Tea Trends - Chai
Even though Chai originated in the 1500’s, this import has captured the crowd that is beginning to feel overstimulated by too many tall cups of latte and shots of double espresso. Chai is also referred to as “Tea au lait, Indian style.” In Europe it is called “Yogi tea.” Exotic as it sounds, chai is the word for plain old tea. An Italian journalist travelling with Afghan guerrilla fighters once joked that he needed to know only three words: “harakat, kinna, and chai.” In Pasto, they mean “get going,” “sit,” and “tea.”
Gambattista Rumusio, editor and a diplomatic representative for the Venetian state in the 1500’s is best known for his heroic three volume work, Navigatione et Viaggi. This travel log includes the travels of Magellan, Marco Polo and Persian merchant Hajji Mahomet, who all had travelled to China. Gambattista Ramusio had a long visit with Mahomet on a trip to Venice. During their time together, Ramusio learned about tea for the first time. Mahomet described to Ramusio the plant and its growth, how the drink was made, and enumerated the many medicinal values attributed to it by the people of Cathay.
Tavalon: The Future of Tea is Back
Tavalon, the future of tea is the new black! I am feeling charmed with the arrival of Summer and her sunshine. Simply sparkly with iced emerald cuppas! I’m feeling fortified for some silvery sonic intrepid tea travels! Let us re-visit Isles of Tavalon! … First in this galaxy, to have a Tea-Jay playing on the milky way, throwin’ nano bytes, like a cuppa starry nights*
Old Fashioned Cherry Lime Rickey
Feel like escaping the heat and our nations’ economic lava meltdown? Happen to be in the mood for a Juke Box Saturday night? The experts say that during a recession? Especially during a hot summer day in Brooklyn, craving nostalgic treats is a completely normal phenomena. Even when it offers “all the comforts of home” from another world, one we can escape to! One which we never really knew! Budget friendly and easy on the eyes. Cheery Cherry Red.
Featured often in New York’s Time Out Magazine is Brooklyn’s “Tom’s Restaurant.” Escape the heat and all your troubles. Classic Burgers served, but they also serve up sass with a little lime on the glass in the form of the good ol’ fashioned Cherry Lime Rickey that maybe hep cats like Brando sipped in “On The Waterfront.” Goes down well with anything!
We Scream for Chocolate Egg Creams
When is the last time you even heard of a chocolate egg cream? First they have a disclaimer “Look Ma, no eggs and no cream,” so just what is it that is so quintessentially New York about a classic egg cream? Is it the old time seltzer bottles which are now museum artifacts? Or is it the old black and white movies where lovers are sippin’ sodas and tellin’ lies? Once upon a time during a visit back in 1975, they actually had seltzer on tap for free. You could just whoosh right up to the wall-ensconced taps, lean your glass up against the release tab and get super bubbly fresh seltzer. So club soda or seltzer seems ultra New York historically.
So what is an egg cream? It is a terrific summer dream drink and nothing is cooler. It’s basically always Foxes U-Bet Chocolate syrup, fresh creamy milk and seltzer. There is an elite group of egg cream architects, dedicated to its arts and connoisseurship. I was actually intimidated in my early 20’s! I snuck into a dark corner with my long double bulge chilled 16oz glass with my secret recipe. Often I hung my head in defeat as the perfect near capuchine white bubbly hood was smeared with flat disarray or lost its pristine two tone perfection. Practice like a luncheonette counter duelist preparing for a throwdown eventually gave way to confidence.
Counter Culture Coffee
Direct Trade Certified beans of beauty with a hip name and a clever game.
I attended a Counter Coffee Culture tasting at Dean and Deluca recently, but I only got to try out a few. Here are the specs from Dean and Deluca’s online catalog for “Ndaroini-Nyeri … a Kenyan coffee is intensely flavorful, exquisitely rich, and bound by rules of law that make its purchase complicated to say the least. Our buyers are undeterred, seeking out the most flavorful ’single lots’ at auction directly from the farms that produce them. These pure, unblended coffee beans yield the Ndaroini-Nyeri coffee: bright, intense, with notes of blackcurrant, tropical fruit and dark chocolate. Born of beans directly purchased for a fair price from the farmers who grew them.” Now can you say this three times? Thank goodness you don’t have to….
I found it hard to resist the intelligent process Counter Culture Coffee projects, so I delved a bit deeper on their website to find they are a veritable National
Geographic spread of expansive collaborations. Their team of Coffee People enjoy the cultural exchange of traveling anywhere from the Asia & The Pacific to Africa where locals might be bedecked in a brilliant plumage of feathers and leaves or wrapped in silk and satin head dresses of Sumatra stylings. I would be much too sleepy at first, to pronounce their “Doluk Sanggul” Sumatra coffee, but I would like to try it!
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