teaspoons & petals

special delivery: tea of the month clubs

I can still recall moments of seeing boxes on the front stoop of my childhood home and anxiously awaiting the moment when my parents opened them. I was not overjoyed by the actual contents (a birthday gift or office supplies) but rather the excitement about the unknown. Even though I am now a little more cautious when opening boxes (especially when I am not expecting them) I still feel the same exhilaration.  My favorite packages are those that are filled with new teas to try. I have mastered the art of momentary super strength of ripping open the packages and then running to the kitchen to immediately brew. Lately, I have been rather intrigued by the thought of a "tea of the month club" as these packages combine the excitement of a tea delivery and the joyous moments of seeing what tea contents are inside to expand my tea palate. That being said, I am on a quest to find the best tea of the month club to join. So far I have done a bit of poking around and came across these options:

• Tavalon Tea offers various 6 month club options: variety tea. black tea. green/white/oolong tea. herbal tea. sommelier's choice tea. Two medium jars are mailed every other month. As an added bonus, Tavalon will also send their guide to tea with the first shipment.

• Harney & Sons offers two 12 month tea programs, loose tea or tea sachets. If you choose the loose tea option,  H&S will send you a 4oz on tea in a tin with info about the tea every month. The sachet option includes a "bulk bag of 50 tea sachets" each month.

• Teavana offers 6 or 12 months options. Each month you "will receive a selection of 3 teas (2 oz each) with a description of each." They even offer a list of the teas to expect each month.

• Adagio has both 6 and 12 month options, in which two 4oz. tea tins are mailed every other month. You can choose from flavored, herbal, decaf, black, and green/oolong clubs.

All of the options sound very enticing, although I have to admit I am most intrigued by Tavalon Tea's Sommelier's choice "best picks for the season." I would love to hear about your favorite tea clubs and any recommendations before I make a caffeinated commitment.

image courtesy of halfbisqued

the dance of the leaves

  While brewing a pot of iced tea in a transparent pitcher, I intently watched the tealeaves’ leisurely movements in the heated water. The longer I watched, the more the leaves seemed to move in a graceful manner. It was then that I truly experienced the dance of the tealeaves, a short-lived performance. The bits of leaves seemed to rise and fall and move around each other, an outbreak of dancers consuming the stage. The high-pitched song of the teakettle echoed in my mind as the tea leaves flurried about. Tiny leaves leapt through the caffeinated gravity. As soon as the shrill sound began to fade from my recent memory, the leaves began their slow ascend, their finale. A few lingered about; performing an encore of the steaping dance as the steam wisps slowly began to disappear. I couldn’t imagine a better way to spend the allotted brewing time, then watching the leaves dance in the water. Now it’s time to drink the masterpiece!   (I wish I had jumped to get my camera and capture the dance in my pitcher, however, I would not wanted to have missed a moment. I instead found an image that captured the beauty of the tea leaf immersed in water, post dance, maybe the final bow.) image courtesy of  Saad.Akhtar

tea bling

  I'm always on the look out for tea accessories that shake things up a bit. So when I came across this jewel shaped ice cube tray from fredflare.com, I fell in love. These icy jewels are perfect for iced tea served at any party. I think it's time that we ditch the squares and glam up our glasses of tea. Although the jewels don't look as perfect as those in the picture when made in your own freezer, they still gave my glass of tea some style. I recommend brewing some hibiscus tea to contrast the transparent gems. I love that there are more and more tea accessories that are turning stuffy parties into glam get-togethers with a side of caffeine. Now if we could only make actual diamonds in our freezer with this....   image courtesy of fredflare.com

if summer was an iced tea...

 

While spending a warm weekend with a friend, who is also a tea enthusiast, I was treated to her fabulous homemade iced tea. The best spot in her apartment is the kitchen table, as you can look into her kitchen and watch her creative culinary adventures.

I watched her peel fresh ginger and then place it in a pot filled with water. As the water began to heat up, the fresh, spicy scent of ginger filled her apartment. While the ginger water boiled, a pot of jasmine tea was blooming with flavor. She gently poured the cooled jasmine tea into a pitcher, squeezed some lime juice in and added some agave for slight sweetness. As the sweet, tart and floral flavors blended with one another, she carefully strained the whole pieces of ginger from the water, and then poured the subtly spicy liquid into the pitcher with the rest of the ingredients and filled it with ice.

The flavor was a beautiful surprise to my taste buds, as floral was balanced with tart lime, warming ginger, and sweet agave. This iced tea was truly refreshing and left my tongue with a flavor memory that my taste buds can't seem to forget (thankfully!).

This fresh iced tea truly captured summer flavors with citrus bursts, floral/grassy notes of jasmine tea, warmth of ginger, and sweetness of agave.

image courtesy of adamjtaylor