Though I love bold-flavored savories and sweets, I’m not a flavored tea fan. Many fruit-flavored teas are unsubtle at best or artificial at worst and the tea flavor is usually all but smothered entirely under the flavor of fruit. Quite another thing entirely, however, is having fruit gently poached in tea. This scenario yields two [...]

The last few weeks have been ridiculously hot, bringing an unfortunate end to my drinking warm tea.  Rather than fall back on the traditional iced tea, I decided to experiment a bit.  When I was younger, I had a set of popsicles molds, and I would make ice pops by freezing juice.  So why not [...]

Other than jasmine or Earl Grey, flavored teas don’t excite me. I like to taste tea with the least amount of unnecessary manipulation.  I want to be able to appreciate the tea growers’ art and coax the best flavors out of the leaves by sensitive and attentive brewing. Think of Darjeeling with its varied flavor [...]

I often combine my passions and this tea adventure - a combination of tea and food - was no different.  Kukicha, a green tea, has great citrus notes that I thought would go well with the fish I was going to make for dinner.  The marinade I describe below can be made with any tea [...]

At this time of year when rising temperatures relegate hot tea to rock-bottom status on most beverage lists, creating something cold and refreshing inspires me to turn to seasonal fruits as the basis for frosty tea drinks.  Whether you call them frappes or smoothies, they are a low-tech, minimalist path to refreshment, and clearly superior [...]

A whiff of the exotic inspires me when preparing tea-flavored butter.  A fast and easy final touch to a weeknight dish of pan-sautéed fish, seafood, and chicken, this simple adornment captures some of the spirit of yak butter tea, a mixure of strongly brewed tea, salt, and you know what.  But here where the air [...]

I think of myself as a purist when it comes to the teas I like to drink.  I seek teas that are straightforward, tasting of their terroir, and not flavored with anything nature-equivalent, synthetic, or artificial, true to their type.  I want to inhale and taste the tea and appreciate the art of the grower [...]

Recently I was asked by one of my clients to host a tea tasting at her spa for Valentine’s Day.
I started to think about what I wanted to share with my guests that day.  Preferably something totally new by way of both my talk and the experience – something related to love.
I contemplated all the [...]

Tea is a quick pick-me-up and feel-good beverage and a tea break is the perfect way to relax, to warm, and to refresh.  What is it about tea that has us hooked?  The caffeine in the tea acts as a stimulant, but there’s more to the story.  Theanine, an amino acid found as a natural [...]

With its logical sequence of steps, brewing a good cup of tea has the same calming - almost meditative - feel as baking.  Both activities provide an escape from the everyday, affording an opportunity to tune out the world, focus on the need for precision, and enjoy the moment of pleasure when both the tea [...]