Tea recipes from Food Network

For some reason, I started getting a free subscription to Food Network magazine last year, and I have really enjoyed it. And I'm enjoying the June issue even more because …

They have recipes for Iced Tea Mocktails and Cocktails! So if you're a Food Network fan, you might want to pick up this issue if you don't subscribe. I recently ordered an unsweet Arnold Palmer at Chick-fil-A (no problem, my friendly server said), so I am very interested in making the Green Tea Arnold Palmer (at far left). I need some fresh lemons first, though, so I'll be experimenting after I make a trip to the grocery store!

The "Running for Good" book goes to …

Susan K.! And I've just sent you an email so I can get this signed copy headed your way. Congrats!

Tin Roof Teas' Orange Creamsicle Tea

They say we eat with our eyes first, and I would like to offer a variation on that theme: we sip with our eyes first. Doesn't this tea with bits of orange peel and white chocolate look good enough to, well, eat?

It's one of my souvenirs from last week's trip to Raleigh, North Carolina, to attend my publisher's annual party. My four days in Raleigh were packed, with a bit of shopping, a lot of socializing, and much fun and games with my fellow authors. And once again, Alex and I made time for a side excursion to Tin Roof Teas, a tea shop I've visited for five years in a row. It's been ages since I had the pleasure of simply going in a tea shop and sniffing all those glorious samples of tea, so I certainly enjoyed myself. And this time, I came home with their Orange Creamsicle blend, which you can read about here.

When I was a little girl, those orange creamsicle ice creams on a stick were one of my favorite treats, and this tea captures the flavor beautifully and is my new favorite "dessert tea." It's a seasonal blend at Tin Roof Teas, so if you want to try it, you might want to act quickly. (And with their Priority Mail shipping being just $5, I've realized I need to be buying teas from them more than once a year!)

In honor of Memorial Day

A different kind of Tea With Friends giveaway!

 

Are you familiar with the Chicken Soup for the Soul books? Well, I have an essay coming out in this one, Running for Good, which will be published June 4. You'll note that the subtitle says "101 Stories for Runners & Walkers to Get You Going!" I am one of the walkers, and they have published my story about a little boy I met while walking in my neighborhood, Ethan, who helped me meet some of my neighbors who remain my walking buddies to this day.

This isn't a tea book, but at least one tea drinker (me!) appears in the book, so perhaps one of you would like an advance copy? Or maybe you have a runner or walker friend who would enjoy a signed copy? If so, just leave an "Enter me" to this post between now and 7 a.m. on Wednesday, May 29, making sure I have a way to contact you if you're the winner, and you'll be entered to win. Good luck!

A mystery in the new issue of Tea Time …

I always find so much to admire in a new Tea Time magazine, and the May/June 2019 issue has so many fun things … as well as a bit of mystery.

One mystery is the cozy mystery Chocolate Cream Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke, whose cozies I've read and enjoyed. I like how Tea Time is partnering with the book's publisher on "The Cozy Corner." That is just smart marketing for everyone.

But the mystery I'm most interested in? Where did they find the verrine glasses (a term I'd never heard before) on the second tier of this tea tray? I've looked on the resources page at the back of the magazine, but it doesn't list them. They'd have to be small to fit on the second tier of a tea tray, right? Have any of you heard of verrine glasses before?

And finally, I'll probably never have a tea for Cinco de Mayo, but I love these cute little seven-layer dips served in small glasses. Would you serve these at a fiesta tea?

A gift of tea & chocolate from afar

This teacup featuring Gustav Klimt's famous The Kiss comes from a totally unexpected source. You see, my husband has been ghostwriting a lot of books in recent years, and one of his current clients is an amazing woman from the Czech Republic. After they'd had a few meetings to discuss the book, he decided I should join them as well, and she and I hit it off over tea and coffee at an Atlanta café. She's got quite a story to tell, and part of it involves regular trips back home. When Alex and I met with her last week, she had this surprise for me!

This is definitely a teacup and saucer I didn't have in my collection, and I am fascinated that famous artwork is featured on it. It's got a nice large cup that I've been sipping from all weekend, and I'm enjoying this set so much. (Also, it reminds me of that Helen Mirren movie I saw a while back, Woman in Gold, which focuses on another famous Klimt painting that was stolen by the Nazis. Did any of you see it? I will always be fascinated by art and the mystique surrounding it.)

I'm even saving the satin-lined box the teacup and saucer came in, as I can't think of anything more appropriate for storing the art supplies I'm assembling as I get back into cardmaking and papercrafting.

And did you know that "Praha" is Czech for "Prague"? This new friend also brought back two large chocolate bars for Alex and me, and I claimed the white one, which is just so decadent and delicious. I'm again reminded of how incredibly blessed I am, and I marvel that tea (and chocolate!) is a love language spoken all over the world.

A thrifty new infuser mug for the office

Yesterday was a "book homework" day for me, one in which I sat at my computer, participated in a marketing webinar recommended by my publisher, and generally worked on the behind-the-scenes stuff that is required of authors these days. Necessary but not particularly fun stuff, in other words. You know what makes it better? A new tea mug! Downstairs, I generally sip out of bone china. But upstairs in my office, where desk space is valuable real estate, I don't need a saucer taking up space and instead use tea mugs. I found a new one (or perhaps a new "old" one) over the weekend at Goodwill. 

I couldn't quibble with the price. And hasn't Goodwill gotten fancy with their stickers! I just realized that I bought this tea mug the very day it is dated, so perhaps I got to it just before someone else did.

The two-piece set caught my eye immediately, and I love both the pretty seafoam-green color and the crackling, which I'm guessing is a design feature and not necessarily the result of age. And isn't that handle pretty? I love a handle like this because one finger can comfortably grip the inside while another perches on that little curve beneath it. 

The infuser appeared to be in great shape, and when I got it home and untaped the set, I was happy to find the infuser intact, since I always wonder whether the tape and stickers might be covering some flaw. I made a cup of oolong tea in this new mug and enjoyed several steepings of it thanks to the mug, which did a fine job of steeping my tea and made my day of work much more enjoyable than it might have otherwise been.

Do you suppose this is a Chinese or Japanese character? I have no idea, but I'd sure love to know who made my pretty and efficient little tea mug!

Brown Betty gets a makeover!

I have two Brown Betty teapots, a large one and a baby one, and thanks to sharp-eyed reader Diane, I have just learned that Brown Betty is getting a makeover!

After she sent me a link to an article on Brown Betty's redesign, I started to list all the things I learned, but honestly, I found so much new and intriguing information that I believe it's worth your while to read the full article. I won't spoil it for you by listing which of the teapot's new features I like best, but I'll bet you can guess, because they're probably the things you would like as well. Enjoy!

Read the article here on Atlas Obscura.

"Growing Your Own Tea Garden" by Jodi Helmer

It rained all weekend and I didn't get to play outside as I'd hoped, but I did take advantage of the rain to read a review copy of a new book I got from NetGalley, Growing Your Own Tea Garden by Jodi Helmer, and this is one of the first tea gardening books I've read that I believe would be useful even to those who have no intention of gardening but simply want to educate themselves.

The book opens with a brief history of tea, then it gives a good overview of selecting all the plants for the tea garden, from true tea plants (Camellia sinensis) to those "teas" made with leaves, flowers, fruits, and roots. "Some of the most popular 'teas' are not tea at all," Helmer notes. "True tea is made from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant; herbal teas, including popular brews such as chamomile and peppermint, are considered tisanes. Tisanes are made from ingredients such as herbs, flowers, fruits, bark, and roots but no white, green, black, or oolong teas."

The distinction is an important one to make, so even someone new to teatime will be clear about what is and isn't truly "tea" in the tea garden. I enjoy drinking tisanes as well as teas, and I learned a lot about the plants used to make tisanes (and flavor my Camellia sinensis) by reading this book. For instance, Helmer writes that "although bee balm smells like Earl Grey tea and was even used as a replacement for black tea after the Boston Tea Party, the essential oil used in the iconic tea is from a different plant." Doesn't that make you want to run out and get a bee balm plant?

Quite a few mints are featured in the book (along with the advice to plant them in pots so they don't overtake the garden), and readers will learn fun things like the fact that pineapple mint is a subspecies of apple mint, chocolate mint is a cultivar of peppermint, and 'Kentucky Colonel' mint is the cultivar preferred for mint juleps because of its large and attractive leaves.

For those of us who like the idea of making our own tisanes, Helmer has helpfully included lots of potential benefits as well as cautions for these plants. St. John's wort, for instance, is believed to be a natural antidepressant, yet it has been banned from products in France because of its potential interactions with certain medications, she says. Similarly, burdock is a plant which "might inhibit tumor growth," she notes, but it's also a diuretic and should be used carefully. The section on these plants was one of the most useful parts of the whole book and makes an excellent starting point for anyone who does wish to use tisanes to benefit their health.

The book also includes tips for harvesting plants, recipes for blending them, some suggestions for tea garden designs, and a resource list for further study. A quick, entertaining, and highly useful read, Growing Your Own Tea Garden is sure to get lots of tea drinkers reaching for their spades and shovels.

An unexpected teacup collector

Occasionally, I find articles pertaining to teatime when I'm not even looking for them, and that was the case when I sat in bed the other night and perused the new issue of Country Gardens.

Inside was a feature called "His & Her Anthology, about a husband-and-wife team who serve as historic interpreters at Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts, which I've not visited but have certainly heard of. One of them collects teacups, and one of them collects antique garden tools. But can you guess who collects what?

I was intrigued to learn that Bruce Craven collects antique transferware, especially those teacups with an agricultural motif. His wife, Christie Higginbottom, collects the garden tools. I'd never thought of "agricultural motifs" as something to look for, and I love knowing that a man in Massachusetts has this particular teacup-gathering interest, resulting in a collection of some 200 teacups. Other than a few tea wares with handwriting on them, I can't think of any particular "motif" I collect. Do you have a specialty?

A Shabby Chic Tea Time Table

A few years ago, a dear friend who shares my passion for all things Rachel Ashwell recorded and shared episodes of Rachel's Shabby Chic program on the Style Network, which I couldn't access through my cable provider. I so enjoyed those old videos, though the only ones I ever saw were the ones my friend thoughtfully shared.

I follow Rachel Ashwell on Instagram, and I recently learned there that her old TV programs are now available on YouTube. Naturally, I trotted right on over there to check them out, and I was delighted to find one about teatime! Since so many of us who love tea also love the Shabby Chic look, I wanted to be sure you knew about her programs on YouTube, and this brief segment from one episode is a fine place to start.

Enjoy!

Some things that are vintage …

No, this teacup isn't vintage, but it sure looks it, doesn't it? It's one of the things I bought with the T.J. Maxx gift card my sister gave me for my birthday. (And wow, how did she know I love T.J. Maxx?) Speaking of things that are vintage, I turned 55 on Saturday, and I am looking forward to seeing a few of those senior discounts kick in. If you know of a good one, please share!

This saucer is so pretty, it would even look nice hanging on the wall.

And like the truly vintage teacup I found last weekend, this one features flowers inside the cup as well as on the saucer. I absolutely loved this teacup from the moment I spotted it, and my only decision was whether I wanted the exterior to be this aqua color or a salmon pink (which was a close second). They also had versions with bubblegum pink and yellow exteriors, and for a ridiculous moment, I thought about getting all four with my gift card, but I decided that would be overkill.

So now I'm happily enjoying my tea in this lovely cup and saucer, which has a nice wide handle and is a pleasure to sip from.

And while I've noted that Grace's Teaware has made lots of teacups at T.J. Maxx in recent years, I was surprised that this one  truly feels like old bone china. 

When I got home from shopping, I sent my sister a cellphone picture of what she bought me, representing what I consider the three major retail food groups: clothes, jewelry, and tea wares!

"Tea Timer's Best Recipes"

I don't normally look through the many community cookbooks when I'm browsing through the stacks at Goodwill, but this one caught my eye the other day.

Tea Timer's Best Recipes, it said, and with the Old Country Roses on the cover, I knew this book was going home with me before I ever turned the page.

Douglasville, Georgia, is just about 30 minutes north of my house in Newnan, and I love knowing that the "Tea Timers" there had (or perhaps still have) a monthly tea. Most of the recipes appear to be simply the members' favorites, not teatime recipes, but there is a brief section of "This & That." It includes recipes for Carrot Cake Tea Sandwiches, in which a carrot and cream cheese mixture is served on cinnamon raisin bread, and Doris's Cucumber Sandwiches. Doris used vanilla yogurt along with cream cheese and toasted the bread on her sandwiches. I am going to have to give these a try just out of curiosity!

Community cookbooks like this one are always fun to read, because they're not just the stories of food but also the stories of people—and a group of tea-loving women, in this case. Do you own any/many community cookbooks? Have a favorite?

A new green tea to love: Thé du Louvre from Palais des Thés

Paris has been on lots of minds around the world recently following that horrible fire at Notre Dame on April 15, and now everyone is hopeful that one of the world's great historic sites will be restored in a timely manner. This week, I'm thinking of another Paris landmark since Palais des Thés was kind enough to send me a sample of their new Thé du Louvre Garden Tea to sample.

I'm mesmerized by the design on the pretty tin.

When I opened it, I thought, "Cool! A plastic liner to keep the tea from spilling out." Oh, how many times I've lost a few ounces of tea during an overly enthusiastic tin opening.

And see that tab on the right? It means that I will never accidentally spill this tea upon first opening it, and I think this new packaging is simply brilliant.

Brilliant is also a good word to describe this gourmet green tea blend featuring notes of apple, plum, and quince, which Palais des Thés aims to make us recall "a stroll through the Tuileries Garden." This is one of two new blends that pay tribute to the Louvre (I'll also be trying the other one soon), and they're being released just as the museum celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Louvre Pyramid.

This is the tea I've been sipping all week in my new green teacup, and oh, is Thé du Louvre delicious! The scent and taste of the tea are so light and fruity that I find myself pausing just to inhale the steeped tea before I sip it—it's that good. Are you looking for a new green tea to try, one that evokes memories of Paris in springtime and that will get you drinking more green tea? Then I heartily recommend this one, and you can find it here.