Cocktail Infusions from Tea Forte

Let's be honest. Receiving free samples is one of the best parts of blogging about tea. I have been sent some fabulous teas and some great books...and chocolate. Every once in awhile, though, a sample arrives that seems a little extra special.

I recently received a box of Tea Forte's Cocktail Infusions. I have had very good experiences with many of Tea Forte's products in the past so I was looking forward to seeing what they had done in this arena. (You can see some past posts here, here, and here.)

Cocktail Infusers maintain Tea Forte's trademark silken pyramid form. They have the same beautiful packaging as their other tea products. There are three flavors offered - Lavender Citrus, Lemongrass Mint, and Silkroad Chai. The Lemongrass is a tisane, while the Lavender and Chai contain tea. You can purchase single flavor boxes (8 infusers) or a variety pack (3 each of the Lavender and Lemongrass and 2 Chai.) These infusers are designed to infuse directly in your alcohol of choice.

Before I jump into my review, note that I did these samplings over several weeks. I wouldn't want anyone to think that I did these all in one day! I tried a range of cocktails and mocktails to see how these products held up.

The Lavender Citrus contains white tea, lavender, lemon balm, grapefruit, bergamot, and violet. The recipe book includes several alternatives - a Cosmo de Provence, a Lavender Pear martini, a Lavender Lime Rickey, and 2 mocktail options. The recipes I tried were really lovely. The grapefruit flavor really came through nicely and the infusion added beautiful color to the drinks as well.

The Lemongrass Mint contains lemongrass, lemon myrtle and spearmint. The drink options offered were a Bali Breeze (rum), a Lemongrass Gin & Tonic, and a Wild Mint Mojito. Dynamite. The only problem with these is that I made several of my friends angry that they weren't involved with the tasting process. Luckily, my sister-in-law just sent me a box of these as a birthday gift. So, I think a mojito party might be in order.

The Silkroad Chai contains black tea, cinnamon, ginger, and cardamom. The drinks presented were a Peach Chai Crush (vodka and peach nectar), Chai White Russian, Bombay Chai Rum & Tonic, and a Chai Cooler mocktail. I think the Chai White Russian was my favorite of all of the Cocktail Infusions I tried. The flavor was excellent, with a sweetness balanced with a spicy warmth. It was definitely boozy, but really nice. My husband gave this one a thumbs up too.

My two suggestions for Tea Forte would be: a) clearly list the ingredients on the website so people will know what they are getting (ingredients are on the box, however) * and b) give recommended infusion times. When you're making something for the first time, it is hard to know what it SHOULD taste like. Some guidelines would make this easier.
* CORRECTION: The ingredients ARE listed on the website. When you view the page for the specific infuser type, there is a tab that says, "Details." If you click that, the ingredients are there.

Tea Forte has developed a very interesting product here. Yes, you can certainly make tea drinks without a dedicated product like this. (Remember my previous post about Chris Cason and his tea cocktails.) However, these Cocktail Infusions are an easy way to begin experimenting with tea drinks and the recipes are great. These infusers are fun to play around with and they would (and did!) make a great gift.

What is this thing called Steepster?

I know that many of you have already come across something called Steepster.com. I had seen a few tea blog and forum posts mentioning it. I signed up and played around with it a bit. It's essentially an online tea log where you can track what you're drinking and your thoughts about it. You can also see who else has been drinking the same tea and read their comments.

I had noticed there was no "About Us" section or any real info. about Steepster itself. Then I saw a forum post speculating about who was behind Steepster. Nothing nefarious. Just wondering if it was being run by a company. (They are not.) I decided to get in touch with the Steepster.com founders to see what we could find out. They were kind enough to consent to an interview.

TEA: Let's start with the most basic since not everyone is familiar with your site. What is Steepster and when did it launch?

STEEP: Steepster's a site for anyone interested in tea, even people who don't know much about it but are open to giving it a shot. The site's a place for people to keep track of the teas they drink and how they feel about them. Since you can follow other tea drinkers, you can see what teas they have been drinking and use it to discover new teas through people you know and trust.

After a few weeks in private beta, we launched Steepster in a public beta on March 20. It's been fun watching the community grow and evolve. We love all the positive feedback we've received so far in addition to the numerous feature suggestions and random bugs the community has brought to our attention.

TEA: I know there have been some questions around the tea forums as to who is behind Steepster. Please tell us about who developed Steepster. Let us know who you are and what you were doing before Steepster.

STEEP: Steepster was created by Jack Cheng, Mike Potter, and Jason Roos, three friends working together out of NYC. The original idea came from Jack, who was looking for a quick and easy way to keep track of the teas he had been drinking. He crafted the beginnings of Steepster and then met up with Mike and Jason and together we turned it into the site you see today.

We come from a variety of backgrounds, but all have experience working on websites, both as freelancers and full-time at larger companies. It wasn't until recently that we all decided to team up and start building our own products. Steepster is the first passion project to come out of our group.

TEA: What do you believe that Steepster offers that other social networking sites do not?

STEEP: Well, we don't necessarily look at Steepster as a social networking site. The site is more centered around the behavior of keeping a tea journal, or as we call it, a 'tealog'. Yes people do create profiles and submit content to them, but the focus is on the voice of our individual users and their reactions to specific teas. Steepster is designed to help people express which teas they like and dislike, and through this process, guide others to discover brand new teas and tea companies. Every user has their own name.steepster.com page, which they can show off to people who aren't members of the site. In that sense, it's a lot closer to tea blogging.

TEA: Who do you envision as your user base?

STEEP: To begin with, we recognize the users are mostly avid tea enthusiasts with a grasp on technology. They're the ones who see the intrinsic value of tracking their tea consumption and submitting tealog entries to describe their experience. However, we think Steepster can and will grow to include less experienced tea drinkers or even people simply looking for a recommendation on a good single cup of tea. It can be a great way for people who are unfamilar with tea to finally take the plunge and get into it.

TEA: How are you attracting users? What do you think they gain from participating?

STEEP: We've been doing some stuff on Twitter and have had great interactions there. Usually we're just responding to questions but we'll also throw up some cool tea links if we happen to come across them. And we've got a little buzz through the much appreciated interest of bloggers like yourself. But for the most part, right now we're just letting the site grow organically through word of mouth. The tea drinking community is pretty tight-knit and we know if we can satisfy a tea enthusiast's needs, there's no reason why they wouldn't want to invite their friends to join in on the fun. But later on we'd love to team up with different tea companies, tea bloggers, tea authorities, etc. to help promote tea consumption in general... we think there are some really interesting and exciting ways this could happen. Jack will be at the World Tea Expo, so look for him there!

There are some who like using the site to keep a journal of tasting notes, but for everyone using the site on a daily basis, it's basically like checking out a friends tea pantry and being able to instantly gauge how your friend feels about each tea. It's easier to get a feel for what your friend's tastes are and use that as a basis for getting suggestions about teas to try, as opposed to reading a bunch of anonymous reviews about a tea written by people whose personal tastes you don't necessarily know.

TEA: Steepster is still operating as a Beta version. When do you intend to launch the full site? What other features do you plan on incorporating?

STEEP: We will be releasing updates to the site, fixing bugs, and adding features, but we don't feel these new aspects necessarily have to bring us out of beta and into the "full" version of the site. As is the case with any tea, you can go in with a rough idea of how long you're supposed to steep the leaves but it's good to test the water along the way and adjust accordingly. We feel like we'll naturally know when we can take the beta tag off. For now, we are focused on keeping it simple enough as to best satisfy the needs of tea drinkers; they are what make Steepster work.

What the future holds...we don't really want to go into specifics and set expectations that eventually might not work best with the site. But I can say that we are looking into allowing people to better react to other users' tealog entries and discuss specific teas. We'd also like to add more information to each tea page, so that each page could be a comprehensive overview of all aspects of a particular tea. Then people could find a tea, read up on it (taste, best preparation instructions, history, where it comes from, etc.), and get a link to buy it online. We'd love to get tea companies and tea rooms involved in this process too. We are always open to suggestions though, so send ideas to feedback@steepster.com. We thank you in advance for your patience with our small team :)

TEA: How do you intend to support Steepster financially in the long term?

STEEP: Even though we've been testing "Buy this Tea Online" links on some of the teas in our database, it's our hope to work with tea companies to establish commissions on the sales they get from users clicking through from Steepster. The desire to try an interesting tea you read about in a friend's tealog is a natural part of the process, so we want to use this as a way to help tea companies boost their sales and help us cover our costs. We have some other ideas too, but right now we're focused on getting the word out and making Steepster a site more tea drinkers would want to use. Money can come later...or until we need to pay our rent ;)


Thank you to the Steepster.com team for being part of this Tea Pages interview. You can check out the Tea Pages Steepster page at teapages.steepster.com

Nepal - Damn Fine Tea

It's been a spectacular day here - incredible weather, lots of outside time with the kids, my parents are in town, an old friend came to visit. Good stuff.

To top it off, I had a great tea. Hooray for great tea!

Today I tried Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea's Nepal. This is the second of their three Series One teas I've tried. (Wow. That was kind of confusing. Too many numbers!)

The dry leaf of this tea is truly gorgeous. It's a mix of downy silver, chestnut, olive green, and chocolate brown. The leaf was really well formed. I honestly could not stop touching this tea leaf. I don't know why. I feel like that isn't a response I often have.

The scent was reminiscent of pine and apples. It was an exceedingly fresh smelling tea.

This tea made me think of a 1st flush Darjeeling. Then it made me think of some of the really top notch Ceylons I'd found that had that really fruity, muscatel quality. I was a bit stunned by this tea. I really hadn't expected to like it quite this much. What a great surprise. Go Nepal!

Tea: Nepal
Source: Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Teas
Type: Unscented black tea
Brewing details: 1 1/2 tsp at 212 degrees for 3 minutes
Comment: I definitely recommend giving this tea a try. A&D: Two for two. You'll find my review of Andrews & Dunham Ceylon here.

Coffee & Tea Festival NYC

Lucky, lucky me!

This weekend I had the chance to attend the 4th Annual Coffee & Tea Festival in NYC. I hadn't been aware of this festival until recently. The planets aligned and I was actually able to get there this year.

It was held at the Metropolitan Pavilion on West 18th Street. Being a new-ish festival, it is relatively small, but was populated by some interesting companies. There were about 40 vendors, fewer than 10 of which were tea. The rest were coffee, along with one table for NY Craft Beer Week, a few bakeries and gourmet food purveyors, and other assorted sellers like the NY Times.

That being said, it was still a great event for tea lovers. Many of the tea companies there were very well known and well respected companies, including Tavalon, Tay Tea, Serendipitea, and Harney & Sons. There were some companies, such as Hancha Tea, that I hadn't seen before but definitely impressed me. The vast majority of companies (coffee and tea alike) offered samples which always makes for a fun time. The first 1000 entrants also received gift bags which included everything from samples of Adagio Tea and Choice Teas to "herbal coffee" and gum. Copies of Tea House Times and Imbibe were available to all.

There were two products I found particularly disconcerting. One was a specialty tea bag where, instead of a regular tea bag, the leaves were held in the bowl of a food grade plastic spoon. I just couldn't get comfortable with the idea of pouring boiling water onto plastic and then drinking it. The other was a mini tea "pouch" that you just stick in your mouth. You are supposed to get all the flavor and caffeine of drinking coffee or tea. Fascinating to see right before watching the beauty and majesty of a tea ceremony.

There were some major highlights for me. I had the opportunity to meet several folks from the tea world that I have always wanted to chat with. I also had the chance to attend some fantastic demonstrations and classes. Every hour there was a new seminar offered. We attended Yoon Hee Kim's Korean Loose Leaf Tea Ceremony demonstration and her "From Garden to Cup" seminar, as well as Chris Cason's Tea Cocktails presentation. (Chris Cason, Co-Founder of Tavalon, is in the process of producing a book on "Tea Cocktails." If his presentation is any indication, this is a book you will definitely want.) Sunday's tea presentations were to include coffee and tea infused desserts, a Korean powdered green tea ceremony, and a lecture on green teas of China.

Certainly, this pales in comparison to something like the World Tea Expo, but I am anxious to see how this event grows over time. Just today I was speaking to a rep from another tea company who said they hadn't been aware of it. As the word spreads, this event has the potential to become a pretty amazing event.

Biscottea

I heard about this company last year but didn't have the opportunity to review their products. I exchanged a few e-mails with the founder, Laurance Milner, and a few weeks ago I received a box filled to the brim with Biscottea. Every kind they make. Wow.

There are currently five flavors of these tea-infused shortbreads: Mint Tea, Chai, Honeybush, Earl Grey, and Blueberry Tea. They are made with organic, all natural ingredients and are trans-fat fee. They are also Certified Kosher. Biscottea also offers three Gluten Free flavors (the blueberry tea, chai, and earl grey) and three Biscoffee products (mocha, cappuccino, and espresso.)

I will not review the Biscoffee products here, since well, they're coffee. BUT, I still appreciate them. My husband will be very happy to get his hands on them and render an opinion, I'm sure.

I considered going into detail on each and every one, but fear you would perish from boredom. Instead, I'll give you the summary.

Chai (Regular) - This is infused with chai spices - no tea here. The shortbread smelled like cinnamon spiced apples to me. Buttery shortbread. Nice flavor, while not really "chai-like" to me. Definite thumbs up.
Chai (Gluten Free) - Scent was more subtle but with a bite. The shortbread wasn't as buttery and there was a real peppery flavor. Very good though for gluten free.

Earl Grey (Regular) - Subtle scent. Lemony. Shortbread definitely dominated with hints of citrus. Excellent.
Earl Grey (Gluten Free) - Sweet, flowery, orange scent. Very floral flavor. At this point I noted a trend that the flavorings in the gluten free version were much bolder than in the regular.

Honeybush (Regular)- Scent wasn't appealing to me...neither was the flavor. It was like honey on steroids. Just too bold for me.

Mint (Regular) - Slightly vegetal scent. Super strong mint. The flavor was extremely minty. Very interesting with the shortbread - unexpected. I couldn't eat a lot of it, but it was definitely good with tea.

Blueberry (Regular) - Delicately scented and flavored. Well done. I enjoyed this more than I had expected.
Blueberry (Gluten Free) - The flavor was all blueberry here. The shortbread didn't carry much of its own flavor. Very good.

I think these are definitely worth checking out. An interesting concept and a solid product.

Andrews & Dunham Ceylon

Happy Tuesday. What a beautiful day. I hope everyone enjoyed their observances of Easter or Passover. It's such a nice time of year to focus on spending time with friends and family...and eating. :)

We've been having a lot of fun here at Tea Pages lately. We've been making many new connections with other tea bloggers and tea friends. We've had a nice uptick in readership which is exciting. A few submissions have already arrived for the Tea Memories anthology project. And we're going to have another cool tea-related interview to post this week. (The bar was set pretty high by our friends at Andrews & Dunham though...) I'll also be reviewing another tea-infused product. Whew!

I felt that I would be remiss if I neglected to mention two big tea events coming up. The World Tea Expo will be held May 2 - 4 in Las Vegas. This Expo is for people in the tea business and is a weekend of workshops, seminars, exhibits, tastings, and the annual (launched last year) World Tea Championship judging. I am hopeful that this Expo will head back east sometime, but my understanding is that they will be in Las Vegas at least through next year.

The other event is this weekend, April 18 - 19, 2009. The 4th annual Coffee & Tea Festival NYC will be held at the Metropolitan Pavilion on W 18th Street. Seminars, tastings, vendor booths and more will make up this two day event. Tickets are available in advance. (There are a number of coupons available online so make sure you look around before placing your order.) There are currently 50 vendors scheduled for this event.

Now, back to the business at hand...
Today's tea is one of the three released in Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea's 1st Series. (You may remember our recent interview with them.) The 1st Series includes Ceylon, Nepal, and Dragonwell. In keeping with their unique style, Damn Fine Tea describes this Ceylon thusly:

"You grew up next door to this tea. It would sit on the porch, talking on the cordless phone, and despite its old sweats and unkempt hair you had a hard time taking your eyes off it while you mowed the lawn. Your trips down the block to the mailbox had to be perfectly timed. You grew up, moved away, and made a name for yourself but every now and then a song surfaces on the random shuffle and it all comes back. A Google search yields nothing."

Seriously. And it goes on from there...

I have had a tough time finding Ceylons that are remarkable. Some are bland. Many are decent. I've had one or two that are excellent. Generally, though, they are just there. To be honest, this is why I decided to start with Damn Fine Tea's Ceylon. I wanted to be wowed.

The dry leaf was very fine - delicate and wiry. The scent was fruity, like chocolate and cherries. The tea brewed to a honey amber. I noticed that the scent was very, very subtle. There was a sweetness to the aroma.

I found this tea to be a nice example of a Ceylon. It was certainly one of the more interesting Ceylons I've tried, but it didn't knock my socks off. I tried a few different steeping times and strengths. I ended up using 1 1/2 tsp per 6 ounces for the best result. I brewed for about 3 1/2 minutes.

Tea: Ceylon
Source: Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea
Type: Black tea
Brewing details: 1 1/2 tsp at 212 degrees for 3 1/2 minutes
Comment: A solid Ceylon. Won't convert new Ceylon fanatics, but will certainly be a fine option for those already in the choir.

Some tea-ish things to check out

Hi all,

What a spectacular day in New England. I just got back from time outside with the kids, their bikes, their soccer balls, their frisbees, and just about every other outdoor toy they could find. They were quite excited to be in the sun again.

Today's post will be brief, but a few things I thought might be of interest.
1) I have just put up a Blog Directory on the blog. Look on the sidebar, just below the anthology call .jpeg. If you have a blog that isn't listed, please e-mail me or comment on this site. I have tried to eliminate any blog that has not been updated in more than a year. These are also only English language sites...for now.

2) If you feel like you have entirely too much time on your hands and you need another way to vacuum up those extra minutes here you go.
* First of all, Tea Pages is now on Facebook. In the search box, type "Tea Pages" and we'll show up under the "Other Business" category. I'll try to put up announcements and recent posts as we go. Mostly though it could be a good way to let me know what's on your mind.
* We are also now on Steepster. With the motto, "Tea Drinkers, Unite" Steepster is like Twitter for tea lovers. It's a way to share what your drinking with others and to read the reviews of others. You can friend Tea Pages. (I just joined today so you won't find anything yet from me.)

3) There is a new tea themed radio podcast! HOORAY! It's called "Tea Cast" and it launched at the end of February. It's an interactive, call-in show. Past topics have included steeping, entrepreneurship, green tea, digital media, web based businesses, and afternoon tea at the Fairmont Empress in Victoria, BC. Yesterday's show was to be a preview of the World Tea Expo. The show airs Wednesdays at 2 but you can also listen later online.

4) Finally, Tea Pages has also made its debut on FoodBuzz. This cool site is a great place to find food-related blogs. Feel free to friend us if you hang out there.

Have a great day everyone. (And keep working on those essays.)

Call for Tea Essays

Here is an announcement about a project that I think will interest readers. This Call for Essays is being released for a new tea-themed anthology. This call is open to published and non-published authors. The deadline for submission is June 30, 2009.

You can find out more about the project at the Tea Memories website. If you have questions you can e-mail teamemories@yahoo.com.

CALL FOR ESSAYS

A new anthology, "Tea Memories: Living Life One Cup at a Time," is in need of your original, non-fiction essays.

• Have you "taken tea" in a unique place or under unusual circumstances?
  
  
• Do you have a story about sharing tea with someone special in your life?
  
  
• Have you made an important decision over a cup of tea?

Whether humorous or touching, serious or inspiring, your stories of events, experiences, and transformational moments are welcomed. The most important criteria is that the stories be true and that tea plays a role in your essay.

Our intent is to show that tea is far more than something that quenches your thirst. Tea provides comfort, a time for reflection, and a starting point for conversation. Tea plays a supporting role in the stories of our lives. "Tea Memories" aims to share the ways that tea has changed our lives, one cup at a time.

Published and unpublished authors of all ages are encouraged to submit essays for consideration. The best essays will be selected for inclusion in the "Tea Memories" anthology.

SUBMISSION PROCESS

• Essays should be 800 to 1800 words in length.
  
  
• The piece should be submitted as an e-mail attachment in .rtf format with "Essay submission" as the subject line of the e-mail.
  
  
• Include your name, mailing address, phone number, e-mail address, and a short (60 word max) biography.
  
  
• Submit essay by June 30, 2009 to teamemories@yahoo.com.

Earl Grey Cream - Tea Guys

It's been a funny time here. I feel like I've been pretty focused on tea-related projects lately, but yet, I haven't posted anything here for a few days.

One project I have been working on is an updated Blog Roll. I removed my blog roll a few weeks ago in trying to clean things up. I've been checking and re-checking every tea blog I can find to come up with a list of the ones I want to follow more regularly. I am also going to post a tea blog directory. I have a list of more than 100 blogs right now that have been updated within the past year. I'm hoping to get the initial list up in the next few days.

I tried a new tea today. I picked it up at Whole Paycheck...I mean, Whole Foods...yesterday. It was an Earl Grey Cream from Tea Guys LLC. (The canister is labeled "Tease.")

The dry leaf is a chocolate brown with blue and gold cornflower petals. The leaf was dry, wiry, and fresh looking. The scent of this tea was surprising. I picked up notes of wintergreen mint, lilac, and chocolate. This was not the typical earl grey scent I'd expected.

The liquor brewed to a dark brown like melted milk chocolate. (I'm beginning to think I just had chocolate on the brain.)

The taste of this tea was impossibly creamy. There was a slight tartness that was reminiscent of oranges. I thought of spring lilacs in the slight floral notes. There was a long sweet after taste.


Tea: Earl Grey Cream
Source: Tea Guys
Type: Scented black tea
Brewing details: 1 tsp at 212 degrees for 3 minutes
Comment: I expected to need a touch of sugar or milk to bring the flavor of this tea out. That would have been a big mistake. It was creamy and sweet all on its own.