Kevin Rose Tea Interview

At the World Tea Expo, I had the pleasure of interviewing a number of tea celebs. The interviews will be popping up on World Tea News over the following weeks. Here's the first of the interviews I conducted: talking tea with Kevin Rose of digg.com. More soon!

More on Tea & Health

I recently interviewed prominent tea researcher Dr. Iman Hakim on tea & health. Excerpt:

Goodwin: What are your findings on tea and heart health?

Hakim: Tea is shown to improve the fluidity of the blood, which makes circulation easier, so it can lower your blood pressure and lower incidence of stroke. We have also seen a very beneficial effect on lipids in general. One study was on patients in the Middle East who drank two to three cups of tea a day. It showed a decrease in LDL (bad cholesterol) and an increase in HDL (good cholesterol) that was particularly strong amongst women who smoke.

Goodwin: Does tea impact diabetes?

Hakim: As long as it doesn’t have any sugar in it, of course, tea can control blood sugar. It can also prevent complications, like the cardiovascular effects that accompany Type 2 diabetes. The research was first done on black tea, but now they are studying green tea. Both black and green come from the same plant, so if it works with one, more than likely, it works with the other.

You can read the full article on tea & health on World Tea News.

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?

Tea in SF

Tea in SF is boomsploding right now. Not sure what I mean by "boomsploding?" Check out these links:

diggnation talks tea

Samovar/Kevin Rose tea starter kit

SF Chronicle's new piece on tea (This went up today and includes quotes from yours truly.)

Phoenix

Went to Phoenix to speak about tea at a wellness conference last weekend. While I was there, I visited with some tea business owners and learned some very interesting things about tea in Phoenix, which I'll be sharing on World Tea News soon. In the meantime, here's a taste of my trip:










Prickly Pear Cactus "Tea"
















A "teatini" at Chandler Urban Tea Loft -- Yum!














Chihuly glass pieces at the Desert Botanical Gardens -- Gorgeous!






I also got to eat at Quiessence, which is a local, artisanal restaurant. Loved their pan-seared cobia with pureed cauliflower and their caramelized onion soup with sorrel. Their menu changes daily, but I'm sure if you visit you'll find it to be as delicious as I did!

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!!!

Tea & Health

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Doug Balentine, Director of Nutrition Services for Lipton/Unilever, for World Tea News. Here's an excerpt of our Q&A, which was based around tearoom customers' FAQs:

1. Is green tea the healthiest kind?
“When green, oolong and black teas are studied together, they have similar benefits. However, if you’re particularly looking to get catechins (antioxidants that give tea its brisk flavor), then green is a better source than black.”

2. I heard that tea is a miracle cure for (obesity, cancer, etc.). Is that true?
“The claims people are making about the health benefits of tea are not reflective of the balance of the science. While there is science in many areas either from animal studies or poorly done clinical or population-based studies, people are using single studies to draw conclusions rather than looking at the totality of the evidence.”

3. What’s it proven to do?
“The strongest evidence shows that regular tea drinking is associated with improving blood vessel function. While the reasons for this benefit are not fully understood, the science does not support that is has a cholesterol-lowering effect.”


You can read the remainder on World Tea News.

More from SF

Yesterday, I interviewed tea professionals at Imperial Tea Court and The Urasenke Foundation (wonderful!), and checked out Chinatown (way less crowded than the ones in NYC) and Leland's Tea Lounge (not bad). Today, I'm visiting Google and interviewing people from Mighty Leaf and Red & Green. Tomorrow is my last day. I wish I could stay longer!


Roy Fong at Imperial Tea Court in Ferry Market







Ten Ren in Chinatown










Tea bowls on display at Urasenke










Masala chai and scones at Leland's

In SF

I flew into SF after stopping off in Chicago on Friday night. It has been a busy trip so far: a tea tasting at Teance, interviews with tea professionals at Teance and Samovar, time with old friends and amazing food and tea. As always, I am very impressed with the approach to food here, and am glad to see many aspects of that approach (appreciative, contemplative, responsible) reflected in tea. Also, the weather has been fantastic. It was over 80 degrees this weekend! More soon...




Golden Gate Park












Winnie Yu at Teance in Berkeley













An amazing spread of sweets at Samovar (where I also had a phenomenal gyokuro and a great honey-aged phoenix oolong)

Tea Blender Interview

At the NYC Coffee and Tea Festival, I had the pleasure of meeting Nini Ordoubadi, tea blender and founder of TAY TEA. She mainly blends rooibos, which she acquired a passion for while visiting her husband's family in South Africa, and is known for her innovative flavor profiles and, ahem, unusual names. ("Better Than Sex" is one of her attention-grabbers.) I just learned that she has designed an artisanal tea collection for Henri Bendel. Exciting! The signature tea line includes:

Little Black Dress (black)
Bendel Rose (black)
Girl's Playground (green)
Bendelicious (green)
Safe Sex (rooibos)
Morning After (herbal)

Watch this great interview on tea blending with Nini from Revel in New York, a video blog that does fascinating profiles on noteworthy New Yorkers, to learn more about Nini's approach to tea and (with tea) life.

Non-September Wagashi

During a recent interview with professional wagashi-maker Marybeth Welch, I learned a lot about wagashi, which are Japanese sweets used in tea ceremonies. Wagashi are usually made for specific seasons. Aside from the fact that most are extremely perishable, they tend to use stylized icons to represent the upcoming season. Sometimes, they also use seasonal ingredients, like sweet chestnut. The September wagashi I posted about on Monday were a classic version of the namagashi (40% water) style of wagashi in that they were made with only rice paste, sugar and red beans (azuki, ground into a paste in this case, but sometimes left with whole beans intact). Another popular type of namagashi is yokan, which is sometimes (rather incorrectly) referred to as a "jelly" candy. It's much denser than a jelly, and it's more shelf-stable than other types of namagashi. Here's an ACTUAL jelly candy, which is made with kanten (or agar agar, a sort of vegetarian gelatin):



Cute!!! Each element of the flower basket was a separate piece of candy. It's a type of hanamagashi, which are similar to namagashi, but are dryer (20-30% water) and more shelf-stable.








The last main type of traditional wagashi is higashi, or dry sweets (10% water). They keep much longer than other types, and most are pressed or spun sugar, like this:







(Please note: The remainder of this post is information I found on my own, so blame me and not Marybeth if anything is wrong!)









In Kyoto, there are local wagashi called kyogashi. Here are two from famed wagashi-maker Suetomi:




















There are lots of other types of Japanese sweets that may be influenced by other cultures or just less traditional. They're often called kashi, which just means "sweets." Here's one of hard candy kashi:



See the guy with the glasses pictured in the candy? He looks like my boyfriend! (Kerry, if you're reading this, don't you agree?)

I'm looking forward to learning more about wagashi through Urasenke Chanoyu in the future. For now I'm still practicing my bowing, cloth folding and other basics. :)

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 & Tea Festival

Exciting news! The NYC Coffee & Tea Festival is this weekend! Don't forget that you can get half-price tickets with the promo code VEETEA. Also, the first four people to email me their full name and a comment about Vee Tea (it could be a post idea, a comment I can add to the testimonials on my site, or a suggestion of some kind) get a free pair of tickets to the Festival!

PS--I recently got to interview the Coffee & Tea Festival's organizer, Lynda Calimano. You can read the full interview on Vee Tea.

NYC Coffee & Tea Festival Interview and World Tea Expo Press

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Lynda Calimano of The NYC Coffee & Tea Festival. Here's the full tea interview. Excerpt:

"We could have easily designed a show around either coffee or tea but found that there is a tremendous cross over between coffee and tea lovers. Sure, you have some purists that love either coffee or tea, but we’ve seen many sophisticated consumers who really appreciate the quality of specialty coffees and teas. We design the show, and its programming, to appeal to both."

Read more about the festival's history, this year's festivities, and Lynda's love of tea on VeeTea, or learn more about The Coffee & Tea Festival on their site. Don't forget that you can get half-price tickets by entering the promo code "VEETEA" at checkout!

Also, while I was away at SXSW enjoying music and tea, I received some mail of note. The World Tea Expo included my photo in their new press release. I'm the one in red. What a nice thing to come home to!

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.

Woman Jailed for Worshipping Teapot

A woman in Malaysia was recently jailed for worshiping a teapot.

"For the eccentric sect, which emphasised ecumenical dialogue between religions, the tea pot symbolized the purity of water and 'love pouring from heaven.' But in Malaysia, despite constitutional guarantees of freedom of worship, born Muslims such as Mrs Ali are forbidden from converting to other religions."

In other random news, I leave for Austin, TX tomorrow for the annual insanity that is South by Southwest. When I'm not listening to the incredible array of music, I'll be interviewing local tea people and checking out some tearooms. My posts this week will cover the music and the tea, so all you indie rocker tea fans should check back often!

Tea Videos

Three are tons of tea videos on the internet. I've posted some of them before. Here are a few more. If there's one you'd like me to see, send me the link!

James Norwood Pratt on tea on Chow.com

A tragic love story about tea bags, feat. The Cure

"Good Eats" on tea

Have a good weekend and be sure to drink lots of tea!

Upcoming Interview

A major tea newsletter is going to interview me soon. It's a little different from my previous tea interviews, which were with local papers and (strangely) Fox News, in that it's an online publication.

I'm really looking forward to it! I love giving interviews because I love sharing information about tea. The fact that it's based online is great, too, because it can reach more people that way.

I'll post a link when it's published. Actually, I should just set up a media section on Vee Tea and post all my interviews and such there. Maybe later-- right now I'm way too busy!