Author Archive

I’m so excited about April 17th!  That’s our big kick off day for the International Tea Sippers Society.  When I put together the speaker schedule this week, I was absolutely amazed.  We have some great speakers and great topics! I have them lined up every hour from 11-7.  In addition Kisty Rose from In the Mix 916 will be providing our music.  What a day!  We are going to film it and put the footage on a video clip to show at the World Tea Expo May 2-4th.  My goal is to have 500 members of the International Tea Sippers Society by then so we can promote it to all of the tea businesses across the U.S. We want 10,000 members by December 2009.  If anyone knows any press connections to get them to this event, let me know!

Many of you have been asking about the new cookbook.  I’ve been busy working on a new cookbook, but it’s a bit different than the previous years and is geared toward a different audience.  This time I decided to do a large quantity cookbook, perfect for tea rooms, caterers and social groups such as churches.  There aren’t many cookbooks out there with recipes which make large quantities.  So I decided to branch out and try something new.  If you’re looking for a recipe which will make 100 chicken sandwiches or serve soup for 40, this will be the book for you.  If you’re just doubling a recipe, then it’s not usually a problem.  But when you have to come up with a shopping list for 100 people, you can spend a lot of time trying to figure things out. You may end up spending extra money as well buying more for “just in case, ” or have to run to the store at the last minute because you didn’t buy enough.  This cookbook contains many of the favorites of the last 5 cookbooks as well as new ones.  It is written in step by step format including prep work of items which can be made ahead of time.  It should be off to the printer by Monday and back in time to be exhibited in the New Showcase Display at the World Tea Expo in May. I will make them available as well at the tea room for those of you interested.

As I sit here today working on a new cookbook for the World Tea Expo event, I typed in “turbinado sugar” an ingredient for Dena’s (my baker) famous Creme Brule Tea Recipe.  I wondered what the heck is it?  I know it’s large course granules of sugar that we sprinkle on top of cookies and scones, but where did it get its name?  So I decided to look it up on wikipedia. According to them, it is “made from sugar cane extract. It is produced by crushing freshly cut sugar cane; the juice obtained is evaporated by heat, then crystallized. The crystals are spun in a centrifuge, or turbine (thus the name), to remove excess moisture, resulting in the characteristic large, light brown crystals.” I was also pleased to find that in the United Kingdom it is called “demerara” sugar, a name I had heard of but didn’t know what exactly it was. So for those of you curious like me, there’s your answer.

Men Going to Tea?

Yes, men will do anything for their wives, even go to tea.  Yesterday for Valentine’s Day we had our largest turnout for men in one day-in all of our 5  1/2 years!  One such man, even had flowers sent to the tea room earlier in the day so they were waiting for his wife when they arrived.

Most had not been to our tea room before.  They joked, “Where are the ribs?”  By the end of the evening, however, we had converted quite a few of our new recruits to tea.  They were surprised that one’s stomach could be satisfied with “tea food.”  I even saw to go boxes leave the building. All in all everyone had a fabulous time. Our live entertainment for the evening was a duet from two of my staff-our baker, Dena Macklin and our tea maker, Ploy Kitjawat.

My husband Pat even came to help-he did the dishes after it was all over. What a great Valentine’s present! Yes, romance is still alive.

Hi all,

My mother sent me a YouTube video this morning on tea.  It’s a small movie clip from 1941. I found it very entertaining and all of the tips are still valid today.  To see the video, click here. I hope you enjoy it!

Last week I ordered 5 new oolong samples for our Tea 103 Oolong Class on February 6th. I’m so excited as they arrived yesterday!  We’ll be tasting a Jade Pouchong, two white tip oolongs, Orchid Oolong, Sparrow’s Tongue, and three of my favorites-Wuyi Rock, Master’s Choice Oolong and Reserved List Milk Oolong.  I already loved oolongs but after my Specialty Tea Institute Class, I’m even more in love with them.  There are just so many varieties in taste. I’ll be explaining the 5 different types of oolongs and the production process. We’ll examine the leaves and of course have a chance to taste all of them. It’s going to be a very fun day!  I can’t wait.

Hi all,

I had a fabulous 3 days last week at the Fancy Food Show and Specialty Tea Institute Class.  I left early on Sunday with my friend Babette Donaldson. Some of you may know her.  She writes the Emma Lea Tea Books we sell at the tea room.  We arrived in San Francisco on Sunday morning about 9:30, just in time for the 10:00 opening of the Fancy Food Show.  We enjoyed walking around and eating our way through the aisles.  My favorite part was the cheese!  I didn’t realize just how much I loved cheese!

After a full day at the show we headed for Ghiradeli Square to the Crown and Crumpet Tea Room for our Western Tea Business Association meeting.  It was nice to see all of our members-many own other tea rooms in Southern California.  I was especially looking forward to the meeting as my favorite tea guy was there-James Norwood Pratt.  It was so great to see him again.  He brought his “better half,” as he calls her-Valerie. She’s just delightful and has such a darling accent-she’s from England.  He also brought Jennifer Sauer who is the author of “Way to Tea,” and is also a photographer.  I enjoyed talking with her and she autographed her book, which Norwood had graciously given me.

On Monday it was a full day of tasting again at the Fancy Food Show.  I enjoyed talking with the tea vendors.  Babette and I slipped off to the Samovar Tea Lounge where I finally had a chance to meet Kim Jage-head of the World Tea Expo. It’s so exciting talking with someone who’s on the cutting edge of tea. It was one of my highlights of last week.  She invited me to be part of the World Tea Expo round robin groups. I’ll be talking to other tea room owners about what I love best! This year will be very busy for me, we will have a booth at the expo selling our cookbooks, I’ll be teaching a class with Babette and now the round robin groups.  I can hardly wait!

My other highlight of the week was the Specialty Tea Institute Class.  I love learning about tea!  We had a full day of oolong teas.  I find it all so fascinating, from the history to the different tastes of oolongs.  By the end, we were all “tea-ed” out.  I realized this as I got in the car to drive home and found myself evaluating the taste of a tic-tac-where does it hit your tongue, etc.  I had to laugh at myself. I couldn’t even enjoy a tic-tac without analyzing how it tasted.

All in all it was a fun 3 days.  I can’t wait to share all of the oolong information with you. If you want to learn more about oolongs and haven’t signed up for our class, you can do it here.

Have a fantastic day!

Amy

Hi all!  Have you created your “Celebratory List of 2008?” This year I read a unique idea from Masha Malka for looking back on the previous year.  Instead of focusing on, “Did I reach my goals?  What didn’t  I do? What do I need to do, etc.” focus on all that is wonderful in your life and all of the amazing things you did achieve in 2008.  Make a list of at least 20 happy memories and achievements of 2008. Here is my partial list for 2008. They are not in any particular order.

• spending more time with my family by not working on Sundays
• spending time with my sister in Monterey
• celebrating my 10th year anniversary with my husband, Pat
• celebrating our 5th year of An Afternoon to Remember
• winning Best of Sacramento this year
• completing my 5th cookbook
• being accepted as a speaker for the World Tea Expo next May
• becoming secretary for the Western Tea Business Association
• getting James Norwood Pratt to my tea room this year
• producing my scone video
• creating the Tea of the Month Program
• becoming a finalist and speaking in front of 600 people at the Make Mine a Million event
• meeting Wayne Dyer
• seeing Oprah in person
• meeting Martha Beck, one of my favorite authors

I have so many more. These are just a few.  It’s amazing how good you feel when you look back at all you’ve done over the year. I can’t wait to see what next year brings!

If you do this on-line, link to this post so I can read about it!

Don’t forget to enjoy your family in all of the rush to get ready for the holidays. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the preparations for the “big day” that we forget to enjoy what it’s really all about-spending time with each other in the present moment. I know I catch myself thinking about the future-can’t wait until this, need to get ready for that etc. Then it comes and I find myself thinking, why didn’t I enjoy it more?  So this year I’m going to really try to be in the moment.

My mom, dad, sister and niece all arrived from Kansas City last night. I’m so happy to see them! It’s been a long time since we’ve all been together for Christmas.

I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a wonderful New Year! Enjoy your family-and of course, share a great pot of tea with them!

Sitting here tonight, I realized I haven’t blogged at all in the last two weeks.  We have been so busy with everything lately.  I stopped for a moment today and took it all in-the amazement of what we have created in the last 5 years.  Everyone was bustling around getting things ready for the Sugar Plum Fairy Tea today and I watched.  Everyone knew what to do and did it with pride with no help from me.  It’s amazing that a dream I had, could turn into something like this.

I feel very grateful for my wonderful staff.  We have gone through a few ups and downs and they have handled everything beautifully. They work so hard to make everything special.   I love them dearly!

I would also like to thank all of my loyal customers for supporting me this year.  Because of you, we are still here.  A big thanks to all of my regulars-my weekly, semi weekly, and monthly customers-you know who you are!  And thanks to all of my once a year and special occasion customers and also to my new customers.  All of you have made the tea room what it is today.  You are the reason we are Sacramento’s Best Tea Room this year. I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!