Author Archives for Fumiko Sasaki

Old Fashioned Cherry Lime Rickey


Feel like escaping the heat and our nations’ economic lava meltdown? Happen to be in the mood for a Juke Box Saturday night?  The experts say that during a recession? Especially during a hot summer day in Brooklyn, craving nostalgic treats is a completely normal phenomena. Even when it offers “all the comforts of home” […]

We Scream for Chocolate Egg Creams


When is the last time you even heard of a chocolate egg cream?  First they have a disclaimer “Look Ma, no eggs and no cream,” so just what is it that is so quintessentially New York about a classic egg cream? Is it the old time seltzer bottles which are now museum artifacts? Or is […]

Counter Culture Coffee


Direct Trade Certified beans of beauty with a hip name and a clever game.
I attended a Counter Coffee Culture tasting at Dean and Deluca recently, but I only got to try out a few. Here are the specs from Dean and Deluca’s online catalog for “Ndaroini-Nyeri … a Kenyan coffee is intensely flavorful, exquisitely rich, […]

The Triple Phoenix Ice Cream Sundae Recipe


The year of the Ox is already inspiring some sumptuous desserts. There is some exotic phoenix ice cream tea action going on here! This triple decker tea infused beauty has tea imbued throughout the dessert in all possible glorious forms.
The crystal sculptured amber and turquoise designed vessel brings to mind a sugar sculpture from the […]

Max Brenner’s I Love Chocolate and Hug Mug for Kids


Max Brenner aka “Chocolate by the Bald Man” … I’m not going to lie, I have had a complete crush on Max for quite some time. I try to find ways to catch a glimpse, hoping I might get invited to a personal tour of his mad science laboratory of chocolates. After all, his philosophy […]

Kyoto Journal Features Contemporary Tea Voices


The upcoming issue of Kyoto Journal is featuring some of the finest voices of tea. Looks like issue #71 is the lucky number of tea. It does not get much better than this. Some of the most passionate tea lovers who have made tea their way of life are covering every leaf and bud.

Tea […]

Boylan’s Been Bottling and Bubbling Since 1891


Oh boy, and they call it artisanal soda!  That is just how elegant Boylan’s clear, complex, uncluttered natural  flavors ring. Redolent with sassy fruits and fragrant spices.  Some wildly proclaim it to be “The Best Soda on Earth”
Boylan’s sodas of bygone days, are so good they could be show cased gilded frames. Maybe American poets […]

Hello Starbuck’s New Via Ready Brew!


I divorced myself from Mariage Freres’ tea Opera for one night! Separated of all that is cultured and holy in 5,000 years of tea history. I took a red hot sports car to the land of Starbucks to sample their new Via Ready Brew.  Starbuck’s Coffee educators (CEs for short) helped me catch up with […]

Designer Sugars in the Palette of Pippi Longstockings!


Pippy Longstocking, my childhood spunky hero and advisor out of a story book. A female Doctor Seuss who wore just what she wanted and got into lots of monkey business too! Now that we are all grown up? No more munching on rainbow gobstoppers nor red hot candies. But we still need a little sugar and […]

Up the Garden Path with Violets and Roses


Portmeirion designs a lovely cuppa, saucer and plate based on the verse “Up the Garden Path”  by Laura Stoddart. A plate for your petit fours, drizzled lemon cakes with violets and more. Sip some delightful lemon verbena tisane to calm your senses, and surprise yourself at the bottom of your cuppa with candied violet and […]

Fumiko Sasaki

Fumiko Sasaki’s life is steeped in tea. A good amount of tea in her blood, her Great Grandfather was the Zen Master who taught Alan Watts and her great grandmother, the daughter of a Tea Ceremony Master. For over two decades she has been blending and consulting on taste, treatment, and purchase of teas for many of the major tea distributors, retailers, and houses such as Wild Lily Tea Room, Takashima, T Salon, In Pursuit of Tea, and Whole Foods of New York City as well as a specialist in rare Darjeeling tea varietals. She is currently working with many lush Darjeeling Gardens in continuing efforts to carry unique varietals here in the U.S.A. In her early career in the world before the espresso was on the map. Fumiko co-founded the original and now legendary Onyx Cafe. Home to artists and poets alike with the late John Leech. The Onyx Cafe was one of the first Beaux Arts style artists salons to serve up serious moka and tea drinks. Fumiko's passion for the art of cupping fine coffees and teas has led her to become a "confirmed" spot of tea and coffee lover! Please feel free to email with your questions and new products. thedarjeelingtealady@gmail.com Thanks!