Holiday Open House and News
Dear Tea Lovers,
Last week was such a wonderful one for me. On Tuesday evening I picked up James Norwood Pratt and brought him back to my house for a nice dinner with my family. We had such a good time getting to know him better. On Wednesday we had a leisurely breakfast and then headed off to the tea room where he joined a few special guests for afternoon tea. He really enjoyed getting to know everyone. At 3:30 the first tea tasting began. Books were signed and at 6:30 the tea room filled again with eager listeners for the second tasting.
Mr. Pratt enthralled us with his knowledge of the tea world. We learned so much about the tea plant, the processing of the tea as well as wonderful stories about tea. Keep checking the website for the video (I’m working on it as quickly as I can - Pat (Amy’s husband).) We recorded it, keep in mind that it is a new camcorder and we are amateurs.
During the tea tasting we tasted 6 exquisite teas:
- Tai Ping Green - which is produced only 1 week out of the year
- Master’s Choice Oolong - which can be infused many times
- Makaibari Darjeeling - one of my favorites - also in very limited quantities
- Zhen Qu - an absolutely beautiful fluffy golden tip tea - also in limited quantities
- Keemun Sechrna - a slightly smokey black tea
- Golden Bud Pu Erh - which we learned from Mr. Pratt that it lowers cholesterol significantly according to recent research in France.
Babette Donaldson, my good friend, and children’s author of Emma Lea books is on the World Tea Expo Board has written a nice piece about Mr. Pratt’s visit. You can read about it here. For those of you who have children and are interested in her books she is now doing a children’s newsletter called Emma Lea’s Monthly Newsletter. She is also sponsoring a contest for children to write about their magic tea pot.
It was a wild week for me, not only did we have Mr. Pratt, we also had a dessert class and Miss Spider’s Tea Party. On Saturday I took a personal day and went to San Francisco to see one of my favorite authors, Martha Beck at the O Event. I was thrilled to get her autograph and even more thrilled when Oprah herself paid a surprise visit to the event. So yes! I got to see Oprah in person! It was exciting!
The one exception to my wonderful week was that my son broke his arm riding his bike home from school while I was at the tea room hosting the Miss Spider’s Tea Party. Thomas is doing fine and will hopefully be casted tomorrow.
So let’s see what exciting things we have for next week!
- Taking Care of You - Class 2
- Holiday Open House - don’t miss it, new merchandise is arriving daily
- We still have space in our quiche classes
- Don’t forget about the Sugar Plum Fairy Teas in December - they are starting to fill up (need to add the event to the site…)
Finally, our Tea of the Month for November is Pumpkin Crème. It will be 25% off for the entire month.
I hope you have a wonderful week and I hope to see you at the Holiday Open House next Thursday.
Enjoy life, drink a cup of tea!
Amy