Tea art and Lovejoy's Tea Room in San Francisco

Hi tea lovers!


This weekend my boyfriend and I went to Lovejoy's Tea Room in San Francisco for a rare treat. I discovered the tea room online by accident a few weeks ago  and wanted to go, but noticed there were no open reservations for 3 weeks. We put our names in and the day finally arrived, we drove up to the city from the peninsula and got really lucky with the parking and walked right into a tea wonderland. Every space in the building was decorated with tea related items. I must have seen 300 teacups in that room. The decor was amazing, but the best was yet to come!!

I ordered vanilla lavender black tea and oh my goodness it was amazing. In fact, I can't stop thinking about it. As well as the tea I had the "savory tea" which includes two finger sandwiches and a scone with cream and jam, the good ole English way. My boyfriend was not impressed when I put cream on both sides. Apparently, in England you only put cream on one side, then jam on the other and you put the two halves together like a sandwich.

The sandwiches I ordered were probably the best sandwiches I've ever had in my life. I'm not exaggerating, either. I had coronation chicken- which is also a common British sandwich made of chicken in mild curry mayo. If you're American and reading this you probably just thought "gross." That's what I thought too, until I tried it when I was living in Wales and I became slightly obsessed. The combination of that, lettuce and soft bread is absolutely delicious!

I also had a salmon, cream cheese and caper finger sandwich and those were really excellent as well. My boyfriend had horseradish and roast beef and turkey with English mustard. I didn't try the turkey, but the roast beef and horseradish was pretty good.

After we came home from the tea room I felt really inspired so I decided to paint a tea pot. It turned out so well that I think I'm going to put it on my etsy store. After I painted this I decided that I wanted to do more tea related art in the future. What is something you'd like to be painted? Let me know what you think of my painting!! PS if you like the painting below, you can buy it Here!!

Chai Tea Sugar Cookies: Guest Post by Sarah Elizabeth

Hi there tea community!

I think it's important that you guys know that this blog is about what you want to read about tea. I want to make content that you can all relate to. This website means nothing if it doesn't appeal to the tea community. Or should I say communiTEA. My post about my Matcha Chocolate Chip cookies inspired reader Sarah Elizabeth to make her own tea cookies. She tweeted me the idea and the results, so I asked if she wanted to guest post. She said yes! If anyone else has ideas they want to guest post about, don't be shy. Anyone can guest post! You just have to contact me and we will work out the details. Anyways, here is Sarah and her Chai Tea Sugar Cookies!
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Good day world of tea drinkers
Recently after reading about the Matcha Green Tea Chocolate Chip Cookies that Leah had made, it had me wanting to experiment baking with tea.  My go to cookie to bake are sugar cookies so I figured that would be where I would start, after looking at my tea shelf the best choice was using some Twinings Chai Tea hoping it would work out.  (Spoiler alert: It worked deliciously!)

Recipe:

1. I used a pre-packed sugar cookie mix where I only had to add 1 egg, a little bit of water, and room temperature softened butter

2. With the Twingins Tea, I cut open the tea bag and added a few pinches since I didn’t have any loose tea left

3. Mix all ingredients well

4. Place the cookie dough in little balls on the cookie sheet

5. Set the over for 350°F

6. Length of cooking time can vary from 10-13 minutes

It wasn’t a strong taste but you could taste the tea in the cookie.

The hardest part with these cookies was saving some for another day

This is what it looked like when it was done:

Hope you enjoy! 

-Sarah

Oxalis Tea: A guest post review of Out of Africa

Hi readers! My partner, Ollie will be guest posting today. Take it away, Ollie!


It's great to be guest posting here today. I'm going to be reviewing a flavoured black tea from an up-and-coming tea company based out of the Czech Republic, Oxalis (http://www.oxalis.eu). Leah encountered them on Twitter a while back and they very generously offered to send her (and, by proxy - me!) a haul of delicious tea samples, and even some coffee.

We received the parcel this morning and it was jam-packed with a multitude of tea, some we'd explicitly asked for (I asked for the Out of Africa tea and an aged Puerh) and some that was a complete (and very well received) surprise. We'd both like to thank Oxalis for their *ahem* generosi-tea. I'm aware that's a poor joke, that's why I don't have my own blog. But I digress...

The tea I'm reviewing for you today is called 'Out of Africa' (above), an apt name given that there's one very unusual ingredient in this blend. The packaging was nicely designed; including a picture of the beautifully blended tea on the front and the standard list of ingredients and steeping information on the back. This is definitely one of the more interesting teas I've tasted as I tend to stick to breakfast teas, Darjeeling and vanilla black tea. This tea is a blend of Ceylon, cocoa husks, mallow flowers (which add a pleasant burst of purple to this visually stunning tea), and here's the interesting part... Coffee beans!

That's right, this blend is a combination of tea (and, in smaller quantities) coffee beans and cocoa husks. It's effectively the whole enchilada of hot drinks in one cup, without being cloying or overwhelming. How does the flavour of the tea stand up to these unusual ingredients? Very well actually. There are pleasant notes of dark chocolate and a light earthy aftertaste from the coffee without overpowering the delicate flavour of the Ceylon, this is still tea as we know it. The steeping time recommended was two minutes, I think this is about right as I could properly taste the complex flavours without any astringency from the tea. The aroma was very wholesome with notes of malt and barley as well as sweet chocolate. I decided to add a small amount of sugar to bring out the flavour, and it did. The tea is soft and pleasant, surprisingly light on the palette with some depth from the coffee beans. I can already tell this would be a perfect dessert tea.

'Out of Africa' is a high quality and quirky tea that is similar enough to unflavoured blends to taste familiar, whilst exploring new flavours that complement and enhance the tea. Personally I'm very happy with this tea and will be having another cup soon! To close, I'd like to thank Oxalis again for their fantastic service, diverse range of tea and minimalistic, no-nonsense packaging. I give this tea a 4/5 rating. The combination of flavours may not be for everyone but this tea is light and delicious and I would wholeheartedly recommend it. Here's the tea while it was steeping:

Leah here again, I hope you enjoyed Ollie's guest post! Here's a bonus photo of the two of us in Bristol, England this summer:

Leah

Guest Post: Jilly of Blackboard Reviews

Hi there tea drinkers! Today my friend and blogger Jilly is here guest posting. She, too loves tea and isn't afraid to pair her love of gaming with her love of tea. I thought it might be nice to tie in the love of games to this blog, as many people love both. Enjoy! -Leah  PS, I added a photo of the Earl Grey box because I love the design. :)



Tea, the Perfect Companion for any Hobby by Jilly at Blackboard Reviews:


First and foremost, I am a gamer. For me, there is nothing better than coming home from university with a free evening to sit and relax with my favourite game. However, it is the companion of tea that makes the experience all the more relaxing.

My favourite tea is Twinings Earl Grey, this has been my choice since a child as my English teacher always brought it into class and it smelt amazing! Being British, I always have been a run-of-the mill tea drinker, PG tips, Yorkshire Tea, Tetley, and thats why I like Earl Grey: the additional citrus flavour is mild in taste, therefore it doesn't stray to far from my traditional tea drinking habits.

Interestingly, I always found Lady Grey a bit too much, Twinings Lady Grey is stronger than Earl and every time I have tried it I find myself reverting all the way back to plain off-the-supermarket-shelf tea bags. I think I still have a nearly full box of Lady Grey at the back of my cupboard!
Whatever your hobby/job, tea is a suitable companion. Us Brits will use any excuse to essentially procrastinate and make a cup of tea before starting any task, whether enjoyable or not.
Also, don't forget the mug, everyone has their favourite cup to make their regular cuppa in. I personally have a collection of chocolate themed mugs from Mars bar to Cadbury Buttons, I am not ashamed in any way! Here's my collection:

Thanks for reading my guest post, if you want to know anymore about gaming, then take a took at my blog Blackboard Reviews

Jilly

Guest Post: Çay Çek

Today, Sevnur of Çay Çek is guest posting on my blog and will be talking all about Turkish tea customs. I was thrilled when she contacted me, because my brother in law was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey. Please enjoy learning about Turkish tea! Below is a photo Sevnur provided.

Turkey is the biggest tea consumer country in the world and the 5th biggest

tea producer. The most interesting thing is the only tea that covered by

snow is Turkish tea. That makes the tea the healthiest and organic at the

same time. No chemicals are used while growing the tea. Tea in Turkey is

mainly the black tea, very dominant all over the country and grown in the

Black Sea region.

Above is Sevnur drinking her tea in Istanbul, Turkey


Tea is the most popular beverage in the country, our informal tea ceremony

starts with the breakfast and does not end till we go to bed. We drink tea

before meals, during meals and after meals, black tea is served free after meals

in most of the restaurants. Turkish black tea has a brisk tea, and is very strong

so some people prefer to drink it with sugar, sometimes with lemon, but

never with milk.



We use a special two chamber teapot called samovar which keeps tea hot

throughout the day. Tea is always ready at houses, offices and restaurants

thanks to samovar. Another unique equipment we use while drinking tea is

the tea glass. It has a very special shape, they call it as thin belly glass or

tulip-shaped glass. It is the perfect glass to drink tea because keeps tea at the

bottom hot while cooling at the top.

See below, a close up of the black tea:

About caycek.com: Çay Çek means "drink tea." It is a Turkish tea website

includes anything and everything about tea.

Tomorrow: Carne Griffith's guest post

Stay tuned! Tomorrow night I will be interviewing Carne Griffiths about his art made from tea, coffee and alcohol. Above, his work entitled "Speechless" is shown.


See you then


Leah

Carne Griffiths

Hi tea lovers!

I recently reached out to a member of the art community, Carne Griffiths about making a guest post on this blog. Who is he, you ask? Well, he's a well established artist here in the United Kingdom that uses tea, ink and alcohol to create beautiful art. Needless to say I'm so honored and excited to have such a fantastic guest to be the first to guest post here on my blog!

Please have a look at his website: Carne Griffiths where you can find photos of his art. 

Leah