Lest you think I've disappeared...

I know I've been slacking on my blogging duties. My apologies. I've been getting ready for a big celebration for my cousin's wedding. This is a cousin who has always been my "little cousin." The fact that she isn't 11 anymore is really hard to grasp. But, there it is. She was married yesterday in a truly beautiful ceremony and I had the chance to visit with some of those that I love most in the world. So, yes, the blog was ignored but with very good reason.

I'll be back on track in the next couple of days and to answer questions:
1) YES! THE TEA MEMORIES DEADLINE IS TUESDAY!!! There is still time to submit I'm anxious to hear what you want to share.

2) I still owe you a book review. It's coming. I promise.

3) You will definitely get write ups on the Hawaiian tea and the Canadian Ice Wine tea this week.

4) No, I don't think it will EVER stop raining here. I just heard that there have been a total of THREE sunny days here in Massachusetts in the entire month of June. Considering what we have to bear through the winter, this seems incredibly unfair.

Have a great night.

I wanted to kiss the postman

OK, not really, but did you ever have one of those days where the mail was just full or surprises?

I had THREE exciting packages in the mail today and I wasn't expecting any of them. (I mean, I knew two of them were coming, just not today.)

First, I received the coolest little Poppet to add to my collection. Not sure what a poppet is? There's a graphic on the right sidebar of my blog. These little guys keep my teapots and teaware company.

Second, I got a package with some tea I won in a giveaway from Culinary Teas. Canadian Ice Wine Tea. I think this will either be amazing or horrific. The jury is out, but hey, free tea!

Third, the coolest of all. It was from Narien Teas of Florida. Narien is the first vendor on the U.S. mainland to sell tea grown in Hawaii. So, we can officially say that there are TWO commercial tea growing regions in the US - South Carolina and Hawaii. Narien is selling Kilinoe green tea, imported from Big Island Tea.

My tea tasting pile just got a little higher, but I could not be more excited. Reviews to follow soon....

Adagio Chais

Hooray for chai. About a month ago I received a surprise package from Adagio tea. (Aren't those the best?) Adagio has launched a new line of chai teas - 6 in all.

I have now had the time to give them all a try so I can give you some more details.

In the photo at left you will see the containers and small samples of the blends:

Top Row (left to right): Chocolate Chai, Thai Chai, and Masala Chai

Bottom Row (left to right): Rooibos Vanilla Chai, Bengal Green Chai, and Spiced Apple Chai

Chocolate Chai - Ceylon tea with chocolate flavoring, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, and cloves - This reminded me a great deal of a Chocolate Chai that Tealuxe used to sell. This is a wonderful example of a chocolate tea. The chocolate is evident, but it also doesn't just taste like watery hot cocoa. The spices blend nicely. Very good, especially with milk.

Thai Chai - Ceylon tea with coconut, lemongrass, and chai spices. (I think I recognized ginger and cinnamon in the mix.) I think this was my favorite of the bunch. I've become very fond of coconut teas when they are well executed. The lemongrass pointed the flavors up nicely and the spice mix was excellent. The first thing I wrote down was, "Wow." I think this would make an amazing iced tea.

Adagio's Masala Chai is a blend of Ceylon tea, cinnamon, cardamom and ginger. It was a nice, straightforward chai that many will recognize as the chai they're used to. I tend to like very bold chais but this one had enough spice to satisfy. It was flavorful and worked well plain, lightly sweetened, or with milk.

Rooibos Vanilla Chai uses the same spices as the Masala Chai blended with rooibos and a touch of vanilla. This was an excellent combination. It's a great caffeine-free option for those who like chai but can't handle the caffeine. It seemed like a slightly milder, but still very flavorful, version of the traditional Masala. I might even say that this chai seemed a bit creamier than the black tea version.

Bengal Green Chai - For some reason I was hesitant with this one. I just couldn't wrap my head around a green tea based chai. I associate green teas with such simplicity. (I'm generally pretty anti flavorings in green.) This is a China green base with the same chai spices. The cinnamon was quite bold here. It was the chai with the lightest flavor IMHO. I preferred it unsweetened with no milk.

Spiced Apple Chai - This was the most surprising of all. I feared we were heading into candy territory here. This is a black tea base with the same spices as the Masala (cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger) and apple. This would make a great autumn tea. I actually enjoyed it. I was thinking that this is a blend my kids would like a great deal (if I was at the point of introducing true tea.) I would reserve this one for warm tea, rather than iced, but it was certainly enjoyable.

So, six new chais to check out. Next post you'll be seeing a review of a new tea book. I have another slew of samples that have arrived so I'll be trying to fit those in along with some more informational posts in the coming weeks.

Have a great day!

Time for the Easties to Celebrate!

Big news in the tea world. I am so excited that I can't type fast enough.

WORLD TEA EAST
Sept. 23 - 26 in BOSTON

This event, co-located with Natural Products Expo East, will include exhibits and workshops, including the New Business Boot Camp that is offered at World Tea Expo in Las Vegas. At the event there will also be a World Tea Championship Winners Tasting event, something completely unique to this event.

The full article is here.

Details will be available at www.WorldTeaExpo.com the week of June 15 with registration in late June.

COUNT ME IN!
Now I'm off to find a babysitter for September. :)

What have you done for you lately?

I'm going completely off topic here, but it's my blog, right?

I was having a conversation with a friend recently and we were discussing summer routines and the day-to-day drudgery that sometimes fills our lives. In a somewhat off-hand, but completely sincere, manner I asked her, "What are you doing for YOU this summer?"

(I should mention here that this friend wrote about this incident in a much more inspiring way in her own brilliant blog. She's great. Amazing. Seriously. You should read her stuff. Daily.)

This question seemed to knock her off her feet for a minute. It was clear that she hadn't considered it before. I think few of us do. We think so much about the things we have to do -- work, care for family, tend to the house, chores, etc. We don't take very much time to think about how we're going to take care of ourselves.

This blog is definitely a way I take care of myself. It gives me a creative outlet that is important for me. It provides me with things to discuss outside of potty training and all the methods have to avoid housework. It puts me in contact with amazing people. (Thank you, readers.)

I decided I needed to be willing to answer the same question that I asked. What am I going to do for ME this summer?
* Write, write, write. I'm going to find more time to write, about many, many things--beyond tea and beyond this blog.
* READ. I want to make a big dent in that enormous stack of "to read" books. The bookshelves are overflowing and I have the itch to be swept away by books.
* More time with my husband. A few date nights, sans kids.
* Fresh air. I am going to be deliberate about getting a few minutes of fresh air by myself each day. 5 minutes in the morning watering the plants. A walk at night. Sneaking out to sit on the steps while the kids nap. Something. Each day.
* Re-charge my body. Sleep. Enjoy the wonders of summer food - fresh veggies and fruits, esp those from our garden. Sleep. Yoga. Sleep. Exercise.
* Finally, plan one "me" weekend for the Fall. Last year I did an overnight on the coast where I read, knit, and drank tea for 2 days. I am promising myself another "Mommy Time-Out."

OK, readers. How about you? What are you doing for YOU this summer?

REMINDER - DEADLINE APPROACHING!

Just a quick reminder to everyone that the deadline for submissions for the "Tea Memories" anthology project is TUESDAY, JUNE 30!


Remember:
* Submissions must be non-fiction and run 800 - 1,800 words.
* The essay must involve tea in some integral way.
* The essay may not have previously been published.
* Authors must sign publication release forms granting permission for publication before their piece can be considered.

The full details of the project are at: www.teamemories.com

Essays can be submitted to teamemories@yahoo.com as a .rtf attachment with "Essay Submission" as the subject line.

Feel free to e-mail teamemories@yahoo.com with any questions!

Green Leaf Cicadas

A couple of weeks ago I tried a new sample from Aura Teas called Formosa Natural Wuhe Honey Black Tea. The honey flavor in this tea really stuck with me and I've been thinking about it a great deal since. After I sampled the tea, I dropped a note to Fionna Du, Aura's owner, to ask if this tea was infused with something or scented. She said that it wasn't, that the flavor was because of the "tea bugs."

It made me think of trolls or leprechauns. What were these magical little "tea bugs" and how did they create this flavor?

Aura's website mentioned that the bugs are green leaf cicadas and that they have been used to produce a couple of varieties of oolongs, including the well-known Oriental Beauty. I did a little digging and this is what I found.

According to the East Rift Valley National Scenic Area (which includes the Wuhe Tourist Tea Plantation) website, coffee was planted on the Wuhe Terrace, Hualien County, Taiwan during the Japanese occupation (1895 - 1945). After the Japanese left, the area was no longer cultivated and sat fallow. In the early 1970s, Taiwan's Provincial Department of Agriculture and Forestry assessed that it could be a useful tea growing region. Great care and attention improved the tea's production and quality over time.

Farmers began to discover that if they eliminated the use of pesticides, green leaf cicadas (also known as "leaf hoppers"), began to feast on the tea leaves. Previously these insects had focused on rice plants. To everyone's amazement it was discovered that the leaves eaten by the cicadas developed a honey flavor and aroma when dried. Apparently, when the bugs bite the leaf, the breaking of the cells cause oxidation to begin, while the leaf is still attached to the bush. The tea can only be produced in late June and early July when the cicada come out to do their work.

Jane Pettigrew notes in an article that the original name of Oriental Beauty (one famous oolong made through this process) was "Pin Fong," meaning "liar." When the first farmer created these teas and tried to explain the process, everyone called him a liar.

You have to love tea lore.

I found that there was a write up of this tea and the process on the Insani-Tea blog back in 2007 also. Jane Pettigrew did a detailed piece in Tea & Coffee Asia in late 2008. Nothing like being late to the party. At least I got here before they turned the lights out. :)