teanamu tea masterclass at Bea’s of Bloomsbury on selected Wednesday evenings.

I met Bea (of Beas of Bloomsbury) a few months ago when we celebrated “Kavey’s Eats” blogiversary. I have heard about her but it is only when I spoke with her that I realised that she is so very passionate about food and a great inspiration for me.

With her help, I am planning a series of masterclasses for tea friends to sample and learn about the extraordinary range of oriental green, white, blue, black and red teas on selected Wednesday evenings at Bea’s of Bloomsbury.

Participants will not only learn to be tea connoisseurs but will enjoy a deep relaxing experience similar to meditation, in the form of the Chinese tea ritual called ‘gong fu cha’. Though these masterclasses, I hope to promote the idea that this centuries-old brewing technique fits in well with the modern western ‘Slow Movement’ and concern for mindfulness.

Come and discover how to select teas, enjoy a ‘tea detox’ and feel a Zen-like calm as if you had been a different (slower) world.

I will also be baking my own ‘tea pâtisserie‘ as a gorgeous accompaniment, so that you do not have to appreciate the teas on an empty stomach.

Click www.teanamu.com/bea for more details. The first masterclass is 30 June 2010 at 7pm.

Warmly, Pei ~~ Serene and fragrant TEA entices with promise of rapture in STORE ~~ tea open house . medTEAtation . @teanamu . FB page

Enjoying teanamu’s second Winter Warmer Tea Open House and forgetting all about the cold outside

We were in Le Mans last Thursday and Friday to attend the funeral of a dear friend who had passed away suddenly. Our plan was to drive back to London taking the 9.45 pm EuroTunnel from Calais to Folkestone on Friday, getting back in good time for the second Winter Warmer Tea Open House on Saturday. Alas, we were caught in the heavy snowfall en route and eventually got stuck in the boarding queue in at least 20 cm of snow till 4.30 am!

Trapped in the car, a thousand thoughts went across my mind. Should I disappoint by cancelling the Tea Open House? If so, how do I contact people who have said they are coming? Would I have time to bake some more Oolong Madeleines? Will I be too tired to talk about tea?

Realizing the pointlessness of worry, I turned my thoughts to lovely hot cups of tea, in my imagination savouring the floral aroma of Phoenix Eye Jasmine White tea, the intense sweetness of Lishan Oolong and the warmth and earthy palate of Emperor Pu Erh. It was these thoughts that got me through seven hours of night time sitting in a car covered in snow!

I have to thank our lucky stars that we got home by 8 am on Saturday and straightaway, we set the room up for the Tea Open House. I did not manage to bake some fresh Oolong Madeleines but had made a couple of days earlier a goodly supply of Matcha butter cookies which everyone likes.

I was honoured to have an even larger crowd for this Tea Open House than last week, especially given this was the Saturday before Christmas! I made many more tea friends and tried my very best to answer all questions about tea.

Here are a selection of comments from my new tea friends:

Tina: What a wonderful afternoon. SOOO taste and thought provoking, so multi-layered and as Julian said so philosophical… I am sorry I had to leave. Absolutely fascinating, meditative, life exploring. With every taste a million questions arose, with every explanation another thousand arose. Loved it. THANK YOU.

Aeyal: it was a great event and just enjoying the Golden Monkey tea right now! Looking forward to more… So nice to meet you.

We’re looking forward to our next Winter Warmer Open House on Sunday 31 January from 12-4pm. We have a lot more RSVPs this time so do come early to ensure a good seat! Click here for more details about the Tea Open House.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

Warmly,

Pei
pei@teanamu.com
~~ Serene and fragrant TEA entices with promise of rapture in STORE ~~

PS: Here are some of the pictures:

Near midnight on Friday – stuck at Calais with nowhere to go	4 am at Calais EuroTunnel – still waiting for boarding
Explaining how to spot a good Yixing purple clay pot	Demonstrating how one would pry open a Pu Erh tea cake
Closely inspecting a single brewed oolong tea leaf	Learning the gongfu cha tea ceremony
Showing how to hold a purple clay pot	So many tea stories to enjoy sharing

Talking tea, making friends through friends.

After months of planning and anticipation, we hosted our first Tea Open House on 12 December.

All the hard work paid off as we had a great time sharing and talking about tea and forgot the clock, ending the Open House nearly 2 hours late!

Although this event reminded me of the tea appreciation taster workshops I did at The British Museum last year, it was also very different. Without a fixed timeframe the Open House format allows us the freedom to talk about tea till the cows come home!

I thoroughly enjoyed showing the attributes of each tea and relating my tea adventures, and I felt much warmth in my heart seeing the delighted faces of the guests when they tasted good teas and visibly became more relaxed.

Some reactions we have received so far:

Kate: Came to your tea house today!! Absolutely LOVED it. Felt really relaxed and wished we could have stayed longer. You’ve got me hooked and I’m looking forward to holding my own tea ceremony. Thank you again. Oh, and you should definitely start to sell the biscuits!!! x

Yuriko: Thank you so much for yesterday. It was such a wonderful experience. I loved it.

Atsuko: If you are interested in something new I would love to recommend you to go his tea salon. He has a deep knowledge and wonderful presentation of the tea tasting.

We were also very excited to have have launched at the Winter Warmer Open House eight gorgeous new teas including fragrant and fruity Shanghai Chic, captivatingly aromatic Organic Golden Monkey, a cold brew version of the very popular Lychee Black, the unique Lishan Oolong, the alluring Silky Oolong, and a range of unusual, premium Japanese green teas including zesty Ginger Tangerine Sencha, exotic Yuzu Sencha and refreshing Shiso Sencha.

We’re looking forward to our next Winter Warmer Open House on Saturday 19 December from 12-4pm. We have a lot more RSVPs this time so do come early to ensure a good seat! Click here for more details about the Open House.

In the meantime, don’t forget to drink some more hot tea in this cold weather and happy holidays!

Warmly,

Pei
pei@teanamu.com
~~ Serene and fragrant TEA entices with promise of rapture in STORE ~~

PS: Here are some of the pictures:

All set up and ready to go!	A little corner for guests to relax and try out gongfu cha
Making little cups of tea to warm the hearts	Sharing joy of tea
New products on display	Tea table set up with tea nibbles