Brewing

Today we celebrate Love and Romance, so to everyone I wish you wonderful moments of appreciation and passion. And for those without a romantic interest at the moment, I wish you the love of friends, family, and animals. “If you want to be loved, be lovable”…Ovid

In honor of the country who has given the world the gift of tea, we also recognize today as the beginning of the Chinese New Year, The Year of the Tiger! For the next two weeks, the Chinese will make special foods, honor their ancestors, visit with family and friends, and give gifts to those close to them to celebrate the start of a new year with good fortune and happiness. Enjoy!

Please join me for our class on Green Teas. If you have tried to like green tea because it is supposed to be so good for you, but…it just tastes like grass, this is the class for you! Believe it or not, all green teas are not created equally. The varieties are so numerous and varied. This class will introduce you to the cultivation, geography, and processing of green teas and the opportunity to taste 4-6 different teas of China and Japan, the primary countries of green tea production. Following the class, we will enjoy simple snacks with pots of tea of your choosing.

When: Sunday January 24th, 1 to 3 pm

Where: at Nellie’s Tea and Gifts

                    5 Industry Rd.

                    South Portland, Maine 04106

Cost: $5.00 per person (fee waived with purchase of $10.00 or more on day of class.

(Visit “Contact Us” page for directions to the shop.)

To reserve your spot, call 761-8041, or e-mail nellie@maine.rr.com. Please leave your name and a phone number where you can be reached in case of any changes. I’ll look forward to seeing you!

Want to know more about Oolong tea, that most complex and satisfying of teas?
Join us this Saturday October 17th, from 1 to 3 PM.

5 Industry Rd. Suite 2 C

South Portland, Maine 04106

We’ll get acquainted with the growing regions, how they are made, and the endless varieties available. Then we’ll taste some of the most exquisite teas around and enjoy a light snack.
Cost: $5.00 per person(applied to any purchase of $10.00 or more on day of class.)
Call or e-mail to reserve your spot. Space is limited.

761-8041 or nellie@maine.rr.com

On my second day in S.F. my personalized tour continued. My friend Wendy McPhee, of Longevite Tea, picked me up in the morning and we proceeded to enjoy tea at three very different tea establishments.

First stop was Imperial Tea Court in the Ferry Building. Owned by long time tea guru, Roy Fong, this reminded me of the tea houses in China. Dark wooden tables and chairs in a quiet atmosphere of good tea and accompaniments. We shared an order of dumplings to tide us over which were superb. The tea service was gaiwan style, the waiter quite knowledgeable and thorough in his explanations. Browsing the assortment of teas and accoutrements before we moved on made me want to return to this interesting shop later in my stay.

After touring a bit of San Francisco, we headed to the Mission District for our 2 o’clock reservation at Lovejoy’s Tea Room .

This was traditional afternoon tea, Scottish style. The tea room is an eclectic jumble of western style tables covered with linens, with a mix and match assortment of china and place settings, three tiered servers, tea pots, and accoutrements. Lace curtains swept to the sides of the windows. British sideboards were filled with tea wares and gift items for sale. The room was filled with parties of one, two, or large celebrations. We shared the three tiered tea service which included finger sandwiches, salad greens, scones, and cookies. Our own pots of tea were hot and well prepared. The server was cheerful and friendly. All together a lovely, pleasant respite for the late afternoon chat, followed by a browse of Lovejoy’s Gift Shop located in a separate building across the street.

Our third tea adventure took us across the Bay Bridge to Berkely. Our destination here was  the tea shop and tea bar Teance. This contemporary space is a study in serenity and art. A carefully planned and designed establishment, located in a very busy shopping strip, one is greeted upon entering by the calming water feature just inside the entrance with a small garden statue, trickling water and gold fish swimming in the large ceramic pot.

The walls are lined with open shelves filled with an array of fine teas, teapots, pitchers, trays, cups, scoops, and all manner of other fine wares. At the back of the shop is the bar where one sits and for $5.00 can have a gaiwan serving of any tea on the menu.This includes many re-infusions of the leaves for as long as they hold their flavor, which can be through 5 or more infusions. The bar itself is a tea lovers dream. Designed of pigmented and formed cement with a metal grid, it allows spilled water or tea to drip through to the built in drains. Our tea server was extremely professional, knowledgeable, and efficient. I enjoyed a superb 15 year old Pu-ehr which was vey smooth, bright, and still going strong after 5 infusions. The other teas I saw people enjoying appeared equally well prepared and of the finest quality. 15 year old Pu-ehr Cloud and Mist, Gaiwan Style

This was another perfect day in San Francisco, thanks to good friends, the smile of the good weather spirit, and a beautiful city!

Next up, the Tea Class!

It was so much fun to visit San Francisco recently for a Specialty Tea Institute class. Through the generosity of several friends, I really was given a wonderful tea experience in that city in addition to attending my class. Thanks to Nez and Donna Tokugawa, owners of Chado-En, I was given a very comprehensive tour of the city. I was picked up at my hotel at 9:00 A.M. and returned at 8:30 that evening. Nez, a native of Japan, grew up in SF and is understandably very proud of his city. From a tour of the Ferry building, up and down the steep streets of neighborhoods, including the famous Lombard Street the Crookedest Street in the world, there was very little in the city itself that we didn’t see.

A very special experience was the opportunity to sit with Peter Luong, at his family owned Red Blossom Tea Company in Chinatown. This young man not only is a very knowlegeable tea merchant, but also was performing on cello later that evening. We had some wonderful Tie Kwan Yin to which Peter had given an additional roast. It was superb. Another highlight was visiting Muir Woods, a beautiful park of California giant redwoods. This was a delighful respite, the huge aged trees soaring above us giving a prehistoric feel to our surroundings as we followed the paths among them.me

Lunch across the bay in Sausolito was delightful, seated outside looking over the water. More traveling around the area brought us back to the city for a sushi dinner which was remeniscent of my short stay in Japan. The Tokgawas outdid themselves in their hospitality, and I can only hope that they will visit Maine sometime so I can return the gift.

Many years ago, 31 to be exact, a colleague at the University of Rochester generously offered my husband and me the use of her summer home in Cape May, NJ for a week. We were new parents, struggling on a tight budget, and welcomed the prospect of a week at the shore after all the crowds had left. In a brilliant moment, we decided that if we drove all night, our 7month old daughter would sleep the entire time, we would arrive and get settled, and then we could all take a nap with our daughter when the time came.

Well, as with all best laid plans…our daughter did not sleep, rather cried much of the way, it poured rain throughout much of the trip, and at some point in our travels, unknown to us, the port-a-crib tied to the roof of our car blew off, lost forever. We arrived exhausted, only to have trouble lighting the pilot in the stove and hot water heater. But the gift of this particular day came when we went outside after all having a nap and being restored. For there covering the shrubs at the front of the house in mosaics of orange and black…were hundreds of monarch butterflies! Up until then I never thought about what happens to butterflies when the weather gets colder, but apparently they do migrate to warmer climates along with their bird-friends, and we were fortunate to have stumbled into their path on that particular day. Their glow brightened the area like a flickering candle in a jack-o-lantern, lifting our spirits and getting our week off to a beautiful start.

This time last year, I was returning from my three week Tea Tour of China, exhausted and exhilerated, reeling from the thousands of colorful images seen during that awe inspiring journey into history. A year later, I am closer to being able to put all that I saw, learned and experienced, into perspective. If you asked me a year ago if I would consider returning to China, I would have said I was unsure; it is such an exhausting trip both physically and mentally. But, at this time, in this year, I find my thoughts frequently turning to China, thinking of the places I would like to see and experiences I would like to have on my next trip there. I’m remembering the myriads of tea tasted at the tea markets, the friendliness of the tea merchants and other shop keepers, the amazing tastes and sights seen in our travels. So…time will tell, but in the meantime, I frequently think of the ancient temple at the top of Green City Mountain which was destroyed in last Spring’s earthquakes in Sichuan Province. We’re told it will be rebuilt, that the monks and other workers who reside there were all safe, and the serenity of that quiet mountain top is changed, but not gone. Hopefully the ancient tea plants tended there are still growing, Tai Chi Chuan with its graceful, fluid movements is still practiced daily in the clear mountain air, and the old man sitting at the base of the steps leading to the temple continues to monitor the comings and goings of the place. I don’t know if I’ll go back in person, but I definitely frequently go there in my mind…and it’s a wonderful journey.

In just a few short days I will be leaving for a long-planned trip which will take me to Japan for just three days, and then on to China for almost three weeks. This will be a once in a lifetime trip for me, I suspect. I will travel on a Tea Tour being led by Dan Robertson of The Tea House, a wholesale supplier in Naperville, IL. Dan has been traveling to China since 1994, and leading these tours since 2000.

We will visit  tea estates, as well as small family owned plots,  where we will see tea being grown, plucked, and processed by hand. We will have the opportunity to taste endless wonderful teas, many of which are never made available outside of China. This is the country where tea has grown wild for centuries and where it has long been celebrated for its medicinal and spiritual effects. We will be staying both at modern hotels and at more personal traditional guesthouses. While on our tour we will have the opportunity to spend time at many tea houses as well as at a calligraphy school, a porcelain factory, and a Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital. I am so excited to be undertaking this voyage, and I look forward to sharing stories, pictures, and tea knowledge for a very long time upon my return. In my absence, the shop will continue to operate smoothly under the care of Patricia of Cellar Door Floral Designs, and Shirley of Gallery 265. On Saturdays, you will have the chance to meet my daughter, Chrisy McKinney who will be filling in for me. Although my access to e-mail will be spotty while I’m away, I will be happy to try to respond to questions which can’t wait for my return if I can. Otherwise, I will look forward to seeing you all in October! Marianne

In recognition of the birthplace of tea almost 5,000 years ago, we encourage you to celebrate the Year of the Boar as it is ushered in.   Celebration of the New Year starts the long Celebration of Spring, with the beginning of new life.  The new tea crops of the year are awaited with great  anticipation.                                                           

I encourage you to visit www.chinapage.com to learn more about the culture and customs associated with China. And to all, I say “FU” (Good Luck) in China!   

Just in time for your last minute gift giving, the long awaited Japanese green tea sweets have arrived. Try these lovely and unique chocolates for their smooth, creamy texture with the rich, chocolate flavor cut by the slight bite of organic Matcha green tea from Japan. This is a taste treat you won’t want to miss. Available in bars of white chocolate blended with powdered Matcha Green Tea, small bite size chocolates of the same recipe, or Matcha Mountain, a mound of ground pistachio nuts blended with Matcha Green Tea and honey, covered with rich dark chocolate, then sprinkled with green tea leaves.

Fine Japanese green teas from Keiko Tea. This is a new source and a new type of tea for us. An area of exploration and education about the teas of Japan.

Also from Keiko, Green Tea Drops: hard tea candy flavored with mint, ginger, or cherry. Coming soon we will carry Green Tea chocolates.

Beautiful insulated travel tea glasses. Available in insulated glass with beautiful delicate design, or colorful outer layer with stainless steel inside, these have an infuser topped by a tightly screwed on lid, allowing you to brew your own high quality loose leaf tea when traveling. Be sure to check them out.

Latest Tea Shop Mystery by Laura Childs: Blood Orange Brewing, filled with her usual quirky characters, suspenseful plot, and tea time recipes. If you haven’t read any of her books yet, it’s time to get started. She’s not just a pretty face! We carry the entire series in paperback as they become available.

From The World Tea Expo: a variety of tea related items including baseball caps and round brimmed hats with the I Love Tea logo, gorgeous silk scarves in black with a white design of a tea cup silk screened on each end, well priced sterling silver bookmarks with a teapot dangle.

Fresh shipments of delicate white porcelain pieces, reasonably priced for your tea table, new teacup card designs from Kimberly Shaw Graphics, and new Tiny Teapot Jewelry designs. And of course, there’s always a new vintage linen or china piece from my auction or estate sale roaming!