Teatime and electronics

Call me late to the party, but over the weekend, it dawned on me that after owning an iPhone for three-plus years, I should look for a tea-themed wallpaper for the homescreen. The Shabby Tea wallpaper is the one I chose, and I just love it!

You can find lots of these wallpapers—for iPhones, iPads, and more—on Pinterest. Here, I simply typed in keywords "teatime iphone wallpaper," and here are some of the images that came up. As you can see, the aqua and pink one appealed to me immediately, but there are lots of great designs to choose from. Do you have any tea wallpapers on your electronics?

Blueberry & Brown Sugar Muffins

My dad has been sending me home with lots of fresh blueberries lately, so when it was time to bake something for our Sunday School breakfast social over the weekend, I decided to experiment with a new muffin recipe.

I do love the taste of ripe, fresh blueberries oozing through a muffin, especially since the result looks like a nice and tidy little cobbler. I also like the crunch of brown sugar on top of a muffin, so …

I decided to add cinnamon to my blueberry muffins, top them with brown sugar, and the result was a muffin I believe I'll be enjoying for quite a while to come. Maybe you too?

Blueberry & Brown Sugar Muffins

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 large egg

1/3 to 1/2 cup milk (I used 2-percent milk)

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup fresh blueberries

About 1/3 cup brown sugar, or as desired

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a medium bowl, add flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon and mix well. In a 1-cup glass measuring cup, add the vegetable oil, egg, and enough milk to bring the total contents of the measuring cup to 1 cup. Add vanilla and blend well. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix lightly, just till combined. Fold in blueberries. Divide batter among paper muffin cups, sprinkle with a scant teaspoon or so of brown sugar, and bake for 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick or tester comes out clean. Yields 12 muffins.

My Country, 'Tis of Tea - Nevada

Did you know that "Nevada" is Spanish for "covered in snow"? And its nickname, it turns out, is "The Silver State" because of the Nevada silver rush days of the mid-1800s. Please remember these facts, as there may or may not be a pop quiz at the end of this year's Saturday series. (It may or may not involve a nice prize.)

• Davidson's Organic Teas is based in Reno, Nevada, and has an outlet store in Sparks, Nevada. Are you familiar with this company? A friend introduced me to Davidson's years ago, and I'll forever be a fan because of their amazing line of dessert teas, which are delicious herbal blends that taste like calorie-free desserts! In fact, I visited their website and saw they've added a few new flavors since I last tried them. If you'd like to check them out too, click here.

• Las Vegas, Nevada, is the site of the World Tea Expo. This year's expo just wrapped up, and the next one is set for June 12-15, 2017 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. According to worldteaexpo.com, this event is "the epicenter of the North American specialty tea market (and) serves the $8 billion US tea industry. Specialty/premium tea is driving this growth and holds nearly 60% of the marketshare today; it remains the main focus of products, services and education at World Tea Expo." I think it's also worth noting that the United States League of Tea Growers had its founding meeting at a World Tea Expo in Las Vegas, the one in June of 2013, so a lot of great things related to tea and teatime come out of these expos. 

• Herbal teas were used as remedies in 19th century Nevada. Actually, herbal teas have been used as remedies in lots of places, but I read about these particular ones in the book "The Healers of 19th-Century Nevada" by Anton P. Sohn. If you'd like to see what Indian tea or Mormon tea (Ephedra Nevadensis) was used to cure, I'm not going to type the words here — not because I'm scandalized by the words themselves but simply because of all the unwanted spam I'm afraid would land in my blog comments —you may click here to find out for yourself!

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Peach Tulsi Tea from Divinitea

After trying a disappointing peach-flavored tea earlier this week, I was only too happy to experience a nice fruity taste in this tea I recently received as a sample. Tulsi, also known as Holy Basil, is said to be revered in India as a sacred, healing herb. This Peach Tulsi Tea blend from Divinitea contains organic black tea, organic purple tulsi, organic orange peel, and natural peach and orange flavor.

The tea looks very much like a rooibos, doesn't it?

The nice coppery brew that resulted was a perfectly satisfying cup of tea, with a light (but distinct) peach taste, a soft sweetness, and its flavor reminded me of a rooibos as well. A pleasant end to the week in tea-tasting!

Teatime at the Waldorf Astoria … a hundred years ago

Each week, as I'm looking up info on the history of tea and teatime in America, I come across great old images that I love to share. I'm so grateful to find these images in the public domain, and I also think some of these images might find their way onto tea party invitations, tea tote bags, tearoom walls, and who knows where else!

The 1914 image up top is from a menu at the Waldorf Astoria, and here is the inside of the menu. I'm surprised to find that tea was 25 cents per person (pretty pricey for back in the day), and I'm also surprised to see "Buds of Formosa Tea (Oolong)" and "Garden Young Hyson (Green)" teas on the menu. Are you?

But the menu item that puzzled me most was under the heading "Hot," and it reads, "Clear Green Turtle in Cups." I'm guessing this is turtle soup, and if so, no thank you. I'll stick with a pot of tea and one of the French pastries, perhaps the Choux Chocolat. (And I'm amused that the French pastries included "Southern Waffles.") So what would you order?

When good teas go bad …

So the grocery store had this Tazo Organic Peachy Green flavor of tea on sale for just $2.99 a box this week, and I thought I'd give it a try. A blend of green and black teas with peach flavor? Sounded interesting.

"Flowery peach and delicate cucumber notes," it said. A) I want my cucumber in sandwiches, not my tea and B) Peach and cucumber? I didn't read that part or I might not have been so quick to purchase this bargain tea.

But here's the thing: this tastes like plain tea. No peach flavor that I could detect, and certainly no cucumber. It's not bad, exactly, and maybe it was simply past its sell-by date, but it's just not the flavorful tea I paid for and expected to sip. So this will go into my "mystery iced tea" collection. This summer, I've been having a fun time using up bits of leftover teas and blending a new iced tea every few days. I've sipped iced greens and blacks and rooiboses, and occasionally I've even blended plain black and green teas with some fruit-flavored tea bags. It's not a bad way to use up tea that's lost its luster. Like this one. What do you do with old or less-than-sparkling teas? Do you ever make iced tea with them?

Garnier Whole Blends Shampoo and Conditioner with Green Apple and Green Tea Extracts

Unable to find my usual shampoo and conditioner this weekend, I searched Kroger for something new and came across the Garnier Whole Blends Shampoo and Conditioner with Green Apple and Green Tea Extracts.

I wasn't too crazy about the scent of some shampoo I bought recently, so I decided that since these products were on sale (two for $7), they would be worth a try. First, however, I sniffed, and the scent was light and lovely, so these jumped into my grocery cart.

And, indeed, both products list "camellia sinensis leaf extract" as an ingredient. The conditioner also left my too-dry hair feeling nice and soft, so I was grateful to have come across these new haircare products!

Hallmark's Tea Time Ornaments by Tracy Larsen

In January, an old college friend sent me a picture of some new Hallmark ornaments that were being planned for 2016, this time with a tea theme. Then last week, tea friend Donna Z. alerted me to the arrival of the ornaments and thoughtfully sent me a coupon via email. Since I just happened to be by a Hallmark store at the mall on Saturday, I made my first tea-themed ornament purchase of 2016, and I was so happy!

These ornaments by Tracy Larsen are the first in a five-part series, and I can't wait to collect them all! Each year's design will feature a teacup and teapot. And I don't know if this will hold true for all of them, but I was surprised to learn these ornaments are porcelain and not plastic!

When I got home with my ornament "Dreambook" from Hallmark …

I realized that perhaps I shouldn't have been so hasty about picking up my Tea Time ornaments and running. Turns out, there's also a miniature fairy with a teapot …

And a full-size Mickey and Minnie in the famous spinning teacup! So if you're into tea-themed ornaments of any sort, Hallmark has something for us all this year, I'd say!

My Country, 'Tis of Tea — Nebraska

So are there any fun tea tidbits to know about the 37th state to be admitted to the Union?

Of course there are!

• An 1888 photo I found on the Library of Congress website made me smile. When researching each state, I always type in the name of the state and the word tea ("Nebraska tea," in other words), and this is the only photo that popped up in the digital photo archives at loc.gov. The summary for the photo read, "The little girl to the right holds a doll and is displaying her toy tea service." That appears to be true, but wow, what a glum bunch of folks! The photo is said to have been taken in either "east Custer County or East Rosevale, Garfield County, Nebraska." If you could write a caption for this photo, what would it say? I think mine would be something like, "Great. Another day of the Pony Express showing up with no package of lemon curd." Your turn.

• My interest in old department store tearooms continues, and another of the ones I've read about was the tearoom of the old Miller and Paine Department Store in Lincoln, Nebraska. The store was founded in 1880 and acquired by Dillard's in 1988. The dish above is one I found online several years ago, marked, "Made expressly for Miller & Paine, Inc., Lincoln, Nebr." The 5 x 7-inch oval dish looks like just the sort of thing I imagine might have brought out a cinnamon roll or two to the ladies who lunched there. Miller and Paine was known for its cinnamon rolls, and in fact, a restaurant called Runza purchased the rights to the recipe and sells them today! So I don't have the recipe (and oh, I would dearly love to have it), but at least you can go here to see what the cinnamon rolls look like — or to order some!

• Regional teas and tisanes are always a great source of interest, and this week I learned that in Nebraska, there is something called PurpleBerry tea that is a blend of white, green, and black loose leaf teas made with aronia berries, which are said to be packed with nutrients and antioxidants. You can check out the PurpleBerry Facebook page here to learn more. A fun find!

A great new green tea from Teavivre

Taking another break from fruity iced teas, I decided to try one of the new samples I recently received from Teavivre, their Nonpareil Te Gong Huang Shan Mao Feng Green Tea. 

As soon as I opened the package, I realized I was smelling a very fresh tea with an aroma that reminded me of boiled vegetables. And I loved being able to see the fine little hairs on the tea leaves!

Tea is so full of pleasures. You get to admire the dry leaf, then you get to admire how beautifully it's transformed by the mere addition of some boiling water. And in this case, I then got the pleasure of savoring the rich, thick quality of this green tea, a smooth tea with what I call a buttery taste. I can't believe I once thought I didn't care for green tea, because a good green tea (or any good tea, really) is one of life's great luxuries, and this may well be my favorite green tea of the year so far!

July tea column in The Coweta Shopper

Here is my latest tea column in The Coweta Shopper, this time on my ongoing fascination with Blue Willow. Those of you in Coweta will find this in your mailbox this month, and if you live outside Coweta and would like to read it, just click here!

Twenty years ago, in Victoria magazine …

My old issues of Victoria magazine continue to bring me much pleasure, including this one, which, I realized, set me on a quest to find this very Wedgwood teacup and saucer bearing the handwriting of Josiah Wedgwood. I wouldn't obtain my teacup until almost 12 years after this issue of the magazine appeared, but at least now I know exactly how long I'd been searching for it! (Moral of the story: If you're looking for something, don't give up!)

The July 1996 issue contained so many goodies, I thought I'd take you down memory lane with me here. First of all, aqua blue glass canning jars are all the rage today, and you can find them lots of places, but I didn't realize Victoria featured one of the vintage versions (naturally) way back in 1996.

I feel as if I'm on a tea-spotting treasure hunt each time I look into one of these old issues of the magazine, and here, I found a teapot I don't recall seeing before, one the article said is by Walsh Trading Co.

But the teawares I loved most, clearly, were these teacups by Wedgwood, which from the get-go appealed to my writerly soul. I knew that it was a facsimile of Josiah Wedgwood's handwriting on them, but I did not know that ...



... the letter was originally penned by Wedgwood on Valentine's Day of 1774. So thank you, Victoria, for the lovely memories, and for inspiring the purchase of a teaware or two!

Tazo Chai Chocolate

After sorting some cards and letters over the weekend, I gathered up a nice stash of tea bags friends have included in recent months and started sampling.

One of the flavors new to me was this chocolate-flavored Tazo chai.

I've had Tazo teas plenty of times at Starbucks over the years, but I don't recall ever tasting a chocolate chai from Tazo before, and this one was great! It's a blend of black tea, cocoa, and chai spices, and it had such a sweet flavor that I would definitely consider this a dessert tea. After drinking so many fruity teas and iced teas lately, I found a cup of chocolatey black tea to be a delightfully tasty treat!

Happy Fourth of July!

My Country, 'Tis of Tea — Montana

Did you know that Montana women got the right to vote in 1914, six years before the country passed the Nineteenth Amendment? That's just one of the fun things I learned while researching tea-and-Montana this week…

• An article on the Montana.gov website says,"Montana’s pioneering legacy might conjure up images of a coffee pot always brewing to keep up with long days of hard work.  Sure, we love our coffee in Big Sky Country, but tea also has a warm spot in our hearts and regional history - and Riza Gilpin and Laurie Rennie are transforming custom-blended teas into a business success story in Big Timber, Montana.” In the article "Tumblewood Teas: Montana Success Story," Gilpin, one of the founders, notes her love of western history and shares that, when she began to research tea's legacy in the west, she found that "everyone had a great tea story, from sweet memories to stories about the treasured tea sets their families brought out to Montana when they came west generations ago." If you'd like to read more about these tea entrepreneurs in Montana, click here.

• "Butte, Montana. Tea Table at the Little Norway Knitting Club." That's the title of this 1942 image from the Library of Congress, part of the Farm Security Administration's Office of War Information Photograph Collection. According to some info I found at Montanawomen'shistory.org, Montana's ethnic women's groups gathered for a variety of reasons in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and they also provided "companionship in a strange new land, preserving and adapting ethnic traditions, and helping women become engaged citizens in their adopted home." And so the Little Norway Knitting Club gathered for tea. Look at the height of those cake slices on the left — yum! If I could time travel, I think I'd pop back there right now and say howdy. I bet they'd offer me some tea, don't you? 

• The most interesting tea-related news out of Montana, however, may well end up being the work of a Montana State University professor. MSU health and human development professor Selena Ahmed and other researchers in 2013 won a four-and-a-half-year, $931,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study "how long-term changes in weather and shifting patterns of precipitation impact the quality of tea, farming communities and land-use strategies." Ahmed has said she is "particularly interested in learning how the health benefits of tea are changing and what management practices can best reduce risks associated with producing and distributing tea." Her research has the possibility of affecting how crops are grown not only in Montana but also around the world. Normally, a press release about a grant would make my eyes glaze over, but I read every word of this well-written one by Anne Cantrell. If you'd like to read the piece for yourself, click here.

The gift of a charming new tea mug!

Last Saturday, I returned home from a day of shopping with my aunt but with nothing to show for my efforts save a few toiletries from Dollar Tree and a great new book — which it turned out I already owned. Sigh. (Yet another reason I really ought to catalog my books and have a list on my iPhone or something, but who has time for that?) So when I arrived back home and found THIS in my mail from tea friend Michele, I was extra delighted!

I really thought I'd seen just about every design of tea mug in existence, but this is one I'd not seen before, and I love it! I also love that it was "Printed and Decorated in Scotland," since I'm told my ancestors came to this country from Scotland and Ireland.

I'd never heard of McLaggan Smith Mugs or Samantha Morris before, but isn't this backstamp just delightful? Yet another reason I truly love my new tea mug!