Personal Updates

  Name: Live Your Love Type: Ceylon black tea Form: Paper bagged tea, string and tag, no staples Price: $5.00 for a box of 25 teabags, quantity discounts are available Review: Live Your Love is... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] […]

I’ve missed doing tea reviews. While I love my part-time work at Adagio’s retail store on State Street (Chicago), it is no substitute for carefully sipping and drinking tea. Here’s... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] […]

Almond-coconut milk in tea? A few years ago a vegan friend, John Plummer, worked with me on a couple of taste tests in which we added nut milks to English breakfast tea to see how they worked. The... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] […]

Just a heads-up that Adagio Teas State Street Store (in Chicago) is hosting a free tea-infused cocktails event this Saturday, March 10th, from 6-8pm. For more details, check out my post on... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] […]

Heads up, tea lovers! The fine folks at Le Palais des Thes have teamed up with Lot 18 to offer three short-term (4-days only) tea/teaware deals: Le Palais des Thes Duo: 1 x 4.4 oz. tin of Thé du... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] […]

Tea and Mother's Day make a wonderful pairing: An afternoon tea service is a refreshing alternative to long buffet lines while tea, especially when paired with colorful teaware, makes a great gift! Fortunately, Chicago has some wonderful tea... […]

Learn how to add a twist to your cocktails at Adagio Teas State Street's Tea Infused Cocktails event! From 6-8 pm, guests will be able to sample cocktails that incorporate tea and learn from Adagio's... […]

Adagio Teas-State Street opened today, Friday, November 25th. The store features 60 different teas and tisanes (herbal infusions) along with a whole lot of wonderful teaware. Stop by to sniff and sample Adagio's offerings or pick... […]

Many people don't know that I got into tea by way of drinking wine: After several years enjoying the grape, I decided that I needed to cut some calories. To my delight, I discovered that tea drinking could... […]

  Name: Organic English BreakfastBrand: IntelligentsiaType: Black teaForm: Loose leafCost: $7 for two ounces of dry leaf as of October 2011, quantity discounts are available. Cups of tea vary by location.Review: While Chicago-based Intelligentsia... […]

Name: Tangiers Lemon Flavored White Tea Brand: English Tea Store Type: White Tea, flavored Form: Loose leaf Review: I’ve long said that white peony tea and lemon are a natural pairing: While I love the fruitiness of unflavored white peony, a little kick of lemon is sometimes a welcome addition, adding a bit of tang […]

Name: Scottish Breakfast Tea Brand: English Tea Store Type: Black tea, blend Form: Loose leaf Review: This is an interesting blend of Indian teas, including Assam, as well as Keemun from China. According to a video produced by the English Tea Store, one of the goals in the blending of this tea was to suggest […]

Name: Organic Wild Blueberry Black Tea Brand: English Tea Store Type: Black tea, flavored Form: Loose leaf Review: Now this is the sort of flavored tea that I like: It doesn’t club me over the head with flavor, and I can still taste the tea. At the same time, it is unmistakably a “blueberry” tea: […]

Name: Jasmine With Flowers Green Tea Brand: English Tea Store Type: Green tea, scented Form: Loose leaf Review: This is a ridiculously inexpensive tea ($3.89 for four ounces as of November, 2011) and, for the price, brews up a respectable cup of jasmine green tea that should suit jasmine lovers well. The dry leaf itself […]

Name: Genmaicha Japanese Green Tea Brand: English Tea Store Type: Green tea Form: Loose leaf Review: Genmaicha has long been my “go-to” tea for initiating green-tea newbies.  It combines sencha with roasted rice, producing a unique flavor: The rice mellows out the sencha, while the tea itself produces a pretty, light green liquor and a […]

Outrage on Salon is nothing new. Even its most innoccuous articles attract trolls, haters, prigs, and the occasional psychotic. Clawed commenters do their best to leave their mark upon the author, particularly if she is a woman who admits to having had sex.   (The circumstances of the sex don't seem to matter.)   Knowing this, Lorraine Berry nonetheless […]

Ann Bauer's recent story about her covert escape from a marriage encounter weekend has inspired some pretty pointed comments. While some are predictably cruel and trollish, others ask this reasonable (and paraphrased) question: "Nobody was holding you against your will. So why did you feel the need to sneak out of the hotel in which the program was […]

I've lived in Oregon for two weeks now, and things have gone better than I expected. I am getting to know people in the community, finding my way around town, becoming involved with civic projects, and developing a good work routine here at home. (I am also not the least bit homesick.) One of the most intriguing things about my sojourn thus far is that […]

Culture shock is often caused by little things. For example: When I visited Hawaii, I expected palm trees, sand, and coconuts.  I did not expect roosters strutting around strip-mall parking lots, flattened frogs along the side of the road, or a Dairy Queen with oxtail soup on the menu. (Even the local McDonalds offered Portuguese sausages and guava juice at […]

I moved to Oregon today. I arrived with three suitcases. The rest of my stuff is either in storage or on its way via UPS. (It is good to be here.) There are no direct flights to Medford, so I had a short layover in San Francisco.  It took me a few minutes of wandering about the terminal to remember the last time I had been there. (It had been two years, almo […]