Welcome to my blog. I hope you will join me for a cup of tea!
As a tea lover and cat mom of two (but also an animal lover in general), I’ve always wondered whether there is a connection between being a tea drinker and being a cat lover. There seems to be a recurring pattern but is it true or is it a misconception or a stereotype? I asked my newsletter subscribers and here are the results of that survey.
Hello, tea lovers and welcome back to The Tea Squirrel! This is episode number three of my series on tea and mindfulness. Being present in the moment, enjoying the beauty of little things, being intentional with one’s thoughts and actions are all things that tea lovers can easily teach themselves by cultivating a tea ritual, however simple or elaborate. My goal for this series is to practice mindfulness more consistently and explore it in a creative way.
Hello, tea lovers and welcome back to The Tea Squirrel! This is episode number two of my series on tea and mindfulness. Being present in the moment, enjoying the beauty of little things, being intentional with one’s thoughts and actions are all things that tea lovers can easily teach themselves by cultivating a tea ritual, however simple or elaborate. My goal for this series is to practice mindfulness more consistently and explore it in a creative way.
What is mindfulness? Being present in the moment, enjoying the beauty of little things, being intentional with one’s thoughts and actions are all things tea lovers can easily teach themselves by cultivating a tea ritual. Over the next 10 weeks join me for a “Tea and Mindfulness Series” for tea lovers on the blog. My goal is to inspire you and get inspired for my future tea endeavors.
This year in the spirit of drinking the teas that I already own, I DIYed my own tea advent calendar with teas from my collection. I got a large envelope and decorated the front with a dot for each day leading up to Christmas. I’m very proud of myself because I reused scraps of paper I had saved from a previous DIY project. Then I selected 24 teas from my collection, printed out each one on a separate strip of paper and put all of them into the envelope. Each day I was randomly drawing one and voila’, I had my DIY tea advent calendar. Each day I posted on Instagram what tea had been randomly selected.
When Elisa Da Rin Puppel, the Italian tea blogger at Il Bollitore, asked me about working together on a blog post for The Tea Squirrel about her recent experience at The Tea Crane in Kyoto, I was already familiar with Tyas Sōsen and his natural teas. Here’s Elisa’s tea tasting experience at The Tea Crane. Enjoy!
Italian tea expert in London Alessandra Rovetta is going to give us a behind-the-scenes look at a one-of-a-kind custom tea blending service and tell us all about her tea journey and tea dream job in London! She’s going to share her top afternoon tea recommendations in London along the way too!
What’s the best masala chai recipe? I might be biased but mine below is perfection. I even went above and beyond for you and developed a caffeine-free herbal option.
Self-care is about figuring out what makes us feel good and practicing it consistently. By gifting tea you can help someone discover their own self-care ritual or you can give it to yourself and carve out some time to feel good! Let me walk you through some tea gift ideas and how to create the perfect tea gift set for self-care.
Decluttering means making room for new teas and restocking old favorites. Therefore, in order to find my favorite teas and understand what other teas I might want to try, I had to adopt a structured approach to the content of my tea cabinet. It’s called a “showdown” and it’s a type of contest. You take your teas and taste them side by side to determine your favorite. Keep reading to find out the winner of this round.
In times of chaos and uncertainty, I find decluttering, cleaning and organizing extremely therapeutic. There’s something comforting about having things under control, especially when everything else is beyond my control. I had already embraced the “drink-what-you-own” approach to my tea stash a while ago, because while some teas age well, some others don’t and when you have a lot of them, chances are, many are getting stale and it breaks my heart to be wasteful. Decluttering also means making room for new teas and restocking old favorites. Therefore, in order to find my favorite teas and understand what other teas I might want to try, I had to adopt an analytical approach to the content of my tea cabinet.
Mochi muffins have become so popular in San Francisco and the Bay Area that I challenge you to find a café or tea house where they’re not on the menu. They are soft and chewy on the inside, an unusual but surprisingly pleasant texture, and crispy on the outside. I added a few twists to my mochi muffins, including matcha green tea, because - let’s be honest - this is a tea blog after all AND everything looks and tastes better with matcha.
How much do your expectations about a specific tea influence your tasting experience? Mine definitely influenced me more than they should have when I tasted this tea for the first time. Read on to discover more.
This Forever Spring Oolong tea belongs to a sampler box which includes 6 different oolongs from Taiwan and China. I was pleasantly surprised by its aromatic profile and balanced taste. An easy drinking tea that everyone should have in their collection.
When I moved to Los Angeles a year ago, I was not sure whether I would find enough tea here. Luckily, Los Angeles proved me wrong. In the past 12 months, I came across all sorts of examples that excellent tea not only exists here but thrives. You have to know where to look for it, almost like a treasure hunt....but there are plenty of options! And this year I want to show you the best tea Los Angeles has to offer. Ready? Let’s dive right in!
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure to attend a very special Korean tea tasting in the Arts District of Los Angeles. The tasting was held by Jessica Choi at The Good Liver, a curated home good store.
Four years ago, Elisa Da Rin Puppel moved to Tokyo, Japan. The Italian tea enthusiast and blogger (Il Bollitore) has an academic background in Japanese art with a focus on ceramics but her passion for tea blossomed later on. “I acquired a deep knowledge of Japanese pottery but I knew almost nothing about what was served in those beautiful vessels,” she admits. Visiting a Japanese tea farm has always been a dream of hers and last September that dream finally came true.
I won this cake a while ago at a giveaway on Instagram and it had been sitting - untouched - in my tea cabinet for a while. Puerh is meant for aging, so I was not overly concerned and I was waiting to be in the mood for it. Let me tell you, I’m rarely in the mood for puerh. I can hear all the pu-heads gasping in horror. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy it a lot, but not for solo tea sessions. Strange, isn’t it? Anyways, I somehow associate young (or relatively young) raw puerh with grape skin notes, but I could not detect those here and I did not miss them because there was plenty of other intriguing notes going on.
These pancakes are shockingly easy to make and they pack a ton of matcha flavor. Gone are the days of tasteless matcha-flavored stuff! Did I mention they are dairy-free and low in sugar? I don’t like my pancake batter too sweet because you’re going to drizzle maple syrup on top anyway, right? The secret to fluffy pancakes every time is not a secret at all, my dear matcha loving friends! Whip egg whites to stiff peaks and fold gently into the batter and voila! Enjoy! Recipe right this way.
