Chanoyu News

Sadly, Mr. Hisashi Yamada (founder of the NYC Urasenke Chanoyu Center) passed away last week. You can read a bit about his fascinating, tea-centered life in his obituary (the first I've ever written) and in this NY Times profile.

If you're interested in learning more about the art of chanoyu, be sure to check out the Modern Teaism demo at the World Tea Expo!

Also, if you're interested in architecture and/or design, be sure to check out this tiny teahouse by Terunobu Fujimori. It's the fourth pageview into the sampling Tashcen has provided. You can see more of his tea architecture on Dezeen.

New Vee Tea Look

Vee Tea got a makeover! There's a new background, favicon and banner. There have been a few changes in the text (my outdated tours are now replaced with info about tea writing), too. Soon, there will also be new thumbnails alongside each article and the newest blog post will appear on the main page. Exciting!

The photography is by my friend (and one of my favorite photographers!) Sam Bennett and the web design is by my friend (and trusty web designer!) Pat Boyd. Thanks, guys!!!

When I Take My Sugar to Tea

Do you know the song, "When I Take My Sugar to Tea?" It's quite interesting -- it presents tearooms as an escape from daily life and a place where anything can happen. There are a few tearooms around the U.S. that have fantastic environments (usually more like high-end lounges and bars than traditional tearooms or coffee shops), and I wonder if tearooms will ever return to their former status of "happening place" again. I certainly hope so!

Here's a video of When I Take My Sugar to Tea. Enjoy!

Cool Teaware Sighting

I was walking through Williamsburg the other day and saw this:
























Awesome! I am continually surprised by the new and innovative teaware designs that are increasingly available. (OK, you could use this for coffee if you wanted. Still.) You can see more teaware posts by searching for "teaware" or "design" on the Vee Tea blog.

Cute Teaware

I'm feeling a bit down today because someone snatched my phone on the street last night as I was carrying groceries home. What better to cheer me up than cute teaware?!*




















I recently saw Peek Keep's collection of cute teaware, including a Finish tea set and a felt bunny tea cozy (currently on sale). Fun! (BTW, felt is an exceptional insulator. It was accidentally discovered by ancient humans when their wool garments bunched and thickened in heat and humidity, and was made in cold climates as a top-notch form of protection against the elements. Functionality aside, the felt bunny tea cozy is, as the title of this post suggests, cute.)




















If you want to get your bling on while you sip, you'll love Charles and Marie's 2 Carat Mug. Diamonds may be a girl's best friend, but fair trade, organic tea is a way better friend to workers and the earth!
















Green with Glamour also has some cool teaware, including
Grandma's Tea Set, which is a handmade ceramic tea set cast from an original tea set and glazed with non-toxic, natural glaze, and a
Fair Trade Ceramic Elephant Teapot for a daily dose of tea and whimsy.




















*I think of this as the tea world's equivalent of Zoolander's Orange Mocha Frappuccino. I just hope it doesn't result in my friends exploding in a tragic gasoline fight.

A Moldy Brain Begets a Moldy Teacup

Surrealist design team Death By Drone recently designed this little number, "A Moldy Brain Begets a Moldy Teacup." Although it's not stated in the title, the image implies that a moldy teacup begets brightly-colored balloons. Cute.

Tea-Shirt

A few months back, I saw this "tea"-shirt on Cafe Press. Cool! However, I wish they had an "I Love My Nerdy Tea Chick" shirt as well. There are enough of us around with people who love us to warrant it.

Teaware Collections

Interested in teapots? Here's a quick (and completely incomplete) listing of teaware collections I've stumbled upon in the last few months. Enjoy! If you would like to add any, please leave a comment with a link. Thanks!

Sadly, the much-anticipated Sparta Teapot Museum still has not opened... However, many pieces from their collection have been shown at my hometown's own Mint Museum of Art and Mint Museum of Craft + Design. (There's a strong tradition of pottery in North Carolina, due in large part to the huge deposits of red clay in the Piedmont region, where I was born.) A few previous exhibitions:

Made in China
With a Grain of Salt (salt-glazed pottery of England and North Carolina)
and, my personal favorite...
The Artful Teapot

Yi Xing teaware and other ceramics by Ms. Rong Jiang, who recently passed away

Tea With Friends blog on tea caddies

A recent show of teapots in San Francisco

The Rosemary's Sampler blog's teacup collection

Eat Out Awards: Sanctuary T

Sanctuary T is part restaurant, part bar, and part tearoom.

A sandwich board outside claims "Our tea is good enough to eat," and they back it up by integrating tea into their foods in a variety of ways, some innovative (black cod slow-cooked in lychee black tea) and some classic (chai ice cream).

Their cocktails (which I mentioned in a recent post on tea lectures at the Coffee and Tea Festival) are not quite up to par with those by my personal bar idol Jeff Hollinger nor as, ahem, "original" as those at PDT (as much as I adore a few drinks on PDT's menu, I'll pass on the bacon-infused bourbon old fashioned and the buttered popcorn rum, thanks). However, they ARE damn good drinks that take on the challenge of artfully blending sweet, savory, and sour, and put a fresh twist on classics like the gin gimlet (this time with Earl Grey) and the margarita (tangerine green tea, passion fruit, Contreau, and tequila in a martini glass rimmed with crushed pink peppercorns).

The tea menu includes a variety of flavored and unflavored teas, as well as tisanes and specialty tea drinks like matcha lattes. I think it could use more unflavored teas, but, then again, I think that about most tea menus. Oh, and it doesn't hurt that the staff knows their products (which is, alarmingly, becoming a rarity in the rapidly-evolving and growing tea world!).

The atmosphere completes the Sanctuary T experience--it is a successful blend of modern and eco-chic, with rich wood tones, chocolate brown, touches of silver and sparkle, and deep red highlights.

Aside from nit-picky grievances (e.g.,the tea menu said "Non-caffeinated" when it should say "Caffeine-Free".... If you'd like clarification on that point, read my article on caffeine and tea.), my only complaints are the music (oh, the sigh of relief when it changed from light jazz to Motown halfway though my visit) and the price (it seemed that a number of items were just enough over the appropriate price for you to notice that you are overpaying). Overall, I'd say that it is a fantastic new addition to the NYC tea world... and it would seem that the weeknight crowd I saw there would agree with me. I'm sure that I, for one, will be back again soon.

Sanctuary T
337B West Broadway, between Grand and Broome
Monday-Saturday 10AM-11:30PM, Sunday 10AM-6PM
212.941.7832

Coffee & Tea Festival: Misc.

Today's post: Coffee & Tea Festival miscellanea I haven't covered already.

Cup for Education is doing some great not-for-profit work in coffee-producting regions. It reminded me of a tiny, independent version of The CHAI Project in India. Starbucks' Tazo and Mercy Corp. joined up for the CHAI Project in India, and it is currently the largest not-for-profit agency in the country. I wonder when this type of program will spread to other tea-producing regions.

Ceylon Treasures had some cool handmade elephant-covered metal tea caddies from Sri Lanka. (Due to a very strange experience with a Ganesh statue in San Francisco and my visit to India last summer, elephants are one of my very favorite animals.)

There were Himalayan Salt Crystal Lights at the Festival. They don't directly relate to coffee or tea, but I found it interesting that they were there because Urbana Cityspa & Teabar (where I used to manage the teabar and still hold events sometimes) carried them.

The Hudson Healing Wisdom School had a long line for tea leaf readings the whole time. I wish I hadn't waited for the line to die down, as I missed my chance for a reading. Oh, well. Maybe next year!

Harshita Designs had some lovely block- and screen-printed textiles with tea motifs (leaves, pots, etc.). The georgette and charmeuse were very good quality and the colors were very vibrant. (My textiles background leaves me thinking it was dyed with acid dye.)

Tay Tea's "Better than Sex" rooibos blend was a big hit again this year. With a name like that, everyone made sure to stop by and try it. Although I don't usually sweeten my tea, I was a big fan of Tay's saffron rock candy. Yum!

Tea and alcohol seemed to be matched often. Between the Coffee & Tea Infused Cocktails, Chris Cason's remarks on the future of tea drinks, and Zen Green Tea Liquor (by the Japanese company that makes Midori), it was well-represented. I'm looking forward to seeing where this trend takes us.

Tea Classics/Hancha Tea focused on Korean tea, which is much bigger on the West coast than it is here in NYC. They also put on several demos of the Korean tea ceremony. Although traditional Korean "teas" are usually tisanes (herbal), there are some fantastic Korean green teas produced in Korea. It is my hope that they will be more readily available in the US soon.

Georgia's Bakeshop (located here in NYC) had some fantastic sweets (French macaroons, mini walnut souffles, etc.). I took a few home with me, and I can't wait to visit their shop!


Harrisons & Crossfield had a variety of types of tea in both pyramid and flat bags. I was saddened to see that they are one of the (way too) many companies carrying pomegranate white tea. I am so over this trend. When will it end?!?!

SerendipiTea carried a variety of tea blends (City Harvest was a favorite, and a portion of the proceeds go to City Harvest), tea soaps, Bodum pots (I love their designs), and Amai cookies (Amai's tea/bake house just won Time Out's "Best New Tearoom" award!). Cool.

Don't forget to celebrate Earth Day over the weekend and on the 22nd. Do something more sustainable--plant something, buy organic/local, try an alternate means of transit, or . . .

More Cool Teaware

You may remember that a while back I wrote a teaware post on Charles and Marie and followed it up with their (then) new product, the "On/Off" mug. Well, they sold out of their "On/Off" mug almost immediately and have decided to sell a new "Hot/Cold" version (with a presale to make sure they have enough this time around).

Here are a few of their other tea products that I haven't talked about yet:

cheeky NYC-streets-meets-Dutch-china 5-piece tableware set

super-engineered "radiator" mugs

a little something for those of you still drinking tea from teabags!

Cool! I'm already looking forward to seeing what they carry next!

Tea Caddy

My very dear friend and fellow blogger Tajee just sent me a gorgeous tea caddy from Japan! It was wrapped on the diagonal, which is how many gifts are wrapped in Japan. (This is a tradition which comes from the use of ornate pieces of cloth ("gift cloths") to wrap gifts.) The caddy itself is laquered (a traditional Japanese technique) and has a lid in the style of shibori (resist-dyed) kimono fabric. (Can you tell I have a background in textile design? Tajee knows my tastes all too well!) I'll use it next time I'm enjoying matcha with friends. Thanks, Tajee!!!

PS--I'll be away on Monday, but check back on Vee Tea for more tea news (including a World Tea Expo forecast, info on a new tisane made from hops, what's up at P.S.1 in NYC, and the current hype on caffeine during pregnancy) later on next week. In the meantime, have a great weekend!

Record-Setting Teapot

Famed Bauhaus designer Marianne Brandt has set a new record in the world of tea. Her 1927 ebony and silver-plated brass teapot sold at Sotheby's for a whooping $361,000 in December. Theodor Wende's 1927 Bauhaus tea set was also sold at the auction for $180,000.

Read more on the sale or a criticism of the design's dance between functionalism and formalism. If you're interested in female designers with relation to teaware, check out the Women Ceramicists exhibit, which includes a few very interesting teapots and tea sets, as well as a good deal of flatware and coffee sets.

Tea Tattoos

Is tea transient? Ancient wosdom says yes, but at least a few people disagree, and they have the tats to prove it.

I found this image thanks to The Goog.

Seth Goldman from Honest Tea says, "We got an e-mail from a consumer who got an Honest Tea tattoo on his arm." I'd love to see a photo of that!

There's also a short called Tea Tattoo, though I'm not sure it has any actual tea tattoos is it. Anyone seen it?

"Hipster" Teaware?

I recently happened upon an article about class, design, and "hipster" teaware. I use quotations because the example looks like anything BUT hipster teaware to me. This a perfectly hideous (in a non-ironic way, of course) teapot is from Target. Go figure.

For the Designo Tea-Drinker in Your Life...

Happened upon a teapot that brings my college's industrial design department's lingo to mind. ("Sleek... svelte... graceful... modern... clean... form meets function...") Added bonus: The shape and materials are designed specifically to keep the water at a lower temperature, making it perfect for white and green teas. Check it out!

More on water temperatures for brewing tea. More on tea infusion methods.

Happy Monday! Drink some good tea!

Hot Teaware

Welcome to the working week. To make things a little more exciting for you... Fitzsu Society presents: really hot teaware. With Eva Solo's neoprene-clad teapot and the Seiger by Furstenberg Emperor's Garden Covered Sugar Bowl, they run the style gamut from modern with an S&M twist to ironic-hipster bird-and-flower-adorned cuteness. And still, there's more. I just wish they had the real Teastick instead of this German imposter. (I love Blomus, except when they reinvent something that was done better the first time.)

Part MoMA gift shop, part Charles and Marie. Overall, a fun site with some very unusual finds. (One-of-a-kind Mark Mothersbaugh toy car, anyone?)

Last Day in London

My short stop in London is about to end. Today was my last full day here, and I made the best of it. Natalia and I started at the Royal Academy of Art, where she toured the facilities and I worked on some things outdoors, where the weather was gorgeous (warm, breezy). From there, we hopped the Tube to the Victoria and Albert Museum for New York Fashion Now (loved the Duckie Brown, Christian Joy (of Karen O fame), and Proenza Schouler) and the South Asian Art collection (for the Indian art, of course). We walked past Harrods to The Carriage Hotel for afternoon tea (delicious sandwiches--loved the egg salad--and wonderful sweets from passionfruit macaroons to raisin scones). Afterwards, we went back to Harrods to check out the tea (a great range of loose and bagged whole-leaf tea, lots of single estate teas (including some from estates I'll be visiting soon!), several notable specialty teas), sweets (oh, the beautiful macaroons and cakes at Laduree!), chocolates (more Maison du Chocolat, and tons of other brands), bar fromage, and gorgeous clothing. I was more than a little surprized to see that they have a Krispy Kreme, as it is a southern institution and NOT something particularly associted with class. I suppose it's a novelty here, like it was when it first opened in LA. When we were done shopping at Harrods, we walked around Kensington and Chelsea for a while, then had dinner at a little Italian place (where Princess Diana supposedly frequented). Then, it was back to the hostel to pack a bit and work on a crafts project I've been trying to finish. We had a great day. I'll be sure to visit London again sometime soon! (A post for when I have time: London vs. NYC. Pros and Cons of each.)

Tomorrow, we leave for Kolkata. Masala chai, here we come!