Madeline's in Spokane

I recently visited Spokane, WA for work and got a chance to have tea at a café called Madeline’s on Main Street. It’s a cute café owned by a mother and daughter and very French inspired. They have lots on their menu including various types of coffee, tea (mainly mighty leaf tea), food, and desserts. The staff is really nice and extremely welcoming. I basically plopped down with my computer one afternoon, found free wi-fi (from the Pita Pit next door), and drank lots of tea. If you get a tea, they will refill your cup with hot water. If you order a coffee, you get free refills of drip coffee.

It’s a great place to hang out with friends, work on your laptop, or even compose music (the guy at the table next to me was gently strumming his guitar as he drank his coffee). The food is great too. They have an excellent selection of dishes (cooked that morning). There’s stuff for vegans too!

Definitely visit it if you are out in Spokane. Rating 5/5.

Clearing through a London Fog

I went to Starbucks (in a Safeway!) on a recent trip Seattle and saw a new tea on their menu: The London Fog.

Being a tea junkie, tea and London are almost synonymous in my tea dictionary. I got excited and ordered one. I wasn’t sure what I’d get, but the experience wasn’t bad. It’s basically earl grey tea with lots of milk and some sweet syrup (an equal proportion of water and milk with maybe 2-3 teaspoons of the “special” syrup). You can make it at home (but, you’d probably have to buy the ‘Starbucks syrup’). I’d say it’s worth one try, but definitely not an addiction. Rating 3/5.

Infinitea

During my recent trip to Bangalore, my cousin's wife recommended I visit Infinitea -- a tea house on Cunningham Road. I was interested to hear that Bangalore had a tea house. People from Karanataka, or in general from South India, are proud of their coffee and call themselves coffee drinkers. I was excited that a tea house had joined a city home to India Coffee House and Koshy's.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but the experience was really worth it. Cunningham Road has it's traffic and noise, but when you enter Infinitea it's really peaceful and for a second you forget that you are in the middle of a city. The tea house is also decorated really well. For instance, there are posters all over the wall with cute tea quotes, such as: "Make Tea, Not War."

They offer a large selection of tea (from all over the world) and also tea meals/food. Their menu even explains the different "tea intensities" (how strong each tea is...). Great for first time visitors.

My fellow blogger decided to get a Kashmiri tea which included crushed almonds giving it subtle sweet taste.

You can also buy tea to go -- I bought Niligiri tea leaves (one of the only teas indigenous to Karnataka).

The only thing to watch out for are tea prices -- as in any tea store, teas vary in price. Don't let this limit your experience though! It's a great way to spend time with friends, family , or reflect by yourself. Promise you'll love the tea experience!

Next time you are in Bangalore, I recommend you go and check out Infinitea. Here's the address:
2, Shah Sultan Complex, Cunningham Road, Bangalore

Whittard...

A couple of years ago, I came across a tea store in London – Whittard of Chelsea. It was like tea heaven for me. After purchasing nearly £100 of tea, the lady at the check out really meant it when she said, “Please do come back again…”

I’m a complete fan of the tea at Whittard. They have a range of black teas, white teas, green teas, and even Ayurvedic teas! You can purchase teas in bags or leaves - whatever you like. Also, they have a great selection of tea accessories (cups, saucers, etc.) – at an affordable price. Plus they have samples around the store, so you can sip tea while you shop.

There’s one tea I’ve completely fallen in love with at Whittard: Detox. I know it sounds like medicine, but it actually resembles the taste of somph (a fennel mixture given at the end of Indian meals). Both have the same purpose – to aide in digestion, but they also leave your mouth feeling minty fresh. Almost like you just brushed your teeth. This is the feeling I get from Detox.

Detox has aniseed, fennel and liquorice flavors and I would recommend drinking it 1 to 1 ½ hours after a heavy meal. Brew your tea bag (or leaves) for about 3 minutes. Set the tea bag (leaves) aside and drink the tea. If you’d like another cup, you can reuse your tea bag (leaves) two more times. I’ve done this. But the flavor disappears after the 3^rd use.

Whittard has other teas as well. In case you can’t go to London anytime soon, check out their website: http://www.whittard.co.uk/.

Goodbye Iced Tea...

Winter is coming and I generally stay away from anything cold. But, it works for me, because I love hot tea - and it can be hard to drink a nice cup of hot tea in the humid summer. So as we get into winter, I wanted to share one of my favorite recipes for a Masala tea. If you are not sure where to get spices, I'm including a link to Nirmala's Kitchen - it is a good place to start.

I think you'll enjoy this. Happy Winter!

To boiling water add:

1. Black tea leaves
2. Brown Sugar
3. Black pepper
4. Cloves
5. Ginger
6. Cardamom
7. Cinnamon

Let ingredients sit for about 10 minutes on low boil; strain into cup; and enjoy!

Spices can be found at:
http://www.nirmalaskitchen.com/products_home.php?type=2

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.