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Having a Few Friends In for Tea?

Isn't this a pretty and do-able decorating idea for your next gathering of friends and tea.

What a great way to use up cups when the saucer's been broken, or just display your teacup collection instead hiding it behind glass in a cabinet.

Mmm... Vanilla

Have you tried this yet? This is Steeped Tea's Volcanic French Vanilla Coffee. I am really enjoying this one. Some flavoured coffees exude a very artificial taste to them, and perhaps that's no surprise since some of the flavours do not occur in nature - like Baileys, for example. But this French Vanilla coffee is smooth in taste and texture, the aroma is pure and delicate and it's a pleasure to sip! Try it, or pick up a bag to stick in the stocking of your favourite coffee lover.

 

Origami and Tea

  Here is an interesting packaging concept by the Russian designer Natalia Ponomareva. The tea bag is packed like an origami bird. Apparently, the artist would like to market these...

I just wonder how much room the tea has to expand - but it sure is pretty!

So if cops are into donuts and coffee, what are firefighters into?

Watch this and see!!!

Tea Shop Talk

There are more and more tea shops popping up, especially in Ontario, it seems. It's a good thing - the more people know about the great taste and the great health benefits of tea, the more people will value and want tea as a regular part of their lifestyle.

This video shows a tea shop in India. I think it's a fun video to watch - great cultural exposure and enlightenment. BUT I think I prefer to have the tea house experience come to my house. You can have that experience too - just call your Steeped Tea consultant to set a date and she'll bring the tea house experience to your dining or living room and you can be sure it'll be fun and slightly less chaotic than the one in this video! There's still time to hold one before Christmas!

That's a LOT of tea!

Mercy Health Center, in Fort Scott, Kansas, set a new record on Saturday, September 26th, 2009,  with the world’s largest cup of tea at its Mercy Day observation.
The cup held 700 gallons of tea. The tea alone weighed more than two and a half tons, and served almost 15,000 servings. The teacup, created by J.D. and Ed Webster, is 9.5 feet wide at the rim, has a three foot handle, and stands 5.5 feet tall.
The reason for the teacup goes back to the Sisters of Mercy’s foundress, Sister Catherine McAuley, who on her deathbed in 1841, asked her caretakers to “see that the Sisters have a comfortable cup of tea when I am gone.”
The other reason for the teacup is as a fundraiser for Mercy’s cancer center. Right now, the facility has four chemotherapy beds. The event serves in part as a chance to raise money for a potential expansion of the cancer center in six months to a year.

Do you have a favourite tea cup?

Time for another fun tea video

If you love that old private eye genre, Dashiel Hammett books, or even Who Framed Roger Rabbit, you're going to get a kick out of this one. Enjoy!

Dozen Tea Sommeliers Emerge From Local Program

The first class of certified tea sommeliers has graduated from a new program offered in the Centre for Hospitality and Culinary Arts at  George Brown College in Toronto.

Although hundreds of students attended seminars offered as part of the program over the last three years, only 12 emerged with certificates in hand (or soon to be, anyway – following a ceremony scheduled Dec. 1).

Offered in conjunction with the Tea Association of Canada, the program began as individual events geared toward tea enthusiasts. It evolved into a formalized program consisting of two parts: four courses covering an introduction to tea, tea regions, and preparation and consumption; and four technical and business-focused courses covering menu, sensory development, service training and tea garden management. (For a complete curriculum, see the program's Web site.) In addition to these 140 hours of course work, graduates had to complete a 20-hour internship.

Bill Kamula, chief instructor at George Brown, and Stephen Field, another professor at the college, taught most of the classes, occasionally calling in outside experts for specific topics. Kamula likened the tea course to the college's wine sommelier course. It is designed to give graduates what they need to start a career in retail, restaurant and hotels, tea tasting and buying. Those who graduated received a Certified Tea Sommelier certificate.

One graduate, researcher and author Nora Gubins, described the classes as "captivating." With a background in the art history of tea ware, she thought taking a class or two would be fun, but she was hooked after the first one.

"Going to a culinary college and looking at tea from a historical, anthropological and cultural viewpoint was extremely fascinating," Gubins said. Although she's unsure exactly how she will use the certification now, Gubins felt the experience was well worth the time and hard work.

"I think a lot of us are wondering if there's a business for sharing the positive message about tea," she said. "My angle is not just on taste, but the wonderful stories around tea. If it leads to a series of articles, possibly a book, I don't know yet."

Pu-ehr and your Liver

A medical study conducted in Taiwan indicates that pu-ehr tea may have a role in preventing damage to the liver caused by oxidative stress.

Researchers induced oxidative damage in rat livers both in vitro and in vivo, then treated them with water extract of puer tea to measure the effect. They found that the puer extract lowered levels of harmful proteins in the blood and preventing damage caused by certain free radicals.

"Taken together, these results demonstrate that water extract of puer tea is able to protect against hepatic damage in vitro and in vivo, suggestion that the drinking of puer tea may protect liver tissue from oxidative damage," the team concluded.

The research took place at the department of food science and technology at Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science in Tainan Hsien, Taiwan. Results will be published in a upcoming issue of Food Chemistry, but an abstract is available online now.

In addition to the results of this recent study, pu-ehr has other noted health benefits, including:

- contains vitamin B1, B2, C and E and β Carotene
- good for preventing high blood pressure, cancer and constipation
-  reduces cholesterol
- good for ladies who always have cold legs and hands 
- increases metabolic rate

If you've never tried pu-ehr, Steeped offers a nicely flavoured one - Toffee Caramel Pu-Ehr, which is a gentle introduction to this distinctly flavoured tea.

Healthier than the Chip Truck!

Perhaps you've heard of those olden days when things came to you - milk, orange juice, eggs and bread could all be delivered to your door. Even the library swung by with a book mobile every few weeks. The closest we get now is the chip truck, but it's parked and we go to it, usually at a very convenient spot, like the end of a walking trail or near a park entrance. Someone in the Boston area has taken the concept of the chip truck and gone tea with it.

According to the Boston Globe, "GayGrace Teas Mobile Tea Room is a van tricked out to look like an English cottage. Step up to the window and order tea with a little sandwich or a sweet treat such as an apricot white chocolate scone. You’ll find a selection of 27 loose teas brewed to order, along with iced teas. Browse owner Gay Geiger Hughes’s teapots and tea cozies before enjoying your fare on the terrace (no kidding)." She has a website so customers know which garden or historical site she'll be at. Her tea mobile season ends at the end of November. Wouldn't it be fun to see a few of these around some tourist-y places in Southern Ontario?