New Orleans Tea Review
Dipesh Navsaria
the famed "City of New Orleans" train :-). Tea options there were mixed.
On the plus side, unlike most of the South, the assumption wasn't that
"tea" meant "iced tea" -- we were actually asked if we meant hot or
cold. Unfortunately, the B&B we stayed in (which advertised 'afternoon
tea and cookies') had a selection of Bigelow tea bags -- only one of which
was actually tea, the rest being tisanes. Granted, for the price we were
paying, I wasn't exactly expecting much, but at least black tea would've
been a start. (We exhausted the 'English Breakfast' supply in no
time. :-)
However...one _can_ get decent tea. Two local chains, CC's (Coffee
Community) and PJ's Tea and Coffee appear to have loose-leaf tea
available. We didn't get a chance to wander into a PJ's, but did stop at
a CC's. (We were pressed for time -- I ordinarily dislike ordering tea as
a "super grande". Ugh.)
CC's carries Republic of Tea products. I know a recent thread was ranking
quite heavily on RoT. While I generally agree with most of the
sentiments, I'll say the following:
o it does make a good introduction to loose-leaf and better
quality teas for the average person
o it isn't quite as New Age-y as _some_ tea companies
o the iced tea in bottles, while a bit silly, does give you
some ammo against fermented grape juice, er, I mean wine
fans. :-)
o compared to the other options in NO, RoT was _heaven_. :-)
We did find three other options for tea:
1) a place called "Cafe Luna" on Magazine Street in Uptown. Loose leaf
teas available, about 6-7 varieties, pleasant porch to sit on and laugh
at the starbucks across the street. :-)
2) "Secret Garden", also on Magazine Street. This was advertised as
having a "full three course English tea". We didn't go because by the
time we found out about it, we didn't have the time for a "full tea".
Walking by, however, it seemed to offer more casual options as well.
I don't know, however, if they are a tea place that spends more time
on little sandwiches than on their tea. (I have nothing against
little sandwiches -- I rather like them. However, I've been to
alleged "teas" where effort was put into the sandwiches and the tea
was supermarket tea bags with water coming out of an insulated
dispenser. Such events should be referred to The Hague for
examination by the War Crimes Tribunal, I think. ;-)
3) St. Vincent's Guest House and Tea Room. This one has been around for
a while, judging from Google USENET searches. However, I wouldn't
waste my time -- my phone call led to a confused desk clerk who asked
me to call back in the morning when the manager "who knew more about
it" was in. Fair enough. We were in the neighborhood, so I stopped
in to ask. Well, they apparently only do it for "larger groups"
with several days' notice so they can order the "sconces" from a
bakery.
Yes, "sconces", as in the light fixture. I practically ran out
the door in fear of what they would inflict upon Camellia sinensis.
:-o :-)
So...folks may want to give Secret Garden a try. There were a few hotels
that apparently offered fancy "teas", but I didn't waste my time calling
them -- they looked high on the frivolity factor and low on actual tea
connaisance.
Thank you, and good night. ;-)
Peace and Prosperity,
Dipesh
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Dipesh Navsaria Apologies for the semi-munging of my address above...
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Bill
The Windsor Court's afternoon afternoon teas are legendary, but
pricey. Perks, a local chain of coffee houses almost always has decent
tea bags for individual consumption in a vareity of blends, some
flavored, many not. they carry jackson & perkins loose tea in
canisters for sale. no two ways about it, NOLA is a big coffee town,
with the best local supermarket coffee being Community Coffee--they
sell their excellent dark roast from a website that is fantastically
successful. They carry a resptectable range of coffees and teas by
mail, on the web and in local supermarkets, all good but none as good
as their basic dark roast coffee. By the way, they own the CC's coffee
houses, which I believe are generally superior (if you like that sort
of thing) to Starbucks.
i live in Baton Rouge, sixty miles up the road. While we have a full
range of cajun restaurants---real ones---and the coffee consumption
herabouts is astronomical, Baton Rouge really likes Lebanese and Greek
cuisine (why is a long story. maybe some other time. It wasn't like
this 20 years ago.) There are about twenty really great lebanese
restaurants in baton Rouge, where the drink of choice is lebanese iced
tea which is quite tasty. We drink it by the gallon. Lebanese iced te
is black tea with lemon and rose water, lightly sweetened, not too
cold, with a teaspooon of raw pine nuts floating on the top. Great!
Don't knock it if you haven't tried it--and I don't generally care for
iced tea since most of what you usually get is either a mix or they
haven't cleaned the dispenser in months and it's fermenting or
something. But no kidding, Lebanese iced tea is different.
Bill
Anodyne
(Bill) writes:
>We drink it by the gallon. Lebanese iced te
>is black tea with lemon and rose water, lightly sweetened, not too
>cold, with a teaspooon of raw pine nuts floating on the top. Great!
This sounds very interesting. Love the idea of a touch of rose water. Do the
pine nuts add anything to the taste or are they just garnish, I ponder? I often
use them/toasted in salads and such, and am trying to contemplate what taste
they might impart to the iced tea, if any?
Holly L. Hatfield-Busk
Bill
They do not seem to add any taste to the liquid as such. Most folks
seem to fish them out and crunch on them alone or with ice cubes. It's
habit forming. Sometimes you can either impale them on the end of the
straw or suck them up if the straw is big enough.
Bill