My niece and I were watching the Chinese drama Love O2O and the girls in the series would be drinking or talk about how much they love to drink milk tea. After completing the series, I decided to try and make some as I love tea, and it looked delicious.
I looked around on Pinterest and found a tea recipe from Plum Deluxe that seemed easy to follow and similar to the one they had in the series.
Assam and Darjeeling were recommended, but I have also made this tea with Earl Grey.
Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 teaspoons Darjeeling tea leaves or 1/2 teaspoon Assam tea leaves or 2 teaspoons black tea of choice
1 and 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup water
Honey or sugar, to taste
tea infuser
Directions:
Add the tea into a small bowl.
Boil some water and add a small amount to just coat the leaves in the bowl.
In the meantime, heat the milk and water in a small pot.
Just before the milk and water start to boil, add the moistened leaves and turn off the heat. Stir them with a spoon to mix them in.
Cover the pot and let sit for 4 minutes.
Give it another stir and then remove the bags and pour the milk tea into a teapot or mug of choice.
Sweeten with either honey or sugar if you’d like.
I loved it and it was super simple to make, it reminded me of how I make my Matcha Lattes. I do recommend using a throwaway bag to infuse the milk with the tea, as it is much easier to put the bags in the milk than trying to pour the milk through an infuser as sometimes heated milk has trouble trickling through. If all you have is tea bags, you can also substitute two tea bags for the teaspoons of loose leaf.
I also used my milk frother to froth it up, you don’t have to but I thought it added a little special something to it. Plus I love using my milk frother.
I highly recommend this recipe and have made it multiple times since (I don’t blog as fast as I drink tea).
Last year for my niece’s 16th Birthday my sister and I took her to Reno, Nevada. While we were there we did whatever she wanted to do…along with a couple things I wanted to do such as visit a tea shop!
I did a quick search and receive several options, one of which I spotted was The Laughing C.A.T
If you know me, you might have realized I LOVE cats. So when I saw a tea place that had to do with cats, I was like let’s go there.
Thats me
When we arrived we went up to the door and it was locked, even though online it said open.
Of course while “Reno” was open in February 2021, not every place was and I figured maybe he forgot to update his hours online? But the store sign said open. Confused we decided to call and see. When I called on the phone, it took a long time ringing and while I was waiting for a response, a man came up to the door, unlocked it and then said sorry the phone is ringing. Before I could tell him it was me, he locked the door and ran inside, I trying to tell him it was me, I was on the phone.
Already I’m thinking this is not off to a good start. We then had to wait quite a while until he returned, letting us know that whoever it was had hung up. I again tried to tell him it was me, but he didn’t understand me.
He asked us what we wanted and I told him that we wanted tea. He told us he doesn’t sell drinks, only tea and coffee.
We all looked at each other quizzically and felt like that meme with the lady and the math equations. I could tell we all had the same thought “but tea and coffee are drinks”.
What??
We said okay, we wanted to buy tea and asked him what he had, or if he could just give us a menu. He told us no one could come into the store because of COVID but to instead just tell him what we wanted. I was starting to get annoyed by this and asked him again if he had an online menu where we could see choices and he told me no, just to tell him what we like.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t like when people do that. Let me know what you have and what to choose from. Otherwise I’m just spouting off things I don’t know if you have or not and we stay here longer than we should while I try to puzzle out what the “right answers” are.
From Laura (1944)
My sister told him we like black teas and then he asked if we liked milk in our tea. I said that I did and he told me I shouldn’t drink milk in my tea. I told him that’s how I like it, but he ignored me and went on a long discussion about how milk ruins tea. I was starting to get more annoyed at this as I really didn’t like his dismissive attitude or how he was trying to tell me how to drink my tea.
He then recommended his Earl Grey which doesn’t have any bergamot in it. I said I like Earl Grey with bergamot and this prompted a long discussion about how bergamot ruins Earl Grey and you shouldn’t drink those types of tea. He also recommended his Irish Breakfast tea, and when I said I have yet to find an Irish Breakfast tea I like, this prompted another discussion about how it’s probably the “wrong” tea I’ve been drinking. He said his Irish Breakfast was so good, it should be had without milk and sugar. I started to tune him out as I really didn’t want to be lectured but I wanted to purchase some tea.
Not hate, just dislike.
To be honest I was ready to just abandon this shop and head to one of the thousand of Starbucks in the area, but I had made us drive out here so I was prepared to just buy something, anything, to be gone. I agreed to buy the Irish Breakfast and my sister purchased the Earl Grey.
The owner took our cards and returned with the loose leaf tea (I don’t sell drinks only tea or coffee now makes sense) and the door shut and locked in our faces.
This whole exchange felt really odd to me, it felt like he didn’t want us open and to just leave. I would not recommend going her as none of us enjoyed our shopping excursion there
Online the shop had a lot a lot of good reviews about how knowledgeable the owner is and what a great experience they had but we felt that he treated us as if we were beneath him, some newbies to tea who weren’t worth his attention just his lectures.
That evening at the hotel we tried the tea and I was not impressed with the Irish Breakfast. I did not think it was that good and ended up giving it to a friend of mine later. My sister liked her Earl Grey as a base for other tea, but on its own with no milk or bergamot; she felt it was underwhelming.
I like the label on the tea, but I did not have a good experience here and when I return to Reno I will not be returning to this tea place ever, but instead plan to be checking out The Spice and Tea Shoppe instead.
My friend transferred to Chico State for school and after she graduated she ended up staying in Chico for several years. I would go visit her from time to time, and once when I went she decided to take me to the Tea Bar and Fusion Café. I LOVED it! From that time on, whenever I am in Chico I have to stop there and get tea or food.
The Tea Bar and Fusion Café first opened in Chico in 2004, down by the college and high school. They later opened another smaller location close to the Chico mall. A couple years ago they launched a third location in Sacramento, CA; (although I’ve heard the service is not as good there.)
The Tea Bar has an extensive tea menu, you can order Kombucha, hot tea (various ones), frosted tea lattes, blended tea sorbets, iced teas, sparkling teas, and hot tea lattes. I’ve had most of the items off their menu and everything has been absolutely delicious.
My absolute favorite (besides A pot of Earl Grey) is their Matcha Mint Frost (Matcha green tea mixed with ice cream and topped with fresh mint.) It is so delicious that I dream of it sometimes. I have tried to recreate it, but I can never quite get it as good as theirs.
Even now I can’t wait until it is warm enough to go purchase one.
With their lattes I love the Matcha Sin, Chai Tea, and the Honey Lavender. They are all so good!
Their food menu is small but everything on it is so good. You can order snacks like hummus and naan, edamame, etc or you can get a build your own bowl/wrap. With the build your own you have the option of a bowl or a wrap; choice of meat, greens, rice, and dressing. My favorite is the bowl with Cracked Pepper London Broil, Romaine Leaves, and creamy teriyaki sauce.
This place is so good that if you happen to be in Chico, I urge you to stop by. The food is healthy and delicious, the tea amazing, and it is a fun place to be with a nice atmosphere.
So for my 29th Birthday Jane Austen Tea Party, I shared a few tea themed games we played. Yesterday we had our tea advent swap with friends and had to come up with a game. I was trying to decide between the Tea Tray Memory Game and a Tea Trivia game, when I decided to do a Tea Terms Word Scramble.
I love doing word scrambles, and thought this would be so much easier as I wouldn’t have to bring any items or worry about it being too hard for anyone (I struggle with making my trivia too hard or too easy).
I also thought this would be a lot of fun, and it did turn out to be. I have the game below if you would like to use it and I have included the answers after the image. Enjoy!
So I have been wanting to do this for a while, a looong time! It’s been on my to-do list to incorporate tea shops and tea places reviews, but I just haven’t had the time. It seems I have a thousand different things I want to write and review and just no time to do them all.
So I ended up telling myself that when my tea photos popped up on my “on this day” part of Instagram or Facebook timeline it would be time to actually start reviewing them.
A few years ago some friends and I decided to meet up for tea. We tried to pick a place that we could equally meet up at, and settled on the Tea List in Davis, CA
The Tea List is located in Davis, CA right next to an antique shop and other cute little buildings. It opened in 2003, and except for closing in 2020, it has been available for a full tea service.
We had the HighTea Service which consists of your choice of Tea, a scone with fresh Devonshire cream & berry preserves, an assortment of small tea sandwiches (cucumber mint, veggie garden, turkey pesto and chicken salad), French deserts and fresh fruits.
They had us sit outside as it was a warm November. (We either have warm ones or rainy ones.)
Everything was delicious, although it was too much food for me. I ended up having to give the rest of my share to my friends. Next time I go, I will definitely choose a smaller meal option.
This place was a quite a win. If you are in the Davis area, I highly recommend that you drop by.
janeaustenrunsmylife 