The T-link on the sidebar

Check it out! nicecupofteaandasitdown is a great website with BISCUIT reviews! (for the Yanks: that means cookies.)

The British tradition of having tea with biscuits only amplifies the tea-drinking experience. It's a great site, recommended to me by a good friend--and of course I became addicted. I was in England at the time, so the reviews of the different biscuits were actually strictly relevant to my grocery shopping.

My favorite biscuit: ginger snaps! They go really well with tea. In England I used the McVities' Ginger Nuts, but in the US I buy the old-style type of ginger snap, they're less sugary and more gingery.

Another fave is Demitasse tea biscuits. I soon cooled on McVities' Digestives, even though I liked them for a bit--because they just felt too thick and buttery for me. But they're an essential installment for any British-style teatime.

Nowadays, though, we can be more modern and "chic" with our biscuit tastes--try Loacker vanilla or hazelnut wafers, Fig Newtons, or Alternative Baking Company's vegan cookies--available from co-ops or Trader Joe's, I believe. All go great with tea--sugary enough to be sweet, but not so sugary that they eclipse the taste of the tea. That's my major complaint with most biscuits.

And if you're REALLY looking to be healthy, have tea with an almond-and-raisin trail mix. It's like a variation on nutty coffee--with tea! Yum!

Ok, I'm done now. Enjoy!

*This won't be a rave*

I went to Remedy Tea bar recently: http://www.remedytea.com/.

I have two things to say:

1) I got sick. It was probably due to the tea. Maybe they used bad milk! In all fairness, the tea thing I got (a "Caramel creme latte") tasted really good, but may have not been prepared properly.

2) I also tried some Green Tea poundcake. Good stuff, but not so good when paired with a very sweet tea--eat the two separately if at all, I would say.

I'm sad because I was pretty excited about this place. Nonetheless, sometimes tea is best when it's traditional--i.e., not made with cream and caramel drizzle. Sometimes you just need to brew some earl grey leaves and call it a day.

A Sunday afternoon at ching ching CHA

My fellow blogger and I recently visited ching ching CHA with a good friend. The Chinese tea house is located in Georgetown (1063 Wisconsin Ave to be precise) and they have a wonderful selection of Asian teas, teapots, and even books on tea. They sell mostly herbal teas - not the kind you drink with milk...but for sweet tooths, there is plenty of sugar/honey for your tastes! The tea menu nicely describes the ingredients in each tea and its medicinal properties.


The tea house serves the tea in clay pots from China or iron pots from Japan (giving an authentic feel) and plenty of water which is heated right in front of you. I loved this - because I like to refill my tea cup with water (you can do this two to three times with one teaspoon or so of loose leaf before the taste of the tea goes away). The prices are reasonable (we bought a few pounds of rose and lavender tea for only $10.00) and the service is great. Our waiter always made sure our water tea pot had enough water for the three of us.

Its a great way to spend an afternoon drinking tea or you can purchase loose leaf tea (and maybe a book about the tea), take it home, and drink it on your time. The tea house plays soothing music and provides a nice ambiance to sit back and relax (by yourself or with friends). We spent a few hours in the tea house drinking tea with some snacks.

Rating: Two thumbs up. Good for young, old, introverts, or extroverts. We recommend you go and check it out - if anything you'll leave feeling relaxed and having enjoyed a nice cup of tea.

tea tumbler

Recently, my fellow blogger and I made an important purchse: the loose-leaf tea tumbler. You can use it to brew loose-leaf tea! It's pretty much like a basic coffee thermos/flask, with the addition of a little tea-straining bucket. I've used it a couple of times now, and I definitely like it. Although, to be completely fair, you can sort of rig something like this on your own, with the use of one of those chain-ball tea strainers. But it is very neat and cute, and also keeps the tea fairly hot with a complete lid (instead of a lid with a hole, which I never understood--I mean, yeah, you can sip it on the go, but I try to avoid doing that anyway because I just end up with a second-degree burnt lower lip and chin).

Pluses: cute colors, and looks sophisticated. Also, the little tea bucket isn't too messy and it has a sipper with little holes to strain the tea as you drink it.

Minuses: it's plastic, which can keep things not so hot. Also, there are downsides if you want to make loose-leaf black tea and add milk and sugar, and then you're stuck because you have to take the bucket out, and add the milk etc. So, there's a point at which you wonder: why don't I just make the tea separately and pour it into a thermos? As far as I can tell, this thing is manufactured by REI, which means it's essentially American--which can explain the thinking behind the design. I can just see the designer thinking to himself, "why would anyone put milk in their tea?"

But yeah, I've kept this thing next to my laptop a couple of times over the last few weeks.

Available from: L.L. Bean, I believe, is so far the only retailer I can think of that has this. It might range from about $12-14.

And, of course, no commercial affiliation blah blah.

Naked Chocolate Cafe

This place is awesome.

I went recently and loved it--great, yummy cupcakes and delicious tea! They also have (though I didn't try it)--individual dessert fondue! Yummmm.

This is part of my vision for what tea shops and cafes Of the Future should be like--hip and zany, with a correspondingly hardcore adherence to traditionally good tea and coffee. (Not, need I add, like the broad, try-too-hard-to-do-everything-and-suck-at-it approach of the major cafe chains).

Plus, the tea cups they gave us were glass (Persian/Turkish style) and were different sizes, which I just thought was cool.


**Disclaimer: no commercial affiliation. Just wanted to tell you all about a good tea/dessert experience. :)

An Ode to Wright's Bar tea

Back in the US, and feeling it strongly now that I am on yet another college campus, I have noticed the dearth of good tea among US cafes. Starbucks sells Tazo or Republic of Tea, which is good tea for sure, but there' s something about adding cold-thermosed milk to a lightly brewed cup of Earl Grey that sours the whole experience (pun intended).

Therefore, I have begun to miss my Wright's Bar tea.

Wright's Bar is on the LSE campus just off Kingsway, in the Holborn neighborhood of London. I am telling you these directions because it is a great place to get a cheap, quick cup of tea on your way down the Strand to see Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, Buckingham Palace, etc. Obviously those things are important, but stop by for a cup of tea first.

Wright's Bar tea is 45 p (that's right, folks, less than 1 USD), is fresh-brewed and black, and can be requested with milk and sugar. And when I say milk and sugar, I mean hot milk and a huge scoop of sugar. Somehow, the product is not sickly sweet or disgusting, but comforting in the winter, caffeinating in the spring and summer, and generally a great way to spend your next 45 p.

Okay, so it's not the classiest tea joint in town, but I have a spot in my heart for this tea, and always will have. More importantly, I propose the following for American cafes: what can be learned from this experience? Not just for tea, but for coffee too?

Having partaken of plenty of coffee/tea since I was old enough to imbibe caffeine (and not get so jittery I had to be put down for a nap), I know the following:

1) a good hot drink is just that. HOT. I will not TELL you how many times I've gotten a Caramel Macchiato, or a Chai Tea Latte (don't even get me STARTED on how redundant that name is), and the drink is just not hot enough. Meaning, I have to drink it within 30 seconds to make sure it's just as hot at the end as the beginning. This was never a problem with Wright's Bar tea.

2) So, steam the milk for goodness' sake! And if a customer is requesting a hot cup of tea, maybe the cafe could offer them some hot milk instead of the cold thermos? (which, by the way, I'm convinced makes the milk sour? I mean, they sit out all day people.)

...Next time, I'm just going to ask for some hot milk. I'll report back and let you know what happens.


In the meantime, go to London. While there, have tea at Wright's Bar. Also, you could probably stop by The Wolseley or Harrod's for an actual sophisticated tea if you like. But don't blame me if you like Wright's Bar better.

*** More on London tea joints coming soon!