Some times it happens that after brewing a cuppa tea (especially tisanes, as the leaves tend to be more chopped up) that the sipper is left with leaves set asail in their cup. It is, after all loose tea, so this shouldn't be unheard of...dried leaves are fragile - they break. It indeed happens.

I've had on more than one occasion, someone turn their nose up, even if only slightly, at the sight of the floating foliage, to which I would jokingly respond, "Leaves in your cup are Good Luck, and it there are any left at the end, I'll read your Fortune."

While that would impart a smile, easing the initial repugnant reaction to drifting bits of greenery, it didn't impart a fuller understanding of how to embrace this occasional occurrence.

So last night, as a friend and I were sipping some relaxing herbal infusions, I saw his hesitation, he questioned aloud about what he should do with the floating leaves...to which this quotable bit of advice came ushering forth without thinking (as oft my best thoughts do....).

"Herbs around the rim of your cup should be embraced like salt around your margarita."

Ans so with that....I leave you to enjoy....

Happy Sipping!

What to do with Sweet Tea

I do not like heavily fruity teas.

Be it a flavored black (passion fruit ceylon) or a fruit based tisane (berry papaya mango).

My tongue recoils in horror at the taste (or thought) of what is essentially "hot fruit".

A person could easily question, why then would you keep such repellent teas on your shelf?

Call it upbringing, habit, or just a tea lover's compassion...but something prohibits me from ditching otherwise perfectly usable tea....I always figure there must be SOMEthing I can do with this...

So I have found that the sweeter teas make for teasingly good iced teas!
(sorry, couldn't resist!)

Brew Double Strength tea,
add to larger shaker full of ice.

Shaker? ...you ask...

Yes, like a martini shaker or tupperware - anything with a lid, really...

The shaking helps cool the tea faster than just pouring into a pitcher full of ice,
especially if you want it right away.

10-15 shakes and you've got iced tea!

....see? And you were just going to throw it away!

Read any good leaves, lately?

YOUR FORTUNE - TOLD HERE: $15

Walking through the West Village with a friend of mine...I'd taken the day off work. So far we had a long tasty pancake breakfast, checked out some galleries, drank lots of wine...
and then, I spotted a sign.
Among the offerings listed, palm, tarot, crystal ball --
the sign read "tea leaf readings"

So I walked down the small flight of steps to the gypsy's subterranean dwelling...

Now, I thought that all tea leaf readings meant that you drank a cup of tea, and then inverted the cup afterwards and from there they peer to the bottom as they divine from the placement of the leaves. Apparently, that is traditionally done with Turkish Coffee, not tea. The woman put some green tea leaves in a cup and asked me to stir the leaves (which she had me do 3 separate times). When I inquired, she assured me that this was the authentic Romanian way of tea leaf divination. You can imagine there was a slight moment of disappointment to find that I would not also happen to be getting a cup of tea for the price of admission....

I stirred the leaves with the spoon. I sat there skeptically (and thirstily). She mentioned some open ended things, covering all bases, like "I see you are going to travel soon", and "this is a good thing", and "you are with the one you love "....she nailed some obvious things, such as I'm Leo, a natural born leader.....some other such usual generalities granted to zodiac.

However, she did have 2 predictions, both of which came to happen within 48 hours. While I'm not a liberty to get into the gritty details, they were things I wasn't expecting and they came from a different place than I thought they would when I first heard her utter the predictions.

That's it....I'm a believer!

The truth is in the leaves....