Never mind Coke and popcorn: I’ll have English Breakfast and a crumpet.

This is for all the movie lovers out there. I never realized how many of my favorite movies involve tea. (One of the many reasons I lurve research.)

So today is Tea Trivia Time: Name four movies involving tea. Ready… GO.

[puts on the kettle while everyone opens a Google window]

[Admit it: you did!]

[plays the Jeopardy “wait” music]

Pencils down, all!

I’ll give you the easy one first: The Mad Tea Party in Alice in Wonderland.

(c) Walt Disney Productions

Next the one I always forget: Tea with Uncle Albert in Mary Poppins. The song “I Love to Laugh” is so much fun.

(c) Walt Disney Productions

Third, Arsenic and Old Lace. About 25 years ago, I played Abby Brewster on stage. Now I wouldn’t need anywhere near as much makeup to play a sweet, murdering old lady. 

Technically, they old ladies put the poison in their homemade wine, but tea gets an honorable mention because they specifically say tea doesn’t hide the taste of the poison. Eek!

(c) Warner Brothers

Last, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The REAL Willy Wonka: Gene Wilder. The wonderful first scene in the candy garden where even the teacups are edible.

(c) Warner Brothers

Bonus points if anyone also remembered Patrick Stewart as Captain Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation ordering “Tea. Earl Grey.Hot.” from the Enterprise’s food conveyer.

(c) Paramount Television

There must be others. Please add the names of other movies or TV shows in the comments!

That First Cup

It’s the weekend. I don’t have to get up at 6 am. 

In general, that means I sleep until 6:30 or 7. I’m so decadent on the weekends.

It’s also summer and morning temperatures in Buffalo aren’t hovering at the freezing mark (no, really!). 

Plus, we have a pond. It’s some of the best money we ever spent. 

Continuing my decadent weekend activities, I brew a cup of tea. I’m still into Yorkshire Gold via Amazon, even though my grocery store has deigned to stock PG Tips again. I have a lot of Yorkshire Gold to get through before I go back to the wonderful PG Tips.

So, summer weekend morning checklist:

1. Tea
2. Get outside
3. Sit by the koi pond

Somehow tea is the perfect complement to early mornings by the pond. I love strong coffee, but days start better with a clean, strong cup of tea.

Let me share my relaxing morning with you. If you look closely, you’ll see three of our four frogs off to the left: One in the water, one on a rock, and one sitting in the drit by the sedum. The koi were being coy at this hour (see what I did there?).

Enjoy.

Summer? Yes, please.

I live in the northeast US. We see snow. Lots of snow. We are legendary for snow. So when warm weather finally arrives, we make the most of it.

As much as I love hot tea of all kinds, I’m not exactly enthusiastic about a steaming cup of Constant Comment on a 90-degree day. Call me picky; I don’t mind.

Fortunately, there is a lovely concoction called sun tea. 

Plain tea will always be my favorite. Look at that deep, rich color. Nothing beats the tinkling of ice cubes in a tall glass as tea is poured over them. Add a sprig of mint or a lemon slice and you have heaven. Okay, half of heaven. For the other half, I recommend cookies. Or pie. Or Ice cream. 

Ice cream and summer. Mmm.

Where was I? *looks up at masthead* Oh, yes. Tea.

Now sometimes I want a drink with more substance than regular iced tea. Hello, blender! Because I’m all about the cooking, here are a few of my go-to tea smoothies.

First, brew a cup of tea the night before: black, green, peppermint, whatever you like, and let it cool in the fridge.

When you’re ready to kick back on the porch or deck or lawn, assemble your ingredients. I use vanilla ice cream because I don’t touch yogurt no way no how. But if you’re a yogurt fan, substitute it for the ice cream below and add a few ice cubes for heft.  

Morning tea smoothie:

Black tea

Vanilla ice cream

Peach or banana

A dash of ginger

1/3 cup milk

Sugar to taste

Anytime tea smoothie:

Green or black tea

Vanilla ice cream

Strawberries, raspberries, a peach, a mango, a plum—use blueberries for the healthiest choice!

1/3 cup milk

Sugar to taste

The Marriage of Tea and Orange Julius for the Sophisticated Palate:

Constant Comment tea

Vanilla ice cream

Orange sherbet

1/3 cup milk

Sugar to taste

Mojito tea smoothie for hot summer nights:

White tea

Vanilla ice cream

Fresh mint leaves

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp lime juice plus a bit of grated peel

1/2 oz of rum (or to taste)

Bonus tea anecdote: People often ask me how much my ex-nun sleuth is like me, her creator. I can tell you one way she is definitely not like me: Now that she’s pregnant and her coffee intake is limited, she’s trying herbal tea as a substitute. She hates every flavor she’s tried. I don’t understand that woman.

Wedding Shower (or Baby Shower) Umbrella Themed Silicone Tea Strainers

Karen here, it is wedding season and with that comes my favorite pre wedding activity the wedding shower. Today I am sharing these fun tea favors that would make excellent take home gifts for your guests at your wedding tea shower. I recently purchased a dozen of these little silicone umbrellas from Ebay and they are so easy to use and whimsical, they are just plain fun!

These are really easy to use and I love that the little hook handles actually hook on the side of your mug, tea pot or tea cup.

The round disk comes out of the umbrella for you to place your tea leaves and they are super easy to empty and clean. I think little umbrellas which were under $1.50 each, paired with a loose leaf blend of your choosing would make an excellent take home gift!  To find these for yourself on Ebay click here. 

Looking to get into the Wedding season spirit? Check out Alice Loweecey's book Changing Habits, you will be so glad you did! A lovely cozy mystery short story you can find from Amazon by clicking here.

I would love to have you over for tea daily at www.acupofteaandacozymystery.com 

I Confess, I Spent the Weekend Drinking Coffee

O great and powerful tea gods, I come before you a humble supplicant. I have been unfaithful to your extraordinary powers of taste and refreshment.

I was at the Malice Domestic conference for mystery writers and fans last week. It’s super fun and super busy. We’re running around from 7 in the morning until past 11 at night. The Hyatt Regency in Bethesda, MD serves Starbucks coffee. Sometimes there’s not enough coffee in the world to keep a writer awake and perky (no pun intended). 

Coffee in our room. Coffee in the hospitality suite, where people relax and check out bookmarks and swag from the writers. Coffee at the bar. No, really! The bar serves coffee all day, even in the evening when they also serve booze. 

They offered real cream too! My first few cups need to be strong enough to stand up a spoon in it, but if I can get real cream (not milk, not half and half)—gimme!

However, my body lets me know when it’s had enough. 

Guess what else they serve? Tazo tea. Because not everyone (no, really) likes coffee. The hotel set out six different kinds of Tazo: Zen, Awake English Breakfast, Chamomile, Passion, Earl Grey, and Refresh Mint.

A lovely china dish with lemon slices and a wooden box with packets of every possible kind of sugar, sugar substitute, and plant-based sweeteners were set before the Tazo display as offerings to the tea gods. It was a worthy altar.

The coffee and tea in the hospitality suite were paid for by various publishers. We were so grateful!

Now all y’all will recoil from me in horror, but I don’t like Earl Grey tea. *stares through computer screen and sees a wave of readers recoiling* I know. But Earl Grey to me is like trying to drink perfume. Don’t ask me about rooibos tea, either. I tried three different kids. Not for me.

But Tazo Zen tea? More, please! I especially like how it doesn’t get bitter when I let it steep a long time. The mint and lemongrass combination is relaxation in a cup. Any moment of relaxation in a conference is a moment to treasure.

I love jasmine tea, but if I let it steep longer than three minutes—BITTER! The same with white tea. When I try to let it steep long enough to have enough taste for my palate—BITTER. 

Something in Tazo’s formulations differ from other brands of herbal tea. They’ve removed the bitter. So smooth. I can drink cup after cup. Which I did when my body OD’d on coffee.

Thus, O great and powerful tea gods, I beg your forgiveness for turning away from you for the conference weekend. 

(Nobody look at the travel cup of Starbucks French Roast at my elbow, okay?)

Today’s Tea Leaf Reading: Opinionated Opinions

For my very first post I promised I wouldn’t rant about US tea (wussy) versus UK tea (able to withstand a Buffalo NY winter). So I think we should establish the definitions of “rant” and “opinionated opinions” for the purposes of this discussion.

Rant: 

Opinionated opinion: 

Civilized, I say, like a High Tea. 

Second, I want to establish my preference for tea as a jumping-off point: Strong and straight. No additives. I like tea that slaps me back.

So let’s get green tea out the way: I never touch the stuff. I tried steeping it for the recommended three minutes: Flavored water. I tried steeping it longer: Bitter flavored water. The same for white tea and flavored green tea. 

Thank you, no.

Onto black tea: Yes, please! 

That is, UK black tea. PG Tips and Yorkshire Gold are my current favorites. They stand up to boiling water and make it obey. 

I will make one US tea exception: Bigelow’s Constant Comment. Love this tea so much! One whiff of the aroma and I’m thinking sunny fall days and the scent of fallen leaves.

But the two major US brands, Lipton and Nestea, hot or iced? Thank you, no. Plain Pure Leaf and Snapple are passable, but oy the sugar in any of their flavored versions. I swear my teeth wave a white flag of surrender whenever I try one.

Herbal tea deserves a mention. I’ve tried Teavana’s teas and they’re interesting but pricey. I reserve them for gift-giving. Celestial Seasonings Peppermint however, is nectar of the gods. It stand up to lengthy brewing and is the most refreshing hot tea ever. (I said this was a post full of opinionated opinions.)

Oregon Chai is another nectar of the gods. It’s sweet but the pepper and other spices mitigate the honey and sugar. 

I’ve made my own chai mix because I love playing with different spices. It’s the only use I have for instant mass-produced plain tea.

Speaking of chai, chai scones are the best of both worlds. A good cup of tea deserves a good scone, I say.

Chai Scones(adapted by me from the Basic British Scones recipe on allrecipes.com) 

Ingredients2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon cream of tartar, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1 pinch salt. 1/4 cup shortening, 1/2 cup Oregon Chai tea concentrate, 2 tablespoons milk  

DirectionsPreheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with foil sprayed with cooking spray.Sift the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt into a bowl.Rub in the shortening until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the Chai concentrate and milk to make a soft dough.Turn onto a floured surface, knead lightly and press out to a 3/4-inch thickness. Cut into 2-inch rounds and place on the prepared baking sheet.Bake 10-12 minutes or until bottoms are light brown and tops aren’t squishy when poked. Serve with butter or clotted cream.

All y’all are welcome to use the comments to try to convince me standard US teas aren’t a waste of time and boiling water. I’ll be over here, slathering clotted cream on a fresh scone.