Tag Archives: tea

Teatime Tuesday #8

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Welcome back to teatime! For this post, I wanted to talk about one of my new favorite companies, Verdant Tea. They work closely with local farmers in China, and air ship their teas so they stay as fresh as possible. Plus they have a cool blog with stories about their teas, and advice on how to prepare and taste them.

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For today’s tea, I’m sampling their Traditional Tieguanyin. I’ve tried their greener Spring Tieguanyin (which is delicious, by the way). This one is partially oxidized, which gives it a light toasted flavor. Verdant’s site describes it as having notes of violet and caramel, and I agree. It’s a smooth, delicate tea and keeps its creamy flavor over multiple steepings.

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I highly recommend browsing Verdant’s website. They have a lot of delicious teas and tea blends. Some of my favorites are Autumn Harvest Laoshan Green, Laoshan Village Chai, and Golden Fleece. You can read lots of reviews about their teas here on Steepster.

Thanks for joining me for tea!

A Few Random Updates

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So on the subject of nostalgia, here’s another trailer that has me excited, due to a combination of fun childhood memories and wasn’t-that-awesome geekiness…

Also, since I recently mentioned that scones are serious business, I thought I’d take this chance to share a few photos from my summer trip to England. We had formal afternoon tea on two occasions, once in the Cotswolds and once outside Windsor Castle. Lots of sandwiches and scones and cake (and tea!). The first time, we had beautiful sunny weather outside. We had some light rain the second time, which I personally enjoyed. (I’m from Arizona, so rain is a novelty for me. Plus it seems appropriate on a trip to England.)

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I need to talk more about my trip sometime! I’ll try to do that over the next few months. Since I’ll be working on a new story set in my magical version of Victorian England, it’ll be a good way to stay in that headspace.

Teatime Tuesday #7

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Hello again! I hope all you Americans out there had an awesome Thanksgiving, and everyone else had an awesome Thursday. Today’s post features my favorite snack to pair with tea: scones.

Scones are serious business. If you want to do them right, you need jam or preserves, plus clotted cream. So for today, I picked up some clotted cream and berry preserves from the World Market, and a cranberry scone from Wildflower Bread Company.

Scones!

These preserves are fantastic, by the way. They’re made with strawberry, raspberry, and blackcurrant. (The first two are my favorite berries, and the third is also delicious, apparently.)

Scones! Also tea.

Anyway, to eat scones, just smear as much jam and cream onto the scone as you can stand. Smear it together all in a creamy sticky mess. Then enjoy!

Scones again! Also tea again.

And of course no teatime is complete without tea. Today’s selection is Golden Snail from Whispering Pines Tea Company. It’s a smooth black tea with notes of bread and honey, which really complement the scone.

Thanks for joining me for tea!

Teatime Tuesday #6

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Another quick post for Teatime Tuesday! I shared a pot of tea with my sister today. We used her new tea set, which she purchased a few weeks ago from Modcloth. It’s small and shiny and completely adorable.

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For our tea, we shared a flavored black tea called Hua Ki, which was blended by a Japanese tea company called Lupicia. They make delicious teas, especially the fruit-flavored ones. This particular tea is a Hawaiian-inspired blend, and it’s flavored with apple, mango, papaya, pineapple, and cranberry—among other things! Despite the complexity of this tea, it has a really satisfying and balanced tropical taste.

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And now I will leave you with a photo of the reason my sister was so drawn to her new tea set… Her sweetheart of a cat, Julian. (Who, I am honored to say, was named after her favorite character from one of my stories.)

Julian, my sister's cat!

Thanks for joining us for tea!

Teatime Tuesday #5

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It’s teatime again! Today I’m drinking an herbal tea, Honeybush Apricot, from one of my favorite companies, Adagio Teas. (One of my generous followers on Steepster sent me a sample of this during our recent swap!)

Honeybush Apricot & Ginger Molasses Cookie!

Honeybush is a close cousin to rooibos, which is sometimes called “red tea”–though it’s not technically tea. (That’s why herbals are often called infusions or tisanes instead.) Like all herbals, honeybush is caffeine-free. It’s lighter and sweeter than rooibos, but it still has a peppery, medicinal sort of taste. The apricot flavor in this one makes it sweeter, and to me, more drinkable.

I paired it with a ginger molasses cookie from Paradise Bakery, because they’re in season and also my favorite.

Thanks for joining me for tea!