Cardew Club News » 2007 » August

Butter Tea or Po Cha is a staple of Tibetan life. Several cups or rather bowls of this black tea, milk, salt and butter concoction are consumed every morning. Because of the butter, the drink is high in calories and thus provides energy for work throughout the day.

I think I’m drawn to the idea of butter tea because of my memories of my great grandmother who used to drink her tea along with Nabisco’s Royal Lunch Milk Crackers spread with butter. I will never forget the creamy taste of the tea with the oil slick of butter floating on the top after dunking the crackers. This was mandatory according to grammy. She wouldn’t agree with the idea of cutting out the middle man though. The buttery tea was a byproduct of dunking, you didn’t purposely put the butter in the tea.

Amid Taiwan’s intense urban environment, tea still calls to the many who long for nature and serenity.

The teahouse is a bubble of tranquility, adorned modestly with neat plants, mountain paintings, wooden furniture, and simple clay teapots, with a kettle boiling gently to the side.

To enjoy tea, the guest has to set aside the time to pour it properly. With slow, smooth movements, the host soaks the tea and warms the small cups. He fills each with the coloured, aromatic liquid, finally pouring one for himself.

With surprising speed, tea has mimicked coffee’s almost comedic transformation from simple morning jolt to hip have-it-your-way drink. (Will it be organic soy froth or hormone-free, fat-free cream with your shade-grown, fair-trade dark roast?)

Those reliable bags of black tea your grandmother carried in her purse have given way to a rainbow of hues, a cornucopia of flavors, satchels of all sizes and shapes, and a whole new language for describing the minutia of it all.

“In the next couple years you’re going to see movies and TV shows making fun of people who drink tea the way they do now about people drinking lattes,” says Mark Blumenthal, executive director of the American Botanical Council, which tracks tea trends.

The discovery of green tea was purely by accident. It is believed that an emperor dropped the plant leaves into a pot of boiling water. The emperor really enjoyed the aroma and that is how green tea was born

Green tea has many properties that can assist with overall well being and nutrition. Green tea has been used for centuries by the Chinese people to cure all kinds of ailments from indigestion to arthritis. It is often given to children as young as a few months old to strengthen their immune system. Green tea contains many healing properties. The newest one being studied is weight loss. Studies have shown that antioxidants that are found in green tea have properties that may assist in weight loss.

Afternoon tea is taken to stylish new heights in a monthlong exhibit at Lancaster Museum of Art.

Don’t be fooled. “The Artful Teapot” shows just how cool a spot of tea can be.

Manor Township resident Amy Thorn collects high-end teapots that are as clever as they are functional. And when she speaks of the afternoon-tea tradition, it’s with the passion of a collector who relishes the mystique of tea drinking missed by many Americans.

Who knew everything and everyone of any notoriety has been turned into a functioning teapot?

“Whatever your interest is, you will find it in a teapot,” Thorn said.

Despite the UK being a nation of tea drinkers, there has been nonationwide chain of tea outlets since the heyday of the Lyons CornerHouses. But that may soon change. Janet Harmer reports on two operators with big plans for their own distinct national groups of outlets

Until recently, your best chances of getting a good cup of tea outside your own home have been confined to upmarket luxury hotels or to one of a number of independent tearooms dotted around the country.

Bettys Café Tea Rooms, for example, with six outlets, is world-renowned and has been phenomenally successful during its 90-year history, but it has never spread its wings beyond Yorkshire.

Beyond their aesthetic appeal, teapots are also attractive because they can appreciate in value, especially the ones made of porcelain and zisha that Giacomo Corp (M) Sdn Bhd CEO and chairman Jacob Chan collects.

TEAPOTS are vessels used for brewing tea leaves in near-boiling water.

To Giacomo Corp (M) Sdn Bhd chief executive officer and chairman Jacob Chan, Chinese teapots have not only been a part of Chinese culture for thousands of years, but are today also valuable antiques.