another christmas wrapped up

I think once you're over age 12 it truly is more fun to give than receive at holiday time, but every now and then you get some presents that surprise you.  One of my best gifts this year was from a handsome fellow with a Vandyke beard who gave me Dreamfarm's Teafu tea ball strainer, something I didn't know I needed but am enjoying very much.  I have an off and on relationship with loose tea, and it's currently on again because I made my own holiday blend this Christmas, but I was fine with using metal or mesh strainers until I got this curious Teafu gadget.  The handle is ergonomic, the strainer itself stands upright, plus it's designed to let you squeeze the silicone tea ball and really drain the leaves and essence out.  And it comes in various colors, which is always exciting (mine is an electric spring green).  My old metal strainer has become an ornament for the tree, and it actually looks kind of cute in its second life.  Another highlight from the holidays was a recipe for Masala Chai Sugar Cookies tweeted by Argo Tea and originally from this tasty website -- Chai cookies and Chai icing -- that's well worth getting out the parchment paper and rolling pin for.

(Pictured:  A Young Girl Dressed Up for Christmas -- Kate Greenaway, Wikimedia Commons)

hot chocolate

Pictured:  Hot Chocolate -- Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta, 1841-1920 (Wikimedia Commons)

that must have been some party

Back in 1933 on this day, Prohibition ended and over a decade of supposed temperance came to a close.  Which essentially meant that bootleggers and speakeasies were out of business and drinking became just something to do again as opposed to something fun and illegal.  Whenever I think of 1920s cocktails, the Bronx and the Clover Club come to mind.  The frothy-topped Clover Club originated before Prohibition at the all male Philadelphia Clover Club; it involves gin, grenadine, lemon juice and egg white and seems a little girly for early 20th century gentlemen to have been drinking with pride, plus the foam probably got all over their bristly mustaches.  The Bronx was first mixed in either Philly again or at the Waldorf in Manhattan (sources claim both sites), and involves gin, sweet red vermouth, dry vermouth and orange juice.  Both the Clover Club and the Bronx are poured into your classic long-stemmed cocktail glass and surely best enjoyed while debating as to who's the better writer -- F. Scott Fitzgerald or Ernest Hemingway.

(Pictured:  Scott Fitzgerald in 1921, quite possibly getting ready to take a Bronx break)    

somewhat wildly sweet orangey cranberry sauce

Tis the season to enjoy a lot of cranberry sauce, if you do enjoy such, and over Thanksgiving I was able to use Tazo's Wild Sweet Orange Tea in this homemade cranberry concoction:

1 12 ounce package fresh whole cranberries
8 ounce cup strongly steeped Tazo Wild Sweet Orange Tea
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup orange marmalade
pinch of powdered ginger
1 teaspoon Sure-Jell fruit pectin (optional)

Rinse cranberries and place in a medium saucepan.  Add tea and let cranberries simmer at a low boil until they begin to pop open, then stir in sugar.  Continue to stir and simmer for a few more minutes then add marmalade, ginger and Sure-Jell powdered pectin.  The fruit pectin isn't necessary but will give the cranberry sauce a bit more firmness; allow to cool and set before serving.

Pictured:  The Cranberry Pickers -- Eastman Johnson, 1879

anna, karenin and vronsky on a russian caravan

This featured tea and a book selection has been made super-simple by the fact that The Republic of Tea has a special Anna Karenina Russian Rose Caravan coming out along with the latest film version of the famed Tolstoy novel.  The movie stars Keira Knightly, Jude Law and Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the main leads, and the screenplay adaptation is by Tom Stoppard, which should be quite interesting.  But beyond the movie is the very long book known as Anna Karenina, which probably should be read at least once in a lifetime, perhaps even during the upcoming holidays when contemplating one's own family gathering and taking in that classic first line:

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

For more info on The Republic of Tea's Anna Karenina blend and to see a clip from the movie, click here.

mumbai mocha

Check out this short write-up from Vogue India about the first Starbucks in India now open in Mumbai.  Featuring American waiters and American "super-size" portions along with the usual Starbucks offerings -- and just like the American Starbucks phenomenon, more of the Seattle-based coffee (and tea and so on) spots are scheduled to open in Mumbai within the week.  They do tend to multiply like caffeinated rabbits!  

the (be)witching hour

I really love epicurious.com and Douglas Little's suggestions for a more sophisticated (sorry, kids) Halloween party, featuring an upscale Witches' Sabbath theme for the evening.  Click here for details, and while the theme is indeed witchery, perhaps a bottle or two of Vampire Wine can be served?  And if you're at such a party drinking coffee in the wee hours to sober up before heading home and cream curdles in your cup, there may be a real warlock among the guests.  Or the cream just might be past its prime but it seems much more interesting to have a Halloween warlock around.

(Pictured:  The Black Cat -- Gino Severini, 1911, Wikimedia Commons)

cake and tea and withnail

This is one of my favorite movies ever but I'm not sure that the joy of tea was fully appreciated by Mr. Withnail and Mr. I in this scene at the Penrith.  Yet everyone else stayed unflappably British and not a tea cup was broken nor any jars of lemon curd disturbed.  But, according to this great website detailing the major filming locations of Withnail & I, this quaintest of tearooms doesn't even exist and is instead a chemist's shop.    

the power of tea

Steam rises from a cup of tea and we are wrapped in history, inhaling ancient times and lands, comfort of ages in our hands.

Faith Greenbowl

Pictured:  The Samovar -- William McGregor Paxton, 1926 (Wikimedia Commons)

maybe at a walgreens near you?

I noticed last week that one of the downtown Chicago Walgreens had a variety of de LISH brand teas for sale, including English Breakfast, Roobois Chai Spice, Acai Pomegranate Blueberry Green and Peppermint.  All at $2.99 for a box of 20 bags.  Nice price and variety, but I haven't been able to find anything beyond the English Breakfast on-line or at other Walgreen's stores.  So I'm not sure if we're a test market or these other kinds of tea are being discontinued.  Nonetheless, the de LISH Peppermint has a pleasant zing and scent, and it's always a good idea to have herbal peppermint tea in the house for upset stomachs or stuffy noses or just a calmly uplifting way to start or end the day.  Also a great tea to pair up with any form of dark chocolate.

tea cuisine

I'm really enjoying Tonia George's Tea Cookbook:  Sweet and Savory Recipes for Tea Lovers (Ryland Peters & Small, 2008).  Beyond tea-time treats of Earl Grey Biscotti and Chocolate Oolong Tea Loaf, there are main course recipes like Green Tea, Tofu, Noodle and Cress Soup, Mint Tea Couscous, and a Tea-Smoked Sea Trout that uses the rich flavor of Lapsang Souchong, which is indeed a smoky leaf.  There are quite a few other innovative recipe ideas as well, though it is a slim volume of just about 65 pages.  But surely well worth the current price of $5.18 on Amazon, especially because it has what so many of us who love cookbooks crave, i.e., beautifully-styled photos, these in particular by Martin Brigdale.  Another great thing about the book (besides the Chamomile Hot Toddy and Blackberry Tea Vodka) is that it puts you in the mindset of cooking with tea and using it in unique culinary ways, which truly does open up a whole new tea-flavored world.  There are lengthier tea cookbooks to aspire to, like Cynthia Gold and Lise Stern's Culinary Tea: More Than 150 Recipes Steeped in Tradition from Around the World, or Robert Wemischner's Cooking with Tea, but as just a simple intro this is a good bet -- and my copy is already being coveted by friends and family, tea-drinking or not.

tea with gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is a classic of course, and soon to be a movie again, but it's also a wonderful summertime read.  It takes place in the summer; it has gorgeous summer imagery along with irony and occasional humor; and it has a tea scene that's pivotal to the plot.  When Daisy and Gatsby reunite after so many years, it's at Nick's not so lavish little rented house in the shadow of Gatsby's mansion.  And it's for the pretense of tea, and since the tea is at Nick's it probably wasn't much more than orange pekoe with lemon slices and sugar cubes.  Not champagne, not bootleg gin, just tea.  Then "[a]mid the welcome confusion of cups and cakes a certain physical decency established itself", and fates really start to intertwine.  You might want to try the iced version of the classic pekoe tea and lemon while reading or rereading The Great Gatsby, like maybe the old standards of Lipton or Red Rose, brands that had and have been around since the late 19th century.  But just remember, you can drink the old school brew but you can't repeat the past, old sport, no matter how you try.

Pictured:  Deco Tea by Michael L Kungl -- click here to buy a copy of your own at art.com!

three's a cocktail

Got lemons, limes and oranges?  Gin and raspberries?  Extra basil from your garden or windowsill?  Then whip up this Three Citrus Basil Cocktail from Vegetarian Times (click here for recipe) -- it's both healthy and deliciously intoxicating, especially on a summer's day.

(Pictured:  Lemons and Mandarines -- Louis Valtat, 1902)(image from the-athenaeum.org)

tea time and tee time

Winnie the Pooh author A.A. Milne said it best when he noted how one of the fun things about being disorganized is always making exciting discoveries in your own cluttered little world.  Like while cleaning out stacks of old magazines, I found an issue of the lovely TeaTime  from two years ago, featuring its enticing Golfer's Tea.  It's a black and green tea blend with lemon (click for the recipe), sort of in the realm of the Arnold Palmer iced tea/lemonade classic but I'd guess the jasmine green and mint give it a nice twist.  TeaTime's Fruit Shots sound like a delicious and healthy pair-up with a chilled glass of Golfer's Tea, whether you're out there on the links or whether you're like me and have no idea where the nearest course is....

how coffee revolutionized the world

Coffee:  thought-provoking, enjoyed by goats, and it helps keep gout away!

brave brew

One of The Republic of Tea's latest offerings celebrates Brave, Disney/Pixar's upcoming animated venture about a 10th century Scottish lass named Merida caught up in her own quest for identity.  Brave Orange Caramel Red is a roobois paired with the promised citrus and caramel flavors, the orange and roobois combo perhaps complementing Merida's mane of fiery hair.  Click here for The Republic of Tea's Brave link, and to watch a wee bit of the movie....

a twist on lemonade

June is National Iced Tea Month (as opposed to January, which is National Hot Tea Month), and then there's always the warm weather classic:  a tall cool glass of lemonade.  Next time you make a pitcher of lemonade, however, think about substituting one cup of well-steeped, chilled Tazo Cucumber White for a cup of water.  It tones down the lemonade's sweetness with a nice herbal cucumber note, as does adding a garnish of fresh basil or rosemary, or even a slice of cucumber along with a wedge of fresh lemon.

Spring being a tough act to follow, God created June.  -- Al Bernstein

Pictured:  Still Life with Lemons on a Plate -- Vincent van Gogh, 1887 (Van Gogh Museum/Wikimedia Commons)

here is wherever you need to be

Found written on a napkin at the Starbucks by the Randolph Street Metra stop, Chicago, IL:

not happy here, but is it me or here?

It's an underground Starbucks near a train station and I think that leads to deeper thoughts...and of course no one is suggesting that Starbucks itself was causing the unhappiness. More likely it merely provided the beverage to stimulate such reflective thoughts, and the kindly recycled napkin to write out a question that we've probably all asked ourselves at some point in time. 

Pictured:  Woman in a Café (Jean-Louis Forain, circa 1885) from www.the-athenaeum.org

bustelo and the beats

It's hard to resist Café Bustelo, both for the rich flavor and because it comes in that wonderful red and yellow can that always seems to brighten up wherever it goes.  Also, Café Bustelo makes me think of an excerpt from The Portable Beat Reader that describes the creative process behind Brenda Frazer's Troia:  Mexican Memoirs (first published in 1969 under the name Bonnie Bremser).  As Brenda/Bonnie detailed: "...discipline consisted of copying my favorite author, Kerouac, and adapting a ritualistic existence centered around the daily hour or so of actual writing.  I had only my memories, and recalling them was part of the creative atmosphere I set for myself ...I lived on Café Bustelo, beans, and rice."  Café Bustelo has Cuban origins but it also comes in a Mexican-style instant version, which might have been just as appropriate a beverage for the writing of Mexican Memoirs.  And true Beat fans might consider fixing a cup of Bustelo and reading Troia: Mexican Memoirs themselves, because the story is autobiographical and intense and as fascinating as any of the doings of Beat Generation men.

violet spring

We were delighted and confused by a week of summer-like weather here this past March, and it also delighted and confused all the lawn violets into blooming much earlier than usual.  Violets have their beautiful shady purple-indigo color and fragrance, of course, and they can add a unique flavor to tea -- especially tea served in the springtime.  Kusmi Tea offers a violet blend, as does Dammann Freres at Formaggio Kitchen.  And Simpson & Vail infuses black Rose Congou with violet for some impressive flower power. A plate of lemon tartlets topped by either candied or fresh violets would complement the perfumey base of the tea as well as offering a nice bright visual counterpart.


(Pictured:  Violet -- Mary Eaton, 1917, Wikimedia Commons)

Tea Cup Ballet -- Olive Cotton, 1935 

(image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

get your irish up

It's quite a success story how a wave of immigrants -- once described as potato-eating savages by many 19th century folks living in the U.S. at the time -- made it to become an established part of America.  By equal parts hard work and corruption, the Irish found their place here and have shaped the nation -- and they've also given us our annual March 17th holiday of St. Pat's.  Along with slabs of corned beef and cabbage, green beer, Guinness and parades, most of which have little to do with St. Patrick himself but hey, it's really a spring holiday, not a religious lesson.  In terms of tea, the native Irish love their Assam-based brew (and not just at breakfast, even though it's often referred to as Irish Breakfast blend), and of course there's Irish coffee as well.  Americanized Irish coffee nowadays is essentially a concoction of coffee, whiskey or Baileys crowned by frothy aerosol-whipped cream and served in small-handled glasses.  In reality, however, the drink involves strong coffee, brown sugar, whiskey, and a head of thick, pure, straight cream that creates a top layer to sip the rest of the beverage through.

As someone with a twinkle of Irish heritage, my favorite things about St. Pat's are soda bread with tea and lemon and McDonald's Shamrock Shakes.  It's hard to resist the Shamrock Shake's deliciously-colored excess of pale minty green milkshake, white whipped cream and a red maraschino cherry, available only around this time of year -- and when you think of all the calories involved that's probably a good thing.  There are recipes a-plenty to make Shamrock Shakes at home, but considering that mega-calorie count it's better to get one for the road and to walk alongside your local St. Patrick's Day parade marchers, sipping thickly through your straw and contemplating how the Irish have truly triumphed from famine to feast.

cafe couple

At the Cafe -- Felix Vallotton, 1909 (from the-athenaeum.org)

red eye and late nights

Instead of the usual tea and a book feature, this month maybe coffee and a book would be better -- namely two Chicago gems like Stewarts' Red Eye Coffee and Nelson Algren's Never Come Morning.  The Stewart Coffee Company has been around since 1913, and Stewarts' Red Eye blend came about when Stewarts was given a top secret World War II military assignment of creating a brew to keep U.S. fighter pilots alert and at their sharpest.  Around the same time, Chicago author Nelson Algren was prowling the streets of the northwest side following the mostly troubled lives of characters like Bruno Bicek, Steffi Rostenkowski, Momma Tomek and Catfoot Nowagrodski.  Algren's realistic yet finely worded style and his compassion for those who can never quite seem to get on the right side of the tracks is best known in his later novel, The Man with the Golden Arm, but Never Come Morning is an equally worthy read.  And I'm guessing he drank many a cup of coffee in late night vigils while watching the happenings around the Division, Milwaukee and Ashland triangle -- or while typing his long manuscripts -- and I'm sure he would have appreciated a dose of Red Eye had it been available to him at the time.  Fortunately, it's available to us all now and it also has a great coffee can design.

happy argo day

If you were born today, you're an Aquarius, you share a birthdate with famous folks like the late Paul Newman and the living Ellen DeGeneres and David Strathairn, and if you live near an Argo Tea Cafe and belong to their LoyalTea Club, you can get a free small drink from their extensive menu.  If you were born tomorrow, you're still an Aquarius and you can still get the free birthday drink.  And so on.  Birthdays come but once a year, so choose wisely.  And if it's not your birthday or you don't live near an Argo, you can still listen to their online radio playlist anytime you please.


Pictured:  Two Women in a Cafe -- Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, ca. 1927

keep calm and drink tea

A $3.99 purchase at TJMaxx.  We are most amused.

tea and chinoiserie

Teavivre.com was nice enough to send me some samples of tea all the way from China (as Leonard Cohen says) and I hope to start reviewing them soon.  I've already tried their Unbridled Love Fruit Tea, because it's got a name that's hard to resist and is a tangy-sweet blend of apples, rose hips, orange peel and black currants.  Liked it very much and will have another cup or two around Valentine's Day.

A major Chicagoland celebrity tea happening comes from Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, who recently announced plans to open a 1930s French Chinese decor tea house in Highland Park at the former Ravinia Station post office.  With a varied selection of teas and and tea treats, including vegan options and coffee on the menu amidst probably what will be a really lovely setting.  

Pictured:  Tea caddy, Chinese, circa 1780, with caddy spoon by silversmith Elizabeth Morley, 1805. Exhibit in the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis (Daderot photo from Wikimedia Commons)

kwik and keurig

A popular gift this holiday season seemed to be the Keurig brand of coffeemaker, which I love the convenience and variety of but I'm still not fully on-board with the taste.  There's just something a bit unfinished and forced about the brew, but if you have only two minutes to make coffee in the morning rush and one person wants Tully's French Roast and the other Green Mountain Dark Magic, this is probably the best option.

There are also reusable K-Cups for your own blend, or disposables for tea, hot cider and hot chocolate -- the latter reminding me of childhood ice skating memories from a rink where there was a rundown but wonderful hot chocolate machine that spurted out a syrupy brown cup of cocoa after a great deal of wheezing and rattling and whirring.  The Gloria Jean's French Vanilla K-Cup fills the room with a distinct aroma that takes me back to how the forever-brewing pots of flavored coffee at the Wawa at 17th and Arch in Philadelphia used to smell (and probably still do).  And then there's the Donut Shop experience, which allows me to remember a lackluster temp job and a nearby now-closed Dunkin Donuts by the CTA's Clark/Lake Blue Line station, with its tasty cranberry-orange muffins and staunch refusal to ever honor Dunkin Donuts gift cards.  All this making the Keurig not just a coffee machine, but a fast as lightning beverage time travel chariot as well....

best wishes for a fruitful new year full of good news and fine champagne

Still Life with Fruit, Champagne Bottle and Newspaper -- William Michael Harnett, 1881 (image courtesy of the-athenaeum.org)