Tea Talk : An interview and Giveaway with Krista Davis

I'm delighted to welcome author Krista Davis to the blog today. Krista's newest book in her Domestic Diva series in entitled The Diva Serves High Tea. How perfect that we talk tea today, the book will be released Tuesday, June 7th.

Kathy: As followers of this blog know, I generally drink unsweetened iced tea or hot tea made gong fu style. What about you? How do you like your tea?

KD: I like unsweetened iced tea on hot days. However, my go-to tea is hot black tea with sugar and two percent milk.


Kathy: Do you have a favorite type of tea? Any you don't particularly care for?

KD: I wish I could find a green tea that I like. The last one was so awful that I gave it away to someone who likes green tea. I just can’t make friends with it. My favorite tea is Newman’s Own Organic Black Tea.

If any readers have a green tea to recommend, please leave a comment with the name and brand!

Years and years ago, one of my dear friends vacationed in England and brought me a tea by Twinings that is called Cutty Sark in honor of the British clipper ship. It was fantastic. I loved that tea and told her so. Over the years, both of us had hunted for it, but it just wasn’t available anywhere. Last Christmas, she was brimming with happiness when she handed me my Christmas gift. She remembered how much I had loved the Cutty Sark tea, and she found it online, available at Twinings in England and ordered it! It’s as delicious as I remembered!

It says it’s “a unique blend of the finest Yunnan and smooth Keemun black teas from China.”
https://www.twinings.co.uk/gifts/tea-caddies/cutty-sark-black-tea-caddy


Kathy: In addition to drinking tea many people collect tea cups, tea pots, and other tea things. Do you collect any tea accouterments?

KD: I have a bit of a piggy issue with china and crystal in general. I could be easily be one of those people who has special china for every occasion, including Halloween. I don’t collect tea items per se, but I have managed to collect a few interesting infusers and pretty tea cups.

Kathy: Do you consider yourself a tea connoisseur, a tea neophyte, or simply a person who enjoys tea?

KD: I don’t think I’m a connoisseur, but I’m certainly not a neophyte. How’s that for an evasive answer? I am a big tea drinker. I love hot hibiscus tea on a cold winter night. My favorite iced tea is black currant. That subtle fruity taste in the cold tea is delicious. I’m enough of a tea nut to make myself a relaxing cup of black tea when I can’t sleep! Yes, it’s true!

Incidentally, I wondered why tea is relaxing even though it contains caffeine. Some clever researchers have determined that black tea reduces stress. So your problems won’t go away, but you may be able to handle them better.


Kathy: How does tea play a part in your writing?

KD: This is a little bit embarrassing, but I *must* have my mug of hot tea on my desk to write. It’s as important as the keyboard. Refilling it gives me an excuse to get up and stretch my legs.

Kathy: Your new book is The Diva Serves High Tea. Does she really serve high tea in the book?

KD: I have to admit to being embarrassed when I discovered that we Americans use high tea incorrectly. At least I did. The fancy tea that we think of as high tea with cucumber sandwiches and scones is actually called afternoon tea.

High tea is named after the height of the table! Who’d have thought that? Apparently, on the days when the servants were off, the wealthy called their dinner high tea because it wasn’t the usual evening meal with an elaborate roast and all the trimmings and side dishes. It was eaten at a dinner table, thus the name high tea in comparison to afternoon tea or low tea which was served on a coffee table.

Working folks picked up the term high tea to describe their dinner after they came home from a long day at work.

Naturally, when I learned this, I alerted my editor, who chose to continue with the title The Diva Serves High Tea. In the book, Sophie serves afternoon tea in honor of Francie’s birthday.

Interestingly, some tearooms in England now advertise their afternoon tea as high tea just for the foreigners who don’t know the proper terms!

Kathy: Do you have a favorite tearoom, or place to enjoy tea?

KD: Alas, there aren’t any tearooms where I live.


Kathy: What does tea mean to you?

KD: Lifeline. I pack it when I travel!


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You are cordially invited to a tea party!

When: June 7, 2016

Time: 4-6:30 pm EDT

Where: Online

https://www.facebook.com/events/1800068960212872/1802506153302486/?notif_t=plan_mall_activity&notif_id=1464384446031878#

Isn't that picture gorgeous?! It's the grand prize at the party! There will be other prizes as well, so do try to attend.  

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Would you like your own copy of The Diva Serves High Tea? Simply enter the rafflecoptor below. If the winner has a US mailing address, the prize will be an autographed paperback. a non-US winner will receive a paperback copy.

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Tea Talk: an Interview and Giveaway with H.Y. Hanna

I'm so happy to welcome H.Y. Hanna to the blog today. H.Y. Hanna is an award winning mystery and suspense writer and the author of the Oxford Tearoom Mystery series.

Kathy: Although my interest to dig deeper into the world of tea is relatively new, I've always been a tea drinker. How about you?  Have you always enjoyed tea?

HYH: Oh yes, I don’t drink coffee – tea is my poison! ;-) Well, as a Chinese person, tea is something we practically grow up drinking from the bottle. We drink it with meals, instead of wine or cold drinks (the Chinese believe that it’s bad for your health to have cold drinks with hot meals), and we drink it after meals, to help the digestion. We also drink it at other times to help calm, soothe, refresh, warm, invigorate, heal, nurture… you name it!


Kathy: You're more apt to find me drinking iced tea, even in winter, but I also drink hot tea. I drink in the more Asian style, drinking my tea neat, never adding cream or sugar, or anything else (aside from ice for my iced tea). How do you like your tea?

HYH: It depends on the type of tea I’m drinking. If I’m drinking Chinese or Japanese green tea, then definitely, yes, no milk or sugar. You just don’t with Asian teas. It would be like adding sugar and milk to beer or wine! ;-) The only time you might sweeten an Asian tea is if you’re having cold barley tea in summer – that is very nice slightly sweetened.

If I’m having English-style tea though (my favourite is Earl Grey), then I like to have it black but with sugar. I used to take TONS of sugar in my tea – a relic from growing up in the Middle East where they have their teas VERY sweet – but I’ve gradually weaned myself off now so that I only have half a teaspoon.

I also enjoy certain herbal and fruit teas. I like a peppermint or mint tea after dinner and occasionally a berry-flavoured fruit tea or a lemon tea – but the fruit tea I love most of all is Turkish apple tea. But I wouldn’t add anything to these “special” teas – I think you’d ruin their natural, distinctive flavour if you did.


Kathy: Do you have a favorite type of tea? Any you don't particularly care for?

HYH: I think I just answered your question above – haha! My favourite English tea is Earl Grey – love the fragrance. My favourite Asian tea is probably jasmine or chrysanthemum green tea (again, love the perfumes) as well as “gen-mai” tea – which is a type of Japanese green tea with roasted rice kernels – very light and fragrant. And as I said, I have a weakness for Turkish apple tea.


Kathy: In addition to drinking tea many people collect tea cups, tea pots, and other tea things. Do you collect any tea accouterments?

HYH: I don’t know if I actively collect them but I do have a terrible weakness for mugs! I seem to keep buying them wherever I am – if I go travelling, the most likely souvenir that I will bring back is a mug. ;-) We don’t have any matching ones or a nice set, either – it is a complete hotch potch of an eclectic collection!


Kathy: Do you consider yourself a tea connoisseur, a tea neophyte, or simply a person who enjoys tea?

HYH: Oh no, nothing that grand! Just someone who enjoys tea – and drinks gallons of it on a daily basis! But ask any Asian person and tea is a huge part of their life.


Kathy: How does tea play a part in your writing?

HYH: Well, I drink copious amounts of it when I’m working on a new book – or any other time really! It’s the first thing I have in the morning – I’m not a morning person and usually can’t utter anything more than grunts before I have my first cup of Earl Grey in the mornings. ;-)

 
Kathy: You write a cozy mystery series featuring a tearoom. Would you tell us about your series?

HYH: Sure! The Oxford Tearoom Mysteries are a fun, humorous mystery series featuring a spunky heroine named Gemma who has given up an international corporate career to come back to England and open a quaint little tearoom in the Cotswolds.

Together with her cheeky little tabby cat, Muesli, and a host of quirky characters, including four meddling old ladies from the local village, Gemma becomes embroiled in solving various mysteries, set against the fascinating backdrop of the historic university city of Oxford. She also struggles to make her fledging business a success, deal with her exasperating, match-making mother and choose between the two dashing men in her life: the sexy CID detective, Devlin O’Connor and the handsome doctor, Lincoln Green.

The books give readers a glimpse not only into village life in one of the most beautiful corners of England but also the secret world behind the college cloisters and dreaming spires of the world’s oldest university. They’re the perfect read for cat lovers, British mystery fans and fans of culinary mysteries (with a yummy recipe included in each book!) – and have been described of being “worthy of Agatha Christie” with plots which leave you guessing until the last page. My books are also known as “page turners” so beware if you decide to start one late at night – readers are always saying they stayed up half the night, reading “just one more chapter”!

You can find out more about the series on my website: http://www.hyhanna.com/books/oxford-tearoom-mysteries/  - or pick up a copy from Amazon: http://www.hyhanna.com/oxford-tearoom-amazon-seriespage


Kathy: Why choose a tea focus for your mystery series?

HYH: Well, since my series is set in England and features a lot of British culture, it’s inevitable that tea would come into the equation! :-) Tea is more than just a practical activity to quench thirst or even provide a quaint afternoon ritual – for the British, it seems to be the cornerstone to their social lives. No matter what happens – from the wonderful to the terrible, the thrilling to the devastating, the response is invariably an offer of a cup of tea! ;-) An invitation to tea seems to bridge all social occasions – less formal than an invitation to lunch or dinner but also less “significant” and without the romantic overtones of an invitation for a drink. It can be all things to all people and suit any situation.


Kathy: Is Little Stables Tearoom, based on a real tearoom or is it purely a product of your imagination?

HYH: It is partly inspired by some real tearooms I have been in while living in England (see below) – but it is very much a product of my imagination.


Kathy: Do you have a favorite tearoom, or place to enjoy tea?

HYH: When I lived in Oxford, there was a beautiful old-fashioned tearoom in the nearby Cotswolds village of Burford. It was wonderful to go for a long country walk, especially in autumn or winter, and then to arrive, cheeks flushed, fingers tingling with cold, at this tearoom and sit down in the cosy interior for a cup of tea and a traditional British cake or scone, whilst looking out of the window at village life going by. I didn’t go that many times but the few times I went made a huge impression!

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For more information about  H.Y. Hanna, please check out the following links!

Amazon Author Page: http://www.hyhanna.com/amazon-authorpage
Website: http://www.hyhanna.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/hyhanna.books
Email: contact@hyhanna.com

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H.Y. Hanna has graciously offered an e-book copy of A Scone to Die For, the first Oxford Tearoom Mystery, to one lucky reader.

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Tea Talk: an Interview & Giveaway with Laura Childs

I'm pleased to welcome Laura Childs to the blog today. Laura is a New York Times best selling author who writes several mystery series as well as a thriller! Laura's longest running series just happens to center around a tea shop in Charleston, South Carolina.

Kathy: Although my interest to dig deeper into the world of tea is relatively new, I’ve always been a tea drinker. How about you? Have you always enjoyed tea?

LC: I’ve pretty much been a tea drinker all my life - really since college. I went to a private school where we had sit-down dinners at night served by waitresses. They would come around and pour fresh-brewed tea and I grew to love it.


Kathy: You’re more apt to find me drinking iced tea, even in winter, but I also drink hot tea. I drink in the more Asian style, drinking my tea neat, never adding cream or sugar. How do you like your tea?

LC: I never add cream or sugar, I think it masks the subtleties of tea.

Kathy: Do you have a favorite type of tea?

LC: I’m a huge fan of Japanese green teas – especially Genmaicha and Bancha. But when I want to go a little crazy, I select a tea with a kick – something with citrus, lemongrass, or cinnamon blended in.


Kathy: In addition to drinking tea many people collect tea cups, tea pots, and other tea things. Do you collect any tea accouterments?

LC: If I see a particularly charming teacup in an antique store I will buy it. But my husband is the teapot collector. Dr. Bob (professor of Chinese art history) has over 100 Chinese Yixing teapots. They are these adorable little purple clay pots that are often adorned with dragons or foo dogs.


Kathy: How does tea play a part in your writing?

LC: Well, since I write the Tea Shop Mystery series, it plays a huge part. I visit tea shops to sample new teas and treats, am always buying new teas, and I collect books about tea. Of course, I drink tea while I’m writing. A little caffeine always helps to rev me up!

Kathy: Back in 2001 Death by Darjeeling, the first book in your Tea Shop Mystery series, was published. Devonshire Scream, the 17th book was just released. Would you tell us a bit about this series?

LC: These are cozy mysteries (think kinder, gentler mysteries) that feature Theodosia Browning, the owner of the Indigo Tea Shop in Charleston, SC.

She’s a feisty small business owner who, along with her tea shop dog, Earl Grey, gets involved in murder, kidnappings, art heists, etc. The books are very fast-paced with critical action always taking place in the first chapter. This propels Theodosia and her regular cast of characters into a story that often features overwhelming odds, yet always yields justice in the end.

Interestingly enough, I found my “voice” for the character of Theodosia within the first few lines I ever wrote. I could even picture her sitting in her quaint little tea shop with balmy breezes wafting in off the Cooper River. From there it was easy to weave in her tea sommelier, Drayton, and her young baker, Haley, and set them on course for a murder mystery.


Kathy: Why choose a tea shop and a focus of tea for your series?

LC: I was looking for a fun theme to kind of “anchor” a cozy mystery, and tea had just started to take off like a bottle rocket. Tea shops were popping up like errant mushrooms, ladies were rediscovering tea parties, and tea parties were even coming into vogue as charity fund raisers. A tea theme seemed like a very fertile niche that had never been written about before - and I’m all about that!

Kathy: Were you quite knowledgeable about tea prior to writing the series?

LC: I’d always been a tea drinker. But when I started traveling to China, Japan, and Indonesia with my husband, I began to do tea tasting in a serious way. Still, I can’t claim to be any kind of expert – there’s so much I don’t know yet!


Kathy: Is the Indigo Tea Room based on a real tearoom or is it purely a product of your imagination?

LC: The Indigo Tea Room is a montage of the coziest tea shops I’ve ever visited in the U.S., Asia, and the UK.


Kathy: Do you have a favorite tearoom, or place to enjoy tea?

LC: There are terrific tearooms all over the place. But one of my most memorable tea experiences was in Kyoto, Japan. After visiting Kiyomizu Temple - built in the 1600’s upon a lovely mountain – my husband and I wandered down a narrow, winding street filled with tea shops. We went in one and sipped hot green tea and ate wafer-thin cookies and slices of baked yam in a 400 year-old tea shop. It was fantastic!


Kathy: What does tea mean to you?

LC: I find tea drinking to be a very relaxing experience. You take time out of your day to prepare a cup of tea, you’re enveloped in this lovely cloud of steam which is almost akin to aromatherapy, and then you sip your hot, subtly flavored beverage. It’s quite contemplative.

For more information about Laura Childs check out her website: http://www.laurachilds.com/

Laura has graciously offered a copy of her latest tea shop mystery, DEVONSHIRE SCREAM to one lucky reader. Simply leave a comment on this blog post talking about your favorite type of tea. Leave your comment no later than 11:59 pm Saturday, March 26, 2016 along with an e-mail address so that I may contact you should you win. Sorry US addresses only.