City by the Bay

 The city by the bay has been mentioned in songs and reminds people that San Francisco is a city that rocks (not an earthquake reference, but it does fit), and that people should wear a flower in their hair.

It is certainly true that the city of San Francisco never stops. Everyone and everything seems to be in a constant state of motion. However, that being said, some areas exist with an energized calm, such as last weeks San Francisco International Tea Festival. 

The festival consisted of exhibitors, workshops, and tea tasting sessions. As I mentioned in a previous blog, the exhibitors, people from Glenburn Tea Estate tea tasting, and volunteers were all extremely phenomenal people. Everyone who had a hand in this event is to be congratulated for a job well done.

In all, there were eight tea tasting sessions that all sounded fabulous. Due to time constraints we were only able to go to one tea tasting session. We would have loved to attended other tastings with Sky Tea, Jade Mountain Teas, and Yunnan Teas.

The seminars also looked very interesting. The three that particularly caught our attention were History of Tea in the U.S., Great Teas of Japan, and The Full Cycle of Gung Fu Tea. Again, any of the seminars would have been great to attend, as you can always learn something new, even if you already know a lot about the subject matter.

In all, we sampled eight teas during the tea tasting session and another 20 teas from the vendors. We also enjoyed three samples of chocolate and 3 or 4 different kinds of ginger ale produced by Bruce
Cost Gingerale, some of which contained tea. Very tasty, indeed.

San Francisco is the perfect place for a tea festival. Think about it, San Francisco has always been the gateway to the west. There are many people that have come from literally all over the world to this city and made it their home. Look at a map of San Francisco and you will find Little Italy, Chinatown, and Japan town. All of these groups of people helped California become the beautiful state that it is today.

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St Patrick's Day

     Erin Go Bragh! If you are Irish you may hear this many times this weekend as St. Patrick's Day rolls around on Sunday. When you think about St Patrick's Day, what images do you conger up in your mind? Maybe it's corned beef, cabbage and potatoes. Maybe you think about parties and Guinness beer. Perhaps, you think about those mischievous little Leprechauns that like to make a mess of things, such as a classroom. For some reason, they always left a really big mess in my classroom after recess. Hmm, can't figure that one out... :-) Sometimes, we could even hear them in the Parish Hall, giggling and laughing. The students would get very excited. Hmm... ;-) Maybe, you and your family even review the story of St. Patrick. However you celebrate St. Patrick's Day, I've found that it always goes well with a nice cup of tea. 

     Now we are not Irish, but it is fun to enjoying the festivities. We'll probably enjoy some nice Earl Grey tea with scones for breakfast. For dinner, it will be easy, corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes. This is super easy because I've already prepared the corned beef. There's not much left to do, just heat and eat.

So watch out for those little Leprechauns looking for gold. They can be tricky little creatures. Who knows, maybe you'll even see one this St. Patrick's Day. Good Luck!  May the luck of the Irish be with you.

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Darjeeling in San Francisco

Earlier this week we were in San Francisco, attending the 2^nd Annual San Francisco International Tea Festival. There were many wonderful exhibitors with their wares at this festival. It took us a two hours to check out the exhibits. Unfortunately, there were items downstairs that we never got to see as we ran out of time. However, we felt very fortunate to have met so many wonderful people at this event.

We had signed up for a Darjeeling tea tasting and were not only very eager to taste these teas, but also to meet with the Glenburn Tea Estate people themselves, and to learn more about the Glenburn Darjeeling teas. Sidhant Prakash was one of the two speakers for this tasting. Both speakers were very knowledgeable and a joy to talk too.

Before we started tasting eight teas, we were given a little background information that was fun to absorb. First of all it takes 1,000 leaves to make a pound of ready to steep tea. Sixty percent of all of the work is done by hand, of which all of their tea is handpicked. When it comes to picking tea by hand, it is not as easy as it looks. Tea requires an exact plucking technique. The plucker wants of course to only get the first two leaves and a bud, not the stem. 

Tea is effected by soil and climate. Tea from the Glenburn estate is grown on the western slopes of the Darjeeling mountains between 1,000 and 5,000 feet.

One tidbit of knowledge that I learned was that teas harvested during Monsoon season (July-September) have a much mellower taste due to the over abundance of water. When the plant gets less water, it stresses out a bit and has a stronger tea taste. This occurs during the harvest; March to June and October thru November.

The winter months are used to prune the tea plants and perform many other tasks that cannot be done during the harvest season, one of which will be working on an irrigation system.

Of the eight teas that we tasted with Glen burn Tea Estates, there were three that really stood out for us. First, was a lovely white tea called Moonshine, which had a lovely citrusy taste, a light liquor, and finished well on the tongue. It was very tasty. This tea is harvested in March at the beginning of the tea season. Our second favorite tea was a white tea, Silver Needle. Silver Needle is harvested during the Monsoon season and therefore has a much more mellow taste. I found the aroma to be wonderfully intoxicating. The tea liquor had a lovely light appearance and finish on the tongue was smooth and buttery. The other tea which we both favored was the Autumn Oolong, which is harvested in November. The Autumn Oolong had a wonderful aroma and a coloury liquor. It had a wonderful crisp sensation in the mouth and left a nice lingering taste. 

It was sad to leave the San Francisco International Tea Festival and the Bay Area, but hopefully we will return sooner rather than later. There is always joy in hoping of a return trip. I'm already planning what we would do the next time we visit. Of course, tea is always in the plan. How could it not be?

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Off the Beaten Path

When people go to tea while traveling, there will be those who head for the lavish settings, some go to known tea rooms in large cities, while still others head off the beaten track and find a small local place along a country road.

Many years ago, while my mom and I were traveling in Ireland, I can't tell you how many times we would pull off the road when it would start to rain and quickly scamper into a tea room in a little village. We always felt that hot tea went very well with the rain. At least, that was our excuse.

Besides the great tea and yummy scones, we always found the people to be so warm and personable. One woman spoke to us for over two hours. It is amazing how much you can learn from speaking with the locals over tea. As mom and I drank our tea and ate the wonderful snacks, we learned the ins and outs of the area along with the ideas people had proposed that would greatly effect the local economy. Let's say that at that point in time small business owners in this particular area of Ireland were not too happy. We never did find out the outcome of the proposals and others things that the many people spoke to us about.

I always felt that it was better going to the small off the beaten path places for tea. It's just a personal preference as I feel that you really get to know people much better than you would in a big city. For me, the road less traveled always had a hostess that reminded me of a grandma. You know the type, the ingratiating grandma that always makes you feel right at home. These tea room hostesses and owners would make you feel as though they had known you for years. I guess that's why I like going off the beaten path for tea when I traveling.

Of course we had tea at many different times during the day. Tea was always great with the Irish Breakfast. Then we worked tea into our schedule both before and after the Waterford Crystal Factory tour. Neither one of us would ever forget the tea served on a short 8 mile river cruise to Passage East. It wasn't fancy, but rather, plain simple, and very good. At 4:15 sharp we were served brown bread, scones, tea, brown bread, scones, tea, and yet still more tea. Of course there were so many other times where we had tea. Throughout this entire time we were always talking with the locals, whether it was the servers on the boat, the hosts at the bed and breakfasts, workers in cafe's, or purveyors of tea rooms. Having tea off the beaten path is just such a great way of getting to know the locals. That being said, we always had a great tea times in Ireland.

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Studytime

Isn't it just amazing how one little piece of information can pique our curiosity in wanting to learn so much more? Maybe, it's a delicious fruit you discovered on a trip, a part of history that you knew nothing about, or yet still a new piece of technology that could make a great difference in your life. So whatever it is, you just want to learn more about that subject.

Over the last several weeks, I have been doing a great deal of research on a particular tea subject. What started out as a little nugget of knowledge from reading, turned into the “Oh, wow that's really cool.” and then blossomed into the “I need to know more” phase. From here, things just sort of snowballed into lots and lots of reading.

Eventually, all of this studying will be put together in a future blog. The topic won't given ahead of time, as I want it to be a surprise when it is posted. 

Let us just say that the information is being gathered so that you too can enjoy this wonderful form of tea.

As for the research, yes, it takes time and is thoroughly enjoyable. Hopefully, many of you will take time out to learn something new too. Your learning doesn't need to be in depth or complicated. Maybe you can try to learn at least one new thing a day. However, whatever kind of learning takes place, just remember it always goes well with a nice cup of tea.

Cheers!

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