2024, Food, Uncategorized

Tea Time

50 Comments

Husband and I have been drinking more tea lately, I suppose because it has been cold. We got a tea catalogue the other day and found some fruit teas we ordered-Rote Grutze, a German fruit tea made from hibiscus, grapes, elderberries, and blueberries, and a black tea that has rice flower, grapes, papaya bits, cinnamon, pear bits, fig bits, orange peel, nutmeg, cloves, maple syrup-, honey. and pear flavors. It is also made in Germany. They both taste really good.

We have all sorts of teas in the cupboard. I like Earl Grey and Assam teas. I guess Ostfriesland, where my ancestors come from, consumes the most tea per capital of any country in the world. We really became tea fans when we lived in Winnipeg and took tea at the Hudson’s Bay Company tea room, It was so fun to go there for tea and fancy cakes on Saturdays.

We really like our new teas. They help keep out the cold. I like my traditional black teas with lemon, not sugar. Husband likes cream and sugar in his. He also drinks iced tea like other people drink soda.

How do you take your tea? Ever had a formal English tea experience?

50 thoughts on “Tea Time”

  1. For many years I was very content with Perfectly Pear White Tea made by Celestial Seasons. Alas… they’ve discontinued it. There are other pear teas out there, but I don’t rush to stock them in my cabinet. I like tea with a little bit of ginger as well. I have the accoutrements for looseleaf tea, but most often will go for a teabag instead.

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  2. Quite a few years back I went to a formal tea with a good friend of mine. It’s a tearoom attached to a fabric/quilt shop up in Anoka. I think it’s called The Mad Hatter. I’m not even sure if it’s still there. It was a lot of fun. We got dressed up and I even borrowed a hat. All the things you would expect: little finger sandwiches, little scones, little tarts. Yummy and entertaining!

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  4. I drink mostly tea at home, coffee when I am out because you can seldom get a good, sufficiently hot cup of tea in restaurants. We have a wide variety of teas on hand, both black and green, regular caffeinated and herbal, but most of those are for Robin’s whims. I drink Irish Breakfast tea from Trader Joe’s, black with no sugar, cream or lemon.

    A few years ago, out of curiosity, I queried online as to what expats from the UK found to be the most satisfactory tea they could find (easily) in America and they almost universally named TJ’s Irish Breakfast. I got some and have been drinking it ever since.

    I’ve never been to a formal English tea but Robin has been to at least two, one at Naniboujou and one in Vancouver.

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    1. My German blood must’ve been in ascendance this afternoon; I had Christmas plum tea. It was quite nice while I was on the sofa watching TV and working on my list.

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  7. My favorite black tea used to be between TJ’s Irish Breakfast and PG Tips, but I can no longer easily access either. I have found a Yorkshire Gold (Taylors of Harrogate) that I really like.

    Stash has some nice flavors, and I recently bought (at the gargantuan Woodman’s in LaCrosse) an Asian Pear Harmony (green), and Breakfast in Paris (black).

    Republic of Tea has a spiced black called Comfort and Joy for the holidays, but they discontinued my favorite Tea of Glad Tidings. : |

    I have been to a high tea, somewhere in the Bay Area when my mom was visiting… only remember that it was delicious.

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  8. Wife and I had afternoon tea at Harrod’s in London in 1999. Not the super fancy tea, more of a “regular” afternoon tea, but still darn fancy. I remember taking an immediate liking to Assam tea (bought some to bring home) and clotted cream. I don’t recall the scones, but I think we had finger sandwiches or some other suitable tea accompaniment.

    Used to have a cupcake bakery in town (I’m sure I mentioned it here–Perfect Day Cakes & Bakery). She served customizable teas with all sorts of healing herbs like lavender, rosemary, ginger, nettle. I got into mixing and matching flavors of tea to wash down my gourmet cupcakes–the best I’ve ever eaten by far.

    Still have some of that loose tea in the cupboard. I don’t drink much tea anymore. Dad’s a big tea drinker–he and his wife every afternoon. Wife drinks it occasionally.

    Now that we’re discussing it, I might have some tea in the coming days. When I do drink it, I don’t mind a bit of honey or lemon, but mostly like it straight.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  9. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    Warning. On the topic of tea, I am Negative Nellie. Bah!

    I have been to a teahouse somewhere in Iowa, then later one in DownPatrick Ireland. Nothing about tea or teahouses are what I enjoy. I cannot relax in them. I also don’t care for tea, with the exception of Good Earth Cinnamon tea. But when they sold the Good Earth tea brand, the recipe changed and it does not taste quite the same. I do like Iced Tea, though–the old fashioned, unsophisticated tea bag. Go figure. Herbal, fruit, and flower teas taste like brewed weeds to me. Since day one I have not developed a taste for them. Nuff said.

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  10. I prefer coffee when I can get it, but my poetry-group friends all drank/drink tea so I’ve imbibed a fair amount of the leaf. Terry’s dad was in the Air Force, so she learned how to brew tea in England. Because of her (and a lot of British media) I learned the difference between afternoon and high tea: afternoon tea is the cucumber sandwiches and cakes affair, high tea is actually a working-class dinner. Unfortunately, Americans think if it’s “high” it must be aristocratic, which is entirely the opposite! At the end of our Victorian Lit class at St. Kate’s, our prof got the class into the University Club for a Cream Tea (we dressed up, which was fun), and I’ve been to a couple of SF-convention room parties with what the Commonwealth fans informed us was “proper tea”–brewed super-strong and watered down to individual taste with hot water, beyond the optional milk.

    –Crow Girl

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  11. When it comes to tea, I am with Jacque. There are very few tea flavors that I tolerate – Trader Joe’s Pomegranate White and Moroccan mint are two of them. My niece gifted me some gingerbread tea several years back and that was drinkable. Our tour group experienced afternoon tea while in Ireland. I liked the sandwiches and cakes but skipped the tea.
    One of my cousins transitioned from coffee to tea but now just likes hot water. I do not like coffee in any way, shape, or form. My preferred beverage is plain old tap water.

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  12. Two tea stories: My first time tasting tea I was maybe 10, attending a neighbor’s wedding reception in Storm Lake, IA. The bride’s family was from England, with the lovely accents, and my sister was Flower Girl. I felt very grown-up being offered tea, but it tasted awful to me, even with sugar and milk in it.

    I would have a cup of Red Rose tea with my co-teacher after school in the Kindergarten room, but was mostly a coffee drinker until The Renaissance Faire day (in the 90s?). It was mid-afternoon; I was hot, dusty, and exhausted. I couldn’t find coffee, but there was a Tea booth, and I sat down on some log-bench to drink a cup of the best tea I had ever tasted. It was so much more refreshing that coffee would have been at that moment.

    I gradually shifted from coffee to tea, as I wanted to cut down on caffeine anyway. I should probably cut down now on tea.

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  13. I had a Chai Tea at a restaurant yesterday, and it was so overly sweet I almost dumped it. Here is a former roommate’s recipe.
    Marsala Chai:

    Mix together over low heat till just boiling:
    4 C. water
    1 C. milk
    5 whole cloves
    5 cardamom pods, broken open (seeds and shells)
    7 – 10 tsp. sugar (or to taste)

    Let simmer 5 minutes, then add:
    5 tsp. black tea (or 5 teabags)

    Steep a few minutes and serve.

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  14. We’re tea drinkers. Kelly more than me. She’ll have three cups in the morning. I nurse mine most of the day…
    I am having a cinnamon green tea.
    I really like Chia latte’s with vanilla.

    Years ago, I acted as a butler when Mayowood (Dr. Charlies Mayo’s home) hosted some Christmas Tea’s. It was kinda fun, but I had a hard time playing stern enough. Especially when my aunt and her friends came in and pinched my cheeks as I held the door open.
    Then I’d scoot through the basement to reach the kitchen to serve tea and crackers back upstairs.

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  15. Coffee is generally easier than tea, because all it takes is putting grounds in the filter, water in the tank, and hitting the switch. Tea, consequently, just accumulates in the cupboard. With that as a reality, about 10 years ago (still in Taiwan), I gathered up all the tea in the kitchen and carried it to my office, where there was a hot water machine just around the corner. It took over a year, but I managed to drink it all, then began buying more, discovering in the process that “cheap and plenty” isn’t always flavorful.

    We retired 6 years ago. There’s a similar surfeit of tea in the cupboard now, but I’ve no office, and no hot water machine. I’ve shared some of the bounty with an appreciative friend, but have not gone back to the “always have a glass or cup of tea at my elbow” life that I used to lead.

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    1. About 25 years ago, I was gifted my first Hotspot. It’s a contraption that goes under the sink and dispenses boiling water from its own spigot (next to the regular faucet). This has been life-changing for me and I don’t think I could ever go back. I do have a tea pot, but I can’t remember the last time. I actually put water in it and boiled it on the stove.

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  16. I grew up with an Irish mom, so I grew up drinking her idea of tea made with tea leaves, and served with milk and sugar. No teabags were acceptable in our household. It’s possible the tea was TJ’s Irish Breakfast, but I really don’t know. Later on when I visited mom’s sister in Plymouth, we enjoyed the high tea in the late afternoon as described by Crowgirl above.

    In my late teens I began testing various tea flavors, and found that I liked Earl Grey and Darjeeling the best. I don’t care for smoked teas. I also dabbled in certain herbal teas such a chamomile tea, and rosehip tea. At the hospital in Basel I was introduced to Lindenblüten tea, brewed from the delicate seed pods of the linden tree. A large pot of Lindenblüten tea was always available in the cafeteria in the late afternoon. It was delicious and soothing, tasted like a mild pear juice to me. On a trip to Mexico, many years ago, I discovered hibiscus tea.

    Whenever my English friend Pete Morton visits I make sure to have plain old PG Tips on hand. Pete regards flavored teas with disdain; he calls them an abomination.

    I’ve attended fancy afternoon teas at the Arboretum and at the St. Paul Hotel in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Very festive and fun. Some years ago the Cedarhurst Mansion in Cottage Grove served afternoon teas, as well. Busloads of people would arrive to partake. I treated my late friend, Philip, an inveterate anglophile, to a couple of them, and he loved it. He’d dress up for the occasion in his finest clothes from the Haberdashery in downtown St. Paul: starched linen shirt and a bow tie, freshly pressed pants held up by suspenders, and a tweed jacket.

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        1. Philip was a short, rotund, closeted gay man with a beautiful head of white hair and interesting glasses. He carried himself with great dignity. Though he had very little money, he insisted on buying good quality clothes and did most of his shopping at Hubert White and the Haberdashery in downtown St. Paul and wore them till they were quite threadbare. He was well read and interested in, and knowledgeable about, a lot of things. He was also a connoisseur of fine wines and spirits, an excellent cook, and an expert baker. He was delightful man, and I enjoyed his company immensely. I miss him.

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  17. I’ve always been a coffee drinker. I’ve had to make some dietary changes recently, and I’m drinking less coffee and more tea. I’ve always liked tea; I just like coffee better.

    I like the loose leaf Chai tea mixture they have at the Co-op. It’s not too sweet at all if you just brew a cup of tea and don’t add the milk and sugar. My favorite tea is probably Yogi Tea Blueberry Slim Life. It hasn’t made me slim yet, but I love the flavor. It’s a green tea. The other one I like is Yogi Tea Roasted Dandelion Detox tea. That one is herbal.

    I’ve never been to an English tea of any kind. There is a new place here in Northfield, the Cottage Tea Room. I’ve heard it’s really good, but I’ve never tried it.

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  19. I have always been a tea drinker and never got used to the taste of coffee. Earl Grey is my daily cuppa (no milk or sugar), and in the colder months I drink it all day. I also like Bengal Spice from Celestial Seasonings and experiment with other teas I find while shopping. In the summer I drink iced tea by the pitcherful (no sugar or lemon allowed!). I also love spiced “chai,” which my husband makes by the pitcher from scratch; it has lots of ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, peppercorns and other spices and I can control how much sugar I add to it.

    At an Indian restaurant years ago I ordered “chai” and was brought regular black tea. I discovered to my embarrassment that “chai” is the generic Indian word for tea, and if you want what we call “chai,” you have to ask for “chai masala.”

    I’ve never been to a formal “tea,” even when I’ve visited London. The closest I got was a pot of tea with milk and sugar and a slice of lemon drizzle cake in a bookshop.

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      1. The one where I had tea and cake was Waterstones at Piccadilly. It was just a little nook tucked away. I think they have a larger cafe on the top floor. We also had tea at Foyles on Charing Cross Road. They have a large coffee/tea shop on the top floor. There are probably many more bookshops with cafes. I like Foyles for the books.

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  22. I turned into a big tea guy back in probably the 70s. I discovered homeopathic medicine and my doctor told me to stop drinking coffee at that point in time. I was drinking about three or four pots of French roast and loved heavy heavy coffee. I ended up going to Lipton‘s and tried other teas, but I really like Lipton I ended up finding the Bigelow, Earl Grey and English breakfast and I still enjoy those very much. There’s another high-end British tea that I enjoy that I’ll remember as well but most of the tea that I do today is looseleaf and I have discovered that Amazon‘s private label brand Davison‘s is wonderful for $16 a pound and I drink Earl Grey English breakfast in my new discovery is Earl Grey with lavender years ago. My girlfriend taught me to drink chamomile and her favorite was constant comment. I enjoyed good earth tea for a while, but the pronounced cinnamon ended up being too much for me. I went to formal tease in England and enjoyed them, but they seem to want to drag it out. I kinda wanted two or 3 cups of tea and those little finger sandwiches and get back out to whatever I was getting out to I wasn’t into the sit down and chill mode that they tried to in still I’ve heard Brett’s Europeans in general talk about Tetley‘s and some of the other grocery store brand English black teas that are like our Lipton‘s and they’re OK, but I’m not crazy about them. I really do like Lipton, but Lipton’s is completely dependent on the water as to what kind of taste it gives you with the right water. It might be the best tea on the planet, but the right water is seldom found.

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  23. Cafe Latte used to do an English tea in the afternoon. Little cucumber sandwiches, scones with clotted cream, shortbread cookies, a dessert of your choice (I usually chose a flourless chocolate torte), a chocolate heart wrapped in foil, and your choice of tea. I loved going there for tea. As far as I know, they haven’t done it since the pandemic. COVID killed a lot of things.

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