It is for this purpose that beginning in August, accessory and product reviews will be swapping with news, culture and history.

You can thus expect to see the following items reviewed on Thursdays moving forward:

• Books
• Software
• Infusers
• Kettles
• Water Warmers
• Cozies
• Tea Houses/Tea Rooms
• Tea Storage containers

Moving forward you can expect the following to appear on Mondays

• News
• Culture
• History
• Event coverage
• Announcements
• Updates
• New feature introductions
• Interviews with tea industry experts and entrepreneurs.

I believe this new schedule will jive better with you as my audience and certainly hope it will help drive traffic in a more predicatable manner.

Help a good cause: CharityWater.org

Monday is Teahouse/Tea Room, Accessory and Brand Review Day!

It’s been a week since the end of the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas and I’m still a little heady from the experience. Here’s a recap of my time at the Expo and my takeaway from the event.

Like most people, I don’t work in the tea industry. I make my living doing something else. For me it’s in technology in one form or another (I get around). For others it might be banking or retail work. Regardless of our backgrounds we all have limits on the time we can spend away from the office. You can imagine the general level trepidation I had in spending half my yearly vacation allotment (not to mention the monetary costs) to attend this industry only event almost an entire continent away!

Let me start by stating that Las Vegas has never been my kind of town. No offense to those who enjoy it. I’m not one for gambling, unless I’m starting a business… which is a gamble all its own. And while I can certainly get into pretty lights… all the sex advertising is overkill for me. So Vegas is clearly a bit absurd for me. But I follow the tea… and there the tea went.

Although the expo started on Saturday, I spent Thursday travelling to Vegas. This would give me time to rest up before the expo and explore the town a bit more than I’d had on my only previous visit to Vegas. I spent Friday walking up and down the strip photographing the architecture and window shopping in the stores. There’s plenty to see, even if you’re not out for the gambling or the gratuitous nudity everywhere.

Friday night I picked up my badge and packet for the expo to avoid the morning lines. I missed the opening ceremonies Saturday morning… something I’ve never really enjoyed much at other gatherings. I hear there was a very good breakfast there, and that would have been appreciated versus the $9.70 I ended up paying for a bowl of fruit and some yogurt at the Red White & Blue restaurant in the Mandalay Bay hotel where the expo was held.

Right off the bat I had a session Saturday morning. The first was held by James Norwood Pratt on the Myths & Legends of Tea. Of the six sessions I had at this year’s expo this was probably my favorite. Mr. Norwood clearly and entertainingly discussed the real world drawbacks of concentrating too heavily on the oft complicated and confusing (not to mention long and growing) list of health benefits of tea. Also covering modern societies’ general loss of the ability to tell and listen to stories, Mr. Pratt was captivating and educating all at once. If you have the opportunity to read one of his myriad of books, I highly recommend it.

Also on Saturday I had a panel called “Educating Your Customer,” hosted by Michael Harney of Harney & Sons. If you frequent this site you’ll note a number of Harney & Sons reviews here for both hot and iced teas. After Mr. Pratt’s amazing presentation I had very high standards for this followup. However, as much as I admire Mr. Harney and what he and his family’s company have done for the industry over the years, he needs some improvement in the presentation skills arena. Looking past lots of “umms” and “ahhs” flowing through the presentation, Michael Harney gave a good presentation discussing the intricacies of staff training and engaging customers in their education process.

I hit the show floor after this and spent a whole lot of time (6+ hours) networking and meeting people. I’m a bit of a talker, so I got stuck at several booths discussing their teas, company histories and other things along the way. You would think so much time would have allowed me to meet lots of people, but I don’t think I even finished a full row of booths on Saturday out of the seven or eight total rows.

I ended up visiting with ITI (International Tea Importers) right through the door, then moving on to the Harney & Sons booth and speaking with both Michael and John Harney. Both gentlement are uniquely and fantastically knowledgeable about tea and I had been very much looking forward to interacting with them. I also ran into Tea Escapade, another blogger, while at this booth.

I also met with Rona Tison of ITO EN and learned they have been recycling their used plastic bottles and used tea leaves to make other goods. While I found making their business cards of these materials to be a natural extension of things… they also fashion pens, park benches and vending machines out of the plastics and tea leaves! Completely fascinating!

Saturday evening brought the World Tea Championships out. Far and away Rishi Tea took the most awards… walking away with NINE (9) first place wins and numerous runner up positions across multiple categories. I was most excited to see a relative newcommer with Puripan taking away a win. I’ve long been upset at the seemingly clear bias against Korean teas in the industry. I’m very excited to these teas to receive recognition!

Saturday brought many new relationships into my life… but Sunday and Monday were yet to come. Visit back next Monday for a recap of the final two days of my time at the World Tea Expo (WTE).

Help a good cause: CharityWater.org

Monday is Teahouse/Tea Room, Accessory and Brand Review Day!

I found this “tea-room” listed online. High hopes were set for this establishment as it’s located in one of the best hotels here in Cincinnati. Will The Cricket Lounge live up to its pedigree?

Located in one of the oldest standing hotels in the nation (The Cincinnatian is on the national register of historic places), The Cricket Lounge lies just up a small set of stairs no more than a few years inside the entry to the Cincinnatian Hotel’s 6th Street entrance.

The lounge isn’t really a tea-room as you might expect it. Surrounded on most sides by the hotel’s central rotunda, light pours in from the skylight above. You can see the entrance to the conference room one floor above only because to get to it you’d have to walk over a bridge which passes directly over the lounge.

The Cincinnatian isn’t one of the more popular hotels in Cincinnati. I’m saddened at the thought that it never will be. However it is, in my opinion, the best hotel in the city. Renovated a number of times over the past hundred fifty years or so, the hotel remains a magnificent and beautiful piece of architecture which has hosted its fair share of Presidents and dignitaries along the way.

The decor is light and pleasant. You would expect similar at a Hyatt or a Hilton. The music playing was pleasantly low volumed. They weren’t playing top 40. More like down tempo ambient electronica. It was nice.  There was a somewhat cheesy but not entirely out of place vertical lighted waterfall machine directly in front of the bar as you come up the stairs.

The Cricket Lounge is the lower class of the two restaurants located within The Cincinnatian Hotel. The higher end eatery is The Palace Restaurant, well known for its cuisine and the high prices, debatably worth it. It’s little brother, The Cricket Lounge, certainly has its share of high prices. Some items are worth it, some aren’t.

Let’s start with the meal. I had a house special quesadilla. It took roughly ten minutes to arrive and looked like a regular old quesadilla. Thank the deity of your choice, it wasn’t. It turned out to be one hell of a treat, and one of the best quesadillas I’ve ever had. Definite points there. It tipped the scales though. Weighing the price down a major $11 USD. Normally I wouldn’t say this justified $11. It is just a quesadilla… but at that… one of the best I’ve ever eaten, and it was a pleasant surprise.

Onto the tea. I chose a light Earl Grey and my companion had a standard iced tea. Sadly, these did not surprise as we’d  hoped they would. The Cricket Lounge failed the tea-room test. Tazo Earl Grey in a tea bag is what I got, with a small pot of water at too low a temperature for the brew to turn out correctly. It is important to note that The Cricket Lounge didn’t offer any loose teas and their selection of Tazo bagged teas was very limited.

My companion received a Lipton iced tea with an assortment of sweeteners, but no spoon or straw with which to mix the beverage. It would be several minutes until a return trip allowed him to receive the required utensils. The server was kind and energetic enough, but a little more attention to detail would have prevented this issue. If I’d had wanted sugar in my tea as well, it would have been seriously noticed.

With such a high opinion of The Cincinnatian Hotel, I’d clearly hoped for something a bit classier. Not necessarily Victorian in style, but at least the option of a loose tea was expected. I’ve clearly been let down. The only aspect which gives me hope is the delicious quesadilla, an appetizer, which we weren’t enthusiastic to order but were extremely surprised with.

I hesitate to provide The Cricket Lounge with a score above 1, but my love for The Cincinnatian Hotel and in light of the wonderful quesadilla we were presented with… I give The Cricket Lounge a remarkable 2 out of 5. They have much to improve upon for a location billion itself as a standard for which The Cincinnatian Hotel is a par. Offering loose teas, with even basic preparation knowledge for their staff would instantly double their score from a 2/5 to a 4/5 which is what I was hoping for.

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ADDENDUM

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It is worth noting that The Cincinnatian Hotel does offer “Afternoon Tea” in a loose fashion from 3-5 Thursday through Saturday. I will review this at some point in the future. For now, The Cricket Lounge… loses.

Help a good cause: CharityWater.org

Monday is Teahouse/Tea Room, Accessory and Brand Review Day!

Essencha, located in Oakley, is considered one of the premier tea houses in the greater Cincinnati area. Part of this is its trendy location. Part of it is the great tea, part is the atmosphere and part is its more contemporary style.

Unlike most of the tea houses in Cincinnati Essencha celebrates tea as an approchable part of life which anyone can enjoy, as opposed to a more British styled High Tea which certainly has its own attraction.

The first thing you’ll notice when you approach Essencha is the dearth of parking and that Google and MapQuest get their directions wrong, though the location is correct. I was taken to a road behind the establishment and had to turn around.

Once I’d parked in the small-ish lot behind Essencha (entrance at the front) shared by other stores in the vicinity I found my way down a small set of stairs to the side door and was immediately greeted by a warm, inviting atmosphere with hearthy colors and quiet conversations.

Japanese and Chinese art is displayed on the walls and in the spacious bathroom, and a mural along the far wall certainly provides an interesting eye piece. The clear centerpiece is a hanging wooden scaffold which is suspended from the ceiling across the middle of the restaurant helping it feel warmer and less industrial.

One of the more unique features at Essencha is the “Passport.” Essencha’s passport allows you to keep track of which teas you have and haven’t tried and what rating you gave each of them (out of 5 tea leaves). Although you have to leave the passport at Essencha, it’s a rather convenient and novel way to make tea bit more adventurous for newbies and experienced drinkers alike!

I’m drawn to Genmaicha as a rule, since it helps me to decide how much attention a blender or teahouse pays to the smaller details of flavor. Essencha offers a robust Genmaicha “Extra Green” blended with Matcha. As I’ve noted before, this pairing doesn’t really get me going since I feel it betrays the more humble roots of Genmaicha’s history. Nontheless, the blend was aromatic and flavorful, if a bit less earthy than I’m used to. I’ll review this specific blend sometime in the future.

Although I was suprised to note a Pu’erh on the menu I decided I would try Essencha’s Kukicha (often called twig tea due to the inclusion of leaf stems). Flavorful, aromatic and with just the slightest hint of bitterness at the end which I’ve come to enjoy from a good green tea. I’ll state for now that I thoroughly enjoyed this blend and will also review it in the future.

The teahouse offers a decent menu of culturally inspired meals to go with their teas. I chose to go with a Japanese Beef Bowl (Beef Donburi), a good match to my Kukicha. The beef wasn’t cooked too long and the rice was nice and light. The option of brown rice would be appreciated, but wasn’t apparent and a selection of veggies to accentuate the beef would have been nice. The meal comes only with grilled onions, beef and rice.

Desserts are offered at Essencha as would be expected of any teahouse or coffee house. Cute little pastries, cookies and confectionery appear very appetizing and tempted me more than once. I resisted the temptation as I was already full from the donburi and two hearty mugs of tea.

Essencha also offers to sell their tea loose in custom labeled bags or tins. They also sell decent mugs, infusers and tea pots. I didn’t notice any tea cozies to keep the pots warm, or any tea scoops/spoons or even any sugar cubes for those who like theirs in proper shapes.

A cup of tea isn’t ‘cheap’ at Essencha. But you’re certainly paying for a little more than you get. Both the Genmaicha and the Kukicha were $4 a cup. Still less than some would spend at Starbucks for a lesser quality tea or coffee, but more than I’d expected. The donburi ran me rougly $8 for what should have been ‘maybe’ $5-$6.

I’m not sure whether to blame the pricing on the location (Oakley is frequented by the trendy young professional crowd), the relativeley young age (Essencha is less than 5 years young) or what the owner’s (Tracy Monson) market research indicated was what the market was willing to pay. Regardless, I feel the prices are just a tad high. I was anticipating $0.50 to $1.00 less than what I got.

All in all I’d give Essencha a 4 on a 5 scale. Essencha is the best place to have tea in Cincinnati if you’re young, trendy or want a place to relax with a friend or two. The decor and setting are stylish but not distractingly so. The teas are of a quality selection, but are priced a just tad high. The foods are tasty and although the flavors are matched well to the teas they’re also slightly pricy for what you get.

Help a good cause: CharityWater.org