beXnlog

Time for More Tea

Tea's been on the mind recently - not just for me but for quite a few people i know as well. I spent a good hour IMing with dude on Monday and came across some good tea-related links during our discussion:

- Teamap is a useful site to find teahouses and teashops near you.

- We both still want to try the Teastick. (Thanks DJ!)

- A great site selling fine teas at fair prices is Special Teas. Their tea library is a really useful guide to the differences between types of tea and explains how to brew it properly, too. I'm going to order the Assam and Oolong Sample Collections. (Thanks kc!)

- Adagio Teas has a great collection too. I'm probably going to order the Oolong Savant and the Black Samplers, which come in nice 1 oz storage tins. Also check out that ingenuiTEA brewer!

- I still really want the Mezzo Passione cups from Bodum to drink tea and coffee out of. I already have the tiny Piccolo Passione cups for espresso and hot chocolate. Yay for glass cups and chrome saucers!

- be just bought a metal fine mesh tea strainer from Sunrise Mart. I already had a plastic fine mesh strainer but we obviously needed another to brew 2 different cups at once. While tea balls and those spring-loaded tea "spoons" or infusers do work, i feel like they don't really allow loose tea leaves to unfurl and release all their flavors like strainers do. (However cute that "TEA house" above is, i never use it to brew loose tea because of said problem!)

- And finally, Wikipedia has a good article on tea, covering the history of tea, the word "tea" and tea culture in countries across the world.

Maybe it's all because of the onset of colder weather!

posted by beXn @ 12:59 AM