Sip & Stitch: of Teas and Yarns....

I am posting this for my good friend Mrs V who has gotten me into knitting recently. I'm working on a hat - an ambitious first time out project, but already own a variety of knitted and crotched trivets and coasters. While we actually can be found knitting at the local waterhole sipping beers, not tea...when I found this article about some newly opened yarn and tea shops and how it brings ladies together, I wanted to share it. A

fter all, whether it's knitting or poker or dinner parties or tea...
if it brings people together it's a good thing to infuse your life with..

Here's to a Weaving a Tight-Knit CommuniTEA!

Opening a Tea Salon

At one time or another, just about everyone has dreamed of opening some sort of cafe, or tea house or perhaps a bar. There's something to having a drink in your hand that creates a social atmosphere. Lately its been a bit of a tagline for me because I've found it's true that "there's nothing like a pot of tea to keep the conversation going."

Tea for me is not about a personal ritual or alone time so much as it is about entertaining people, continuing the party at the end of the night, having a reason to invite people over and/or keeping conversations going for hours.

My salon would be more like the Madam Potts Tea Lounge.
It would be an eclectic blend of styles and people -- after all, everything I do is about blending. I see couches and lots of velvet, ambient lighting and music. It wouldn't open til the afternoon and would be open late into the evening. There would be a Mad Pot of the Day featuring whatever I was madly brewing or discovering at the time, in addition to the usual line up of teas. In the evenings you could order tea-based cocktails or order a shot of something to go with (or into) your tea. And a tapas type menu to keep in step with the mixing. The music too would be a mix of styles, though predominantly either jazz or house music, perhaps live music and of live DJ sets.

I want to bring tea into the mainstream as something that brings people together. Tea is civil and sophisticated and most of all should be fun to explore.

The answer to "What Kind of Place Would You Open Up..." reveals a lot about the person's personal and social identity. After all you're defining how you would ideally like to spend your time if you had to hang out in a room with possible strangers (aka: possible new friends).

So what about you? If you've never thought about what kind of cafe/bar/salon/tea house/lounge you would open up perhaps this will get you thinking. Either way if you've read this far, you have pulled up a seat to the Mad Tea Party and I invite you to share your thoughts and comments about today's Salon topic: What kind of place would YOU open?

Tea: Made in the USA

There is only one place in the United States that grows its own camellia sinensis plants - and that is the Charleston Tea Plantation which is owned by the good folks at Bigelow Tea. Now they don't get all their tea from the one plantation here, but they do harvest and sell some of their "local blends" like Plantation Peach and Charleston Breakfast teas.

It is much more expensive to produce tea in the US, much of that of course is the difference in labor costs. So while you can buy 6 boxes (with 20 bags each) or Bigelow Earl Grey for only $17.75, it's going to cost you $35.70 for 6 boxes (with only 12 bags each!) for the US Plantation-grown Governor's Gray - and good luck finding the US-grown boxes in your local grocery store (perhaps available down there in South Carolina, but I wouldn't know. Someone can let me know).

Now as an interesting side note and Mad Tea tid-bit...It has recently come to my attention that this very same Charleston Tea Plantation will be providing the sweet tea that will be the eponymous flavoring in the Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka, which is currently ranked as the #1 seller of flavored vodka in the state (South Carolina) and will should be available in all 50 states come March 2009.

And so with this news of American Tea, I was extremely excited to learn that the Charleston Tea Plantation will be hosting the First Flush Festival -- celebrating the commencement of the 2009 tea crop -- an event that is coming soon & one that I would love to attend. This is a relatively new tradition (this is the 3rd Annual Festival) and as a tea lover I am extremely interested in experiencing tea as an American commodity.

Mark your calendars! May 16th

So who wants to go with Madam Potts to South Carolina?

Meet: Carribbean Delight

My latest tea was inspired by a singer: Bishop Wayne

This Neo-Soul R&B singer, born in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, has a polished, flexible voice with a slight Caribbean lilt. His voice is smooth, sultry and sincere.

And it was my pleasure to take his sexy voice and turn it into a tea.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sensual, Exotic, Bright, Tropical, Minty, Refreshing and Warming

These are just some of the words and images taken from his PersonaliTEA form.

I enjoyed taking a week to listen to his CD, "I'm Just Me"
Whether singing about hardships or relationships, I was all ears...

Carribbean Delight is a sensual blend of ~
Damiana, Peppermint, Jasmine Flowers,
Cardamom and Dark Chocolate Kisses