Are you drinking enough tea?

"It offers a boost but no burn, and can even make you healthier. Are you drinking enough tea?" This is the subheading from a nice article about the benefits of tea in the January issue of Runner's World. http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,5033,s6-53-0-0-9209,00.html
The article also includes one of the better discussions that I have seen of the different kinds of tea. Enjoy!

MWF Seeking DEG

What do I want from restaurants and cafes? Decaf Earl Grey. My frustration about tea stems largely from an inability to find a cup of decaf black tea to have after dinner in a restaurant or with my dessert in a cafe. As a coffee drinker, the decaf alternative to your normal beverage is ubiquitous. But, if you are a tea drinker, "decaf" generally means choosing between an herbal tea and a tea of inferior quality to the caffeinated teas offered. Why is this? If you are a restaurateur and you offer me caffeinated Earl Grey, why not offer me decaf Earl Grey too?

This diatribe introduces the first of my restaurant reviews. In May, my husband and I celebrated our anniversary with an amazing meal at Scalini Fedeli in Chatham, New Jersey. The food, the service, and the atmosphere were all perfect, but the meal ended in disappointment with the tea. On my teapot scale, Scalini Fedeli receives four pots (The scale ranges from one pot, which designates a tea bag of poor quality "dust" grade tea tossed in a coffee mug of lukewarm water, to five pots, which designates a tea service offering a range of high quality, loose tea served in a teapot of boiling hot water.) Scalini Fedeli rates highly for their preparation of the tea by serving boiling water in a small ceramic teapot. They offered a medium-quality black tea in bags, but they lose teapot points for selection. For decaf options, they offered a standard range of herbals (peppermint, chamomile, etc.), but only one, low-grade decaf black tea. My scrumptious lemon tart would have been vastly improved by a little decaf Earl Grey.

The Best Cup of Tea This Side of New York City . . .

Honestly, I haven't found it yet. Thus far, of all of the places I have had tea in New Jersey, Starbucks is probably your best option. The selection of teas there is not enormous, but at least they're consistent and the water is hot. I will steadily provide my reviews of the cups of tea I have in restaurants and cafes, but, for now, if you happen to be traveling to Boston, may I suggest that you try Tealuxe (http://www.tealuxe.com). They have three cafes in the area: Harvard Square in Cambridge, Newbury Street in Boston, and Thayer Street in Providence. Each day, they brew several choices of regular and decaf black teas and herbals, generally both hot and cold. Plus, they have a wall of loose tea choices that you can take home with you or have them brew you a cup or a pot on the spot. Each cafe has a cozy atmosphere that makes you want to stay and linger over your brew, which I suggest you do. The people watching in all of their locations is top notch.

Tea and Travel

I don't know about you, but, if I don't get a decent cup of tea in the morning (and lots of it), I am grumpy and mean. Yes, I realize that I am addicted to caffeine, but there is more to it than that. The sheer pleasure of a steaming mug of tasty, full-bodied tea cannot be eliminated from my morning. For me, tea is like a hot shower. I could substitute a latte or a cup of lukewarm "tea" from a teabag of dust, but, like a cool shower with limp water pressure in the morning, it just doesn't satisfy me.

For that reason, my mornings (and those of the colleagues with whom I have been traveling) were saved by my discovery of the Bodum Mini Ibis water boiler (http://www.bodum.com). The Mini Ibis is short and thin and packs easily into a suitcase for travel. The entire top lid pops off, making it easy to save a bit more space in the suitcase by packing the tea inside of it. Now, I no longer have to pray that I will find a decent cup of tea on the road. Instead, I buy a bottle of water and make my own in my hotel room. (I sometimes pack a travel mug too, but most hotels these days have a coffee maker that I never use and a few mugs in the room.) Business travel has become a lot less risky now that I have the Mini Ibis in my bag!

Purpose

My company recently asked me to participate in a project on blogging, so I decided to join the blogosphere myself. I've never been tempted before because I doubted that anyone wanted to read my rants or hear about how I spent my day. (I have a journal for that at home that's not in the public domain.) To start a blog, I needed to have a purpose, some point to spending the time typing. To that end, I have decided to share my knowledge of, and passion for tea. During the course of this blog, I will share my reviews of tea offerings in the restaurants and shops in which I dine, tidbits on the history of tea, suggestions for equipment, directions for brewing perfect pots of tea, and maybe even a recipe or two. The audience is intended to be tea devotees like myself and novice tea drinkers who want to know where to find or how to make a good cup. I hope that you find it useful.