Madeleines

I visited my parents over the weekend, and decided to take full advantage of their fully stocked and awesome kitchen. I had several baked goods in mind for the weekend, and tea tasting to do. This is the first of several write-ups I'll have coming over the next few days! And as always, excuse the terrible picture quality - my phone is all I've got to use at the moment.

First up are the madeleines. I actually hadn't been planning to make madeleines, but I noticed my mother had a madeleine tray at the bottom of the pan drawer, so I thought... why not! I soon found out why not, though: they're super duper sticky and were damn near impossible to get out of the pan, even after very thorough greasing. In addition, the pan was ancient and terrible quality, so we wound up tossing it after we noticed several spots that it had begun rusting.

Anywho, here are a few pictures from the process!

1/2 cup unsalted butter (melted), 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/8 teaspoon salt, 3 large eggs (room temp.), 2/3 cup granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

I kinda skipped the whole picture-of-the-dough part because... I don't know. It was a little intensive in that I needed to do certain steps in a relatively timely order. The eggs and sugar had to be whipped thoroughly into a very light, frothy batter, and I needed to mix everything else in loosely and somewhat quickly to prevent the dough from deflating. I just didn't think to take a picture of the dough at that point, but it was really fluffy and delicious, I promise!

I tweaked the recipe by replacing the vanilla extract with lemon. I wanted to use poppy seeds, but our bottle was probably older than I am, so it met the trash can.

Despite the difficulties in removing the buggers from the madeleine tray (hence the madeleine-cupcakes), they were delicious! Very spongey and great for dipping in tea or coffee. I definitely would make them again with a better tray - and probably even more grease.

Thank you JoyofBaking for the recipe!

More tea tattoos

I love looking at body art. It's out of my budget, but some of this work is absolutely gorgeous! Tea really is a great concept for tattoos.

Fuck Yeah, Tattoos!

Fuck Yeah, Tattoos!

Fuck Yeah, Tattoos!

Fuck Yeah, Tattoos!

traditional tattoos

I think out of this batch, the first and last are my favorite. I like the simplicity of the first, and I like the message and old school style of the last. The only thing about the last I don't love is how heavy and black the tattoo is.

On another subject, I'm going to my parents this weekend, which means I will have a fully stocked and awesome kitchen at my disposal! Expect a few days worth of recipes, tutorials, tea treats, and reviews coming your way.

The Tea Rap

Epic.

(Thank you Shaunna for enlightening me.)

Boudoir

This time I tried the Boudoir blend, the second tea provided to me by my Steepster tea exchange. According to the website from which it was purchased (Maison Francaise de The: Caravanserai) this is a blend of Ceylan, Assam, and Darjeeling teas.

The tea leaves smelled very similar to many Earl Grey teas I've tried (particularly Twinings Earl Grey); the scent was extremely pungent. It was a pleasant smell, but I was concerned the tea would be extremely strong, and potentially bitter.

The brew time was recommended at 5 minutes, so I tried that. However, the brew seemed a little lighter than I wanted, so I let it steep for closer to 6 or 7 minutes after a small sip verified my concerns. I might have needed to use more leaves; again, I was being cautious since the smell of the leaves were so strong. Still without a temperature-specific kettle, boiling water was used.

I was clearly mistaken in thinking the scent would be anything like the flavor. It is actually very soft in flavor, with a slightly acidic undertone reminiscent of citrus. A spot of sugar and a lemon would do well in this tea. I also believe it would be very good iced, and possibly blended with a fruity herbal tea.

All in all, this tea was very good, but probably not as impressive as the Darjeeling from last night. The Boudoir doesn't quite hold itself as well alone as the Darjeeling did.

Darjeeling, 2nd... what?

Yep. Flush. When I first read this, I thought it was a silly nickname for the blend (or an unfortunate reference to toilets.) Upon further research, it's actually referring to the region and time the leaves were picked! Flushes seem to be a term only applied to Darjeeling teas (which are usually black teas.)

Darjeeling first flush means that the leaves were harvested in Spring (March to mid-April), from the Darjeeling region of India. The flavor tends to be floral and earthy.

Second flush means that the leaves were harvested during the summer, or second growing season. The flavor actually should have a sort of muscat (grape-like) flavor, along with the normal earthy tones. I can't say my tasting yesterday had any significant "grape" flavors that I noticed, but I am also new to this whole process!

Now that I have tried the latter, I really want to try the former. From pictures and descriptions, it seems the color is less rich and the flavor lighter, maybe even dryer.

Thank you About and the Tao of Tea for enlightening me!

Darjeeling, 2nd Flush

So my package arrived from the Valentine's Day tea exchange that was sponsored by Steepster. My mystery gift giver was actually located in Mexico, but she sent me some fantastic quality leaves from Maison Francaise de Thé: Caravanserai. Granted, I don't speak Spanish, but I was able to infer most of the information provided on the bag and website. The bag was actually super helpful, with comprehensive charts with recommend leaf amounts per 300 mL water, steep time, and water temperature. The bag contained two pouches of loose tea, one a blend called Boudoir, and the other a Darjeeling. (There was also a little perfumed linen print provided with a sweet note on the back. Gracias, Val!)

So, being the terrible novice tea person I am, I had lost my old infuser. After picking up my package from the post office, I had to immediately stop by the grocery store and grab a teaball infuser. I filled it up with the delicious smelling leaves of the Darjeeling 2nd flush. The leaves smell slightly sweet and earthy. Strangely, the scent reminds me of walking into a local furniture store (don't ask.)

I followed the instructions as recommended on the bag. One teaspoon per cup, and 5 minutes brewing time. Unfortunately, I don't have a temperature-specific kettle (yet! it's on my wishlist!) so I had to make do with boiling water for brewing.

The given instructions were spot on for this tea. The flavor was neither bitter nor watery. The color was absolutely gorgeous - the picture doesn't do it justice. It has a deep color reminiscent of honey or a fine scotch. I generally take my tea with a splash of milk and lump of sugar, but I figured for a proper taste test, I'd try it au natural first. The flavor was earthy, flowery, confident in its flavor but not overbearing. For a lack of a better description, it was happy. This is definitely the best Darjeeling I've had to date.

I would, without a doubt, have this tea again. Even though I'm drinking it late in the evening, I'd say it is best suited for the morning, or with a snack. I'm not sure the intensity is strong enough to go with a full meal like lunch or dinner.

Again, thank you Val! This tea was such a wonderful choice, and I can't wait to give the Boudoir blend a try.

Tea for One Bird

I want this little set I found on Teaopia earlier today, or its matching glass mug with the porcelain infuser. It's adorable, great for an office or a quick cup, and is at an awesome price! Now to wait until I get some spare change to buy it...



So cute! I love the classic pattern, combined with the more modern glass pot on the top, and pulling it all together with a matching porcelain infuser inside the pot. Well done.

Tea processing

I know very little, if not nothing, about the processing of tea. However, recently, someone (I can't remember who - I'm sorry!) linked an awesome flow chart on the process by which various types of teas are made. Two things that stood out to me from this chart: the fact that I'd never heard of yellow tea before, and the very noticeable differences in the processes of producing each type of tea. Of course, the latter shouldn't be a surprise - different types of tea taste distinctly different! I think I just attributed it moreso to the location from which the leaves were gathered and the oxidation process only. Anyway, on to the graph and its teachings!

At its simplest, the graph gives us six types of tea: black, oolong, yellow, green, white, and post-fermented (of which the most popular is puerh).

Black stands out in that it is the most oxidized.

Oolong is unique in that it is oxidized partially, but then kill-greened (the act of stopping the oxidation).

White tea, like black and oolong, is wilted, but then skips the oxidation process and is immediately kill-greened.

Green tea isn't wilted or oxidized at all.

Yellow is similar to green, but differs in that goes through a "moist heating" process after the kill-greening, giving the tea a distinct yellow tint.

Last but not least, the post-fermented tea differs from green tea in only the additional aging (quite often moist) that comes after drying.

Obviously, this is the sparknotes version from what the chart gives you, and what a more in-depth explanation could have. Even still, I find it fascinating, and plan to research more into this topic!

Tea grades

Wow. I was surprised how little I knew about tea grades when I looked them up. Originally this post was going to be about loose tea versus tea bags, but when doing that research I saw some terminology thrown around with regards to the tea bags and grading that I decided to look into it more closely! And without further ado, I shall jump into the grading system!

• D (Dust): This is the lowest grade. It consists mostly of small pieces of tea and tea leaves. The reason this is low grade is that as the tea leaves are broken up from their original state (whole!) they lose essential oils, which is key to a tasty brew.
• Fanning: This is a low grade. It consists mostly of pieces of tea leaves. Many generic tea bags consist of this grade.
• BOP (Broken Orange Pekoe): Ok, I was surprised to find out that "orange pekoe" was actually a grade and not a type of tea. Mind fuck! That being said, orange pekoe refers to full tea leaves, so broken orange pekoe would be - you guessed it! - broken tea leaves.
• OP (Orange Pekoe): Whole leaves!
• FOP (Flowery Orange Pekoe): Flowery refers to the bud of the tea plant. This grade consists of whole leaves and the buds!
• GFOP (Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe): Golden refers to the hue of the tea leaf tips, with gold being a sign of quality. GFOP consists of quality whole leaves and buds.

Changes

We need more customization than Tumblr can offer. It's been a short and sweet love affair, Tumblr!

Please excuse the dust as we stretch our legs in our new hosting.

specialTEA Lounge

I hadn't been to a tea house in Miami for ages, and conveniently my friend JJ kept reminding me of one right near his house. Yesterday we finally decided to go to specialTEA!

It is important to note that specialTEA is a self-proclaimed tea "lounge" rather than a tea house. The best way to describe it is as a coffee shop, but with tea instead of coffee. However, they had plenty of coffee drinks and smoothie options for non-tea drinkers.

Their tea storage was an interesting one. They kept the tea in labelled paint cans on the wall. My question is, how well did they clean out those paint cans?!



Sorry for the blurriness. If you look closely (the first two rows are just the name of the tea lounge), but the first row of the actual teas - the third one is missing. They took it down to get out the leaves to brew my Darjeeling tea!

Tea-rrific!

Tea-rrific is my blog dedicated to tea, tea service, and anything tea-related I find educational or interesting! However, my blog is located at a different address. This is merely a placeholder to allow me to network with Bloggers more easily!

To read my blog, please visit http://tea-rrific.org!

Teacup vs. Breakfast cup

There is a difference!

I did not know this until I was tea set browsing. While I have and love my new set, it has some flaws to it and will need some - if not all - upgrades. Whilst tea set browsing, I found a beautiful set for an affordable price! By Burleigh, their Blue Calico tea set is everything I want, with varying sizes of pieces so I could get cups/mugs for all occasions and still match. Which, you know, is crucial when having tea by yourself... matching pieces... (It's about the little pleasure in life, I say!)

Anyway! I noticed on that set they had mugs, tea cups, and... breakfast cups? What the heck is a breakfast cup?!

Well, in a nutshell, teacups are smaller than breakfast cups. Teacups are 200ml, whereas breakfast cups are 300ml (half a pint). I find the term breakfast cup is a perfect name for that size cup. Oftentimes, one doesn't have time or want an entire pot of tea for breakfast like at a tea service, so a large cup would suffice for the morning caffeine. However, for a tea service, the smaller cups means going through a pot more slowly and evenly, particularly with company.

So, with this new set, what pieces do I intend to buy as far as cups go? I think I will look at buying two mugs, two breakfast cups, and four tea cups.

Thank you Stack of Recipes for the measurements!

Logo

A friend of mine (Sarah at Noxychu) has been working on a rough sketch for a graphic for Tea-rrific! I'm super excited about the finished product, though there is no specific date it will be finished yet.

Here is what she has so far:



It's me! Some changes will be made, but I love her style work and know it'll wind up being awesome.

Coffee vs. Tea

While this blog is dedicated to tea and tea service, there is that brother from another mother out there infiltrating our cups: coffee! While tea is generally considered the healthier alternative, is this necessarily true? Tea is almost 3000 years older than coffee; does age trump youthfulness here? Let's find out!

There are two major 'ingredients' usually associated with tea and coffee: caffeine, and antioxidants. While many people automatically assume caffeine to be a bad thing, this is not the case! If you need a pick me up for alertness, caffeine is your drug of choice. Caffeine also used to be a go-to relief for sufferers of asthma. So long as these beverages are reasonably consumed (a max of four 8 oz. cups a day, and that's being generous) then one has nothing to worry about. And antioxidants have been shown to reduce inflammation of blood vessels, and to reduce the likelihood of cancer.

Now, which beverage has more or less of these things! In order of most to least amount of caffeine, it goes: coffee (~150mg/cup), black tea, green tea (~55mg/cup), and white tea. In order of most to least amount of antioxidants, it goes: white tea, green tea, black tea, and coffee (fancy that!)

Because there is such a thing as too much caffeine, because coffee has little support to its health benefits, and because there really isn't such a thing as too much antioxidant, I would say that tea is the healthier choice. But again - so long as it is consumed within reason - I would really recommend you just drink whatever you prefer!

Thank you ABC News and and Diffen for some of the above info!

Tea Rap

Cup of Brown Joy



Love a cup…. I would… ah, God yes!
Ooh that is gorgeous. Yeah!

I need a cup of the brown stuff, the shade of an acorn.
Made warm by the same source that I take my cakes from.
Using a tea pot, a mug, or fine china…
Being hooked up to IVs, and constant supplies.

…and the ___ of my urges might verge on the verge of an earthy brown tea.
I’m certain it’s worth it.

We ___ to workers and use a fresh fountain,
I deserve brews from Peruvian mountains.
I’ve slurped up a cup from an elephant’s trunk
with a couple of monks who utterly stunk.

I’ve had bourbons with sultans and creams with queens,
and I’ve bathed in Earl Grey. I’m really that keen!
And missionaries dismiss me for my singular epiphany.
The difference between him and me is a simple sip of British tea!

So when times are hard and life is rough,
You can stick the kettle on and find me a cup!

Now when I say Earl Grey, you say yes please!
Earl Grey — yes please!
Earl Grey — yes please!

When I say Assam, you say lovely!
Assam — lovely!
Assam — lovely!

When I say ooh, you say ahh!
Ooh — ahh!
Ooh — ahh!
Ooh — ahhhhhh!
(muttering?)

I’ve been around the world in 80 brews
to see the place you take me to
to make the brew that tastes like the cream cakes made by angels do.

I’m not the same as you; get shaky with ___.
To swig amazing fluids, but don’t make it the same.
Now, using fine leaves, picked by pretty maidens,
in a bag knitted by a seamstress who lives in Copenhagen.

Brewed up in a pot made of semi-precious metal
And then let the bless-ed contents settle in my very special kettle.

Now, when I say Oo, you say long.
Oo–long!
Oo–long!

When I say herbal, you say no thanks.
Herbal — no thanks!
Herbal — no thanks!

Mmm….no! No, I want.. I want milk in it.
Strong though! I want to see that spoon stand up!

If you’re tired of tea, then you’re tired of life!
Ah-ha! I’m madder than a hatter. It defies my might!
Liken me to Earl Grey, Assam, or Ginger
Lapsang Soushong raise my pinky finger.

Keep your sodding coffee in a proper copper coffee pot.

…. and spot me loving teapot
coffee clocks, nodding off
lost a plot, sodding off
Need some caffeine added and a Batternburg to top it off.

Cut them off a different block. A different lot can take their pay on
80 cups a day, I haven’t slept for 80 years!
You can say I’m mad with tea, or, or just say I’m mad.
Oh, you can’t stay any longer? Oh..
Actually, I’m I’m quite glad.
All the more Battenburg for me!
I can barely pour, my hands have got a bit shaky from caffeine.
Oh, I love it though.
I’d sell my own grandma for a cup.
Well, I’d sell your grandma for a cup…

Quote

I got nasty habits; I take tea at three.

From Mick Jagger.

Teafusion

After my bout with the Vintage Castleton having a very short peak of deliciousness, I have realized I need to take the time to invest in a tea infuser.

While tea originated in China, the infuser wasn't introduced until tea became popular in England. The first infusers were silver and became popular in the late 19th, early 20th centuries, but have unfortunately since lost a lot of their popularity with the onset of teabags. However, I would argue that tea infusers are picking up momentum with the rediscovery of good tea in America. Most tea bags are made with lower quality leaf remnants (called fannings) that do not compete with the taste of proper loose leaf teas. For a more detailed and eloquent history on tea infusers, go here!

A tea infuser essentially acts as a holder for tea leaves as they steep. Instead of simply dumping the leaves into a pot or cup of tea, the infuser makes clean-up quick and easy. In the case of finicky teas such as the Vintage Castleton, infusers also make it so you can remove the leaves before the tea gets too bitter.

My experience with tea infusers has been limited. I received a one-mug infuser as a gift a long time ago (it has since been retired). It hung on the side of the mug. Now, I need to investigate either basket-type infusers that rest inside the top of the pot, or little bobble infusers (called tea balls) that have a keychain to fish the bobble out of the water once steeped. There are many many other types as well, with funny shapes, designs, etc, but they all have the same central purpose: to help make effortlessly awesome tea!

Here is one of my favorites that I've found in my searches - a shark tea infuser!


http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/design-shark-tea-infuser/