Grassroots Tea Zone Tonic

A few weeks ago when I wrote about one of my new tea cosmetic finds, a reader mentioned a particular tea soap she liked, and I knew this line of products was carried by the store Kohl's. Since we have one of these stores here in Newnan, I stopped by to look for the soap. While I didn't find that, what I DID find was this Grassroots Tea Zone face tonic with Sage, Mint and Green Tea. Since the Clinique toner I had been using was getting a little harsh, this $10 tonic seemed worth a try. After about two weeks of use, I'm happy to report that I love it! I noticed that in addition to green tea leaf extract, the tonic also lists maté extract as an ingredient.

While I was at Kohl's, I picked up their brochure about the entire Grassroots line of skin care products. These "naturally-sourced products" are custom blended from pure essential oils and don't contain animal ingredients, artificial colors or fragrances. Here, you can see the brochure page which includes "Feast Your Eyes" eye balm made with Green Tea.

After reading through the brochure, I found this line actually includes quite a few products made with tea. There is "Liquid Alarm Clock," a shower gel made with green tea and maté tea; "Your Cup of Tea," a bath infusion made with white tea; and "Time to Shine," a shampoo and conditioner made with maté herbal tea. There are also a few other hair styling products that include tea as an ingredient. If you don't have a Kohl's store to visit, you can find out more about these products at grassrootslife.com. Let us know if you try one of these and recommend it!

Getting a handle on teacup collecting

There is always more to learn about tea and teawares, as I learned from one of the two new (and free, might I add) books about cups and saucers I got the other day. Do
you have a great independent bookstore in your town? We do. It's called Scott's Bookstore, and it's on the Courthouse Square here in Newnan, Ga. Shop here and you get a little pink card where they write down the price every time you buy a book. After your 10th book, the average price is deducted from your next purchase. I fill up several of these a year and my inner thrifter LOVES going back in to get my free item. Last week, I headed to the sale table and came across these two books half-price, so I got them both for free and still had $4 credit on my card for next time. How cool is that? So now I'm the lucky owner of "Collectible Cups & Saucers" Books One and Two by Jim and Susan Harran.


I enjoyed seeing photos of all the cups and saucers, of course, but I must say I have never given much thought at all to the variety of handles on the cups, as shown on this chart in Book Two. Would you believe they list 15 different shapes for handles? Rather like one of those amateur birdwatchers in the forest, I've been having fun trying to identify how many of these "species" I may have, with names such as Broken Loop, French Loop, Ring, Kicked Loop, Serpent, Coiled, Kidney, Wishbone. Do you know the names of your cups' handle shapes? I certainly didn't, but I'm learning.

This is the Angular shape.

This is the Broken Loop shape. If you have one of the classic Old Country Roses cups and saucers, it has this shape of handle as well.

This is the French Loop shape.

This is the Loop shape handle. I have far more of these than any other type.

This is the Ring shape.

This is the Square/French shape. I hope you recognized some of the shapes from your own collection as well!

Supporting Operation Tea Time

Do you remember the scene in "Gone With the Wind" where, during the fundraising bazaar for the Confederacy, Rhett Butler is walking around collecting trinkets to benefit "The Cause" and Melanie Wilkes says "Here Captain Butler. Take my wedding ring. It may help my husband more OFF my finger." Remember Melanie's selfless action? Well, that's not me. I'm more like Scarlett, whose guilty conscience caused her to add her own wedding ring to the collection basket only after she saw Melanie do so. I have to confess I didn't exactly feel like selfless Melanie when I read on Tea Party Girl recently about Operation Tea Time, which is collecting teawares for a May 16 tea party to benefit wounded soldiers at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. "They'll get my teacups when they pry 'em out of my cold, dead fingers," I thought.

Well, not really. Actually, a few events conspired to make me decide to send a donation. First, I like Tea Party Girl, and since she recommended this project, I wanted to help. Next, a ministry I admire sent its new newsletter, and this one suggested that if we have a problem with greed (and I'm not necessarily saying I do, mind you), we should try giving something away to someone else. Even my teacups? Surely not!

But then I searched online and found this post (on page 3) showing a wounded soldier enjoying last year's tea. One look at that photo and I said yep, I want to be a part of that! Because I have been greatly blessed with tea things, I am sending these cups and saucers as my small little "thank you" to the soldiers. You can read more about this effort at operationteatime.org, and if you want to help, too, you can send your donation of cups and saucers, teapots, sugar bowls and/or creamers to: Operation Tea Time, P.O. Box 1355, Bronx, NY 10471. Deadline is May 5. I'm sure I'll even feel pretty good about giving away teawares once the post office pries them out of my hands ships them for me this morning!

A Vintage Tea Video!

Our thoughtful Tea With Friends reader Dana in Atlanta has shared a link to a wonderful 1946 video about arranging the tea table. Boy, does that type of film take me back to the educational filmstrips of elementary school. I remember the sound of that scratchy film projector ... even the jumps in the tape were just delightful. Enjoy! (And thanks for sharing, Dana. Love it!)

Go here to watch.

A fine straining solution

Do you love rooibos like I do? I don't think I've ever tried a rooibos I didn't like, and this one is Key Lime rooibos from Teavana. The only thing I *don't* like about rooibos is that the tea is too fine to be captured by most of the tea strainers I own. Sure, you can use a paper tea filter, but sometimes I just really want to see and sip the filtered tea. I've tried making it in a tea press, and that just resulted in a royal mess.

So I was particularly happy last weekend to find this mesh-style tea strainer and drip catcher at T.J. Maxx for just $4.99. It even has a design of the tea leaf on the handles of both pieces. I've got a similar mesh-style tea strainer with a teapot at the end of the handle, but the thing is several years old and is looking a little ragged for wear.

I'd love to hear what you use when making rooibos tea. Paper filter? Strainer? Tea press? And do you use different types of strainers for different types of tea? Any advice would be most welcome!

A New Tea Time Bracelet

Some weeks ago, I heard from an old friend "back home," Angie, who kindly wrote to tell me she had come across a new piece of jewelry she thought I would like. It was the "Tea Time" bracelet from Premier Designs jewelry, and she'd seen it in a catalog and wanted to pass along the info.

The name Premier Designs rang a bell, and I had a vague memory of going to a Premier Designs party at a friend's home once, but that had been years ago. Then I did a search on eBay, and there indeed was the bracelet, but the seller said in no uncertain terms that hers was a "smoking" home and that both she and her pets shed, and if we didn't like that, we shouldn't bid on her auction. "Well, allrighty then!" I thought, and I didn't! A couple of weeks went by and I got an e-mail from a co-worker. Her daughter was selling Premier Designs jewelry, she said, and there would be a brief jewelry showing in our break room at lunch that Friday. Perfect! And of course you know what I ordered!

This was a bit expensive for costume jewelry ($36), but I have to say I am very impressed with the quality of this piece AND the fact it comes with a lifetime guarantee, so I'm actually glad I didn't end up buying this cheaper on eBay. I like the antiqued look of the charms, the nice weight of the charms, and the fact some of the links have a rope-like finish. Bracelets are my favorite pieces of jewelry, and this one even comes with a teeny little spoon on the toggle clasp. It's the perfect thing to wear to teatime! (Thanks for the tip, Angie!)

The Art of the Tea Tin

A friend at work recently visited our local Chinese grocery to pick up something for a child's school project. Hearing her talk about the visit reminded me of when I discovered this place a while back, thrilled to find that in addition to bubble tea, they also carried many tasty and inexpensive teas in colorful boxes and tins. My favorite find was this 4 ounce tin of Jasmine Tea. It's delicious tea, it was just $1.85 (wouldn't these be great tea party favors?), and I even like the tin.

That set me to thinking about some of my other favorite tea tins. This one, from Whittard of Chelsea, once held Earl Grey Tea and is probably my favorite tea tin of all.

This pretty green tin is from Fortnum and Mason in London. Their new tea tins are lovely as well, but I'm partial to this older design in "Fortnum and Mason green," which I realized is as iconic over there as "Tiffany blue" is here.

And chocolate rose tea is in this blue MarieBelle Tea tin, whose design I like as well. I've seen empty tea tins used as flower containers and makeup brush holders, but I seem like to mine best on display above the kitchen cabinets where I can see them frequently. How do you use your old tea tins?

Pairing tea with food

First, let us note that Teresa got it right in her comment yesterday, and oolong is the tea sometimes referred to as "blue tea" because of the tint of the dried leaf. Add that to white tea, green tea, black tea, red tea (or rooibos) and yellow tea (dried similar to green tea, but with a slower drying time), and you can see we have a veritable rainbow of teas from which to choose! And speaking of choosing tea, I have a most interesting new book some of you may want to check out for its information on choosing which tea to pair with various foods.

It's called "What to Drink with What you Eat: The Definitive Guide to Pairing Food with Wine, Beer, Spirits, Coffee, Tea - Even Water - Based on Expert Advice from America's Best Sommeliers" by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page. Since I care only about the tea, I was a little concerned about whether the book would be useful enough to add to my tea library, and it very much is. For one thing, I learned the author's three rules for pairing foods: 1) Think Regionally: If it grows together, it goes together. 2) Come to your Senses: Let your five senses guide your choices. 3) Balance Flavors: Tickle your tongue in more ways than one.

One concise chart in the book gives some very general but very helpful direction on pairing the right tea with the right food based on the food's volume. Here's what the authors recommend: Green tea - Pair with fish, shellfish, vegetables. Oolong tea - Pork, poultry, veal. Black tea - beef, game, lamb. And the six teas they say should be in the well-stocked tea cupboard? A breakfast blend or black tea, Assam, oolong, Chinese green, Japanese Sencha green, herbal. And pages 268-272 are entirely devoted to lists of teas and their suggested food pairings, so as you can see, I have found this to be a very useful book.

Singing the blues

The big news at my house this weekend was that while I was away shopping with my mother on Saturday, my sweet husband was busy painting the living room and dining room that pretty blue color I've been wanting for so long. (Although I volunteered to hang around and supervise, he was strangely insistent that I carry on with my usual plans.) And he did a great job! For anyone who's in the market for a nice blue, I am thrilled to report that Lowe's Seaside Retreat collection has a great color called Porch Swing, and the walls look exactly like the paint chip. Cool!

We kept the tan color above the white chair rail, so the blue appears only on the bottom half of the walls. Here, we like how it brings out the blue tinting on this antique photo of DH's Uncle Roy.

On the hearth, I had to replace the earth toned flowers and teapot I'd had sitting on the Exhibition Tea Chest. This blue and brown set was something I received as a gift a year or two ago and had waiting for the new paint scheme. I'm definitely in the market for other blue tea accessories, so I'm sure I'll be "singing the blues" with my decor for many days to come.

And finally, with all the talk about color this weekend, I thought I'd end on a little trivia note: Which tea is sometimes known as "blue tea"? If you don't know, I'll have the answer for you tomorrow!

Twinings Tea Memorabilia

During my recent interview with Tea Party Girl, I mentioned some Parker pens with the Twinings logo that I found on eBay several years ago. Candyce has asked to see a picture, so here you go! I like the fact the pens were made in the colors of the Darjeeling, English Breakfast and Camomile flavors of tea.

And here is the book I found on eBay about the same time, "Twinings: Two Hundred and Fifty Years of Tea and Coffee 1706-1956." This book by Stephen Twining was published in 1956 to commemorate the company's 250th anniversary.

And this oversized teacup (minus its saucer, but oh well) was a flea market find, not an eBay find, purchased for $3 back when the wonderful old Lakewood Flea Market in Atlanta was still going strong. On this side, a likeness of founder Thomas Twining (and his curly perm), and on the back ...

... a drawing of the Twinings Shop at The Strand in London. I've been there, and it's incredible to think that the entrance is the same one tea lovers have been passing through to participate in the tea trade since 1706. If you're a collector, it's always fun to search out pieces related to one of the big names in the world of tea, and Twinings is certainly that.

Grocery store brand Earl Grey tea

A few weeks ago, I saw something new sitting there among the teas at my local Publix: boxes of Publix brand flavored teas. This was intriguing to me. Now I'm quite loyal to "my" grocery store, and I often buy their store brands of everything from flour to aluminum foil to frozen veggies. But flavored tea? I left them on the shelf that day, though, because the name brand teas were actually cheaper, and out of (tightwad) principle I refuse to ever pay more for a store brand than a name brand. That's just wrong.

Last week, I was ready for a cup of afternoon tea at the office and reached for a sample of Bigelow's Earl Grey I had received from a friend. I like Earl Grey and go through times of drinking it all the time, then getting tired of it for a while, then drinking it again. This was one of the dry spells for my Earl Grey habit, and that cup of tea struck me as sooooo good! So when I spotted the Publix brand teas on sale at the store that evening, I decided to try the Earl Grey.

Although I like the taste of Earl Grey, I absolutely love the fragrance of Earl Grey. That bergamot flavoring has such a distinct, unique fragrance, quite unlike any other tea. As soon as I opened the box, that wonderful scent wafted up - a good sign. And it made a very nice cup of tea as well. If the Bigelow Earl Grey tea bag was a 5, this was a 4.5. (And I am going to feel really stupid if I find out one day that Bigelow is one of those companies that repackages its product, putting a different label on this tea for the grocery store.) Of course loose tea would always be my preference, but for teabag tea for the office, I'm quite happy with the Publix Earl Grey.

My interview with "Tea Party Girl"

Back in February, I wrote a post about finally finding my "Holy Grail" of teacups on eBay. It was the Wedgwood Bicentary Celebration teacup and saucer featuring a facsimile of the handwriting of potter Josiah Wedgwood. To my utter surprise, fellow tea blogger Jenny Wells had read this post and wanted to interview me about my eBay tea finds for a podcast on her blog, Tea Party Girl.

Well of course I said yes! And just as with the other times I've agreed to "speak" instead of "write" about a topic, I immediately began to think "Oh my, what have I done?" Speaking to the local civic group is one thing, but being interviewed by a tea expert in California was quite another! I needn't have worried, though. Jenny made this so easy and was such a gracious host, I was instantly at ease.

And if you haven't visited her blog before, you are in for a treat! Jenny provides a wealth of information to help tea newbies (and oldies, for that matter) learn all the basics of teatime. I think her site has a lovely header (the graphic up top), and her information is very well-organized. She's also made it super easy to listen to our interview: just click the arrow on the post on her blog, adjust the volume on your computer, and you're off! Jenny also was kind enough to share the audio file with me, and I'll be approaching my more tech-savvy co-workers to help me figure out how to post it on THIS blog, so look for it in a link at right. I've already heard from two kind ladies who listened to the podcast and enjoyed it, which was just great. Thanks again, Jenny, for the fun opportunity!

Canada Dry Sparkling Green Tea Ginger Ale

A pretty package can often turn my head. And so as I was headed down the grocery store aisle for some diet Cokes, I saw this new product from Canada Dry, Sparkling Green Tea Ginger Ale. Now THAT sounded interesting ...

The two-liter bottle had a coupon attached and was just 99 cents, so I got one of those, but I also wanted to try this immediately, so I got a 20-ounce bottle as well. I took the 20-ounce drink to the office with me, and when I took a sip I had two thoughts: A) This stuff is good. B) This stuff is SWEET! I was sipping away when I suddenly realized I had assumed this was sugar-free, but because of all the sweetness it probably wasn't. That's when I looked for the first time at the nutrition label and realized that if I drank this whole bottle, it would be the sugar equivalent of drinking a couple of Snickers bars!

Now I like sugar. Sugar and I are old, old friends. But like a lot of people today, I'm trying to limit my sugar intake. And silly me, I see the words "ANTIOXIDANTS" and "GREEN TEA" on the (very lovely, by the way) label and think, well, antioxidants and green tea. You know, "healthy drink." Guess it might limit sales if they labeled this "Green Tea Ginger Ale Sugar Syrup." Now most of the time I don't even have as much as a single sugar cube in my tea. Can you imagine having a cup of tea with SIX sugar cubes in it? That's the equivalent of one serving from this 20-ounce bottle, which contains 2-1/2 servings of the drink and a whopping 60 grams of sugar. Chug the whole thing, as I imagine many (most?) will do, and you've consumed the equivalent of 15 Domino sugar cubes. So now I have a few questions for Canada Dry. What were they THINKING? The trend is toward lighter/healthier, not sweeter/more unhealthy. And second, why on earth didn't they make this a diet drink? Sorry for the rant, my friends, but I'm learning the hard way that we have to be on guard for folks who are trying to piggyback on the healthy reputation of our old friend tea.

Library of Congress tea images

My girlfriends and I decided to throw a little last-minute tea party over the weekend, and I thought you'd enjoy seeing the photo, above. I'm the gal sitting next to the vase of flowers at far right. Well, OK, not really. But wouldn't you love to have been part of such an elegant affair as this tea party of yesteryear? This is just one of many digital images you can find on the website of the Library of Congress, which says it "offers broad public access to these materials as a contribution to education and scholarship." You can read the legal stuff to see which photos are available and which are not, but all the ones I'm showing here are downloadable with no known restrictions on publication.


So what would one do with such images, like this one of some cute little girls having a tea party? Well, I can think of several ideas. 1) My fellow tea bloggers might use a photo that illustrates a post on their blog! 2) I can see these images being used for tea party invitations, scrapbooking, decoupage, collage, altered art, jewelry making (think soldered photo charms) and many other projects. 3) Tea educators and researchers might find some images they wish to use in their programs and materials.


This photo of a Senate Ladies' Tea is one I find quite amusing, since some of the ladies look a little too serious.

And perhaps my favorite of all is this photo of Mrs. George Pullman. I fairly swooned when I saw this photo, loving everything from her beautiful gown to the lovely tea service and the elegant lace tablecloth (double-click the photo to see the details better). I found these and many other great images using such search terms as tea, afternoon tea, tea party, teacup, teapot, tea set, tea service and tea leaf. And I'm sure I've merely scratched the surface of the treasures awaiting at this valuable web site.

More tea toiletry discoveries

Just when you think the whole tea-as-cosmetic-ingredient thing has peaked, here comes another new product. Dove, for instance, keeps rolling out new additions to its Green Tea and Cucumber scented line. I saw coupons for shampoo, conditioner and deodorant (!) the other day, although I haven't tried these yet. If you have, please speak up!

Two new products I have tried? First, a grocery store find: this new liquid hand soap from Dial that contains White Tea and Vitamin E pearls. I love trying new hand soaps around the house. These are what marketers call "cheap luxuries," and this new one has a very pleasant fresh floral fragrance.

And You're Invited, the new stationery shop on Main Street in Senoia, has a nice selection of bath and body products from Time and Again. I tried this Green Tea Hand Cream and like it a lot. It's another light floral fragrance, it's even got tea leaves in the graphics, and now I'm eager to go back and try some of the other products in this line.

A Gift of Display Teas

One afternoon last week, the receptionist buzzed me to say I had a package downstairs. I wasn't expecting anything, but occasionally publishers send books for possible review, so I figured that's what this might be. This package, however, was a box much too large for a book, so I headed upstairs trying to guess what was inside. To my great surprise, a friend had quite unexpectedly sent me a thank-you gift for giving her a job lead, and it was the Numi Dancing Leaves Teapot and five flowering teas.

Although I often splurge on teacups, I don't often treat myself to a new teapot, and this is one of the sweetest, cutest glass teapots I've ever seen. It is just perfect for brewing two cups of tea. (I'm calling it "The Brenda" in honor of my friend.) The great thing about display teas is that you can get two or three steepings from the same pot.

The names of the tea bundles alone are just delightful: Flower Jewel, Starlight Rose, Dragon Lily, Emerald Sun and Golden Jasmine. Isn't it just amazing that Chinese artisans handsew these tea leaves into compact little bundles that somehow know to blossom into gorgeous teas? I made the Dragon Lily white tea first, and it was just delicious. I'll try them all eventually, but for now I'm just enjoying using this very thoughtful gift from a friend. Have you all tried display teas? And if so, what did you think of them?

Time for a little hilari*tea

Last summer, I bought as my Seaside souvenir this "Sereni*tea" mug. When I visited the newly-opened "You're Invited" stationery store in Senoia recently, I found the matching teabag rest. I don't know that I've seen one before with a teacup on top, so I'm especially fond of this piece. Obviously, I was charmed by the clever word, but this line from Mudpie also includes these variations: Prosperi*tea, Simplici*tea, Sinceri*tea, Creativi*tea and Tranquili*tea.

Of course Mudpie wasn't the first to employ this use of "tea" as part of another word. One of this blog's treasured readers goes by the name ParTea Lady, and one of the tea blogs I've been reading the longest is The ParTea Planner. Here are a few more words that might find their way into our tea lexicon someday: Individuali*tea, Originali*tea, Reali*tea, Hospitali*tea (this could be a tea to welcome a new neighbor to town).

And on a totally warped note, here are some tea party ideas using more of these words: Abnormali*tea: A tea for all your flaky friends. (C'mon. We've all got 'em!) Formali*tea: A black tie tea where everyone has to dress up and use courtesy titles: "Good afternoon, Mrs. McRae." "I welcome you to my home, Mrs. Smith." Punctuali*tea: A tea that starts at 2 p.m. on the dot. Not a minute sooner, not a minute later. Speciali*tea: The ear/nose/throat doctor has tea with the gastroenterologist. And a Hilari*tea, of course, would be the laughter-filled tea shared with your most humorous friends. Anyone want to add to the list?

"Tea Hints for Retailers" circa 1903

Lately, my leisure reading has included some novels with heavy-duty moral themes and dilemmas, and I wanted a break from that. So I turned to a book from 1903, "Tea Hints for Retailers" by John H. Blake, who at the time of writing had some 20-plus years in the wholesale tea business. "Although tea is one of the most important items in the retail grocer's stock," he says, "and one of the few articles remaining to him upon which a really good profit may be made, it is, nevertheless, unfortunately true that few grocers can claim to have a comprehensive knowledge of the flavory leaf ..."


Blake aims to remedy that, and so far I'm learning a lot about tea as it was being promoted 105 years ago. The quaint writing style entertains as it informs, and I loved going through all the line drawings in the book, like this one.


There are two dozen illustrations in the book, including this one of an original Ping-Suey Tea Package. The photo credit reads, "Photo From Life by Mr. Alfred Adelsdorfer." Fun reading for a tea lover!