Nadine Feldman, Author

celebrating strong female characters and whatever else strikes my fancy

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Drunk on Tea #adventures #nyc

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Our NYC adventures continue! Grab a cuppa and join me as we talk about tea.

There’s nothing like a nice cup of tea in late afternoon, after the day’s work is done. And, as we’re discovering, our East Village neighborhood is loaded with places to drink all kinds of tea, from organic herbals to bubble tea to the real deal, as we found at Tea Drunk, a local establishment.

Tea Drunk offers genuine teas, hand harvested from China. The menu is extensive and not cheap — fine tea ranks right up there with fine wine. With all the options available, we opted to do a tasting.

We selected the fall teas, which included a yellow, white, and oolong. The menu admonishes: no herbal teas here. Personally, I love herbals and drink them all the time, but I was eager to sample the genuine teas.

IMG_0252 (1)We were each presented with three tiny cups. Our server poured boiling water into each of the teas; the first steep is discarded. We then sampled each of the teas. Periodically he would come around and do yet another steeping. With each one, the flavor of the tea awakened more and more.

To steep the tea, he poured water in, let it sit for just a moment, and then strained it into little pitchers. I was surprised to find the teas full of flavor, even with the “instant” steeping.

I asked what makes tea black, white, green, or yellow. He explained that the leaves are the same, but they are processed differently. Green tea is heated immediately upon harvest, making it the freshest of the teas. White tea is not heated at all, while the oolong is heated but undertakes several shakings to wake up its enzymes.

By the end of the leisurely tasting we were relaxed yet happily buzzed from the caffeine (not great for sleep, but oh, well) and learned more about real tea. No doubt I will return to sample one tea at a time, to get to know them better!

 

Nadine Galinsky Feldman is the author of The Foreign Language of Friends and the upcoming What She Knew, available March 2016. If you enjoy this blog, please consider purchasing a book or signing up for the newsletter to be kept informed of upcoming promotions and giveaways.

Reading the Tea Leaves

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I seem to be collecting a lot of tea lately.

Black tea, green tea, lavender tea, tea to strengthen my adrenals, tea to help me sleep at night, tea to help me wake in the morning. The other day, while visiting the Tulip Festival in Washington’s Skagit Valley, I spied a chocolate tea that had to come home with me.

My sisters had come for their annual spring break visit. Growing up in small towns in Illinois, we didn’t grow up with afternoon tea rituals, but we seem to have adopted them, individually and collectively, over time. Last year at this time, we took a ferry to Victoria to enjoy tea at The Empress, and once I served high tea on our deck on a sunny summer’s day.

Amy, my younger sister, is always on the lookout for tea cups — English china, thank you. We scour the thrift stores looking for such treasures, and she usually finds something fun for her collection.

Me, I enjoy sipping from my gardener cups. I’m more concerned with filling the house with the aromas of steeped herbs, and I couldn’t wait to share Rosemary Gladstar’s recipe for root beer tea. Outdoors, I have planted mint, and I heard a rumor that chamomile plant starts will be available this week, so at some point in time, I’ll make fresh tea from herbs in the garden.

Tea reminds me to slow life down, and I need it more than ever as springtime speeds up life. The garden calls out for planting and weeding. The first draft of my next novel has cooled for a few weeks and now calls me to get back to work. I woke up the other morning with an idea about how to fix a problem with another novel that has stymied me for some time. A friend sends me a link to a writing conference that I plan to attend. A blogger friend reaches out about a new writers’ group. I’m doing volunteer work for a couple of local organizations, and found myself working closely with a local business to raise funds for a needed expansion.

If I read tea leaves, I’m sure they would say, “Caution. You’re overdoing it again.”

I am fortunate. I am not overly busy because I have to juggle multiple jobs to make ends meet. I have the luxury of doing what I damn well please, for which I am deeply grateful. Still, there’s so much that I want to do! So much to enjoy! So many books to write! So many plants to put into the ground! So many weeds to pull! Though I do my best to stay balanced, sometimes I overdo, making myself overly tired and cranky.

When my sisters arrived, I put my work aside. We spent time together, tooling around the area, enjoying the tulips, shopping, and yes, hitting nearby tea houses. I played tourist in my own neighborhood, which forced me to put my work aside. Yes, I snuck outside a few times to weed or plant, but otherwise, I enjoyed some needed time off from all the hard work I’d been doing. As with any vacation, I felt a sense of renewal.

Today I’m back at work. This week I gear up the blogging and writing as I return to my familiar routine. Sometime in mid-afternoon I will stop, pause, and make myself a nice pot of tea. I will breathe in its scent. I will make time to hold a warm cup in hand in a moment of gentleness to soothe my spirit, to take in the miraculous beauty of my life. In these moments of reflection, I know that I am enough, and my efforts are enough. Yes, the tea leaves tell me I have work to do, but the tea itself reminds me to take my time, to relax, and to trust that it will all get done in good time.