Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from April, 2013

Really good iced tea is not as difficult as you think.

Ok you guys, it's totally iced tea season!  First of all, I would like to state that we have a rockin' deal on our iced tea pack over on the website. Everything you need to brew a TON of delicious iced tea for only $25. Score! Included in the pack is a sheet of my instructions for perfect iced tea, so you can be sure it will be super delicious every time. All your friends will be very impressed with your ridiculously tasty iced tea. Don't you want to be drinking this right now? Secondly, I would like to assert that making really phenomenal iced tea with loose leaf is so easy you will feel silly for being nervous about it all these years. A-like so: Step one : Fill two T-Sac (or other bags, or filters, or whatever you use for loose leaf) with 1 tablespoon each of delicious, magical loose leaf tea. Place one bag each in two big ol' teapots (6-8 cup capacity). Step two : Fill your kettle with 1/2 gallon (preferably filtered) cold water.  Step three : Boil th

Synesthesia And Blending As Sensory Art

I am frequently asked how I get ideas for my blends. Where does my inspiration come from? Which comes first, the blend or its name? I'm proud of how original my blends are, and how different from blends you'll find by any other company. This is largely due to the fact that I have synesthesia (meaning my senses are cross-wired and abstract concepts, personalities, colors, weather, etc. all translate to me as flavor). My dominant forms are referred to as "lexical-gustatory," "auditory-tactile," and "mirror touch." It's fascinating stuff for sure, and has made my life and relationships more complicated. On the flip side, I have discovered a practical use for my brain-strangeness! Like many synesthetes before me (Jimi Hendrix, Tori Amos, Richard Feynman, Vladimir Nabokov, etc.), I've translated my particular brand of strange into a career. Synesthesia salad. credit: jessicahagy.info/ My personal experience with synesthesia leads me

We survived March!

Hello hello, friends, fans and family! March was the craziest of months for us, but mostly in really great ways. Here's the breakdown: Consonance (March 1st-3rd ) I started out the month in sunny San Jose, California, selling tea to a bunch of filkers at Consonance . It was a pretty good show for sales, and an awesome show for meeting wonderful new friends. It was lovely to be back in my home state, but the travel costs ended up being more than the profits, making it the only show on which I have ever actually lost money. Whoops. Will I go back next year? Definitely, but only if I can figure out how to make financial sense of it. Cooking Class (March 7th) Taught a class on tamales at Cook's World . I really enjoy teaching these classes, they're so much fun! Three hours of hands on learning with a small class. We do tamales, salsa, chili sauce, and a ridiculously awesome cabbage slaw with pineapple, habañero, serrano, and jalapeño. It's always such a blast, plus