Angela Webster McRae's Blog, page 169

Republic of Tea's Coconut Cocoa Tea

I'm still having fun sipping my way through my stash of girlfriend-supplied tea samples, and a new one I tried this week was Republic of Tea's Cuppa Chocolate Tea Coconut Cocoa flavor. This low-caffeine herbal blend contains coconut, cocoa, dates, and malted barley.

As soon as I opened the packet, I detected a delightfully chocolaty scent. I'm happy to report that the rich chocolate flavor was one worthy of such a great scent, and I very much enjoyed discovering a fine new dessert tea. Have any of you tried these Republic of Tea chocolate blends? Are there any other new varieties you'd like to recommend?

Senate ladies having tea, 1920

Another of the photos I recently came across on the Library of Congress website was this charming photo titled "Senate ladies' tea, Washington, D.C." The photo is from December of 1920, and one of the subject headings is "legislators' spouses," so I'm assuming we're looking at the wives of the senators at that time.

I wish they had more detailed photos from the tea! I tried to zoom in on the table with my photo-editing program, but that didn't work, so I'll just have to leave it to our imaginations to ponder precisely which glassware and china the "Senate ladies" enjoyed using nearly a hundred years ago!

Our fellow tea lover, Jessica Fletcher

When "Murder, She Wrote" with Angela Lansbury first came out in the eighties, I was in college and more interested in keeping up with Madonna and getting MTV installed in the dorms. As an adult, however, I have become quite the fan, and the DVDs of old episodes are my guilty pleasure for weekend viewing. When I learned that a series of cozy mysteries had been written by "Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain," I decided to try one, but frankly, I was skeptical. It would be very hard to capture that gracious character's wit and charm in a book, I thought. Over the weekend, I finished reading "A Slaying in Savannah," book number 30 of 43 in the series, and to my delight, it was wonderful! I could truly "hear" Jessica Fletcher saying that dialogue, and it didn't hurt that I decided to dive into the series with a book set in Savannah, a city with which I'm already familiar.

Something else I did not expect was all the tea references, as it became clear Jessica prefers tea and not coffee. Here are a few of the lines I noted:


• "'I was just making myself a cup of tea,''' I said, turning back to the stove. I removed the tea bag from my cup and threw it away. I resisted offering the Grogans any tea. It would mean a long conversation and I was feeling tired again."
• "Mrs. Goodall walked in a few moments later with a tray holding the ice pack, a cup of tea, and two cookies cut in the shape of a shamrock and sprinkled with green sugar."
• "The waiter delivered a pot of tea and a slice of Lady Baltimore cake, 'compliments of the baker.' 'He’s experimenting with a new recipe,' he said, placing the white cake with fluffy icing on the table."
I'm so happy that I have more of these books to look forward to. Are any of you fans of "Murder, She Wrote"?

Teatime and electronics

Call me late to the party, but over the weekend, it dawned on me that after owning an iPhone for three-plus years, I should look for a tea-themed wallpaper for the homescreen. The Shabby Tea wallpaper is the one I chose, and I just love it!

You can find lots of these wallpapers—for iPhones, iPads, and more—on Pinterest. Here, I simply typed in keywords "teatime iphone wallpaper," and here are some of the images that came up. As you can see, the aqua and pink one appealed to me immediately, but there are lots of great designs to choose from. Do you have any tea wallpapers on your electronics?

Blueberry & Brown Sugar Muffins

My dad has been sending me home with lots of fresh blueberries lately, so when it was time to bake something for our Sunday School breakfast social over the weekend, I decided to experiment with a new muffin recipe.

I do love the taste of ripe, fresh blueberries oozing through a muffin, especially since the result looks like a nice and tidy little cobbler. I also like the crunch of brown sugar on top of a muffin, so …

I decided to add cinnamon to my blueberry muffins, top them with brown sugar, and the result was a muffin I believe I'll be enjoying for quite a while to come. Maybe you too?

Blueberry & Brown Sugar Muffins

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar1/2 teaspoon salt2 teaspoons baking powder1 tablespoon cinnamon1/3 cup vegetable oil1 large egg1/3 to 1/2 cup milk (I used 2-percent milk)1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla1 cup fresh blueberriesAbout 1/3 cup brown sugar, or as desired

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a medium bowl, add flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon and mix well. In a 1-cup glass measuring cup, add the vegetable oil, egg, and enough milk to bring the total contents of the measuring cup to 1 cup. Add vanilla and blend well. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix lightly, just till combined. Fold in blueberries. Divide batter among paper muffin cups, sprinkle with a scant teaspoon or so of brown sugar, and bake for 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick or tester comes out clean. Yields 12 muffins.

My Country, 'Tis of Tea - Nevada

Did you know that "Nevada" is Spanish for "covered in snow"? And its nickname, it turns out, is "The Silver State" because of the Nevada silver rush days of the mid-1800s. Please remember these facts, as there may or may not be a pop quiz at the end of this year's Saturday series. (It may or may not involve a nice prize.)

• Davidson's Organic Teas is based in Reno, Nevada, and has an outlet store in Sparks, Nevada. Are you familiar with this company? A friend introduced me to Davidson's years ago, and I'll forever be a fan because of their amazing line of dessert teas, which are delicious herbal blends that taste like calorie-free desserts! In fact, I visited their website and saw they've added a few new flavors since I last tried them. If you'd like to check them out too, click here.




• Las Vegas, Nevada, is the site of the World Tea Expo. This year's expo just wrapped up, and the next one is set for June 12-15, 2017 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. According to worldteaexpo.com, this event is "the epicenter of the North American specialty tea market (and) serves the $8 billion US tea industry. Specialty/premium tea is driving this growth and holds nearly 60% of the marketshare today; it remains the main focus of products, services and education at World Tea Expo." I think it's also worth noting that the United States League of Tea Growers had its founding meeting at a World Tea Expo in Las Vegas, the one in June of 2013, so a lot of great things related to tea and teatime come out of these expos. 



• Herbal teas were used as remedies in 19th century Nevada. Actually, herbal teas have been used as remedies in lots of places, but I read about these particular ones in the book "The Healers of 19th-Century Nevada" by Anton P. Sohn. If you'd like to see what Indian tea or Mormon tea (Ephedra Nevadensis) was used to cure, I'm not going to type the words here — not because I'm scandalized by the words themselves but simply because of all the unwanted spam I'm afraid would land in my blog comments —you may click here to find out for yourself!

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Peach Tulsi Tea from Divinitea

After trying a disappointing peach-flavored tea earlier this week, I was only too happy to experience a nice fruity taste in this tea I recently received as a sample. Tulsi, also known as Holy Basil, is said to be revered in India as a sacred, healing herb. This Peach Tulsi Tea blend from Divinitea contains organic black tea, organic purple tulsi, organic orange peel, and natural peach and orange flavor.

The tea looks very much like a rooibos, doesn't it?
The nice coppery brew that resulted was a perfectly satisfying cup of tea, with a light (but distinct) peach taste, a soft sweetness, and its flavor reminded me of a rooibos as well. A pleasant end to the week in tea-tasting!

Teatime at the Waldorf Astoria … a hundred years ago

Each week, as I'm looking up info on the history of tea and teatime in America, I come across great old images that I love to share. I'm so grateful to find these images in the public domain, and I also think some of these images might find their way onto tea party invitations, tea tote bags, tearoom walls, and who knows where else!
The 1914 image up top is from a menu at the Waldorf Astoria, and here is the inside of the menu. I'm surprised to find that tea was 25 cents per person (pretty pricey for back in the day), and I'm also surprised to see "Buds of Formosa Tea (Oolong)" and "Garden Young Hyson (Green)" teas on the menu. Are you?
But the menu item that puzzled me most was under the heading "Hot," and it reads, "Clear Green Turtle in Cups." I'm guessing this is turtle soup, and if so, no thank you. I'll stick with a pot of tea and one of the French pastries, perhaps the Choux Chocolat. (And I'm amused that the French pastries included "Southern Waffles.") So what would you order?

When good teas go bad …

So the grocery store had this Tazo Organic Peachy Green flavor of tea on sale for just $2.99 a box this week, and I thought I'd give it a try. A blend of green and black teas with peach flavor? Sounded interesting.
"Flowery peach and delicate cucumber notes," it said. A) I want my cucumber in sandwiches, not my tea and B) Peach and cucumber? I didn't read that part or I might not have been so quick to purchase this bargain tea.
But here's the thing: this tastes like plain tea. No peach flavor that I could detect, and certainly no cucumber. It's not bad, exactly, and maybe it was simply past its sell-by date, but it's just not the flavorful tea I paid for and expected to sip. So this will go into my "mystery iced tea" collection. This summer, I've been having a fun time using up bits of leftover teas and blending a new iced tea every few days. I've sipped iced greens and blacks and rooiboses, and occasionally I've even blended plain black and green teas with some fruit-flavored tea bags. It's not a bad way to use up tea that's lost its luster. Like this one. What do you do with old or less-than-sparkling teas? Do you ever make iced tea with them?

Garnier Whole Blends Shampoo and Conditioner with Green Apple and Green Tea Extracts

Unable to find my usual shampoo and conditioner this weekend, I searched Kroger for something new and came across the Garnier Whole Blends Shampoo and Conditioner with Green Apple and Green Tea Extracts.

I wasn't too crazy about the scent of some shampoo I bought recently, so I decided that since these products were on sale (two for $7), they would be worth a try. First, however, I sniffed, and the scent was light and lovely, so these jumped into my grocery cart.

And, indeed, both products list "camellia sinensis leaf extract" as an ingredient. The conditioner also left my too-dry hair feeling nice and soft, so I was grateful to have come across these new haircare products!