Friday Knows Tea

  'Tis the season, Teahearts, and what a great season for sharing warmth, joy and love through tea! 2021's holiday season is a heckuva time for us all, with supply lines and shipping times and health and safety all to be considered simultaneously. We know a lot of you are feeling a lack of inspiration, and our crew is here to help! Check out our roundup for every Thirsty Nerd in your life.     We all have that person in our lives, ya know? Tragically sniffly and always fighting something off? Grandma Annie's herbalist wisdom comes to the rescue here with our Lemon Ginger Echinacea ! Not only is this a popular immune-boosting combo, it's also the coziest and tastiest cuppa. A deeply warming winter cuppa For best effect, Grandma says "brew it so strong the ginger bites you back." Who comes to mind when you think of sunshine through green leaves? Your dear acorn-collecting, scone-baking, long-trail-walking lover of all things natural and autumnal? Gift this arbor...

The early stages of every tea lover’s journey will face a crisis of direction. It’s inevitable, that moment your eyes go wide at the sheer vastness of the world of tea and all its possible avenues of exploration and you find yourself paralyzed with no idea which road to set foot upon first. Every day of my professional life, people ask “how did you learn so much about tea?” and “what books do you recommend for a new tea enthusiast?”. Don’t fret, we’ve got you covered. While tea is a lifelong education and, the sad fact is, that you will never be able to learn it all (sorry, it bums me out too), we can at least get you started. Below are the top five books I’ve encountered in my 17 years of tea study and industry experience:   5. Tea: Aromas & Flavors Around the World by Lydia Gautier For a lovely browsable coffee (or tea) table book full of bite-sized tea facts, clever educational tables, and gorgeous photo sets of tea practices and culture from all over the world. There are in...

"Yes, I'd like two ounces of the Darjeeling...sfff...tug..fop?" We hear your attempts at pronouncing this alphanumeric stew every day at the tea house, and who can blame you? When an estate or region name is followed by a gibberish string of letters and numbers and you have no idea what they mean but remember your grandmother pouring you delicious steaming cups of fine Indian black tea and just want to recreate the experience for some nostalgia and comfort, dang it? Worry not, my dear. I've got you covered. Let's talk tea grades! The mysterious collection of letters and numbers on your Indian and Sri Lankan tea labels is a code and I am here to help you crack it. This is a simple leaf grading system created by our brilliant and hard working South Asian tea appraisers, and understanding what each letter means can give you a hint as to what flavor you are about to enjoy! First things first: the more letters, the higher the grade. If you like a full-bodied, astringen...

My older sibling Rebecca and I dubbed this recipe "bomb dot com" when we were in our early 20s and it's been the family standard ever since. You can put in literally anything you want, and the technique of freezing and grating your butter followed by a light lamination process (think croissant dough, but way simpler and rougher) makes for obscenely flaky scones that can adapt to any menu theme or season. Halloween tea party with savory cheese and pumpkin seed? Done. Summer solstice tribute for your fae garden with fresh lavender and rose petal? Don't forget extra sugar on top! Game of Thrones feast theme night? Swap out part of the flour for darker whole wheat, throw in some currants and diced ham and glaze with mead reduction! BAM. Do anything, this is legit the most versatile scone dough we've ever made. Let me know in the comments what variations you try or what theme ideas you're playing with! xoxo, Friday Print With Image Without Image Bomb Dot Com Sco...

Chai...Chai?......CHAI!.....Chaaaaaai!..... So,  I've been asked to talk to you about my love for chai and I don't know where to really begin, hahaha. Honestly, I suck at writing, but here I am compelled to write about chai for the sake of chai, so if that does not tell you how much I love this sweet, spiced concoction from the Indian subcontinent, then I don't know what will! photo by @KP11Studios   What is chai? Well, that's a deeply philosophical question, isn't it? Oh, you meant that literally...sorry! Well, chai is a tea made with 11 secret herbs and spi...oops, that's KFC...my bad...let me start over! Ok, chai is a form of tea enjoyed around the world, but primarily is associated with India. Actually, chai literally means "tea" (so you saying Chai Tea Latte literally translates to Tea Tea Latte, just so you know). It's an earthy brown drink brewed by boiling dried black tea leaves and various spices (though usually cardamom), with milk and su...

     One interesting component of Lexical-Gustatory Synesthesia is the difference between word flavors and feeling flavors. What I mean by this is that the word "happy" tastes one way, but the feeling of being happy tastes entirely different. When I read the word "happy," my tongue is coated with sweet orange oil and the sensation of catching a snowflake on the tip of the tongue. Pops of effervescent coriander make themselves known here and there like very quiet pop rocks. The feeling of happy, however, is the smell of lilac in the back of the throat and a warm wet cloud pressed against the hard and soft palates. It's a bit earthy-fatty on the sides of the tongue, like a very rich cacao nib.     I commonly experience both the feeling and the word flavors simultaneously as a double exposure (like trick photography, but in my brain-mouth), as emotions are at least a little replicated when they are being discussed or described. Humans are super into empathy ...

The shiny cut jewel that is the tea industry has many many beautiful facets. We see plants as art and have hearts open to the new and unusual. Science and innovation intrigue us and a connection to the earth drives us. We are in a line of passion that naturally lends itself to compassion and hospitality. Overall, tea people are wonderful!  Unfortunately, there are also flaws in the jewel of our community, the most glaring of which is a tendency toward gatekeeping. The art of tea can be intimidating to new explorers, and many shy friendlies have come into our shop sheepishly admitting that they are "bad tea drinkers" or apologizing for not already knowing everything about every way that every tea has ever been brewed. Please allow me to assure you first and foremost: If you enjoy your tea, you are doing it right. That being said, allow me to impart what I hope will be valuable guiding points to begin your tea journey. I'll outline here the baby basics (and throw in a few p...

  Before we get into this dreamy perky explosion of teen magical girl flavor, a word about synesTEAsia:      Synesthesia is a neurological cross-wiring of the senses that leads the individual to experience sound as color, numbers as personalities, words as flavors and so on. There are a lot of different forms of synesthesia, and it is not uncommon for synesthetes to experience multiple forms to varying degrees. Polysynesthetes such as myself make up 2-3% of the world's population.      My dominant form is called Lexical-Gustatory Synesthesia (I literally taste words) and is the root of my blending work. While being a tea blender certainly requires skill and knowledge of ingredients, flavor and texture profiles and palate matching, it doesn't hurt to have an intimate relationship with flavors and the stories they evoke. I imagine a word, an idea, a lyric, a feeling or a memory, then pick apart what I taste in my brain-mouth using my decades of experie...