Tealosophy“>Tealosophy CD by Ines’ Berton provides music for a sanguine reflection perhaps on the sound of tea and its ancient streams of inspiration. Ines Berton is a painter from Argentina who founded the successful tea company called “Tealosophy” based in Buenos Aires with beautiful shops in Spain. Tealosophy’s beautiful teas will be available soon in the United States.

Tealosophy feels that “Tea is the art of ritualized hospitality” adding our eyes and ears to the classic term used by perfumers as having a nose for delicious scents. Titles of songs match her teas and paintings with names like “The Wishing Tree” or “Tibet Sun” a melodious realm which takes you tea traveling with unique world music artists. Sounds of Kyoto flutes and bells, magical sitars with a tea tango samba feel. It is like turning the golden wheel of whirling beautiful sounds which create a delightful tea meditation.

The CD is available Tealosophy” online

Those translucent to-go tubes filled with delightful honey varietals, even some infused with fruits, always seemed like a sweet idea to me, yet somehow the honey never ended up in my tea.  Instead I managed to sip on the tubes after giving up on squeezing it successfully into my cup.

Then I came across these Honibe pure honey drops. These near honey cubes are soft enough to melt before your tea gets chilly, yet solid enough to hold without getting sticky! Now we all can have a sweet hold on honey, even on the go.

One honey combed hexagonal shaped drop is equal to one level teaspoon of honey. Honibe packets come in honey with lemon or plain. Canada, home to many a sipper, know their honey bees and their tea.  These little packets are pure honey, no corn syrup has been added and that is good news for Mom’s! There is also no added sugar, colorings or additives. Just the pure essence of the honey combs.  Honibe is a company from Prince Edward Island. I might just pop one in my mouth as a treat like an urban honey bear.  They make a wonderful confection for the sweet little ones too, instead of always resorting to sugary penny candies.

You can buy them packaged online. Don’t forget to convert the Canadian dollars to USA then the price seems a bit sweeter as well.

Spring has arrived! Spring Glorious Spring! There are so many occasions of divinity in life which may require a petite celebration. A milestone achieved is perfectly distinguished when enrobed in chocolate varnish. A secret admirer gives you chocolate to speak words only cocoa can articulate. On Valentines, chocolate is hallmarked by red foiled moulin rouge. But, what about Spring?

Sarah Vaughn and all of nature sings! She paints the earth with her epic palette of pastels of fluttering pinks, lemony daffodils, baby blue Robin eggs and cottony cumulus skies. The rebirth arrives, after the snowy blankets covering the sleeping earth secede. March madness ensues like a wanton stand-up comedian who drank oodles of absinthe spiked Wu Yi tea. The earth is waking up and planning just how to make us laugh with little pranks on April 1st! Spring arrived a bit early it seems? We can all get a little decadent with the great torch singers of spring. Vivaldi’s delicate peppered notes, melodies mirror flower buds blossoming, rabbits perking their ears up. Multi colored eggs hatch and the glorious pantheon of spring begins. I will admit, Spring is my favorite time of the year. Sipping sweet camellia enlivening tea leaves is pure pleasure in Spring!

Nature doles out the chocolate cigars at the birth of every petal, leaf, flush, bumble bee and red-winged bird. An array of intoxicating violet lavender scents and magnolia sweet bucolic laughter intertwine at mother nature’s bounty. The earth shakes and shimmies like a great gum ball machine and everybody is in the win win plethora of her fragrant graces. If ever there were a symphony of cocoa beans, Pierre Marcolini would be the maestro of such a sonata it could make your heart weep with bittersweet addiction. He is the undisputed King of all chocolatiers. If Chocolate is love then why do they say men are from mars and woman are from Venus? I beg to differ when it comes to Pierre Marcolini. Welcome to a journey of pure indulgence, tea love letters of cocoa.

Marcolini has chocolate boutiques in Brussels, Tokyo, Nagoya, London and New York. He is Belgian by Nationality and Italian by origin. He manufactures his own grand cru chocolates. Here is a quote from his biographer: “Pure Origin Products, Pierre Marcolini is uncompromising when it comes to choosing the raw materials for his products. Every year, this tireless chocolate ‘gringo’ travels the world (Latin America, Mexico, Madagascar, Trinity Island, etc.) in search of cocoa beans, the fruit that he uses as his logo.”

Good news is Pierre Marcolini utilizes java and tea in his chocolates which promise to bring you a grand tribute to spring in a cocoa enrobed ganache of tea. You can also sip some of his somewhat Marriage Freres style tea blends. Marcolini liberates cocoa and stands transform even the most devout cocoa or tea purist. His range includes botanical fragrant essences, noble spice and fruits of rhubarb, mango, lemon and other flavors so many will never have dreamed to elix: thyme with bergamot orange, citron Ceylon tea with notes of lime leaves and lemon infused into bittersweet chocolate ganache. The resulting flavor is a delicate with a shockingly smooth finish. Try the Violette dark chocolate sprinkled with dried sugar encrusted violet petals. A third of their chocolates are these unique infused ganaches.

His tea blends are stylish blends include classic Pussimbing Darjeeling, harvested from biodynamic gardens. The leaves of this tea are tended by cycles of the moon which increase the fluidity during their harvest moments, ensuring a perfectly dreamy Darjeeling. In my next life, I pray to the cocoa heavens to live in the Marcolini Willy Wonka Tonka bean Land! The’ Des Moines- or Oriental- melange is what I am going to call his Iron Tea chef cup! Des Moines- is of delicate white Jasmine blossoms, Madagascar vanille with a dappling of pepper. Oriental- Passion fruits, rose blossoms, jasmine with bright spring yellow sunflowers. Those days on a mini diet were made for a spot of tea!

Visit this extraordinary gallery of sumptuous sweets online, or N.Y.C.- The chocolate covered Big Apple,Manhattan. Tiffany style store with delicate cases where he is known for his 44 ganache assortment of edible jewels which are works of art.

Delicate green tea cookies alongside a delicate Bailey’s creme mini cheesecake … even leprechauns would approve! I could not resist this breathtaking homage to Saint Pat. Which tea can you sip, that even a spoon stands up alone in the cuppa brew?

Delicate Baileys Irish Cream Cheesecake

Irish Creme cheese cake is delightful.  Heart-shaped molds of muslin wrapped cream cheese have been whipped with fresh creme. You can also substitute a Coeur de Creme.  I wish I could say like Rachael Ray… “oh I don’t bake,” even though I can whip up a 13 course meal in 30 minutes! I have a very mini offering though; I surfed the Food Network and tried The Barefoot Contessa’s recipe of coeur ala creme with grand marnier in the framboise red berries. A dash of Irish creme is perfect when whipped into the cream cheese! No need for berries, as leprechauns will be invisibly dancing and taking a bite or two.

Verdant green tea shortbread heart-shaped cookies as green as the hills of Ireland! Try a lovely recipe here.

photo-concept courtesy of “Chika”

My quest for the perfect tea has also led me to find Eva Ziesel. Eva Ziesel has made a significant contribution to making this world a little bit curvier in her 100+ years on earth. This kettle caught my eye today as I was traipsing through the Modern Art Museum gift shop.

Noted industrial designer Eva Ziesel got together with Chantal to create this classic.  It is a whistling-Dixie, ergonomic, tad Doctor Seuss curvy designed kettle! It holds 1.8 quarts, and has a seamless body and spout. If you simmer, boil and shimmy a lot of H2O, as we citizens of not only the caffeine bubbly do, you will love this kettle.  Its clever handle fits so cozily in the hand and keeps the snippy burning steam far from ones’ knuckles.

Eva knew just what she wanted from her clever kettle. She was slightly sight-impaired when designing this unique kettle, which I find myself early in the mornings as well too! All the more reason for a safe and curvy option. The opening is large enough for easy filling with precious life giving waters. Its flat base makes for quick firing to a boil and the soft to the touch, stay cool handle ensures secure pouring.

Eva’s kettle is featured at the MOMA (The Museum of Modern Art) store online. If you would like to know more about this remarkable woman, you can check her out here. I doubt I will ever be lonely with tea pots and kettles, which seem to be almost dancing, as I cat nap before waking to sip tea.

Eva’s “Pinnacle” Line of Tea wares above available here along with Kettles.

Please don’t tell Grace, my 10 year old niece! This is what she is getting for her next caffeine-free tea party with her puppy, Chado. (She chose the name “Chado” after the tea ceremony of the same name.) She already wants to be a chef, but lets start with the tea! I found these beautiful flower tea strainers that sit atop tea cups. Available in purple, red or blue, they make a perfect tea party accessory! You can brew the tea right in the center of the flower where it later sits drip free within a foliage catch. She already loves tea in the garden. She had tea here in Manhattan, not exactly as her favorite children’s book character Eloise - pinkies up, sipping cup after cup of tea at the Plaza Hotel. However, the American Girl Place did a  great job for that Big Apple Afternoon Tea magic just for little girls. When Grace got home she wanted to sip some of the little ones tea I had blended just for her and her Mumsey.

She and Chado were confounded as to how to make tea in some simple, fragrant sipping way?

A temptress of a tea pot substitute…..

The little ones can brew fresh tea leaves spot on in the middle of the flower. The power flower tea tool is available online $14.95.

Made by Koziol, they are called the Audrey Tea Flower.

Dolls are optional now that she can have one of these in every color. When I heard they returned to tea bags it even made Chado simper, whimper and sigh. Move over Cheshire Cat! Puppies too are grinning and can live inside of a flower in Tea Wonderland.

Dragon transforms your Tea pot into a musical jewelry box full of wonders…

Yunnan Province is considered the birthplace of all tea. Evolutionary tea roots are alive today within the “Jing Mai Ancient Tea Forests”, home to our ancestral tea trees. Some of the oldest tea trees on the planet are there, some 1,300 years and older. Once, I took a stroll through the Metropolitan and Natural History Museums taking in art collections depicting this vast time lineage trying to fathom 5,000 years of tea culture, just one plant?

Yunnan Province is famous for its Scarlet mystery tea called Puerh…

This tea increases in value each year it is aged by 100 percent. Tomorrow is another day as Scarlet says… Surely it will take more than a lifetime to penetrate the soul of this illustrious elixir called Puerh. It is touted for its medicinal weight loss properties, but to call it a weight loss tea only is to slight this mighty tea. Auteur of all tea leaves, you can read more here.

Emerald leaves spawn-oxidize into golden spun skeins of silky tea yarns. Suffusing into a couturier crimson tea collection such as the elegant Hai Lang Dian Hong. Imperial Yunnan leaves have even been praised as having some of Darjeeling’s sweet floral elements. Many lovely traditional Celtic blends merely pantomime the intrinsic richness inherent in this masterpiece from China’s birthplace of Tea.
Perhaps it is Yunnan’s fantastic culture or its clear skies with clouds dotting the its powder blue heavens like kites, which are dreams of its native wild peacocks or peacock orchids? Spunky Golden Monkeys or Red Panda bears! Home of half of all of Chinas 56 recognized ethnic minorities. As well as ½ of its flora and fine fauna too.

Yunnan translates to “South of the Clouds”, it has a lush biodiversity that would make pirate Captain Cook’s head go bling bling or beeng beeng cha the name of their prized teas. A bonnie lassie she be, Queen of the Southern China seas. Marco Polo in the 1,300’s is not credited with sipping tea? Yet he exclaimed after all “I have only told you half of what I have seen”. Is it his best kept secret for he didn’t he say a peep about the camellia sinensis tea plant? We truly shall never know just why he did not abscond with the apple of the many an Emperors eye? Sweet beautiful languid tea leaves.

Yunnan Province in Southern China Borders Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar (Burma). Here four of the worlds”s major rivers, the Yangtze, Mekong Salween and Irawady, pass within 55 miles of each other. It is a veritable magical Shangri-la and home of the famous aged and pressed puerh tea. Sometimes known as drinking antiquity, as puerh is often made from ancient ancestral tea trees then aged endlessly. Yunnan Province is also home to the legendary Tea and Horse Road which dates back to the Tang Dynasty. Marco Polo traveled here leaving with looms of heirloom Chinese silks. In the tapestry of time? Primordial sipping of ancient silky Yunnan teas get a new loom in 1938 barely 67 years ago.

The time line shows a steep shift from solely pressed teas in 1938 and lets its golden tresses loose with a coutour tailoring from its precious pressed and sculpted brocades of puerh only to the modern day darling of all afternoon tea parties. A cup of gold indeed. I find my self imagining daughter of fortune and treasures Doris Duke? Doris Duke may have sipped some back in the 1950’s during her travels through South East Asia en route to her beloved Thailand.

If ever a chic Afternoon tea were tailored for a sleepy lazy moment of dreaming of lands far far away. Yunnan began concocting this special tailored leaf long after the Victorian Indian Tea craze of its British denizens. As of 1940’s Yunnan golden tea has now surely marked its perfect pitch as a forgiving, mellow honey sweet leaf sharing some characteristics with its relative in puerh teas. Yunnan province is famous for “beengs” of puerh, “rare editions” that can garner quadruple their weight in gold and beckon literally as a wise investment akin to an Art collector keeping a Monet.

Yunnan’s golden leaves are suave and sweet with less bitterness, forgiving as in easy to steep. You could even say “User friendly” or benevolent. Peppery, full bodied with notes of fig with little astringency unfurl into a ruby elixir which made even Queen Elizabeth declare it “It’s simply grande”

Sumptuous leaves are relaxed and give and give many infusions. So we like her very much indeed. Much more even than a malty lush Assam Mangalam. Perfect for morning when your alarm clock is on snooze or lazy afternoons it pairs well with desserts and holds up quite well to savory good eats.

Rob Henrich, An American Tea master who perfects the exacting preparations it takes to extract the subtle nuances in his beloved Chinese tea rarities. Rob Henrich has made his home in China. Taking pains to work with growers whom specialize in ORGANIC tea varietals. He has thrown down with the best of Yunnan’s tea aficionados. Maybe he will be our Bobby Flay of Chinese tea. He is a walking golden compass of the matrix of China’s language idioms, calligraphy and is also a South East Culture buff whose fiancé named “Note” is gaining her masters degree in Chinese language. She is a budding Chef from Thailand. Their passions inform their radical tea. Tea on a pedestal, adored the with the same virtuosity as an Iron Chef does their truffles! Beautiful varietals sacrosanct as a jewel crafted by the greatest Chef of all why of course Mother Nature! Andao speaks Tea. They have a bevy of high frequency tea as they live mise en scene 24/7 in the birthplace of all tea.

Dynamic Yunnan fresh leaves and buds. Check out their offerings here. They have promised some of this finest Yunnan Gold bullion to the extreme. I have tasted and been converted now how can I learn to speak tea? Please speak to Percival the Peacock and the Red panda Bear whom are having a lavish tea party dressed in stunning brocades in the wilds of Yunnan. Yunnan Gold is available here in loose leaf tea tubes along with some other rare varietals direct from China. Check out their website live from Yunnan.

Andao means “Way of Peace” I feel peaceful too drinking a cup of golden prosperity!

Purchase tea tubes with Yunnan Golden leaves here.

http://andaotea.myshopify.com/products/organic-yunnan-gold

Browse Andao’s website here:

www.andaotea.com

Copyright photos from Andao Tea.

Ahhh yes….. I think my water bottle is coming out of its deep state of meditation in oxygen absorbtion! Has it attained a higher state? Hopefully it won’t say “Just breathe, you feel me?” It is saying, “The wisdom of the way is not spoken in words but in deeds. Drink OGO, that is the way of the water.” WOW, that is SO heavy.  No, I mean light. Yes, effervescent. New Woman, OGO Oxygen water is the latest beauty “secret” of both David Beckham and Madonna. It’s also the latest miracle beauty water in a long, long list. Apparently the extra 35% oxygen helps flush out your system, which will relieve that hangover and improve the look of your skin. I haven’t been home to Cali - that’s music talk for Hollywood - but oxygen bars are all the rage with the healthy. Woody Harrelson heads this oxy-pack as proprietor. Is this just a buncha hot air?

I wonder if this theory really does hold water?

Let’s see! The special oxygenation process for OGO has been developed and patented by scientist Fritz Kurzer. It delivers “a high oxygen concentration level and a high stability of the oxygen water.” The burst of oxygen in each bottle of OGO will give your O2 saturation a boost. Our less-than-scientific tests resulted in a consensus that OGO did definitely give panel members a quick pick-me-up feeling.

Oxygen is credited as being part of motherboard of our own natural energy source. Certainly heating water for tea properly, so as not to deoxygenate it, brings out the best moods in my tea leaf rituals. Apparently water, which has embraced volcanic rocks and even Mongolian pink stones in its travels, makes your tea a simpering source of delight. But, hey, that is the earth and not the wind and fire part of my cuppa tea. If I run up and down the stairs drinking tea, I certainly will increase my oxygen and my theophyline?

If you would like to make contact with this transcendental H20 and the official “H20 sommeliers,” check out http://www.finewaters.com/.  Don’t forget, if you are not really thirsty, you can just get a cuppa air! 

 A unique New York tea varietal called Sanctuary Tea

Sanctuary Tea is like a tea house within a sacred tree house. Leave your cares and your troubles far away sipping tea in the sky between the branches… A delicate wooden sweetness of haute serene architecture entwines one within the scent of fresh tea leaves.  Although it is on the ground level, you feel as though you have entered a contemporary Zen space with that wabi sabi simplicity.

Clever dishes glow within the warm woods of this shrine to tea savoir faire. In the fine French tradition of their Salons du The,’ where an alchemy of teas star in a marriage of tea to cusine as a delightful culinary ingredient.   

Brings to mind the hilly city too, the famous San Francisco restaurant Chez Panisse with its ever chic culinary tea time supreme with their daring Ms. Gustafon, the late Tea maven Grande classique.     

In the birthplace of tea, China, tea has long infused its delicious cuisine. Where the East meets the West, Broadway bordering China town just below Grand still in Soho we have the reincarnation of the spirit of some 60 sassy teas. That’s a lot of tea for Chef Kevin Stanton, who hails from Boulud, to get alchemixing into his classically yet eclectic inspired tea cuisine.  Those include king salmon infused in strawberry tea with cucumber relish, wax beans, and wild lime leaves sauce; halibut slowly cooked in lychee black tea and served with grilled asparagus, feta cheese, saffron sauce, and coconut; and gnocchi cooked in brown butter with jasmine tea. The kiss of the French marrying tea to chocolates and creamy desserts should be nothing short of divine. Manhattan truly needed an upscale tea party  

There is also a list of desirable tea cocktails so that tea can fully express its night life side too!  Mixologist Benoit Cornet enlivens the full T-Bar. How about a Kettle One vodka Earl Grey Mar-tea-ni or perhaps an Absolute vodka Lapsang Souchong infused smoky Bloody Mary?

Sanctuary Tea imparts offerings of gifts such as the “Overnight Tea Connoissuer,” which includes Zojirushi water hot pot, delicate glass tea vessels and a symphony of tea to get you in tune with your alpha wave tea zones.  Dawn Cameron, who began selling her teas online at www.sanctuarytea.com, is the reigning Queen of the tea Camellia and proprietress of Sanctuary Tea. Alexandra Milecevic is the charming protector of the leaf and chief Tea consultant.

Visit Sanctuary Tea
337B West Broadway (Grand Street)
New York, New York
(212) 941-7832

It’s a sassy tea room in the East Village, NYC sporting a sort of slang Colonial tea gone into the wilderness with 1940’s Jazz. There is an invisible shroud of incense which can ignite a sort of “cronos dysphoria”. Cronos meaning “time”, I am told that is when you cant help but live in a world more colorful. A world of a different time and place, where you’re stuck in a black in white movie state of mind. Maybe this is tea soul food?

Winnie, the co-owner of The Tea Gallery in NYC, on the Lower East Side, the sweetest tea aficionado of all time told me of this gem, but I continued walking by for some time as I pondered, “What a curious name…Podunk?” Looking into this museum of rituals, having a d??cor of American Folk art but with offbeat flair. There is a small chalk board in the window above which simply states in white chalk “Tea Room” surrounded as it seems by a palette of primary colors which seem to sprout into tea pots. A garden of tea pots, from dainty chintz prints that look like antique tea paraphernalia, to a Bauer tea pot whirling around in its glaze of yellow. I spot a little table and two chairs sitting pretty outside where I feel as though I am sitting on someone’s porch in some small insignificant isolated town the proverbial “Podunk” of New England in 1846, perhaps.

Looking in to Podunk as I had for so long before I did partake of their menus: “On the Porch tea” to “Supper and Tea” or “Informal Tea”. Each category brims with endless saucy pairings. I had the strange impression it was a small caboose of a train sailing through the twilight zone where the next stop is Willowby 1846. There at the helm of a small counter stands the tillerwoman of Tea, Elspeth. Elspeth carries a vintage flair about her quite naturally. Her pale apron with her hair tied back in a casual scarf, flecks of fresh flowers, while the dough of mini scones or mini tea pies may dust her sleeves and elbows. Ensconced behind her… an encyclopedia of tins filled with any number of over a hundred teas. Her tiny counter is stacked with everything from mini cupcakes to heather honey and lavender loaves to mini scones both savory and sweet. I spied a tiny scone dappled with spinach whirled into the creamy toasted dough. I was a magpie transfixed on all manner of shiny fragrant tins, to what almost seems her palette of elemental sunny colorforms. Do we remember them? Abstract shapes of shiny primary colored liftable stickers, a child’s toy you could design your own canvas on that black shiny board. Yes, this tiny haven of a tea room feels as though I am sitting in someone’s palette and you don’t quite know what will happen next. She is surrounded by clever shapes of anything from a royal blue and white Scandinavian sugar Jar to an elegant ivory Grecian urn for your cream. Chartreuse to Puce or violet vintage tea pots abound in a sculptural array.

I ask her, “How do I have your tea?”. She says, “Well first, feel free to sit down and peruse the menu. And when you are ready, come back and I will call you when your supper is ready or ladies lunch or a midnight snack.” She calls Miss for the “Nibbler” or Mr for the “Blunt and savory” to “tittle tattle”. Is this a cockneye rhyming game? I enquire do I pay now, as there is no need for table service, she insists “Oh please, not now go and enjoy yourtTea!” The place seemed dotted with lovers or a savvy Alice in wonderland planning her private party of teas.

I ordered the “Nibbler”. Elspeth’s menu reads like a sweet soiree living right off the fat of the land somewhere near the “Of Mice and Mens dreams”. Friendly script is arresting with its decency and churlish wit. Her menu introduces me to what feels almost like a Colonial menu of tea cuisine and tea pairings. There is the “Shabby Chintz” listed under “Informal Teas”, I think not! “Shabby Chintz” is neither shabby nor informal. It is served only on the weekends with a strip of fillet mignon in wine sauce w/ lefse, a Scandinavian bread, along with tea sandwiches. I tried the cucumber tea sandwich, a neat stack of 2 types of bread thinly sliced. Also included; Chow Chow, baby scones, mini cupcakes, fresh jam, not mock Devonshire cream but simply whipped cream with a dessert of a mini fruit tart paired with a pot of tea. The menu recommends a Charred rose tea. You can order for one or two to share, it seems a bit pricey at $35.00 or $60.oo to share, but then I realized that her concoctions of teas are not to be compared with a mixed spirited drink. These are often custom blends of her teas, such as a pear blood orange Sencha tea with fresh fruit inside of the entire tea pot created per order. A medium to large pot of tea is included.

The presentation is not to be believed, it isn’t pretentious on silver swine tea sets which are hardly tarnished. It is like a surreal American Folk art from the shaker tray, with any manner of delicate antique rose tea cups to a huge tea pot complete with strainer atop its own saucer. And from creamer to delicate fruit dipping sauces which seem to taste like a horizontal blini, with homemade apricot and raspberry preserves as smooth as champagne. Prices range for a tea set from $9.00 to $35.00 depending on whether you choose savory with sweets or separate. I cannot rate high enough this woman is an Iron Chef of Tea.

From, “The Nibbler” to the “Yankee Bean Cassoulet w/ vegetable relish”. Each in a different category. The latter being a “Front Porch selection”. I was enthralled with the Nibbler palette, fresh boysenberries atop homemade almond sweet cookies, bacon cayenne cheddar biscuits, apricots filled w/ gorgonzola atop a sprig of fresh thyme, of course the palette of dipping sauces and cream, mini-scones and herb truffles. I paired it myself with a Orchid black Vanilla tea with cream and sugar which only enhanced the enormous tray. Her herb truffles are handmade as an offering by Ryuchi, one man controlling each aspect of flavor from start to finish, an admirable theme of Podunk. Nothing is mass produced, everything is handmade daily.

A Post-Colonial Bento box or Liberty-Tea-Kaiseki for those familiar with the origins of the Tea Ceremony? The tea house was intentionally placed in an isolated place. Is wabi equal to Podunk in English? “Wabi” originally being a Zen term of the strange aesthetic referred to as a beautiful tea spirited feeling with a tinge of melancholy. Rhythm and repose. At once, of rural and rustic or so called aesthetic and poverty. Oh yes, that poverty aesthetic of equality makes Raku tea bowls go for up to $100,000 dollars for connoisseurs. Tea Masters, often Zen masters traditionally invited you to tea with artistry unparalleled in detail and philosophy. Kaiseki being tea cuisine of such sensitivity and delight, seasonal, and tailored per guest that the guests would come a week before simply to say thank you for the invitation. Kaiseki inspired by traditional offerings price wise now could be a small mortgage payment easily. However, originally the egalitarian principals of the tea house were that the tea house was a sacred space with transformative pursuits. Suffering from cronos dysphoria is quite a delight if I dream of being invited for tea in the golden era of the true tea ceremonies of the Heian era born out of the 16th century. Originally Chan devotees and Zen Masters performing, so they say, sought to create a common place of life which is intoxicating in its simplicity. So perhaps this is the Tao of Podunk? The mystery of the remote escape for Elspeth’s tea cuisine.

This tea room is charming with its bookshelf filled with classic childrens tales from those by Roald Dahl to the Wizard of Oz. What struck me the most was the wholesome lemon myrtle scent that filled the air like incense, as if I were sitting on the porch dreaming. Podunk has such an impressive array of teas I would not know where to begin. They offer classic teas such as a rare organic Lapsang souchong, 2nd flush Darjeeling, FF shincha to Goblets of Iced tea w/ floating fruits, which should be called liquid paintings of Iced Monet pools. Elspeth infuses each pitcher or goblet to order. Iced teas arrive complimentary w/ the “Front Porch” selections, usually savory supper tea cuisine. Here is an Iced tea creation for example; Shiso Sencha with floating apples, or Lavender Lime tea lightly sweetened garnished with a bouquet of berries. There are at least 10 custom Iced teas infused to order. Her custom hot teas? I drank a pear blood orange Sencha, but there is a Sage Sencha that seems as if some Wild Native American went to Japan in a time traveller and brought a vessel of sage and delicate botanicals to a pretty lady settler wearing her bonnet saying to heck with tax on tea! Elspeth’s blends remind one of the “Liberty Tea botanicals” a time just after the Boston tea party where local herbs and flora were influenced by Native Americans, like the origins of root beer. The mad post-Boston Tea party had Colonial maidens plucking lemon balm, the bark of willow trees, penny royal, purple violets and pretty roses. One family has a recipe passed down from that time. The famous “Constant Comment”, Bigelow brand was that original mean cuppa spice that the stunning Jackie Onasis probably drank in one of her modern’ 1960’s outfits.

I am out of breath, but it does make me wonder as I sat obviously intoxicated by that mysterious tea leaf camelia? Podunk Tea Room plays old acoustic jazz as bright lights and big city early Chicago sounds click along oh so quietly. Makes me wonder if some sassy girl in Podunk with her curls dipping toward her elixir might be just dreaming of running off to some big city slicker night club? She can just sit with her pot of tea and dream of tinsel town too. Podunk Tea Room in its timelessness seems to cross the threshold of every era close to our hearts right here in Manhattan. An experience of the wabi-Podunk pathos. Elspeth’s tiny card says simply, “Podunk, an American tea room.”

God Bless the American tea rooms, Podunk.

Podunk located at: 231 East Fifth Street, 10003 212-677-7722 Call for hours.