The Tea Scoop

Tea Parties

I still remember my very first tea party. I was about five years old, and it was the first time I was allowed to stay up for New Year's Eve. That was the night my mother gave me my great-grandmother's doll-sized china tea set, and I drank iced tea out of the cups that I poured for my dolls and stuffed animals.

On another occasion, a schoolmate of mine had a tea party for her birthday party. We were to wear our "Sunday Best" and we decorated hats for the occasion as a party activity.

Little girls and tea parties go back decades, if not longer. If you had a tea party when you were younger, I'd love to hear your story!

Tea and Sushi

Nothing goes better with sushi than a good cup of green tea, particulary Gen Mai Cha (one of many spellings). Gen Mai Cha was designed with sushi in mind, and is green tea with toasted brown rice. It is supposed to help with digestion.

But, tea may be more closely linked with sushi than even that. A recent article in the Washington Post discusses the shortage of sushi chefs in the United States. This shortage has meant that sushi bars and restaurants have been forced to hire non-Japanese sushi chefs. However, many sushi chefs are against this practice, such as Yoshi Itoh who runs a very traditional Japanese restaurant. He said he would "not even consider teaching someone to prepare sushi until the student had spent at least four years mastering the intricacies of the centuries-old Japanese tea ceremony--whose manners and aesthetic lie at the heart of all Japanese cooking."

So there you have it: tea is the heart of all Japanese cooking.

Oolong and Weight Loss

In a recent Q&A in “Tea Experience Quarterly Magazine,” a reader wished to know if claims that wu-long (oolong) tea helps to lose weight through burning fat were indeed true. The answer is yes, according to research both in lab animals and people. Why? It lessens the absorption of fat, increases matabolism, and helps breakdown fat because of polymerized polyphenols. Oolong tea has more of these polyphenols than any other kind of tea, including pu-erh which is often advertised as a diet tea.

Oolong is partially fermented tea, sometimes described as being between black and green tea. If you’ve ever ordered tea at a Chinese restaurant, you’ve probably had it. My personal favorite is peach-scented oolong.

Tea Class

Monday, February 26, 2007, the following event will be taking place.

TEA TIME, learn about tea origin, buying and brewing, and receive a tea infuser, for age 16 and older. 7-9 p.m., Dale City Recreation Center, 14300 Minnieville Rd., Dale City. $28. 703-670-7112.

Autobiography as Haiku

One of my favorite columns in the Washington Post is the "Autobiography as Haiku." Not strictly haiku, these are 100 word essays regarding a theme each week.

Here is a teaser from this past week's:

"Sorry, we're out of World Peace. You can have anything else."

Click here for the full essay, about a tea shop in Olney.

Author Ellen Lent

Peppermint Tea and Female Hirsutism

While still in the prelimary stages of research, a new study indicates that drinking spearmint tea may reduce hirsutism in women by decreasing the amount of testosterone in their system, as well as increasing the amount of estrogen. "The next step is to show the effect of spearmint tea on hirsutism scores of the women in a treatment period," Dr. Mehmet Numan Tamer said in an interview in Wednesday's Washington Post.

You can read the article here

The Spearmint Plant

Fun Articles About Tea

This is a fun article about tea and weddings from Adagio's "Tea Muse."  It includes a historical anecdote about tea and tea as a component of Chinese Weddings.

BouqueTEA

As you have probably gathered by now, I’m a big fan of Whole Foods, and I spend as much time there as I possibly can, combining my hunting and gathering with some grazing and imbibing. On one such trip to pick up some ingredients for curried apple soup, we stopped to have lunch at the Asian food counter. The miso soup was delicious, as well was my eel rice bowl. But the tea is what I’m here to write about and you’re here to read about. We both ordered BouqueTEA in the Prima Donna flavor, which included jasmine and chrysanthemum for “sensual grace and reliability.” Served in Bodum Pavina Double Wall Thermal Glasses, we were fully able to appreciate the blossoms as they unfurled. Unfortunately, I was unable to find out the manufacturer, but many companies do sell tea flowers, such as Adagio.

Honest Tea

On a recent visit to Whole Foods, I perused their bottled tea selection. Now ordinarily, I don’t drink bottled tea because it is quite difficult to find natural and unsweetened RTD tea. (RTD=Ready to Drink) I was happy to find something called Honest Tea. I tried their “Just Black” unsweetened Indian black tea and was quite pleased. They do have sweetened teas, but with a fraction of the sugar in, say Snapple.

Lately, I’m finding Honest Tea is in the news more and more, and all positive exposure. Coca-Cola is now distributing Honest Tea, and in the February 19 Business Section of the Washington Post, the article discusses the flow of investments in the country. It has now overtaken Tazo as the dominant organic bottled tea in the country. The company also plans to introduce lower sugar organic juice pouches for children.

If you’re looking for me, I’ll be at Whole Foods in the tea aisle!

Tea and War

Tea and war you say? How can they possibly be related?

Well, I would have you know that something as simple as tea has changed the course of battles. In World War I, the British offensive at Gallipoli seemed as though it would be successful. However, the British commandered ordered a stop...for afternoon tea. By the time tea time was finished, the Turks had time to reorganize, and won easily. This strange habit, of stopping battles for tea, would continue through World War II.

To this day, in British tanks and such, a teamaker is standard equipment, although they no longer stop battles for tea.

While perhaps not the best strategy, I can fully understand the logic. Given the opportunity to fight or drink tea, I would have to choose tea everyday.