Amy’s Blog

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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!

Hi all,

I’m very excited about the Best of Sacramento Party tonight.  My staff has been working hard to get everything baked for today. Yesterday they made over 1300 scones and 1400 desserts. Wow! Now Patti and I have to put all of that in the car and set it up today for tonight. (I’ll be glad when that part is over and we’re on to the party part.)  I feel so honored to be a part of this.  A huge thank you to all of you who voted for us and made us the number one tea room in Sacramento!

I’m trying to figure out Twitter and how to follow tea people such as Jane Pettigrew. This morning I finally figured out how to search for people without their e-mails and I found an interesting article written by Jane about the tea estates.  When we were in England last year I spoke to her about visiting India and Sri Lanka. Her descriptions of the tea estates were breathtaking.  I really do want to visit both of those places as well as China one day.  Read her article and you will too!

Hi all,

Last week when I was preparing for my Sacramento and Co. interview I read a little blurb about how green tea may help slow down and possibly prevent diabetes.  I couldn’t find too much information on it so I didn’t say anything about it during the interview. Today I read a small article about it again. Wouldn’t this be great? Those antioxidants in tea are really powerful, aren’t they?  In the medical world, we are just beginning to discover how healthy tea really is for you when the Chinese have known it for centuries.  Read the article here.

Hi all,

I definitely had a great time yesterday doing the Sacramento and Co. show. It went so fast, I didn’t get to say everything I wanted. Because I was asked on as a “Tea Expert,” I wasn’t allowed to say the name of my business or promote it in anyway.  That felt a little strange as I realized that’s who I am. If you take it away, then I feel like I’ve lost my identity. Interesting feeling.

For those of you following my adventures, I’ll be at the Mandarin Festival this weekend in Auburn as a guest chef.  I’ll be making “Mandarin Orange Scones.”  That should also be fun! I love doing classes.

Hope to see you there!

Amy

Hi all!

I’ll be on Sacramento and Company tomorrow. I don’t have a time but somewhere between 8:30-10:00 I think.  I’ll be talking about tea, the types, the health benefits and how to make it.  Check me out if you have time!

Amy