CAFÉ WARSHAFSKY SHORTBREAD

Hi again! As we make our way through murky waters, I want to continue to share small businesses with you that have great products! I feel the effects of the virus on both sides. As a small business, I see sales slow and overtime as funds get tighter for everyone, they may cease. As someone who has a blog and likes to share and try new products, I know that the least I can do is to share businesses with you!

Many of you know about my tea boxes by now, people are currently opening the spring box! When I start to curate these boxes, I try to fit a theme but also fill it with items you may not know about. I love finding small businesses that I can support. One of my favorite parts about the boxes is that while you are supporting my shop when you buy the box, you are also supporting several other businesses!

Cafe Warshafsky is a business that I was considering for a future box. I hadn’t purchased from them yet because I wanted to make sure the timeline is right and the product can be consumed asap at it’s freshest! The box I wanted to use them for isn’t happening for a while so I decided to order some for myself to enjoy during our time stuck inside.

Cafe Warshafsky bakes delicious shortbread in a variety of flavors, they also seemed to have recently added caramels to their offerings! They are currently offering free shipping on two or more items so I decided to get myself the sampler tin and I got my mom a box of the matcha shortbreads. She loves matcha everything!

TEA + SHORTBREAD = AMAZING

So first off their packaging is adorable! I also highly suggest their tin because you get to try several flavors and it comes in a convenient tin for storage to take out when you’re having tea! They were also kind enough to include a sample of their strawberry shortcake shortbread and a rose caramel!

So the tin I got comes with 4 different flavors and 3 packs of two shortbreads so 24 total! Of course my main focus was the tea flavored shortbread but it just so happens that I LOVE rose water and coconut so this box was made for me!

So taste test wise, they were all delicious! I like that they are sweet but not overly sweet. I actually enjoyed these with a session of pu’er and it the two went really well together!

If I had to pick a favorite it would actually be the lavender coconut! This one has such a unique flavor !

Btw, these are the petite shortbreads. If you get the regular sized ones they are a 2in while the larger ones like I got for my mom are 3 inches. I really do like these mini ones and two of them were plenty!

From the time these were ordered, they arrived super quickly and not broken! The one that is shown broken is actually my fault :) They were all sealed and stay fresh up to a month!

If you are in need of a treat for your tea or just in general check out Cafe Warshafsky!

Valley Brook Tea - Tea In Dupont Circle

Before the craziness of Coronavirus really started in the US I stumbled upon a new tea shop in DC called Valley Brook Tea. They recently opened in February in Dupont Circle. I was excited to see that they offered tea with gaiwan brewing!

This post is especially important now because they just opened last month and due to regulations have had to close, BUT you can purchase tea and teaware on their site!

Their ship is nestles into this really cute building. I really loved the way the shop was set up and decorated. It is a two level shop but I sat at the bottom. Look up and you get to see some gorgeous hanging decor. Look out and you see exactly where you are in DC. I love these windows.

You can opt to brew your tea yourself and I got this beautiful tray with gaiwan, pitcher and cup. The owner Yunhan is very knowledgeable and passionate about tea and you could learn a lot in just one visit!

I have been on a white tea kick so I tried a white tea and also one of their oolongs! Both were delicious, I especially loved the white tea.

Here are links to the teas I tried:

White Tea

Oolong

The shop has tea AND lots of teaware to choose from. I really love this because if you’re new to tea and say you try brewing with a gaiwan, you can purchase one to take home with you! Lots of cute tea pets too!

Of course I bought myself some tea cups, they were gorgeous. here is one!

Here is a photo of the owners! Yunhan (right) was kind enough to answer some questions for me. Check out his answers to learn more about Valley Brook Tea!

1) Why did you open Valley Brook Tea and how did you choose the location?

I love tea and tea business has always been a part of my family businesses. After living in the US for so many years, I feel that we have a lot great things to offer this fast-growing tea market. We like DC in general. For our tea store, we need a welcoming, international, well-educated and well-traveled community. Dupont Circle really offers everything we want.

2) Tell us a little about where your teas come from.

Our tea products are mainly made in Fujian, the birthplace of oolong tea, black tea, and white tea. Our oolong tea and black tea are made in Wuyishan (Wuyi Mountains). Our white tea products are made in Mount Taimu, Fuding.

3) How did you decide what teas to offer at Valley Brook?

When choosing our tea menu, we want to best present the history and background information of each tea category that we offer. When it comes to a specific tea product, our criteria are: how can this tea reflect the tea-making process? How famous is this tea? How different/similar is this tea to other tea products in the same category? How big and stable is the production of this tea? How familiar How well-know is this tea in the US, do we need to rename this tea in English?

4) What is your favorite tea that you offer?

My personal favorites are black tea Dragon Beard, oolong tea Rou Gui and Shui Xian, white tea Silver Needle.

5) What is your advice to new tea drinkers that come into Valley Brook?

Try the tea first, then decide if you want to add something.

6) Valley Brook just opened, what do you see in the future for your tea shop?

We’ll soon offer tea classes (the first one is on (March 19th). We hope we can become a true “tea place”, a place where people visit and enjoy when they think of “tea”.

Why the experience of your customer is so important

If you’ve ever ordered from my shop, you probably got a little treat for free in your package. I’ve talked to many business owners and ordered from many places. Some people practice this and some don’t. I decided when I started my business that this would be a regular practice.

When I order from a shop, It’s not just the anticipation of what I’ve bought but how it arrives to me. I’ve been disappointed so many times when I ordered something and the shop just throws it in a box or bag and sent it my way.

The fact is that the customer service doesn’t stop once you put an order in the mail. Something that I always wanted to be part of the Tea Thoughts brand is the opening experience. I want someone who has spent their hard earned money in my shop to feel truly special when they receive their order.

It doesn’t have to be anything complicated but a free sticker, badge or even a promotion to get a free keychain can make a difference. Enter, Sticker Mule. One of the ways that Sticker Mule makes it easy is through their weekly deals!

Budgeting for these freebies is much easier when I plan them around Sticker Mule’s weekly deals that give a great discount on their products. They are constantly coming out with new products like the holographic stickers and keychains and I can’t wait to see what they bring out next!

Sticker Mule is a great place for stickers, packaging and more for your shop or blog! Below is a referral code that give you $10 off your first purchase!

Try Sticker Mule

Genmaicha Rice Vs. Sencha Rice

If you aren’t following Tea Curious on instagram, you need to! She encourages experimenting with your tea instead of just accepting what people say about tea. She often tests ways of brewing, tasting etc! She recently had a challenge to drink down your green tea collection and guess what, I really needed to participate.

I started out with having some of my old, but surprisingly still good matcha every morning until that was finished and then I turned to my cabinet where I have a few green teas. I’ll be honest, while I don’t dislike green teas they aren’t what I reach for first so they often fall by the wayside. I actually really enjoy cold brewing green tea and drinking it out of a fancy glass with my dinner :)

Since today was the last day, I decided to help drink down my stash by experimenting with cooking! I was set on cooking rice in tea because I love doing that :) I’ve done it a few times and you can find those recipes here:

Gyokuro Rice

Matcha Rice

Oolong Rice

Tamago Kake Gohan - gyokuro

Long Jing Quinoa

In this post, I will talk more about the teas as opposed to the cooking method, so if you’re interested in that make sure to check out the linked posts.

Let’s meet the teas: Genmaicha and Sencha.

Both of these teas are actually fairly fresh. The genmaicha is from ippodo tea that I was given to photograph for one of my birthday giveaways! The sencha is a gift that my cousin brought me from his recent trip to Japan. I’m almost 100% certain it is sencha after asking some friends who know Japanese and also comparing it to my other green teas.

Now, I broke several rules of here for the sake of the experiment. I’ve cooked with tea many times and there is a balance between bitterness and all the flavor cooking off. I decided to cold brew the tea with 3 tablespoons of tea to make sure I got a potent brew since I would be using the brew as the water for the rice. I know this sounds like a lot but I need it to be potent so that it isn’t all cooked off which can happen.

So, at first glance the Sencha (on the right) is way darker in color and looks like it will give more of that flavor into the rice. This is the first interesting part of the experiment because this also speaks to when brewing this tea. Both of these brews had the same amount of tea and water and cold crewed for about 10 hours. I didn’t open the leaves up with warm water first, I just filled with vessels with cold water. I cooked each 1/2 cup of rice with one cup of the brewed tea.

At this point, I also kind of knew which rice I would like better. But, let’s continue!

When I cooked the rice, I also put a little less than a tablespoon of the leaves into the dry rice. It may seem like overkill, but I wanted to see which tea would hold up best to the environment.

After cooking, there was a large difference in how green the two rices turned out. You may be able to guess based on the darkness of the brews above.

Since I used tea in the rice as well, the sencha was a little bit more potent in terms of turning the rice color.

So after taking a few bites of each, here is what I thought. Genmaicha was the winner! If we talk about the flavor of green tea, the sencha rice is definitely more overpowering but it is present for the genmaicha but in a more pleasing way.

The sencha was strong but also a bit bitter. I would still totally eat this whole bowl and pairing it with either an egg or veggies and meat will be delicious. But on it’s own, it was just a bit too bitter and it seemed like the leaves kind of fell flat in the cooking process. The one thing that this rice did hold over the genmaicha is that the leaves incorporated better into the rice and it was a bit easier to eat.

The genmaicha rice was my favorite for a few reasons. First, I thing the brew was an nice, even flavor that really shows up in the rice. I think the genmaicha is much better quality tea than the sencha. The genmaicha flavor shows up in the rice but it is also mellow enough to let you enjoy the flavor of the rice as well. I think this would pair well with something a bit heavier. The one downside to the genmaicha was that the larger leaves and rice made it a bit more difficult to eat incorporated as there were some chewier aspects to it.

Tea.L - Tea Infused Skincare

I love drinking tea but I also love to try all the various tea infused products out there! Sometimes those products are a yummy snack and one of my other favorites is testing out tea infused skincare. If you look at all my facemasks and lotions you will notice that most of them have tea somewhere on the packaging. I was really excited to discover Tea.L which is a tea infused skincare company. There are a few things that set them apart from most of the skincare I’ve tried right off the bat before even trying their product.

1. They actually tell you what teas they use in their products. So many products will just say green tea but Tea.L takes it a step further and lets you know that they use dragonwell. They also use yerba mate and rooibos! This stuck out to me as more genuine and that I would get more benefits from the tea in their skincare.

2. They tell you that their products are 99% natural. So many brands will say they are 100% natural when it just isn’t true. Again, Tea.L shows their transparency in their product. The 1% that isn’t “natural” is a safe product but they differentiate this which I appreciate !

Now, the actual products! If you’d like to watch an unboxing, you can check out my IG TV video here

Tea.L sent me a box showcasing their three products: an eye cream, face cream and body lotion. The eye cream combines green tea + yerba Mate. The face cream combines green tea + guayusa. The body lotion uses green tea + rooibos.

Right off the bat, I really enjoyed the dispensing method for these three products. The eye cream has an easy to dispense pump as opposed to having to stick my finger in a tube or squeeze a tube. The body and face lotion also have a pump mechanism as well which is really cool and I thought made it easy to not get too much out at once.

The other immediate thing I noticed was the smell. There is no artificial fragrance used in these items so they actually smell like tea which I really enjoy! The one with the strongest smell to me is the body lotion. The first time I put it on, my partner told me I smell like bubble tea, I agree with him that it was such a nice smell.

The face cream is nice and goes on well although I will admit I’ve used this one the least of the 3 as I have been testing out different skin care regiments. The smell of the face cream isn’t overpowering and I didn’t notice any reactions to my skin. The body lotion, which I’m almost out of is one I’ve used a lot. In the winter time, my skin definitely need some TEALC (hehe) and this lotion does the job. As mentioned above it has a nice smell and it goes on really well. I don’t have to rub it in a ton and I feel like it kept my skin moisturized for most of the day!

My favorite of the three products is definitely the eye cream. In the past few years as I’ve started my business, many nights with little sleep make eye care key! Their eye cream is a pretty thick consistency which to me make it absorb well into my skin and actually feel like it’s giving me some sort of coverage or layer of moisture! This is a thick cream so there is some rubbing in to do but I think that contributes to the feeling that I’m getting some coverage under my eyes without using any makeup. The skin under my eyes is a bit thinner so I appreciate this in an eye cream!

I’ve really enjoyed using these and look forward to purchasing more when I run out! I think it’s important to also share the people behind this great experience so I’ve asked the duo behind Tea.L some questions. Read their answers below to get a little more insight on them and their products!

Tell me a little bit about who is behind Tea.L

TEA.L was founded by husband and husband Zhao and Ron, who enjoy long walks at night and drink tea religiously. Ron used to work for a Canadian tea company called David’s Tea and Zhao came from a Chinese family with a 3-generation tea-drinking tradition. We don’t mind drinking from a tea bag when in a pinch but we always appreciated loose leaf tea in an infuser knowing their names and origin, and we want to maintain the authenticity throughout our self-care routine. The ideation process was driven by Zhao and Ron, but TEA.L was made reality thanks to a group of diverse individuals who brought in their unique perspectives: LGBT, millennial immigrants, ethnic minority, and women. And we hope that translates to our products where we stay simple by eliminating any assumptions about who should use our products, and we’d love to hear from you on how we are doing on that.

What was the inspiration to start a skincare line?

When we tried to incorporate tea in our skincare routine, we were very disappointed to find out that nothing on the market with tea claims approached tea with the authenticity a tea lover would expect. Everybody seems to be hiding behind ‘tea extracts’ and ‘fragrance’. We found ourselves asking, why can’t we treat tea in skincare as who they are when we drink them? That was really the genesis of TEA.L, if we can’t find one, let’s create our own! As we started our R&D process, we learned that each tea has its unique profile when it comes skincare benefits, just like their profile of color, texture, aroma and taste. Who knows rooibos and yerba mate each contains polyphenols not found in green tea? And this further reinforced our belief that all the tea lovers, regardless of where they are in their tea journey, they deserve to enjoy tea on their skin with the same authenticity in their drinks.

How did you choose the teas that make up your products?

We did the intuitive thing which is diving into our root as tea lovers. Ronald worked for a major Canadian tea brand for years when the loose-leaf tea movement just started to take hold in the US consumer market. Zhao came from a Chinese family with tea drinking habits that lasted for 3 generations (one of the things he packed with him when he moved to the US was a jar of his family’s favorite dragonwell). We have our favorite teas to drink but we knew from early on that we need to put in the hard work and expand our knowledge in understanding how these teas can benefit our skin.So,we spent 2 months digging into academic papers on dermatology and cosmeceuticals to learn everything there was about studies on tea’s effect on skin(with some help from friends in the skincare industry). And we lined up about 8 tea candidates including 3 green tea varietals (Gyokuro, Dragonwell and Sencha) based on our research. The next 6 months was endless trial and err on the other ingredients (oils, butters and extracts) and the infusion process. We had friends and families who volunteered to test our early prototypes, so we were very fortunate to have their feedback to improve on. The biggest challenge was to retain the scent of the tea while maximizing the effectiveness of the antioxidants. 8 months later, we finalized the teas and tisanes that are currently in our product: dragonwell, rooibos, guayusa and yerba mate

What do you think sets your products apart from other tea infused or based skin care products?

The fact that we are a tea-first skincare brand who uses organic loose-leaf tea and tisanes with minimal processing and maximum preservation in our products. And this is driven by our vision to bring tangible value to our customers’ self-care routine, whether they are looking for more ways to benefit from tea or introducing tea as a new element in promoting a youthful look. There’s so much hype and so many new trends out there in skincare, and we aspire to help our customers create authentic self-care rituals that actually work for themselves.

What do you see in the future for Tea.L?

We hope that TEA.L will lead another wave of tea awakening for its role in skincare, just like how loose- leaf tea did with drinking tea. We believe this can be achieved when we connect with the tea lover community through their skincare routines and refresh the definition of tea in people’s lives.

What is your everyday tea and what tea do you want to drink more of in 2020?

Zhao’s everyday is dragonwell from family influence, it is just perfect in every way for him. Ron’s go-to is gyokuro steeped at 95 degrees for 2-3 mins, that way he gets more of the sweet flavor and less of the stringency. We do share rooibos together after dinner to aid digestion and just relax. We both want to drink more Oolong in 2020, as it is actually often overlooked, especially from certain region like Taiwan. We love how it sits between the green side to black side, and that it is versatile. It can be steeped multiple times and we get varied flavor profiles from every steeping. Specifically, we loved this Ginseng Oolong tea from David’s Tea but unfortunately it was discontinued a few years back, they are these tightly winded Oolong tea coated with Ginseng powder, would like to find them again.

Besides skincare, what are your other favorite ways to engage in self care?

Our recent favorite is to improve our sleep hygiene for better quality sleep. Sleep hygiene are the 12 good practices to aid deeper sleep and make you feel energized after you wake up. Among these practices, we are making an effort to get up at the same time each day regardless of the day to keep the biologic block set or entrained, and get off our devices at least an hour before bedtime. So far it’s been working wonders. It is something anyone can try so we highly recommend them.

Meet Nazanin - Answering Your Questions!

Every once in a while I like to do introduction posts on Instagram but I find myself sharing the same type of information so to shake things up I decided to let you all ask questions ! I got a bunch of great questions and I’m sharing the answers to them below. I’ve also included some silly photos that I took in my living room :)

If you missed out on it this time I will probably do this every month so you can wait until then or comment with your question and I will keep it for the next post!

Cupofmoregano: what was the first tea you fell in love with?

I’ll have to take you back to little Nazanin! I’ve been drinking tea ever since I can remember, it was something that I had with breakfast every morning and it was always a strong cup of ceylon that was sweetened a little. The ceylon I drink is tossed in bergamot oil but it really differs from your normal earl grey. I’m not sure what is is exactly but it’s a tea I don’t think I could ever part with !

j.m. Olivera: Any suggestion for tea cakes or sweets? What’s you POV on such?

Even though I grew up sweetening my tea and still add honey to my morning strong black tea like I did as a kid I always suggest trying a tea without anything. Pairing tea with sweets is always fun but I think once you really see what the tea has to offer you can find a better match for your tea. I find that chocolate of different varieties goes well with a lot of teas. I think my favorite pairing is a dark chocolate with either a roasted oolong or pu’er! Now, if you’re talking about putting tea INTO sweets I’m all for that and have a bunch of recipes you can see here!

Bluejeans_and_ leather: What have you noticed taste wise that separates an okay black tea from a great black tea.

I grew up drinking mostly one type of black tea, ceylon. It has a very particular flavor that is commonly associated with other types of tea that have either ceylong or assam like english and irish breakfast. For these I usually go with whatever has a nicer scent and I usually end up liking the flavor better. But if we’re talking about chinese black teas, that’s a whole new ball game. I found that in those black teas the ones that set themselves apart were those that had a dancing flavor. When I think of a dancing flavor I mean when we think of a darker tea we think heavy and strong but some of the most delicious black teas I’ve had are light and “dance” on your tongue! Instead of heavy they are refreshing!

Noelledrinkstea: favorite black tea, flavored tea & green tea

These are tough! I don’t really drink a lot of flavored tea so it would either have to be my everyday ceylon tea that is tossed with bergamot oil or a good masala chai blend! Favorite black tea is one I discovered recently from Old Ways Tea, it’s called wild style and it was one of the most refreshing black teas I’ve ever tried! It will definitely be featured in a future Tea Thoughts project :) I’ll be honest I don’t drink a ton of green tea, I drink mainly oolongs, pu’er and white teas BUT I have a soft spot for a few green teas including: hojicha, matcha and genmaicha!

Teabooksart: who or what got you into gong fu cha style tea?

The answer to this would be a what! Sticky rice pu’er. Back when I was receiving a lot of tea to review for my blog and still transitioning to recipes I was sent some sticky rice pu’er. At this point I really only had blends and a few high quality plain teas. I love rice and eat it almost every night so just taking one whiff of the sticky rice pu’er and I was in love. I’d never brewed a tuocha before so I looked up how to brew it. I saw gaiwan and gongfu were mentioned. I didn’t really know anything about it but I had seen other bloggers talk about it so naturally I went down a youtube rabbit hole of watching people brew! I was hooked! I brew gongfu style almost everyday. It first started out as an adventurous new thing I discovered but it’s become a beloved part of my daily ritual that keeps me grounded and grateful.

All.hail.amy: which tea did you have to learn to appreciate

Raw pu’er! I used to not like it because I either was drinking not great ones or ones that I wasn’t brewing correctly so the taste wasn’t something I went for. Last year I started tasting them again now I’m hooked! I did need to give it another chance before I truly appreciated it! I would also put most green teas into this category because I used to not drink any since I didn’t like the flavor but as I’ve become a better brewer I can find delicious notes in green teas when I couldn’t before.

Daniellegeva: When’s the last time a tea surprised you?

Not to sound corny but I feel like I’m always surprised by a new tea. I have a wide variety of tastes so I don’t often come across a tea that I don’t like but it’s still always nice to taste something and be like OH WOW!!! I think to give you a specific answer though, I recently have been drinking more white teas and I got one from denong tea. It’s funny because it kind of smells the same way the pu’er from that same shop but when I tasted it, it was like an explosion of sweet and floral flavors I didn’t expect!

Teaaholic: what’s one of the biggest things you learned about tea since starting Tea Thoughts?

I think the biggest thing I’ve learned about tea is that it is humbling. It’s humbling in many ways including how much there is to learn about tea. It’s humbling in a way to see what an incredible process it goes through to get into your cup. It’s humbling that such a simple leaf can have an enormous impact on our everyday lives- helping producers and shops make a living, helping drinkers feel good, helping us all learn to appreciate the smaller things in life that hold great value.

Tea House Birthday Celebration

It’s no secret that I love where I live! I love Maryland and living right outside the Nation’s Capital is pretty awesome. BUT, I am sad that there isn’t really a tea culture here. If you want bubble tea, I could point you to endless places. When it comes to gongfu, there is only ONE place that I know of that allows for this type of brewing and it’s nestled in beautiful Georgetown!

While Georgetown isn’t the easiest place to get to, it is totally worth the trek. Georgetown is home to Ching Ching Cha, a Chinese tea house! A little bit about the name, cha means tea. Ching Ching was a bit harder to find a meaning. I found in two different places describe this as celebratory and maybe even equivalent to saying “cheers” which makes total sense!

I had no idea this place existed and for my birthday in 2019, my family surprised me with a visit here. I was stunned. Everything I wished we had in our area, we actually had! Of course when they asked what I wanted to do for my birthday this year I expressed interest in going back to Ching Ching Cha.

The tea house is small, intimate and has a beautiful design. The first thing I notice when walking in is the high ceilings with glass for natural light. The walls are lined with tea, teaware and art.

You have the choice of sitting on a platform at a low table with cushions and shoes off which I love! You also have the option of sitting a table with chairs.

The cool thing about this place is that when you order a tea, they bring you a tray, teapot and pitcher just as I would do at home. Water is boiled over a flame in the middle of the table so you can continually brew your tea.

Ching Ching Cha has a good variety of teas ranging from puer, green, oolong, black, white, tisanes, artisan (blooming teas), and herbal remedies!

I have been here quite a few times and have only tried their oolongs so I decided to branch out and give their pu’er a try. I got an incredibly woodsy shou that was strong and delicious!

My sister had the phoenix oolong which is one that I love and have bought from them and my mom had the oriental beauty. Their oriental beauty tea is phenomenal, my mom and I both bought some to take home.

Did I mention that they also serve food? We got a variety of food but I really enjoyed their cold salad on the right below and their dumplings on the left below. I’ve tried just about everything on the menu and from their salmon to marbled tea eggs, it is all a delightful treat!

We also got some dessert! The sweet on the left is lotus seed in puff pastry! For Persian new year we also put lotus paste on our table so I am familiar and fond of this taste. Both of these are right out of the oven, hot and delicious! Now, the coconut tart on the right stole the show. This tart is one of the most delicious sweets I’ve ever had. My mouth waters as I write this! The coconut comes through very well and It also reminded me of a cream of wheat dessert we get at our local Burmese restaurant so maybe there was some of that in it as well!

The experience was so wonderful as always. The atmosphere is calming, the food is delicious and I get the opportunity to nerd out about tea. I also have been able to introduce my family more into the world of teas they are unfamiliar with. It’s exciting to see them enjoy teas that they wouldn’t never think to drink!

The staff is so kind and informative when showing you how to brew so it’s a great place for anyone from beginner to expert!

Last but not least, they have a ton of teaware to grab your interest which is always a fun way to end a visit to them.

If you’re in a DC, this is a must visit! If you’re interested in ordering tea from them, I highly suggest the oriental beauty or the phoenix oolong which I have tried and bought for myself because I enjoyed it so much!

See you next time, Ching Ching Cha!

Matcha Sugar Cookie Trees!

It’s almost Christmas time and you don’t know what cookies to leave out for Santa! What about some matcha Christmas trees?! They’re festive AND Santa can get a little energy boost from the matcha ;)

There are a few tried and true recipes I’ve found over the years and this rolled sugar cookie recipe is one of them. For these matcha trees I made a few substitutes.

Here is the recipe, I made three simple changes.

1) I halved this recipe because it makes A LOT of cookies. Even halving the recipe still gave me about 2 dozen and even more if I made the trees thinner

2) I used brown sugar instead of white sugar

3) I added in matcha powder gradually until I liked the green color of the dough

An important note about this recipe, it is much easier to roll the dough if you refrigerate the dough for several hours or overnight. Then, a little flour on your work surface makes it so much easier!

And that’s it! Super simple!

Tea Thoughts Favs Gift Guide!

Hello everyone!

I wanted to share some of the teas I’ve been loving and a few other things. While I could make you an exhaustive list of small companies you should consider supporting, I tried to make this easily digestible by sharing some of my tried and true favorites and a few new places I’ve tried! Here is a list I made a couple years ago that has more companies tea and non tea!

*Please note that a couple of these links are affiliate links which means if you purchase through them I will receive a small commission. This kind of support helps Tea Thoughts going!*

For the person who needs to CHILL

The Qi: Do you have someone on your list that needs a drink with lovely flavor but can’t have caffeine or prefers not to have it? I was recently sent this lovely set by The Qi and it includes 3 full blooms: rose, chrysanthemum and lotus. You can purchase them alone or you can purchase a set with a beautiful glass. I would suggest glass with these blooms as they are so beautiful! The rose is the most fragrant and I think packs lots of flavor. The chrysanthemum is less sweet and also blooms up beautifully. The lotus was the sweetest for me and is super delicate!

Code: NAZANIN10 for 10% off

Steep It Real Box: I created this box with the stressed person in us all. It's one thing to say self care is key and another to practice it! You know, the person who says they'll make time for themselves but doesn't always get around to it because you feel like you don't have time or don't know where to start?

• You can brew yourself some amazing hojicha from Hojicha Co.

• You can take care of your skin with 3 green tea infused products

• You can indulge that sweet tooth and get a little serotonin boost with a green tea crunch bar

• You can blow off some steam by coloring a couple pages in the tea time coloring book I created

• And just for fun a little tea and a good book enamel pin and two crochet face scrubbies by me as well!

Code: GIFTGUIDE for $15 off your steep it real box!

For the Fashionista

Tea Shirts & Pins: You can wear your love of tea on your body in a few ways! You will find two tea shirt designs with a bunch of colors! The pins have a variety of designs with 3 new fun pins. All of my older pins have a HUGE sale going on ! No code needed, you can check out the pins here and the shirts here!

Shop Pins

Shop Shirts - Code TEASHIRT for 10% off

Tea for everyone on your list

White2tea: Ok, this is probably my favorite and most frequent place to buy tea. Not only is this tea affordable and really delicious, if you follow along on social media you get to see into many of the processes of the teas that end up in the shop. I really love when a company shows this side of tea. Please also be advised that they are having a black friday sale this week so it’s the perfect time to stock up!

While I suggest you try ANY of their teas, my favs from white2tea are flapjacks, snowflake dancong, brown sugar, Autumn mengsong and natural redhead.

Bitterleaf: I mostly buy teaware from bitterleaf and suggest you definitely check out their teaware! I have also had some of their teas which are equally good in quality as their teaware! While they recently had a big sale, they also have a sale in the early months of the year for teaware with small defects.

I recently bought this pot support and am so excited about it!

Mansa: When I first had their tea, I got exposed to many of their offerings through a curated set called the taste of first step. If you want to give someone the gift of variety I would go with this! It allows the person to try white, pu’er and black tea in one set! If you are a person who already knows their preferences, they recently added gift tins for their tea to make a lovely gift.

I think it’s important to note that their raw pu’er changed my mind about raw pu’er and now I love it all!

While it was hard to pick, my favorites are the Wild Lao and Golden Flower Brick!

Hojicha: It’s getting colder in most parts of the country and you’re looking for that hearty, nutty, roasted tea. Hojicha to the rescue. Hojicha, especially the dark roast which is my fav is perfect for this time of the year! If you hurry you can catch their holiday sale today and tomorrow! I

Holiday Sale Code: HOLIDAYGIFT for 20% off expires 11/27

Code: TEATHOUGHTS for 10% off anytime!

Sencha App: I got introduced to sencha app when I did a giveaway with them! I was lucky enough to try their gyokuro and it was delightful! This company is also pretty cool because they created an app that you can download to help with brewing your matcha and sencha which they sell!

Code: BLACKFRIDAY19 for 20% off and free shipping! Good through Monday!

Verdant: I had the please of trying this tea recently for a project in the shop and wanted to share this wonderful company who has lovely teas and a great connection with their farmers. It’s so awesome to see how Verdant spotlights the tea growing families and how much you get to learn about the people behind the tea! We often take this for granted!

They have an awesome listing where you can create your own tea sampler which I highly suggest for anyone who wants to try a bunch of teas from their site!

Code: THINKTEA for $5 off! Excludes Tea of the month club and their 5 teas for $5 offer.

They also have a bunch of other deals on their site for this weekend! Some last the whole weekend, some are for certain days, so check it out!

A special section

I recently saw that Blue Willow Tea had a break in where much of their funds were stolen and are left without those funds and a broken skylight. I haven’t personally tried their teas (yet )but know many friends who enjoy their teas! I have placed an order for myself for their red and green dragon oolongs and am excited to try them! Please consider purchasing tea from their shop to help support their recovery after this incident!

For the person who loves tea but needs to go go go

Zen’s Tea Travel Brewer: This brewer is a lifesaver! I love this brewer when I have a long day at the office or not at home and I want to be able to brew tea on the go, but well! The brewer is made of glass which i really like and it’s all in one! The brewer also comes with a convenient carrying case and in two colors, I have the white. The button allows you to easily control the brewing time.

Make sure to click the box under the price on the listing that says save an extra 15% for a discount!

Ippodotea Thermos: I won this thermos in a giveaway. This thing is legit. It holds heat so well. I have made tea ahead of time for events where I wouldn’t be able to brew and It’s so nice to have something to depend on…hot tea! Ippodotea also has delicious matcha :)

Moylor: Another recent discovery of mine! I bought these white tea balls from them and was so pleasantly surprised at how lovely they were! They are also in ball format so it makes it perfect for when you need to take tea with you easily. I paired the tea balls with my Zen’s travel brewer many times!

They are currently having a black friday sale, check it out!

For the Reader

Tea-spiration: This is a lovely book created by Lu Ann of The Cup of Life and it is the perfect mate for tea time. I feel like this books helps create meditative time around tea!

Other tea books!

Gong Fu Cha Tea Practice for Better Mental Health

Before I get into this post, I want to preface it by saying that I am not a health care professional and the opinions expressed here are based off of my own experience. I think it’s important to mention this for obvious reasons but also because there are so many bogus health claims around tea and I want to set myself apart from those. This is a case for Gong Fu Cha improving mental health in a general sense.

If you aren’t familiar with Gong Fu Cha, I’ve seen it translated in a few different ways such as “tea with effort” or “tea with great skill”

Effort? Aw man, I thought this was going to be an easy way to improve mental health!

If you look into this tea practice, there are lots of different ideas about it’s history and how it should be done. I think from an outside perspective or someone who hasn’t done it before it can look intimidating. I promise you that once I break down some of the essentials, you’ll see that the practice is really something that you make your own. In my opinion, you should brew tea how you wish and if it tastes good to you then you’re doing it right!

Before I knew what this practice was all about, I went to YouTube to find out the basics. I fell down a rabbit hole of brewing videos of people practicing gong fu cha. I was intimidated but intrigued. I did notice that every video I watched was different. People use different tools, set up their table differently and brew differently. I’ve come to realize that there aren’t many hard and fast rules but some guidelines to help.

Here are some of the very basics of gong fu cha:

Tea

Generally speaking, when using the gong fu cha brewing method, it’s for a specialty tea. This is a type of tea that is higher quality with more depth in the flavor profile and the ability to be brewed many times and keep it’s quality.

Set Up and tools

This also varies but usually you will find a tea table or tray where you can pour tea waste or washing. In terms of tools, the brewing vessels are much smaller than the traditional western style pots.

When I brew tea gong fu cha, I am usually brewing tea for myself but it is also possible to brew for several people. The teas that I brew go in a gaiwan or small tea pot and are brewed many times. I’ve brewed some of my favorite teas 10 or more times! This style provides different flavors for each brew and generally speaking as opposed to western brewing.

So what does this have to do with mental health?

For me, increased mindfulness means better mental health. Here’s why. We are busy bodies. We want to hustle, work hard and achieve greatness. I am one of these busy bodies and often, everything that we’re doing and have to do are overwhelming. We’re moving so fast and continually picking things up along the way that it feels impossible to slow down.

I’ve always thought of tea time in general as my slow down time. Even if I make a quick cup in the morning, I have to slow down to do so and the enjoyment I feel when I slowly take those sips calms me down. The reason I’m advocating for Gong fu cha is because you can’t just take a minute or two. You need to carve out some time to prep, brew and enjoy. It’s a ritual that once you make the time, it can be your everyday time to ground yourself.

I think that too many people advocate for clearing your mind all the time. While prepping your tea can help you focus on the tea as opposed to other things, but the larger benefit is allowing you to acknowledge your stress or troubles while you sip your tea. As you taste your tea, you can organize your thoughts. you can see what is worth moving to the top of your list and what isn’t. You can say, sure there is this thought that is negative but I see it and It doesn’t doesn’t own or define me.

In addition to facing your thoughts, it helps increase mindfulness in the moment and with practice it will help with this overall. When you slow down to prep your cup, it’s easy to practice listening to the sounds around you and noticing details. When you’re moving fast, it’s easy to take all the sounds for granted. When you slow down to listen a little you start to see how vast our world really is.

Once you make time for this ritual often, what you’re doing is prioritizing taking a break. You’re taking time to care for yourself and you’re taking time to try some delicious tea! These are all called practices because you may not get it all on the first try!

I have a short guide about this called meTEAtation in my shop but I wanted to share some tips here too for mindfulness when drinking tea

-Enjoy every moment of this time. Look at your tea packaging, read about your tea, inspect your tea, smell your tea!

-When brewing, play around! I sometimes like to see how high I can pour the water from the kettle before making a mess!

-When brewing, take in all the smells. Smell the leaves dry and wet, smell the lid of your brewing vessel and inside it as well! All these things add to the experience

-Take note of the transformation of your tea. Especially if you have tightly rolled oolongs, tea cakes or any compressed tea - the transformation after brewing is beautiful.

In conclusion, the case for Gong Fu Cha for mental health centers around the time you take to slow down and enjoy little actions, reactions, sounds, details and smells.

I’m going to list some resources below. I’ve included two of my favorite places to buy teaware and tea in addition to some amazon recommendations as some people prefer that.

1) Tea and Teaware: Bitterleaf Teas (they’re having a sale right now!!)

2) Tea: White2Tea

3) Amazon

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