Tea Chocolates

Did you get your mom something tea-related for Mother's Day? I did! Check out these yummy tea chocolates from Charles Chocolates and Teance. Other mom-friendly tea gifts include:

Flowering teas
Flower-based tisanes
Chocolate teas
Cool teapots
Afternoon tea for two (or more)

What did you get for your tea-loving mother?

Romantic Teas

I know I rarely talk about personal things these days, but this news was too big to leave out: I got married on Friday! Here are a few photos of our little ceremony:







As a small wedding gift to and from my lovely readers, I'd love to start a list of romantic teas here. I'll get it started. Please add any you can think of, and let's get this list going!

Flowering Teas (in general, but if you have any great sources for beautiful, flavorful ones, please add it below!)

Tay Tea's Lovers Tea, Persian Rose, Marry Me Again, Better Than Sex and Duchess' First Love

Petali's Wedding Tea and the similar Rooibos Sweet Heart Tea from Dragonwater

Portsmouth's Love Me Tender

Urbana's Love Potion, Unity, Chocolate & Strawberries and Chocolate Spice

Teality's Romantic Tea Samplers

Adagio's Valentine's Tea and Chocolate Tea

Chocolate Lovers Teas by SBS

Harney & Sons Chocolate Tea and Valentine's Tea

Celebration Teas

Sometimes, you just need to celebrate! Most people break out the alcohol, some break out the tea and others break out both. I love high-quality oolongs, pu-erhs or greens, flowering teas or masala chai for non-alcoholic options. Tea cocktails are also delicious and fun if alcohol is part of the plan. Which teas and tea recipes to you use to celebrate?

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.

World Tea Expo, Day 2

Random notes for the day:

Trends:
Many more young people in attendance than last year
Lots of tea factories, fair trade farmers' alliances, and plantations in booths (increased ability to source directly)
More organics

Class:
Tea and Meditation by the authors of Tea Here Now, very interesting presentation on the connections between the two

Highlights:
Meeting James Norwood Pratt
Getting to see all the booths up close
Snagging samples of some fantastic shaped/flowering teas
Talking tea with other tea people
Buying some recent translations on Chinese and Taiwanese teas (particularly oolong and pu-erh)

It was an incredibly full day. I'm taking a moment to relax in my hotel room (if you can call blogging relaxing!) and then I'm off to dinner with Rajah Banerjee of Makaibari and a night on the town with a bunch of tea kids. Fun! More tomorrow...

Tea Brings in the Bling

Sweet Leaf and NUMI received $18 million* and $1.8 million, respectively, in capitol from investors during April.

Sweet Leaf Gets a Sweet Deal. Excerpt:

"Catterton Partners, which is based in Greenwich, Conn., invested in numerous companies, including Build-a-Bear, P.F. Chang's China Bistro, Odwalla and Kettle Foods.

'The ready-to-drink tea category is a $2.8 billion industry with the premium segment growing at an annual rate of 25 percent,' says Michael Farello, partner, Catterton Partners, who will join Sweet Leaf Tea's board of directors. 'Our assessment shows that Sweet Leaf Tea has the greatest potential for growth of any company in the category. This investment will give Sweet Leaf Tea the resources it needs to achieve an entirely new level of national awareness and sales.'"

NUMI Gets Shown the MONEY. Excerpt:

"'NUMI Organic Tea is a highly regarded industry leader in the premium organic tea category and has demonstrated extraordinary commitment to innovation, supply chain transparency, organic and fair trade advocacy, sustainable packaging, and assistance to tea producing villages in China, India and Africa' said Mark Finser, General Partner of TBL Capital.

NUMI Organic Tea pioneered the introduction of exotic herbs such as Rooibos, Lemon Myrtle, Honeybush and Dry Desert Lime that were popular in Europe but completely unknown in the United States. NUMI Organic Tea is also known for their innovative line of Flowering Tea; hand sewn tea leaves that blossom open when steeped in hot water. NUMI Organic Tea is responsible for commercializing this beautiful artisan trend from China....

TBL (Triple Bottom Line) Capital invests in... companies that are socially responsible and profitable."

It would seem that Catterton and TBL know what they're doing. Tea is increasing being recognized for its rapidly growing market and enormous sales increases. Having interviewed a rep from Austin-based Sweet Leaf a while back and having tried a number of NUMI's organic products, I'm glad to see both of these companies, ahem, infused with capitol they can use to further expand their markets, and tea's popularity in the US. Congrats!

*This figure is a correction from the original post.

Eat Out Awards: T Salon

T Salon is in its third NYC incarnation. After opening and closing in The Guggenheim and Lower Midtown, it has settled into Chelsea Market, home of the famed (and past-its-prime) Buddakan and a variety of gourmet and foodie-friendly shops. It is the kind of tearoom that aims for greatness on many levels and succeeds on some. It has eco-friendly policies (soy-ink packaging, potato-based cutlery), a generally pleasing ambiance (great color scheme, gorgeous upholstery, soothing music), and an exceptional variety of flowering teas. There are some wonderful things going for T Salon, but somehow it falls flat of expectations. This is, perhaps, best summed up by the scones, which are served with fantastic Devon cream and raspberry preserves. The scones themselves are decent, but their mediocrity is only highlighted by their superior accompaniments. If it weren't for the incredibly strong potential for such a place, I would not bother being so disappointed. I am glad it was nominated for "Best New Tearoom," but can see why it did not win. It is my hope that someday T Salon can live up to its aspirations. If it does, it may just be the best tearoom in NYC (new or otherwise). For now I will remain (mostly) unimpressed.

T Salon
75 9th Ave. (Chelsea Markets, toward the back), evening entrance at 459 W. 15th St.
Monday-Wednesday 8:30AM-8PM
Thursday-Saturday 8:30AM-10:30PM
888.358.0506

Flowering Teas Go Mainstream

That's right, handcrafted flowering teas are now being sold at (drumroll please...) Target. Teaposy is their supplier, and they have a variety of teaware, eight types of flowering tea, and several gift sets offered online. (I would imagine that individual stores' offerings vary.) It's interesting to me that flowering teas are becoming so popular for several reasons:

1. They are getting more people to drink loose leaf tea.
2. They are easy to brew, which increases their popularity.
3. They are beautiful, which also increases their popularity.
4. They don't usually excel in the flavor department, which means they may not increase loose leaf tea's popularity overall.

It is my hope that, despite flowering teas' frequent failings in flavor, people will start drinking loose-leaf tea with flowering teas and move on to other loose-leaf teas from there. We'll see what happens!

Read more on flowering teas on VeeTea or check out Target's flowering teas.

Chic Tea Gifts

Looking for a chic tea gift? San Francicso-based Violet has some cute items including a flowering tea set, an American honey flight, and (my personal fave) The Teastick. Eco-minded folk will also love their sustainable gifts. Cool.

V-Day Teas

It's one week to Valentines Day. Do you have a gift for your sweetheart? We all know that V-Day flowers are toxic to the environment and the humans who grow/harvest them (Right? You surely didn't think all those flowers bloomed on the same day naturally.), but what to get instead? If you're turning to tea to turn your partner's heart, here are a few Valentine's-related teas out there:

Adagio's Valentines Tea
Chocolate and strawberries and Ceylon! Oh, my!

Flowering Teas
There are a lot of them out there. More on flowering teas and their suppliers on Vee Tea.

Harney & Sons Rose Tea
One of my personal favorites. Very sophisticated.

Mariage Freres
Mariage Freres has Valentines Day covered. They have heart--shaped flowering teas, an aromatized tea called "Amore," a Kama Sutra tea gift box, and more. I guess the French really do get the whole "romance" thing.

Rishi's White Tea Rose Melange
Rumor has it that this tea was blended as an anniversary gift for the blender's wife. Tastes good, too.

In NC

Still in my home state, North Carolina. I had the most amazingly de-stressing hot stone massage the other day... one of the many perks in doing events with a teabar/spa! The video editing for the (Indian-tea-themed) event is coming along very well. (One of the many benefits of having a good friend who happens to be a professional video editor.)

It's hard to believe it has been more than a month since I left India! Seeing all the footage is making me miss it all the more. Still hoping to return soon.

I've been tasting more teas for the company I'm working with. Heavenly. I even found a flowering tea with a taste that would make it worth drinking even if it weren't gorgeous! (I find this to be quite a feat. Most flowering teas are much more of a treat for the eyes than they are for the tastebuds.) I'm looking forward to trying the rest of their flowering line over the next few days.

Well, I'm off to grab a late dinner with an old friend (Indo-Chinese food). I'll be back on Monday with a more coherent post.

New Article: Flowering Tea

I just got back from a long weekend in Maine, so this is a bit of a late post! Maine was wonderful (green everywhere, a puffin-watching tour, ocean breezes, lots of tea-drinking . . . incredible), so it's worth the late work tonight!

Anyway, on to the point . . .

I get a lot of questions about flowering tea. For my own edification (and yours!) I decided to do some extra research on the topic and write an article about it. It covers their mythology, how they are made, how to brew them, and some sources for buying flowering teas. Here's an excerpt:

Hand-sewn teas are, well, hand-sewn. There’s much more to it than that, though. They are most commonly produced in the Yunnan province of China near the borders of Vietnam and Laos. Green flowering teas are the norm, but other types of tea can be used. The leaves may or may not be scented with jasmine or other flowers before they are sewn. Like the reeds and wood of basketry, the leaves for flowering teas must be kept damp when they are shaped. They are laid flat, and then sewn with cotton thread to form various shapes. The sewing and shaping may take as little as one minute or as long as ten minutes, depending on the complexity of the design. Sometimes, flowers such as jasmine, globe amaranth, chrysanthemum, marigold, carnation, or rose are placed inside so that when the tea unfurls, it reveals a hidden, colorful bouquet. Occasionally, there are flowers that are visible on the exterior of the flowering tea, though this is usually just with simple shapes, like spheres. Ah, this brings us to another topic: the shapes. The most common shapes are peaches (often called “peach ball,” and said to signify longevity) and spheres. Less common shapes include mushrooms, cones, cylinders with rounded ends, eggs, hearts, and various abnormal forms. After the teas are sewn, they are dried in their new shape and sold either individually or in packages at upwards of $1 each (and often more).

After all the work that is put into flowering teas, you’d thing that brewing them requires great skill. Don’t worry--brewing flowering teas is incredibly easy. All you need is a glass teapot, large clear cup, or pale, shallow bowl and some good brewing water at the right brewing temperature. (Since the leaves are tied together, you don’t even need a strainer. I find these teas are great for people who are transitioning from bottled or bagged tea and don’t mind the price point, but are very concerned about ease of brewing.) Flowering teas tend to be mild, so you can brew them over a longer period of time (like a meal) without worrying about them becoming too astringent. Most of them can withstand multiple infusions (often 5, sometimes up to 15). This means that flowering teas can be displayed over the course of the tea-drinking and refilled with additional warm water as they are used up. (In other words, it’s a natural conversation piece.)



Read more about flowering tea on Vee Tea.