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 [...]

Some people say they won’t have tea without a bit of milk and sugar.  Others say that it’s best served without anything added.  Personally, I like my tea with baked goods on the side.  Here are three recipes I’d like to share, which I enjoy with a variety of teas.
Double Chocolate Brownies
Ingredients:
¾ cup unsalted butter
4 [...]

While drawing up my notes for this post, I had a vague feeling of déjà vu…and voila, there it was - a tea-and-dessert pairing post here on T Ching from our last holiday season.  Not a bad annual habit to get into, I finally decided - especially as new gourmet teas become available each year, [...]

In Southern California where I live, as winter arrives, it is usually nothing but an affectation to light up the fireplace.  One of LA’s grand old hotels - the Hotel Bel Air, currently closed for extensive remodeling - kept theirs lit all year round, whether the weather outside was frightening or not.  By the way, [...]

Now that the holidays are upon us, I have decided to set aside the desserts I make year after year in favor of some experimentation.  Over the years, I have made thousands of flavored chocolate truffles, frequently flavoring them with tea.  I’ve done this by heating up cream, putting loose-leaf tea in it, letting it [...]

Pairing tea with gastronomic breads was a rather frivolous assignment, but here are the results of my past week’s happy research, on location in Europe!
Some general findings: As with the breads last month, texture played a role in the success of these tea pairings.  With sweeter rolls and dessert breads, the butter/shortening type and content [...]