Author Archives: Jackie

An unapologetic ode to tea…

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ode to teaThree mugs of tea into the day and enlightenment finally sets in. I’ve been wondering what to write about and my thoughts turned to my relationship with tea. Yes, we all know I love it. Of course I do, or I wouldn’t be devoting all this time to writing about it, and building a whole web site dedicated to it. So, yep my loyalties to the fine leaves have been tried and tested.

Tea and I have a very special thing going and I know that. In fact, we’ve clearly hit the stage many long-term relationships are said to reach. I am 100% dedicated to this drink. I am absolutely loyal to this drink. However, I am not infatuated. I love tea, but I don’t think about it every minute of the waking day. I don’t revere it, and I don’t put it on a pedestal. I don’t spend hours gazing at it in a glass pot. I make it, I drink it and I truly enjoy it. Simple.

I know what I have with my tea. There aren’t many mysteries between us. I know what I get when I sip. I know how to make it beautifully. I know how to bring out the best of the leaves. But I’m not obsessed. Passionate, certainly – because for me there is no other. Keep reading Jackie’s ode to tea…

Help wanted

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Tea pickers wanted for modeling jobs &

promo photo shoots!

Lipton tea tin

We are: A very large tea company with small garden values. Small values in a garden, really.

We seek: Happy people, but this isn’t Disneyland. You’re not dead in paradise yet, so we’ll just settle for “people.”

Residency: Preferably from some former colony; because that means you’re not doing so well now.

Suitable candidates: We like Tamils from Sri Lanka, and lower caste Indians. Impoverished pluckers from Japan and China are quite acceptable. Model tea pickers from Africa? We could use some more. White skinned natives need not apply at all. Not that we think you would. Click through to see more qualifications

Tea: Harmony or dissonance?

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Joshua Kaiser Rishi Tea“Tea brings people together. Tea makes harmony and brings resolution. Tea brings peace.” – Joshua Kaiser @rishitea

Mr Kaiser’s upbeat statement during the September airing of Samovar’s Tea Mavericks of America was an inspiring comment, an affirmation of tea’s blessed, and inherently good nature. It was also simple psychobabble. Flower power ramble. The assertion that tea makes harmony is both idealistic, and unfounded.  Resolutions may, or may not be achieved, but they are not due to the tea.  Tea can bring people together, but any drink can make that claim. Remember the Diet Coke commercial, with all the women gathered at the office window to oggle the hunk? Not a tea cup in sight.

Anything can bring people together, anything can tear them apart. To state that by definition tea creates harmony, implies that you do not understand your tea. This drink does not need a pretty label attached to make it palatable. Tea is neither to laude, nor to blame for socialization. Gathering is simply the by-product of the social act of drinking, not the tea itself. Peace and harmony? Read more…

Saint-Raphaël, France

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There is little left to say to somebody after you have just told them that you no longer feel any love.

She twisted a lock of her dark, curly hair around her finger and shifted in her seat. She did not know where to look; all she knew was, she did not want to look at him. He was sitting opposite her, she sensed he was reaching for a cigarette in his jacket pocket again. She heard the rustling of the plastic wrapping, as he tore open yet a new packet.

“You smoke too much,” she muttered, for lack of anything else to say. She still did not want to catch his gaze.

“Eh, merde, what’s it to you?”
Tea and the end of love? Read more…

Art from the cafe walls, #1

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Click to enlarge

Barcelona, early spring
They had first laid eyes on each other at the train station. Track 14. She had worn a close cut blue silk dress. He would never forget the dress. Nor her bare shoulders which he had wanted to touch before they had even spoken. She had looked at him, her dark eyes not letting him go. He had watched her board the train, as she slowly climbed the steps. He had stood still, unable to move.

“Not going north?” she asked, as she turned around.

Her lips, full and inviting had broken into a smile. It was at that moment, that all his plans had changed. He picked up his back pack and got on board.

click through to see what happens next

If you can’t stand the heat, should you really make tea?

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I love tea, I truly do. I never drink coffee, and I don’t see why my fellow people do. Non-the-less my friends love their pungent brown beans, so when we get together, that’s what they drink. That’s fine by me; it inspired the creation of this much finer web site.

Today was another coffee-morning get-together. With my one cup of tea. The company was lovely but the tea was lousy. Same as always of course. Here’s how is usually goes…

We’re at someone’s house. Friends and I all sitting ’round the table. Friends going to have coffee, I’m going to be served ‘tea’. I’m given my cup and the heated kettle – but as yet no tea.

Kettle, cup and I wait, even more time goes by. Friends keep chatting, then hostess remembers my drink. Voila, out comes a tea bag. If I’m lucky it’s not herbal, no grass with water for me. So, bag in cup, we’re still pining for the kettle. Water’s lukewarm by now, no need for an ambulance should it spill.

Finally, poured in my cup, the water turns palest brown. There’s the dark blob of the bag, and some lightly stained aqua. No way will the two really mix. The water’s too cool, the bag never once stood a chance. I let it steep as long as I can, but I don’t like my tea arctic cold. When there’s truly no life in the feeble sack, I abandon it on my plate. I pick up my cup and peer inside. Staring back at me, is the weakest of sickly teas. I should feel sorry for it’s unhappy state, but it’s me I’m thinking about. And I’m the poor sod to drink it. Sip, by hesitant sip. Close my eyes and think of better days.

“How’s the tea today?”

“Absolutely foul my dear, every little drop. Like slurping on cold puddle soup.”

Except you’d never hear me say that. Call me a coward, but I love my friends. Just truly don’t like their tea. Click through to continue reading…

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