Another Traveling Tea Box?!?!?!

Since my last blog entry, another tea box has come my way! If you didn't catch my last post about the Traveling Tea Box C, this is a fun thing we do on Steepster. One person puts a bunch of tea in a box and mails it to the first person on the list. They then sample the teas they want to try, remove a couple they like, and add more tea of their own. It continues through the list like this until it comes back to the first person... who might continue it on for another round!

This particular box had a bit of a longer journey on its way to me, as you can tell from these pictures!

 A close-up of the left side, featuring a surprisingly wide variety of ESP Emporium teas, Harney & Sons, Tea District, Butiki Teas, and Verdant.

Looking at the middle in more depth, you can see the incredible variety of hand-labeled teas and even a couple tins. Let me tell you, those were fun to try to fit back into the little box that birthed all this!

But it didn't stop there! This little box was starting to remind me of Mary Poppins' carpet bag. For a while I wondered if I would ever find the bottom! It finally came clean, with a large assortment of Adagio teas. 

As you can see, it was a bit more extensive than the last one. Unfortunately, between a bout with strep throat and another cold that came in on its heels, I've been off my game lately. I only tried a small handful of teas before guilt (and a sense of obligation) had me sending it back on its way.

Here are the teas I sampled and/or removed:

Pineapple Bacon Rooibos by 52teas
Cinnamon Fig by Art of Tea
Mint Verbena by Harney & Sons
Coconut Lavender Rooibos by Tea District
Cuppa Paradise by Tea District
Earl Grey by Tea Forte
Laoshan Black by Verdant Tea

And the teas I tucked in for their new journey:

Chestnut by Adagio
Christmas by Adagio
Gingerbread by Adagio

Pumpkin Spice by Adagio

Easy as Pie by Adagio Custom (by Lariel)
Pumpkin King by Adagio Custom (by Lariel)

Earl Grey by The Tao of Tea

Pu’er Tonic by Verdant Tea (from Blends subscription)

Beaded Tea Infusers

The power is now (thankfully!) back on, but yesterday I had a bit of a quandary. My Kindle was out of power, my laptop had to be set aside for emergency phone charging, and I pretty much only had good light at the kitchen table. What to do?

Well, I decided to get started on some Christmas gifts I hadn't gotten around to yet. I took pictures during the project, so if you're the crafty sort this might be a nice way to spiff up some simple teaware for the people on your list. 

This was the finished product. As you can see here, I started with some basic tea infusers. I was so excited when these went on sale, I goofed and bought the extra large ones. It's too late to do anything about it now, but I hope the people on my gift list have very large cups to accommodate them! 

My supplies, fairly neatly laid out. If I hadn't already had a bit of a hoard going on with beads, I would have chosen some nice coordinating styles of different sizes. Also needed were:

* Headpins
* Round nose and flat nose pliers
* Wire cutter

First things first - I removed the hook on the end of the tea infuser's chain. You could leave it on for two reasons:

1. You're using pre-made charms or keychains and can't attach to the chain otherwise.
2. You want to be able to remove the beaded section later for easier washing... wish I'd thought of that earlier!

Next, fill your headpin with all sorts of wonderful things! As you can see here, I didn't need the full length of this headpin, so I cut it off about 1.25cm above the top of my beads.

Now that you've got the headpin cut to where you want it, grab your round nose pliers. Place the very top of the headpin around the ring-size you want (smaller near the front of the nose, larger towards the back) and start to spin around. Stop when you have created a full circle.

Right now your circle will look a little lopsided. To straighten up your loop, now you need to move the round nose pliers to the other side of the wire and tilt it back to the other side a little. 

Now that you've created your loop, you need to attach it to the chain. Use the flat nose pliers to tilt your loop open to the side. 

Note that you don't actually change the curve of the loop. You're just opening it enough to fit the chain inside it.

And you're done! With the first drop at least. You can add additional ones if you like. I was feeling a little... decorative, and it may have gotten out of hand!

And from here it just becomes like a sickness... wouldn't it be cute with one more? How about a tiny little drop. Eeek!

Here's another gander at this finished version. Remember that you can always click on the pictures to see them larger and in greater detail!

For the heck of it, here's one more. I think this one is actually one of my favorites, because I love the play of amber and shell together. It makes me think of my rather awesome mom.

And again we come to a possible stopping point, but I just can't do it! More frippery must be added!

And this one comes to an end as well. I used a little pre-made drop to hang down over the shell, and I really liked the effect. 

Altogether, I think I made fourteen of these little beauties. Should I do this project again, I might gather some simpler charms that could either go well with the beads or stand on their own. This would also work with keychains, so I could do something that's more specific to someone's favorite show or hobby. I did have some steampunk keys at one point, but I couldn't find them with the power out.

The only real caveat to this project is the washing. It will be a bit tricky, and best all around if your tea drinker only washes the infuser and keeps the beady bobbly bit nice and dry. Not all beads like water, and the headpin can become tarnished over time. I really will consider detachable ones next time.

So, immediate family... anyone want to call dibs their favorite? ;)

The Intersection of Scrapbooking and Tea Gifting

My tea stash has been growing a lot this year, but we're too far from our families to easily share it. After a bit of online inspiration, we hit on the idea of mini-samplers.

I've seen a lot of different vendors offering holiday samplers, but they tend to be a grab bag of both the good and the bad... and generally the packaging is little more than useless. Cheap, flimsy, and unable to be resealed.

So our first stop was to look at packaging. I thought briefly about glass bottles, but the combination of cost and shipping woes (breakage, additional weight, etc.) sent me in the direction of tins. They tend to be less expensive, more durable, easily recyclable, and don't let in light that could damage the tea. Since I'm sending tea to a lot of people who may not have experienced loose leaf tea before, the less complicated the better.

Besides, I know my family. The moment I say something like, "Keep it out of the light" I just know I'd have to deal with questions like, "Will it sparkle?" or "Will it burst into flame?" or even, in one notable case, "Or will it mutate into some homicidal gremlin bent on world domination?"


On the recommendation of another tea lover, I headed over to Specialty Bottle's website to check out their selection. They had a lot of different versions I was interested in, but I wasn't sure how many servings of tea each would hold.

I don't want to overwhelm someone with too much of a tea they may or may not like, nor do I want to come off like a cheapskate by sending too little tea for them to sample.


Specialty Bottle came to the rescue, and sent me a selection of their tins to experiment with. I picked three teas to measure: a finely chopped black, a fluffy herbal, and my largest leaf tea. Here's how they measured up:

Teavava's Earl Grey Black

1/2oz tin: 2tsp, 2 servings
1oz tin: 4tsp, 4 servings
Tea tin: 13tsp, 13 servings

DAVIDsTEA's Mother's Little Helper

1/2oz tin: 2tsp, 1-1/3 servings
1oz tin: 4tsp, 2-2/3 servings
Tea tin: 12tsp, 8 servings

Verdant Tea's Yunnan White Jasmine

1/2oz tin: 1-1/2 tsp, but the leaves are so large that this is probably closer to one serving.






Then comes the decorating. I picked up a selection of holiday themed borders, stickers, and papers, as well as double-sided tape. I already had a rotary cutting set from my quilting, but a ruler and scissors would work as well if you don't have those on hand.

Here you can see the one unnumbered tin. The paper I chose was about 1cm too short to go around, so I  needed something to cover the seam. I chose a large sticker, but I had to trim it because the decoration above and below it was too long for the tin. I added a border by placing it on a coordinating adhesive green.

And it's done! I think it would have been better to choose a smaller sticker and build up layers behind it (like I did for #2 and 12) but it does add a certain style.








Now that I've had a chance to measure and decorate, here's how they stack up:


TNF1/2 - 1/2oz Flat Tin Container w/ cover

• Small and cute, this holds 1-2 servings of tea. This one was tricky to decorate, as only a 3cm circle on the lid really takes to it. In the image of the decorated tins, this was #10.

TNF1 - 1oz Flat Tin Container w/ cover

• The same format but twice the size, this holds 2-4 servings depending on the size of the leaves. In the image, this was #14 and 21. Essentially, decorating this one was the same as decorating its screw-top sister, and took a 4cm circle. 

TND1 - 1oz Deep Tin Container w/ cover

• The width of the first tin with the capacity of the second, this holds 2-4 servings of tea. In the image of the decorated tins, this was #5, 16, and 17. Decorating this one was a combination of the two - the flat circular lid and just enough height to fit a 1.25cm border around the body.

TSC1/2 - 1/2oz Flat Tin Container w/ screw-top cover

• The same dimensions and capacity of the first tin with a screw top cover that makes transportation a breeze. In the image, this was #8.

TSC1 - 1oz Flat Tin Container w/ screw-top cover

• The same dimensions and capacity of the second tin, but with a reliable screw top cover. In the image of the decorated tins, this was #12.

TSQ2 - 2.5" high Tea Tin Square w/ Cover

• The largest of the tins, this holds 8-13 servings and was the easiest to decorate. There is a 3.5cm square on lid, and the main body is 17cm around with a height of 4.5cm.

If I was sending a single tea out to everyone, I would probably go for the square tea tin, but to send out a nice sampling, I think the best bet is going to be the 1/2oz deep tin. It's a little easier to decorate and looks better stacked up, since I want to be able to bag these up with a nice bow when gifting.

The Traveling Tea Box C

The full contents of the Traveling Tea Box C when it arrived.

You may have noticed the blog went silent for a couple weeks. Part of that was a very necessary respite after the Battle of the Earl Greys, but the other reason was that the Traveling Tea Box C made its way to me.

A traveling tea box is one of those fun and unique activities that I discovered after joining Steepster. Someone broaches the idea on the discussion boards and a group of like-minded people sign up for the list. A shipping order is sussed out and then the first person essentially raids their tea stash for both things not to their taste or samples of teas they think people would like to try. They pack them up and mail the box to the next person on the list, who samples or takes out what they want then replaces it with teas from their own stash.

This repeats as many times as there are people on the list - sometimes it even goes a couple times through the list before it eventually stops. They're generally something like $15 to ship, so when I noticed a new list forming I jumped at the chance!

It's been a blast to read the comments people have posted about the teas on Steepster and try to figure out which ones I'd be interested in... and hoping they'll still be in the box when it gets to me!

As you can tell from the pictures, but the time it reached me, the box had visited several homes first, and was quite an eclectic mix! Lots of black dessert teas (which I only indulge in when I don't have to be up early), a large quantity of rooibos, and... well, suffice it to say I spent a very, very wired weekend!

I was careful to write Steepster reviews for all the teas I tried, so you can read them by following these links:

52 Teas – Candy Corn
52 Teas – Mayan Chocolate Chai
52 Teas – S’mores Chai
52 Teas – S’mores Genmaicha
Butiki Teas – Pineapple Cilantro Cream
Butiki Teas – Pumpkin Creme Brûlée
DAVIDsTEA – Kiss My Lips
Della Terra – Double Berry Burst

ESP Emporium – Spicy Chai
Harney & Sons – Florence
Our Sweet Earth – Victorian Vanilla
Ovation – Chocolate Orange Bliss
Ovation – Raspberry Earl Grey
Rishi – Maghreb Mint
Steven Smith Teamaker – Blend 55: Lord Bergamot
Tea Forte – Kiwi Lime Ginger
Teavana – Rooibos Chai
Teavana – Rooibos Tropica

All in all, it was a lot of fun to sample so many varied teas without worrying about the cost, if I could manage to use up the ones which weren't to my taste, and if shipping was going to nix an otherwise splendid order of tea.

I hope the teas I include will be enjoyed and find happy homes during their travels. It was a tea-tasting marathon, but one I'd love to run again!

Sapphire's Cafe: A Birthday With Tea!

I honestly can't remember the first antique store I ever visited. My parents used to collect Depression Glass, and my earliest memories of antiquing are filled with peering over table tops, balanced on the tips of my toes. I remember the light shining through colored glass, with all the shades of the rainbow.

When I'm feeling a little homesick, I still find my way to those isles filled with the exotic and the mundane. When we found our way to the Antique Gallery in Lewisville, TX, I was surprised to discover a little restaurant in the back, and intrigued when I saw they offered high tea... and at $17.95 a person, less than half the price of anywhere else I'd seen.

With its tasty-looking menu, Sapphire's Cafe seems to be a local go-to location for bridal or baby showers, as we've come across one or the other nearly every time we've come in to the store. 

We decided to venture back when I hit the big 3-2, and it ended up being a pretty wonderful experience. Because of some email glitches, Jake made all the arrangements over the phone. When we arrived for our 3:00pm reservation, I was more than a little surprised that they had made the reservation for closing time.

A low white rail separated the dining area from the rest of the store. Just inside, a small baby shower was finishing up at one end of the seating area, with an atomic family enjoying lunch across the way. The rest of the tables, with their antique chairs, looked packed up for the afternoon. Their white linens lay bare, and most the color in the room came from the dark woods of the antique bookcases and bureaus against the walls. Blue and white china vases and hanging plates made up the rest of the decor. 

The first staff member we met was a very young, very new waiter who seemed to have an obsession with the silverware. It seemed like every few minutes he was setting it out or picking it up... everywhere but our table. We had to resort to swiping some from another table before his next wave of in/out came through!

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when the food came out, but it was phenomenal, and they were incredibly kind and accommodating about my allergies. The first course was a delicious and chunky chicken salad croissant sandwich with small salmon and palmetto savories to the side. With the chef's recommendation we went ahead and ordered the Lavender Earl Grey by Sterling Tea, and it went very well with the course.

By this time, we were alone in the dining area. I know they had actually set the reservation for this time, but it felt more than a little awkward, especially because it was taking so long between pots of tea and courses. The staff was very nice, but even though we were being totally pampered, I still couldn't quite escape the feeling that we were doing something inconsiderate.

For the second course, we had some truly lovely warm scones with Devonshire cream and a thick, sweet lemon spread. This round came with Sterling Tea's ReVive (a lemongrass and mint green), but the wine-glasses full of fruit and sweet cream stole the show. I did notice that even here they were paying close attention, because there wasn't a single allergy-inducing scrap of apple to be seen.

Finally, we came to the third course. We had a pot of Sterling Tea's Lemon Velvet (a citrusy dessert tea) but the chef came out to tell us that due to the email snafu they had not had enough notice to get the petit fours done in time. Instead we each got a generous helping of their silky peach cobbler, as well as a more than healthy slice of a sinful chocolate cake that the chef had set aside especially for my birthday. I felt very, very spoiled... and also very stuffed at this point!

When we decide to go back (and we will - I still want to try the petit fours!), there are a couple things I'll keep in mind: I'd definitely make sure our next reservation fits solidly inside normal business hours. Also, it was a little difficult to get ahold of them – I emailed them over a month ago and my husband emailed a week ago, and neither of us ever got a response. Next time I'll call during their business hours, because that is how Jake managed to arrange for our lovely afternoon. 

All in all, this was a wonderful experience, and made for a fantastic birthday treat!

Battle of the Earl Greys

Every summer I try to assign myself a project. Sometimes it's a series of smaller tasks and other times it's a single focus. This summer is going to be a bit of a combination - some writing, some scrapbooking, some sewing, and, of course, a quest for the perfect Earl Grey for me.

Now you'll notice that I didn't just say "The Best Earl Grey." I don't think there is such a thing. If you watch this video from TEDTalks, you'll see what I mean. I'm simply looking for the tea that best fits my own as yet undefined criteria.

There's a LOT of EG out there, so initially I'm going to just be working to eliminate the teas that I don't think will be solid contenders. I want to get it down to something nice and round, like 10, so I can treat it like a sports game and create an actual bracket. I'll post it when we get to that point, and you can play along if you like!

Update: I used this information to create a separate page which will be updated. Please visit the revised information either by following this link or selecting "The Battle of the Earl Greys" in the toolbar above.