Update on Japanese Tea Garden

The Japanese vendor will be taking over the tea house! (See my previous entry here) I simply must visit once the change is made and see for myself.

Happy 20th Choice Teas!

Happy anniversary to Choice Teas! I enjoyed many a cup of Lavender Earl Grey Choice Tea at Kiva Han Café while at school in Pittsburgh, but I didn't know until yesterday that Choice was the first exclusively organic and fair trade tea company in the US. Hooray! They even buy wind power to make up for the electricity they use. Rock on, Choice, and happy birthday!

Current Tea Trends

A few fabulous tea trends were on display at the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco recently. According to a lucky correspondant (how do I get a job that sends me to Fancy Food Shows?) who attended the conference, some of the trends include:

• Teas meant for booze: bags that are steeped in alcohol, then mixed with other ingredients. (!!) The "mojito mint" as described is steeped in rum, then mixed with mint leaves, sugar, etc. This sounds awesome, as far as I'm concerned, but I'm not sure how well tea would steep if the alcohol were cold! I've always wanted to try making tea cocktails, though. These cocktail teas are made by Zhena's Gypsy Tea (previously known to me only as "one of those expensive tea companies") and will be available at Whole Foods.


• Tea in bar form. As in, power bars. Weird?


• Special iced tea brewing pitchers that have separate compartments for ice and hot tea, which are then mixed. Nice!

Some tea trends I'D like to see:

• Affordable teapots like coffeepots that brew strong tea and keep it warm all day. Maybe these exist, but I haven't really found them.


• Mix-your-own tea stores with bins of leaves and flowers and flavorings.


• More tea-infused alcohols!


• Bottled UNSWEETENED tea like they have in Japan in vending machines.

Read the full story on tea trends at the Fancy Food Show here.

Tea on Valentine's Day

I had a Valentine's Day treat this past weekend — tea at the Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill! It's become quite the affair since I last had afternoon tea there...there was a special room and a dedicated tea hostess who waxed poetic about the tea my date chose (a coconut oolong which really was spectacular.) My tea, a mixture of green and black recreated from some 18th-century blend, failed to thrill her.

The treats were wonderful! We each got two cucumber sandwiches (the best I've ever had!), a roasted bell pepper sandwich, smoked salmon biscuits, raspberry gems (amazing! high-falutin' gum drops!), chocolate tartlets, shortbread cookies, chocolate-covered strawberries, and (of course) currant scones. It was super awesome.

Twitter Saves Indy Tea Shop

A Kansas tea shop owner thought that with the current recession, he would have to close his doors when his lease ran out in May. But when the whipper-snapper employees of Zoomdweebie's Tea Bar convinced their owner to put his store on Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter, business took off. His nationwide Twitter fans vote on what limited-edition teas he should blend every week. Could Twitter save other small independent stores struggling right now? If I ever get around to starting my tea room, I'll definitely have to get on Twitter!

Read the full story here.

New Owner for San Francisco's Japanese Tea Garden?

The Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park has always been one of my favorite spots to relax. I love wandering through the winding pathways, curved bridges, and manicured gardens and ponds that are dotted with flowers at all times of the year, thanks to San Francisco's constant climate. I always end my visit with a stop at the tea house for a pot of green tea and some sesame cookies. Now, however, it turns out a new buyer is making a bid to purchase the garden and turn it from what some consider a tourist trap into a more authentic Japanese traditional experience.

As someone who loves that tourist trap, I was kinda sad to hear this, until I read about what the new buyer would do. Carol Murata, who owns a café in Japantown, has promised to bring a $500,000 grant to improve the weathered garden, as well as to offer "authentic Japanese tea service and pastries, incorporate cultural events such as the Cherry Blossom Festival, sell goods made by Japanese artisans and feature traditional music demonstrations," according to a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle. Hey, sounds awesome. It's true that the current garden serves fortune cookies, which aren't super authentic, and sells some shlock in its gift shop.

The current owner, who's Chinese-American, cries racism, and so far city staff have recommended Murata. We'll see what happens!

You can read the whole story here.