Musings on a Rainy Day

Finally got some rain. Not a lot yet, but it is fall in LA & that means the start of what I hope to be a good rainy season, and snow in the mountains. We are officially in a drought and on restricted watering for yards. Since I really don't have any grass, that has not been a problem. I ripped out my front yard slowly, but the change over the 8 years I have lived here are dramatic. I am posting a picture of the house when I first moved in & today. It has been the most interesting thing to witness the changes in wildlife to my yard. I have bees, butterflies, moths, birds, and all sorts of bugs. Some of them are beneficial & some not so much, but being eco-friendly/organic means not using chemicals on my yard. So I hope for ladybugs & use my spray bottle of dish soap & water on the plants. An easy eco-tip is use the dish water from the sink to water any plants with pests on them. You are using greywater that would go down the drain & the soap helps get rid of the pests.
I have lots of testing to do about tea & have to write about what I have found out, but just wanted to put this note in, on this rainy day in LA.

Eco Ideas large & small

I was planning to do a second eco-salon, but the first Sunday of the month was Labor Day weekend & then I just didn't get my act together to do it the 2nd Sunday, so next month will be the 2nd eco-salon.
The reason I didn't get my act together was I was in the Rocky Mountains at the Telluride Film Festival. It was beautiful as always and they are doing some really cool eco friendly things with the fest. I worked the Festival as the assistant manager of the Abel Gance, the outdoor theater in the middle of town. Beautiful to see films under the stars, but it gets cold & there was some rain. That didn't stop us, we still showed movies.
Back to the eco/green ideas. Biggest one was they had Brita as a sponsor & every pass holder & all the staff were given Nalgene (BPA free of course) water bottles. Then they set up Water Filling Stations around the theaters so people could fill up. They lost out on the revenue of selling bottled water, but what a great idea. The water was just filtered town water, filters provided by Brita, naturally. The Wastemasters (trash pickup by the staff) were so happy. They said the worst part of the job was picking up the trash with so many 1/2 empty bottles of water, super heavy & messy. They had to empty them to recycle them.
NOTE: The lids on bottles are usually not recyclable so if you leave it on, it may get thrown in the trash to save time or it has to be twisted off by a sanitation worker to be recycled. So REMOVE YOUR LIDS when recycling plastic bottles. Or better yet, don't buy them & use a refillable bottle.
Ok enough about that, they also had Alice Waters consult on the food provided by the festival. She made a menu that took advantage of locally grown ingredients and organic ingredients. Funny thing is Ann Cooper used to do the food program & is now big in revamping school food programs, check out her lecture on the TEDtalks program. Will try to post a link for that.
So getting back into the swing of things here in Los Angeles. Miss siptea and talking tea, so tonight I am going to see Gail at Algabar, a great place to buy tea in Los Angeles, that is also closing it's doors. I think LA needs to pick up it's game in the world of tea & all things green. Prove me wrong, tell me about green things happening in LA.
Will post soon lots to blog about. Forgot how good it feels to get some of these things out there.

Eco-Salon

So it's been awhile & I finally put together something I had been planning for a while. An eco-Salon at my house. We had the first one on the 2nd of August. There were about ten people here, our guest of honor was Erik Knutzen. He lives in my neighborhood and has a blog. http://www.homegrownevolution.com/ also has a book, called "The Urban Homestead." It was fun and topics ranged from greywater, to chickens, to gardening. It was a fun mix of people and made me realize I needed to have a sign in sheet or some way to keep track of the people who came & the interest & expertise. Lots of knowledgeable people. The next one is set for the 2nd Sunday in September. Hope to be better about blogging closer to the event and want to start a link database for the sites/resources that were talked about.

Intelligensia for Tea

Another in the series of reviews of tea in Los Angeles.
Intelligensia in Silverlake
I ordered an Oolong, Iron Goddess of Mercy $4.50 (I think that was the price) Sat down with my friend who had a Cafe au Lait, which they messed up by giving her a regular drip coffee but soon corrected. Had a nice chat in the sun after having hiked in Griffith Park and had 2 steeps out of the leaves of this fabulous Oolong tea.
Good things:
-Loose leaf tea! No teabags!
-Nice setting with outdoor seating.
-Good but small selection of teas.
-Tea presented in a glass double wall cup without handle & small glass teapot. Cup looked to be about a 6 oz. cup, but might have been 8. Teapot was perfect size to fill cup completely.
-Glass pot let you see the leaves as they opened up.
-Wood tray to hold cup & teapot.
-Told by staff that I could get another refill on water. Nice, especially for an Oolong.
-Tea smelled wonderful and could tell it was quality just from the scent.
Things not up to the level of the coffee preparation:
-Don't know when the water went into the pot & no instructions about how long to steep from staff, so guessed when the 3 min were up. Standard steeping time for an Oolong, but I guessed wrong because the tea was already a bit bitter. Still could tell it was a really nice Oolong.
-Seems like they put too much tea in the pot. I recommend 3g per 6oz. water or approximately 1 table spoon per cup. Looked to be about 2 times the tea I would recommend. Just makes for a stronger cup, but shouldn't be bitter if steeped properly, just strong.
-Glass cup was nice, but couldn't really see the color of the liquor, the tea took on the color of the table & changed with the color of the wood tray. Still prefer white porcelain. Points in my book though for the non-traditional presentation, very nice with the glass pot.
-2nd steep I thought I would have more control, since I brought the pot in to get refilled so I could see when the water was added. Here was the DOWNFALL of the whole process, ONE water boiler, I assumed set at boiling, so the tea was in water that was too hot.
-Tried to compensate with a shorter steep, but still slightly bitter, most likely due to the water being too hot.
-No mention either time how long the tea needed to steep from the staff.
-Tea seemed an after thought for the staff.
-Price reflected the quality of the tea, but not the preparation or training of the staff on tea. Seemed overpriced for what I was given.
Seems like tea is still a second class citizen in the coffee-centric US & Los Angeles. I have read about the person who buys tea for Intelligensia & he seems very dedicated & as concerned with quality as the coffee roasters. The website even mentions that the tea needs to steep at a lower temp. & recommends a 30sec steep, which wasn't relayed to the customer by the staff. I think the quality of the tea was done a disservice by how the staff prepared the tea. They need to get another water boiler, or have a way to hold water at different temperatures. It would have ruined a good green tea, if I had order that. Intelligensia is giving people who want to try tea a bad taste in their mouth, bitterness rather than the sweet variety of an outstanding Oolong Iron Goddess of Mercy.
4 out of 5 leaves for the quality of the tea

Sunday Salons

So the website is up but still needs some tweaking. Need to add the teapots & other products to buy.
Getting ready for a yardsale, had to make room for the stuff from the store to go in my house & then on to new adventures.
My latest idea is to do monthly (at first, then might increase in frequency) Sunday Afternoon Salons. There would always be free tea tastings and then demonstrations & information about green practices, products, and people in Los Angeles. There are so many people doing great things but only a handful of people know about them, so want to raise awareness & give out information to people that want to learn how to incorporate green practices in their life easily & have fun doing it too. Doesn't help that they get some free organic tea in the mix. Details will be coming soon.
check out the website.
www.siptea.biz

Jin Patisserie Tea Review

Another in my series reviewing tea service in Los Angeles.
Jin Patisserie in Venice on Abbot Kinney.
I had been here a couple of years ago, when they were carrying teas from Le Palais des Thes, a French company with a branch here in Beverly Hills. They have lovely teas, pricey, but very nice. Jin Patisserie is now carrying a new French tea line, The O Dor, don't know that name, but the menu says it is a newer company. The setting is great with a small enclosed courtyard around a central water feature. My friend & I had tea, plus a chocolate that they had samples of at the register, don't miss out on the samples! It was a passion fruit chocolate. Incredible intense flavor in such a compact package, really lovely. My friend had a blend with roses & I had a Lotus green tea. I am not remembering all the information on the teas & didn't take good notes, so thought I would just get it off the website, but no such luck. Another pet peeve, websites with music, please stop, plus the pretty site was hard to navigate & get info. Next step was to phone, but must have called at the wrong time, no answer. This is from memory so if I get some details wrong oops.
Things they did right:
-Lovely, peaceful setting, that isn't overly fussy.
-Tea is brought to you already steeped with the leaves removed, so no over steeping at the table.
-White porcelain cup & teapot. White color is the best to show off the color of the tea liquor.
-Perfectly steeped tea, they do know what they are doing.
-Pour the first cup for you, a nice touch.
Things that bugged me:
-Were there any organic options?
-Tea is brought with tumbled raw sugar lumps, and pretty big in size too. So if you wanted sweetener you would get lots.
-They remove the tea leaves. Which as I said above is good, but what if you want a re-steep? You have to buy a second pot, which I'm fine with the paying for more tea, but what if you get an Oolong? The 2nd steep is usually better than the first because the tea has a chance to open up. It just seems a disservice to tea in general not to let people see & smell the leaves & get to experience re-steeping of a good tea.
Liked the white cup, but not crazy about the handle on the tea cup, I kept trying to cup it like a Japanese style cup. This is my preference & I know many people like handles especially for black tea. Style points for the pot & cup being simple not flowery.
On a personal note, I think I picked the wrong tea for me. The Lotus tea I had was interesting & I had never had that particular tea before, so I got it to expand my taste palette, but liked it, wasn't in love with it. That is not part of the review but my own take on the tea.
In general, Jin Patisserie has good tea & even better chocolates & desserts.
Still in search of a perfect tea in Los Angeles, besides the ones I make at home.
4 out of 5 leaves

Tea Nazi Looks at Tea in Los Angeles

I was called the Tea Nazi by Ed Fuentes. Now that siptea is closed I am on a mission to educate & inform Los Angelenos about tea. Proper, good, tasty tea. Here is my first review of tea in and around LA.
The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (Blueberry Pomegranate Oolong special on Steeping sign)
First the positives:
-Equal time to tea in the name & inside the store. Signage is the same for tea & coffee, not a second class citizen on the signs
-Asked if I could get it in a cup/mug rather than paper & they gave me a glass mug
(Tea, and coffee for that matter, taste much better in ceramic or glass than paper.)
-A decent selection of all types of tea, except pu'erh (didn't see any, but might have missed it)
-Loose leaf tea sold in tins (protected from moisture & light)
-Tea bag was pyramid style with loose leaf blend inside
-Proper use of "steeping" on the signs rather than "brewing"
Now the negatives:
-A tea bag, nuf said
-One source for hot water, so no temperature control, just boiling (so water was hotter than it should be for Oolongs)
-Didn't see any Organic options
-Tea bag was pretty stuffed when done steeping (a problem with tea balls, tea stick & bags in general - not enough room for the tea to fully expand, especially an Oolong)
-No place to put the teabag, just put it on a napkin on the table
-Flavor was okay, but thin & didn't really taste like an Oolong, blueberry & pomegranate flavors (chemicals?) took over tea taste
-Tea bags stored in glass jars (HUGE pet peeve, looks pretty, but the essential oils that make the taste & have health benefits, need to be protected from sunlight.)
-2nd steep was blah, nothing left & this is usually a better cup for a true Oolong, so makes me question if it was an Oolong or a mistake on the sign (left the bag in for the rest of the time drinking)
-No mention from staff on when to remove the teabag from the water & really not expected to, since it was tied around the mug handle
Well less than stellar example of tea in LA, no wonder people aren't drinking more tea, if this is what they normally experience.
2 leaves out of 5 for the things they did right.