimlet) and with several close friends from high school/college.
* Saw a massive protest in the yakuza part of Tokyo. Apparently this kind of thing is quite rare in Japan, so it's unusual that I saw it during such a brief trip there.
* Ate raw egg, natto and other crazy (and often slimy) foods.
* Talked food politics with farmers, tea retailers, a bottled drink blender, tea auction buyers and various restaurant industry people.

One of the things that struck me the most about this trip wasn't actually the trip itself. It's the uniformity of the response from almost everyone I've mentioned it to. Almost every person said something along the lines of, "I'm so envious!" To that, my response is this:

Japan is not that difficult of a travel destination. Most signs are in English. It's very safe and clean. If you're connected in the tea industry, you can meet enough people to make the trip very educational and enjoyable, and relatively inexpensive. If not, you can still have a great time. Also, if you live on the West coast, there are some very reasonable deals for flights. (I got a direct flight to and from Portland for about $800.) And, if money is an issue, there are deals to be had through youth hostels, work-live experiences, sales and the like. Honestly, the most difficult thing for me was the jet lag, and even that was OK on the way there. So if you really want to go to Japan, stop wishing you could do it and make it happen!

Side note -- You can see some of the treats I picked up on my About Coffee/Tea blog. I've posted about green tea caramels, green tea yokan (a gift from my tea penpal friend), green tea bath salts (which I gave to my mom) and three kinds of tea toothpaste. Other tea finds included all kinds of wagashi, green tea Kit Kats (which I'll review on About) and some new crop green teas that were harvested during my visit.

Kilinoe Green Hawaii-Grown Tea

A while back, I wrote a press release for Kilinoe ("Misty Mountain") Green Hawaii-Grown Green Tea from Narien Teas. It's a very enjoyable tea and a strong sign of Hawaii as a significant new tea terroir, so I thought I'd review it here.

The Leaves: Wiry and dark with silver tips
The Brew: Clean and clear; befitting the taste, it's the color of a Bosc pear
The Aroma: Light and clean, like a just-ripe Bosc pear, with touches of clover honey and farm notes of fresh-tilled soil and dry plant matter
The Flavor: Light, fresh, clean and sweet with a slight flavor of fall grasses, some pear notes and a hint of raw walnut halves
The Finish: Lush gardenia flavors with clove, violets, nuts and a touch of minerality

This tea starts at $9 from Narien Teas. They have some very unusual teas, including Kilinoe and Kokeicha green tea (not a mis-spelling of Kukicha, I promise... it's and extruded form of matcha paste that brews like tealeaves). Oh, and they sell tea seeds. Cool company -- check them out!

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?

Rishi's New Powdered Tealeaves

Rishi recently sent me some powdered tealeaves. I was inspired enough by one of them to use it in one of my three cocktail submissions to the World Tea Expo's Top Tea Cocktail competition. I thank you all for your votes and support, but, sadly, it did not win (nor did my other two). Still, there's always next year! (Now I have a better strategy -- realize that it is a popularity contest and act accordingly -- only submit one, warn fans about overvoting, submit far before the deadline (as voting starts upon submission), promote early, etc.) In the meantime, here's a review of three of Rishi's new powdered teas:

Matcha -- Matcha is traditionally made with hot water and a whisk. It's sweet and warming and vegetal all at once. It's shared as a way of connecting with other people and appreciating the temporal, imperfect beauty around you. Rishi's new matcha is made by pouring it into a plastic bottle and shaking it. Before anyone points fingers, I want to say that I don't blame them. They're not the first to make tea the new Crystal Light. (Kidding about CL... But seriously... In Japan, ITO EN has a bottled water with a special cap that releases matcha when twisted. Same idea, just more high-tech.)

Genmaicha -- Genmaicha is a toasted brown rice and sencha blend that is popular because it is economical, low in caffeine and sweet/roasty/nutty in taste. Strangely, it is also popular in the U.S. with a matcha coating as "genmaimatcha." Genmaimatcha is more expensive, has a more astringent taste and has a higher caffeine content, which would seem to defeat the purpose... yet it remains fairly popular. Well, if genmaimatcha can do it, why not genmaicha that's powdered (like matcha)? It smells great. Tastes pretty good cold. I let it reach room temp and like it much better -- more aroma, more taste, sweet, nutty, mildly vegetal. Very tasty!

Matcha -- Matcha is fairly widely available. The only thing that sets this one apart from others is the packaging (which is single-serving, but actually not unique to Rishi from what I can tell -- it looks like a standard single-serving import, complete with Japanese text). I prepared some of it hot using the traditional method and was left feeling lukewarm about it. The cold, plastic bottle preparation was OK. (Side note -- they aren't kidding when they say shake well! Whew! I knew from taking chanoyu classes how intense matcha clumps can be, but somehow I wasn't prepared to anticipate that from a beverage in a bottle. SHAKE. WELL.) This is a convenient way to drink matcha for travel, sport, etc. Otherwise, stick with the real deal.

Golden Oolong -- My favorite of the three samples I got. (Didn't get the fourth they offer, Sencha.) It's a unique and flavorful variation on green oolong, or pouchong. Light floral notes compliment a richer, deeper, sweet/vegetal flavor. It has the complexity of an oolong and the freshness of a green tea. It's no replacement for a great, fresh-brewed oolong, but it seems like it's sweet enough for concentrated tea shots and it makes for a great champagne tea cocktail (ahem).

I'm very glad to see these on the market for two reasons:

One, it's a fun way to experiment with tea in cocktails, cooking, baking, etc. I hope tea can reach a broader audience through these avenues.

Two, it's very easy to use (as in, easier than a teabag), but it maintains a quality standard not associated with flat teabags, dust and fannings or (yes, yes) Crystal Light. This is specialty tea. And it had the potential to reach people who are too lazy/busy/whatever to actually brew tea, even in bag form. With companies like Muzi, ITO EN and Rishi all making powdered tea, will it become the next teabag -- convenient, ubiquitous and ... well, tea-producing? Only time will tell, but I think it stands a fair chance.

Tea Chemistry

In honor of the Chinese New Year here's a cool video on tea chemistry with a New Years angle. It covers some very cool aspects of tea chemistry that I think even the non-geeks out there can enjoy.

EDIT TO ADD -- PS -- Teance is having a two-day, free-shipping sale on orders over $60. Enter the code "CNYFREE" on January 30 and 31 for free shipping. They recommend the following as Chinese New Years gifts:

Yunnan Gold
Yellow Gold Oolong
Osmanthus Oolong
Flower Bouquet
Pu-Erh 15 Year Aged

Inaugeral Tea

Tea has historically been a part of many types of celebrations, including weddings, holidays and, yes, inaugurations. The First Ladies' Inaugural Tea will be held today, and a number of tea companies have developed teas in honor of President Obama, perhaps (in part) because Obama loves tea. These include:

Barack Obama Tea
Obama Inspired Green Tea with Ginger
SerendipiTea's Inaugural Blend
Tea-Co's Barack O-Baby
and, of course, Honest Tea's Barack Forest Berry

What kind of tea are you drinking to celebrate?

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.

Tea as Disease-Fighter

Can tea help fight the flu? Dr. Weil investigates. He also addresses green tea's potential in fighting tooth disease when used to replace sodas and citrus drinks. (I just wish he weren't always so focused on green tea specifically, as most true teas provide similar benefits.)

Also, here's an interesting debate about tea, disease and urbanization. The initial proposal (the idea that tea-drinking lead to urbanization in England) is somewhat intriguing (though probably wrong), but the follow-up comments are what make this page really worth reading.

What do you think about these issues?

Election Day

Happy Election Day! I hope you're all getting out there to vote (if you are eligible to do so, that is). I'm off to line up in a few minutes.

By the way, did you know that Obama loves tea? He used to drink organic green, but now he prefers tisanes. Cool!

Dim Sum, Mooncakes and Tea

Last Friday, I had the pleasure of joining Winnie Yu (of Teance) and some of her friends for vegetarian dim sum and tea in Chinatown. (Winnie's rule -- Always bring your own tea to dim sum! Good advice...) She gave me these fantastic lard-free mooncakes, which she ordered from China for Teance. They are an important of the annual Moon Festival, which happens mid-fall, and were used to smuggle secret messages during the Ming Revolution. Since they are very heavy sweets, Winnie suggested pairing them with pu-erh, but they also go very well with the wonderful Tieguanyin Winnie gave me.

You can read more about pairing tea and sweets in my most recent World Tea News article. You can buy Winnie's incredible teas (which she sources from farms directly) on Teance's site. Maybe if they get enough emails requesting mooncakes, they'll offer them online next year. :)

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.

Limited Edition Green Tea Ice Cream

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of trying Haagen Dazs Limited Edition Green Tea Ice Cream. It's a delicious pairing of matcha and sweet cream. Their site says it's only available from January to August, so it seems there isn't much time left if you want to buy it. Use the "flavor finder" at the bottom of their page to find green tea ice cream in your area, or make your own matcha ice cream, vegan or otherwise.

Tea Samples, Plus Tea Art Tonight!

One of the great things about the World Tea Expo is the samples. They can really help you find unique, quality products for your tea business. At this point, I've tried many of the products that are being exhibited, but here are a few samples I'm looking forward to trying for the first time:









I often find that flowering teas in the US are sub-par in flavor, so I'm always on the lookout for hand-shaped teas that taste as good as they look. Perhaps some of these will fit the bill!

I'm also thrilled about the new Silver Green from Makaibari and I'm looking forward to trying the Le Palais du Thes samples.

PS--Michele Brody will be performing a tea art piece tonight. I've met her several times and seen some of her work before. If you enjoy my blog, I think you will also enjoy her work. The piece she will be performing is related to issues of immigration, work, ritual, communion, and (of course) tea. It will be tonight from 6-8 and Saturday from 1-4 at Henry Street Settlement's Abrons Art Center at the corner of Pitt and Grand Streets. For more information, visit Michele Brody's portfolio site or call Michele at 646.522.9924. Here's an image from a piece of hers I recently saw that deals with technology and nature.

Matcha (and Green Tea Chocolates) at Whole Foods

Yesterday, I stopped by a Whole Foods Market that I don't go to often and, as I always do when I'm in a grocery store I haven't been to in a while, I checked out their tea selection. I remembered reading that Whole Foods signed a deal with Ecotrend to carry DoMatcha brand matcha on the West Coast, in the Midwest, and in Toronto. I'm in NYC, so no DoMatcha for me. However, they DID have all three varieties of Rishi's sweet matcha. (I haven't tried it yet. Have you? What did you think?)

One matcha product they carried that I KNOW that I love is Vosges' matcha chocolate bar. Delicious! They also carried two kinds of green tea truffles--one by Anna Shea and another (apparently in-store?) hand cut and rolled. I was super-excited to try them, but in the end decided I wold have been better off making my own. The Anna Shea green tea truffles are white chocolate and gorgeous, but are nothing I would write home about taste-wise. The hand cut and rolled truffles are dark chocolate. They look less rough than the hand cut and rolled truffles I've made at home, but (sadly) they don't taste as good. (The ganache was too astringent and the shell was too hard.) As much as I love Whole Foods, at $1.80 for two of the Anna Shea and $2.50 for two of the hand cut and rolled, my quick mental calculation of the cost of making a whole batch of my own green tea truffles (about the same as what I paid for four of the ready-made truffles) reminded of a student-friend's nickname for the store--"Whole Paycheck."









Looks great, tastes OK



















Looks OK, tastes OK (and costs more than the lovely white chocolate truffles)











If you're interested in making your own chocolate truffles, here's a recipe for Earl grey Chocolate Truffles and here's one for Matcha Truffles. You can easily modify your favorite truffle recipe to make green tea truffles by whipping matcha powder into the ganache with a bit of extra liquid, infusing the cream with green tea, or replacing some of the cream with green tea that has been brewed strongly and then boiled down. You can also simply roll the truffles in matcha powder or a blend of matcha powder and sugar. Also, keep in mind that it is not necessary to make truffles with high-grade matcha that you would normally use for drinking. (You wouldn't believe how many customers I saw at Takashimaya who wanted matcha for making ice cream and who were scared off by the high price tag. Worth it for drinking, yes, but not for regular cooking.) Muzi carries a good matcha for cooking. Enjoy!

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!

Eat Out Awards: Tafu

As I said in yesterday's post, Time Out's NYC readers nominated four new NYC tearooms for their annual Eat out Awards. I'll be talking a bit about each, starting with TAFU today.

TAFU is a major tea company in Japan. Their NYC tearoom is their first venture into the US market, and a welcome addition to the local tea scene. Their tea selection is exclusively Japanese, which means it's all green tea (maccha, genmaicha, houjichaa, kukicha, sencha, and ryokucha... but, strangely, no gyokuro). They carry hot and iced teas, plus four kinds of maccha (or "matcha") lattes. My personal favorite of their offerings, though, is their sweets menu. They get their sweets (most of which have tea as an ingredient) from Kyotofu, a Hell's Kitchen dessert restaurant known for their tofu-based sweets. (If you are, for even a moment, doubting the deliciousness of such a place, read this NY Times review of Kyotofu.) The houjicha daifuku (mochi-wrapped sweet) and the maccha chocolate both get my seal of approval. Next time I visit, I'm trying the Uji maccha cheesecake. Yum!


TAFU New York
569 Lexington Ave. is the address, but the storefront is on 51st between Lex and 3rd
9AM-8PM Monday-Saturday
212.980.1310

Coffee & Tea Festival: More Lectures

Today I'll run through two more lectures of note that I caught at the Coffee and Tea Festival, Green Tea 101 and The Future of Tea.

Green Tea 101--Tafu Tea (NYC staff and visiting Japanese teamaster)

Although this presentation was a bit heavy on the advertising of Tafu, it was interesting to attend. Most of the information was a very basic rundown on Japanese tea. Chinese tea and other green teas were not addressed. However, the teamaster clearly knew his tea extremely well and there were a few gems doled out in the lecture. My favorites:

Notes on brewing sencha included the saying, "If you are sweet to it, then it will be sweet to you."

An emphasis on the aroma of houjicha and genmaicha (Americans are rarely taught to focus on the aromas of their foods and drinks)

Information on cooking with tea and pairing foods (especially desserts) and teas from Kyotofu... yum!


The Future of Tea--Chris Cason (Tavalon)

Somehow, I had never been to an event by NYC's Chris Cason before. I was glad to see he lived up to his reputation of delivering lively and fun lectures. After covering some of the basics of tea, he discussed ways in which tea can be integrated into mainstream American culture. These methods of "making tea accessible" included:

Educating peole about tea (Obviously, I'm a big advocate of that!)
Baking and making candy with tea
Cooking with tea, and doing so in unusual ways, like poaching halibut with brewed chai in lieu of water, or using lapsang souchong leaves with wood chips to smoke foods
Making tea cocktails (which I talked about yesterday)
Incorporating tea into the spa (I used to manage a teabar at a spa, so this is an area of interest for me, too)

Chris is working on a book about his ideas on new approaches to tea and tea trends in the US. Exciting! Maybe you'll get to see an interview or book review on Vee Tea before it comes out.


Tomorrow, I'll be wrapping up a few loose ends with the Festival. Don't forget that it's Earth Day this weekend! Do something to make your life a little greener, and enjoy your tea!

Coffee & Tea Festival, Day 2

Sadly, the 2008 Coffee & Tea Festival has ended. Over the next week, I'll be filling in the details of this year's Festival. That way, if you didn't make it there this year, you can still know what to expect next year. For now, here's a quick rundown on today.

There was a bigger crowd here than yesterday. And, of course, there were lots of people to meet and products to taste, smell, and see. Here are my personal highlights of the day:

Hearing Tafu's "Green Tea 101", complete with matcha white chocolate cupcakes and chilled sencha
Tasting BiscotTea's Earl Grey biscotti, which was made with Makaibari Estate's Tea
Listening to Chris Cason's (Tavalon) "The Future of Tea" to learn more about one of my current fascinations--tea trends
Buying "From the Ground Up" and talking with filmmaker Su Freidrich (I'll be reviewing the DVD in a few weeks, and interviewing her soon thereafter.)
Sampling SerindipiTea's teas (my friends adored the City Harvest Black Tea with vanilla and orchid) and talking with their manager (Sonam) about Tibetan clothing (I was wearing a Tibetan/Nepalese chupa/boku yesterday.)

More tomorrow! Check back soon!

NYC Coffee and Tea Festival

Now that the weather's warming up, I'm reminded that the annual NYC Coffee and Tea Festival is fast approaching. This year has an exciting line-up that includes:

A traditional Japanese tea ceremony demonstration
Tea Blending
Coffee and Tea Cocktails
Green Tea 101
Tea Leaf Reading
Coffee and Tea Exhibitors

Learn more on the Coffee and Tea Festival site, and remember: you can get half-off tickets with the promo code "VEETEA."

Single Serving Teas for Coffee Makers

The Keurig coffee maker (known for its single-serving ""K-Cup" coffee portions) is releasing a line of single-serving Celestial Seasonings teas for use with their coffee maker. The flavors are: Sleepytime, Decaf Green, and India Spice Chai. (Full story.) Convenient for those with a Keurig? Definitely? At all tasty? Probably not. (Decaf prepackaged/basically bagged green tea steeped with boiling water? *Shudder*) I doubt that it will get many coffee drinkers to try out loose leaf any time in the near future.