Favorite Tea Ware - Nicole Martin of Tea for Me Please

As a tea drinker, and I am sure this is true for you, I adore teaware, from the chasen to the yixing teapot. Everyone has their favorites! This series showcases the favorite teaware of folks in the tea blogging community. Today's faves are from Nicole Martin of Tea for Me Please.

Yixing Teapot

This was my first yixing teapot. I fell in love with its unique sunrise design. It's dedicated to my favorite tea, Huang Zhi Xiang from Seven Cups Fine Chinese Teas.

Gaiwan

Gaiwans are my go to brewing method these days. This is the first one I ever purchased. It's still trucking, even though there's a small crack in the lid now.

Glass Teapot

I love my glass teapot because I can see the leaves open up and admire the color of my tea. It works great for white and green teas.

Hagi Chawan

I went through a phase where I collected a lot of Hagi teaware and this is my favorite piece. It was glazed twice so bits of blue peek through the top white glaze.

Vintage Teacup

Most of my teaware is Asian inspired but I'm a sucker for a vintage teacup. This one was produced by Paragon in the 1930's.

All photos and stories courtesy of Nicole Martin. Thank you for sharing your favorite teaware with us, Nicole.

Tea Review: Golden Tips Tea Darjeelings

I drank a flush of Darjeelings a couple of weeks ago, the teas provided by Golden Tips Tea. There were five teas in total - (1) Giddapahar Muscatel, (2) Thurbo Moonlight Darjeeling, (3) Goomtee Darjeeling, (4) Arya Ruby Darjeeling, and (5) Castleton Moonlight. All are second flush/summer teas with the exception of the Castleton Moonlight which is a first flush/spring tea. All the dried leaves exuded an herbal, musty aroma.

The Giddapahar is my favorite of the flushes with lots of classic Darjeeling flavors and aromas.

The Thurbo Moonlight was harvested three days later than the Giddapahar on a different estate. The liquor was weakly flavored. All the teas were prepared in a tasting cup using one teaspoon of dried leaves and steeped in boiling water for three minutes.

The Goomtee was malty with slightly astringent notes. Look at the rich color of the liquor.

The steeped leaves of the Arya Ruby were dark but the flavor was surprisingly faint.

Milder in flavor than the Giddapahar and the Goomtee, the Castleton Moonlight had predominantly floral notes. Note the green color of the dried and steeped (see below) leaves as well as the yellow gold color of the liquor.

I recommend the Giddapahar! The Goomtee is also a good choice followed by the Castleton.

Thank you to Golden Tips Tea for the generous package of Darjeelings and other teas.

Notes on Tea Gift Guide 2014

Our eclectic gift guide of tea-related objects. Enjoy!

Chocolate pairs well with tea! And the ROYCE' Decorative Ball is filled with R Chocolat and Pure Chocolate. See all the new chocolate products here.

The Qterra NOVO is not available yet for retail but the concept is brilliant. Check out the Kickstarter campaign page. Did you know that Qterra is a client of Alexis Siemons on teaspoons & petails? Donate to the Kickstarter here.

If you don't yet own a tea pet or would like to add to your collection, please consider the Joseph Wesley Tea Houses. Net proceeds from purchases of the tea house are donated to Detroit’s Freedom House. Shop for the tea pets here.

I spotted the PANATEA Ceremonial Grade Matcha Green Tea Set on Jee's Instagram feed. The tea set includes a measuring spoon, a double wall glass bowl, a bamboo whisk, and matcha, I have a traditional matcha bamboo scoop but I really like PANATEA's metal scoop. It is a one gram scoop - perfect for one bowl of matcha. Shop for the matcha kit here.

The Nordic Mug with color changing deer from DAVIDsTea is the only item on this list that I own. It is courtesy of Bratskier & Company. I wrote about the mug here. It is fun to use.

Finally, the fantastic logo t-shirt of the Shoots & Roots Bitters company. It's a woman owned business based in Harlem. One of the company's nine bitters has a Camellia sinensis base - the Chai Jolokia - is a Masala chai with black and ghost peppers. Shop for the t-shirt here.

Thank you to ROYCE', Alexis Siemons, Joseph Uhl, PANATEA, Bratskier & Company, and Shoots & Roots for the images used in this post.

P.S. Considering a gift of tea, check out our recent reviews: Ippodo Unro and Hosen Senchas, DAVIDsTEA Winter Collection, Golden Tips Tea CTC Assam Exotic, and Chambre de Sucre collaborative teas.

Tea Review: Ippodo Unro and Hosen Senchas

Have you ever used 212-degree F water to prepare a sencha? I have, with an Unro Sencha from the Ippodo Tea New York. I steeped the leaves for 30 seconds as instructed. The liquor had classic sencha notes - creamy, grassy, sweet, slightly astringent but not as bitter as I anticipated given the water temperature. Also, in order to use a gaiwan - I halved the recommended amount of leaves and water. I need a kyusu teapot. Did you know that Unro is a bestseller at Ippodo's NYC shop?

The second sencha, Hosen, called for a lower water temperature. I steeped 1 tbsp in 176-degree F water. The Hosen has a rounder flavor than the Unro. It is slightly sweet and the astringency is less pronounced. The Hosen is classified as a premium sencha and ranks richer than the Unro.

Image: Ippodo senchas: Unro (left), Hosen (right)

I did not notice a difference between the dry leaves but the steeped leaves of the Hosen were more intact.

Image: Ippodo Unro Sencha

Image: Ippodo Hosen Sencha

Infusions from both warmed me on a bitterly cold afternoon. I look forward to drinking these senchas all winter long - and I hear it's going to be a very cold one. The Sencha Set ($44) would be a good gift for your favorite pure-leaf tea drinker.

Thank you to YC Media for the Ippodo teas.

DAVIDsTEA Winter Collection

The Winter Collection + the Nordic tea mug with infuser and lid from DAVIDsTEA is a perfect gift for tea folk who like blends and want to prepare them easily at the office or at home.

I don't work in an office but I've been using the mug often. I like the lid - I can cover my mug while the tea is steeping and it's a convenient saucer for the infuser. Another neat feature of the mug is its heat sensitivity; the reindeer design on the exterior change color when you pour in hot water.

The teas in the collection are sugar plum forest (Rooibos), apple custard (tisane), cocomint cream (tisane), bubbie's baklava (oolong), and vanilla chai (black). The serving size is curious - 1.25 teaspoons. I would suggest a heaping teaspoon for the tisanes. Also I think I would prefer the tisanes as iced teas would make refreshing iced teas. For the oolong and black tea based blends, I would suggest using two teaspoons to extract more of the base tea flavors.

All the teas are very aromatic and put you in the season, so to speak.

Tea and tea mug c/o of Bratskier & Company. Images from DavidsTea website.

Tea Review: Golden Tips Tea CTC Assam Exotic

Golden Tips Tea has one of the most creative packaging I've seen. The teas arrived in a cardboard box which was wrapped in cotton that had been hand-sewn closed. The company provided several Darjeelings, three Assams, a Nilgiri and an herbal a rose-flavored green tea. As I mentioned on Twitter, I haven't figured out how to properly steep the Nilgiri but I have finished the Mankota Exotic Assam and the CTC Assam Exotic. The Mankota Exotic Assam is a loose leaf and well flavored tea. The CTC Assam Exotic also has a good flavor given that is a CTC.

I prepared the CTC Assam three ways: (1) steeped in a teabag; (2) steeped in a glass kettle; and (3) boiled in a pot with milk and sugar as suggested by Golden Tips Tea via Twitter. To the pot I added cardamom, cinnamon, and clove to make masala chai.

The masala chai was very good. You might consider adding a bit of condensed milk, about a teaspoon, to sweeten the experience (pun intended).

I will post about the Darjeelings soon - stay tuned.

Chambre de Sucre collaborative teas

It's always a delight to receive tea in the post. Last evening a package from Lisa of Chambre de Sucre arrived filled with No. 17 Alex the Grey, No. 31 Serenity, 9th Street Blend, and blue stars of sugar. The 9th Street Blend was made exclusively for the Eileen Fisher Boutique on 9th Street. I like that the 9th Street Blend came in a bottle! Alex the Grey and Serenity were blended for the Chambre de Sucre x Free People collaboration.

I infused the Alex the Grey this morning. I assume the essential oil is bergamot but it did not overwhelm the Sencha or the herbal additions (orange peel, cornflowers, lemon peel, and safflower). If you are shy about Earl Grey, you might like Alex the Grey. I added a blue star to my second infusion and it was the perfect amount of sweetness.

The 9th Street Blend also has a green tea base (Guo Lu) but is blended with ginger, lemon grass, and lemon myrtle. I think it will be a perfect way to warm up after my morning errands. The wind chill is in the teens today!!

Tea Shop - T Shop

There's a new tea shop in my neck of the city. I learned about T Shop from Nicole's Instagram feed. T Shop NY opened on Elizabeth Street in Nolita approximately three weeks ago. Prior to opening the shop, Theresa, the owner, worked at a tea place Fang Gourmet Tea in Flushing, Queens. Tasting Table noted that Fang Gourmet tea is "considered by many connoisseurs the best place in New York for Chinese and Taiwanese teas."

Theresa travels to Taiwan to source the teas or works with a trusted distributor. Currently there are eight teas to choose from. Jee and I were presented with two oolongs and we selected the Roasted Oolong - the aroma wowed us.

We ordered the Tasting tea service. Theresa sat across from us and prepared five steepings of the Roasted Oolong. There was a noticeable astringency by the fourth steeping but the floral notes and creamy mouthfeel tempered this sharpness.

The small shop is at the end of a hallway with not much natural light but it is brightly lit and Theresa is a warm person who clearly enjoys tea culture. She's procuring new teas for the shop so I'll be sure to return.

You can read Jee's review here.

How to Make Peanut Butter Cookies with Dona Chai

Dona Chai is a Brooklyn-made and bottled masala chai concentrate. It is very good - hot or cold, with milk. It is also good in baked goods at least in the peanut butter cookies we made a couple of weeks ago.

The complete gluten-free peanut butter cookie recipe is available on the Whole Foods website. The ingredients are 1 large egg, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 cup creamy unsweetened peanut butter, 1/2 teaspoon gluten-free pure vanilla extract, 1/3 cup chocolate chips (optional). We used less than 1/2 cup sugar and substituted 2 teaspoons 1 tablespoon of Dona Chai for the vanilla extract. We did not add chocolate chips. Our cookies were ready after 15 minutes in the oven.

The dough is easy to prepare. The cookies bake quickly. They are moist, nutty, and slightly spicy (ginger, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom). The chai concentrate also contributes an earthy base note.

If you bake with Dona Chai let us know in the comments.

Our thanks to Amy for the Dona Chai!

Afternoon Tea: The St. Regis New York

I was very excited to join Jee and Sara at the St. Regis New York earlier this month for a traditional afternoon tea. This type of tea service is special, I think. (Read Jee's review.)

The hotel is located off 5th Avenue so the walk from the subway puts you amid the sophisticated hustle and bustle of the city. Tea is served in the King Cole Salon which is a grand room - tall ceiling with murals, gold trim, and crystal chandeliers. However, it's not a feminine room. The seating and floor decor is decidedly dark and masculine.

The staff was patient and polite. There was a minor issue with the sandwiches. We were not given an opportunity select our sandwiches. Roast beef and salmon sandwiches were served which I could not eat because I don't eat meat. However, our server accommodated my request for additional vegetarian options. The sandwiches and quiche were quite good - freshly made and the right amount of everything.

I don't think the scones were memorable as I can't recall anything beyond that they were accompanied by cream, preserves, and lemon curd.

Four types of sweet pastries were served - red fruit tarts, macarons, eclairs, and ginger cakes. The tart and eclair were my favorites. Jee noticed that the tart had a hidden pocket of matcha. Delicious.

Last, but not least, the tea. A generous selection of teas is offered. The list is dominated by blacks which makes sense for a traditional afternoon service. The complete tea menu is available here.

I look forward to experiencing the other hotel afternoon teas in New York. Check out my reviews of traditional hotel afternoon tea at the Boston Harbor Hotel and the Rittenhouse Hotel,