Elevated tea service at Far Leaves

I can check off one of the tea rooms on my Tea Rooms List. Recently, I drank tea with my friend E.S. at Far Leaves in the Elmwood neighborhood of Berkeley. We chose two kinds of tea; Apricot Tea, a flavored ceylon (me) and Blood Orange (E.S.), an herbal infusion, described as follows: this drink combines the depth of fine marmalade with the whimsy of childhood kool-aid.
We were seated at an elevated wooden coach (see first photo) which looked rather like a daybed (I think the owner referred to the piece as a bed). It required some flexibility to seat ourselves. Once seated, we had great time. E.S. and I had not seen each other for two weeks and afternoon tea is always a good way to catch-up with a friend. Plus, the teas were just what we needed on a hot afternoon.


By the way, the owner offered us cherry tomatoes from his garden, a great combination with tea.

Previous posts of the Tea Rooms List series:
Future tea tastings
Future tea tastings, part 2
Note: I have been to the Imperial Tea Court.

The Tim Tam Slam

The Tim Tam Slam ingredients : Tim Tam and tea

Recently, E. introduced us to the Tim Tam Slam. She picked it from two sources : a beach novel titled Pants on Fire and a uni mate (school friend). The basic concept is this : bite both ends of the Tim Tam biscuit, then use the biscuit as a straw to drink a hot cup of tea or coffee, then as soon as you taste tea, eat the biscuit ASAP ("the slam") before it melts all over your hands.


Tim Tam straw


The slam - notice the ripples in the cup

*Crossreferenced on Things That Are Brewed.

Some Tim Tam websites :
Arnotts Tim Tam Biscuits
Tim Tam on Wikipedia
Natalie Imbruglia's Tim Tam Slam

Just chai

Chai : tea, in Hindi.
Masala chai : spiced tea.


I bought a few ounces of loose masala chai from a local grocery store. The steeped tea was delicious with whole milk (no sugar). Before steeping, it was difficult to identify most of the ingredients, though I guessed there would be cardamon and cinnamon. I am not sure if chocolate was added, but the steeped tea tasted like a slightly smoked and nutty milk chocolate (like the Scharffen Berger 41% cacao milk chocolate). After steeping, I juxtasposed a serving each of the dry loose tea and the wet tea, and the ingredients are readily evident in the latter.
See Candy Blog's review of the Scharffen Berger gianduja bar.

It's time for a logo

Here are our two logo options, one of which is coming soon to our header.

(added June 8, 2007)