Dear Tea Friends,

THREE TEA TRICKS & TEA EVENTS

It seems as if I’ve been on the hop for weeks. First, there was the wonderful “An Occasion for Tea” event hosted by Tea Time magazine in Salt Lake City. As Master Tea Blender John Harney remarked, it was like old home week for the speakers who got a chance to catch up with each other and talk shop in a sumptuous space. The hotel was every bit as elegant as the St. Regis located on New York’s Fifth Avenue. The food was always delicious and everyone looked so glamorous at the gala.

I enjoyed meeting the charming staff of the charming Hoffman Media publication- they all managed to be pleasant and professional at all hours and it was satisfying to finally have faces to go with the cheerful voices on the other end of the phone. It was doubly fun to greet long-time tea pals and meet lots of new friends while signing books in the Elmwood Inn booth along with Dorothea Johnson Founder and Chair of The Protocol School of Washington®. Ms. Johnson invited me to join her for lunch and graciously taught me a thing or two including calculating the tip properly. Figure on the food, she said, rather than the total bill which includes the tax.

But all good things come to an end, unfortunately, due to severe East Coast snow storms, the airlines had overbooked many return flights from Salt Lake City. I surrendered my seat to a man who had been on standby for 4 days! Even so, there were so many others ahead of him that the poor fellow didn't get out. I was luckily re-routed through Atlanta, the next day, with a 24 hr. lay-over which gave me an opportunity to visit an old friend as well as the Swan Coach House to talk to the restaurant manager re my June 9th TEA WITH FRIENDS EVENT.

I’m delighted to report that the site is even lovelier than the photos posted on their website www.swancoachhouse.com. Rooms aglow with sunlight are graced with bouquets of fresh flowers. The menu - including their famous chicken salad and pimento cheese sandwiches, frozen fruit salad dusted with pecans, and “silk” swan dessert (meringue with slivered almond "feathers" and chocolate innards) - is delicious. There's also a six room gift shop jam-packed with silver, glass and china serveware, tea pots, cups/mugs books, jewelry, pillows, picture frames and more pretty things than you could shake a stick at. And there's the art gallery which was also featuring one-of-a-kind teapots.

One woman, who attended the Salt Lake City Tea Time Event, emailed that she’d enjoyed tea at the Swan Coach House, “ I was fortunate to have tea there in 2005 … That tea service was one to remember - quite a beautiful place and everything just so.  Dorothea would be very happy there. Your event will be wonderful …” T. W.

Your $55 ticket to the Swan Coach House includes my talk, book signing, tea tastings and tea brewed by Spirit of the Lotus Tea House, www.LotusTeaHouse.com, three-course afternoon tea served on tiered stands and door prizes. Please note, regrettably, your ticket does not include admission to the Swan House and Gardens, part of the Atlanta History Center complex, located next door.

We’ve already booked 17 people for the afternoon event and that's before my publisher’s press releases have gone out or ads have appeared in various magazines! Avoid disappointment, visit www.teawithfriends.com now to reserve your space by Paypal. Can't wait to meet everyone at either the 10:00 AM or 1:00 PM seating.

I beat my suitcase home from Salt Lake City by five days- just in time to host another TEA IN THE CITY NEW YORK TEA TOUR. Participants came from as far away as California and Minnesota and as close to home as Brooklyn and suburban New Jersey. Lady Gayle of the Tea House Times and her mother-in-law participated and Lady G wrote about the afternoon on her blog: http://www.theteahousetimes.com/hearallaboutit.htm.

Heather Cross, a journalist who writes for About New York City for Visitors, also joined the group and posted her review: http://gonyc.about.com/od/toursbr/gr/tea_in_the_city.htm

The next tours will be held on April 15th and May 13th visit www.teawithfriends.com for details and to book your space.

THREE TEA TRICKS
FROM E. LUARD

When I finally got a day off, my husband and I packed up the cats and drove to our country house for the weekend. Puttering around the kitchen, looking for inspiration for dinner, I picked up a water-stained copy of “The Princess and the Pheasant and other recipes,” by Elisabeth Luard. Under the section titled, “Secrets,” she describes three “tea tricks.”

TEA GRAVY

“Tea is an interestingly versatile brew. I know of three tricks with it. The first was an accidental discovery. I like my gravy for a roast to be dark and rich colour… Bovril is too harsh, soy sauce tastes of itself, and reliance solely on the little bits of caramelized meat in the bottom of the roasting-tin is risky. Nor will red wine do; it turns the mixture the shade of a bruised Victoria plum. The answer, believe me, is tea. Cold tea, hot tea, Lapsang Suchong, whatever you please, a quick slug of it into a pallid gravy works miracles.”

BOSTON TEA
The second sleight-of-hand with tea is to use a good strong brew as the basis of a fruit punch - An American secret.

2 pints hot tea
1 pint fresh orange juice
Juice of 3 lemons
½ pint boiling water
4 heaped spoons of sugar or honey
Ginger ale

Mix all together while hot. Then chill. Serve iced, diluted with equal quantities of ginger ale. Any and all experimentation is permissible--passion-fruit juice, grenadine, springs of mint- as long as the tea remains the base.

(AND JUST IN TIME TO DYE THOSE EASTER EGGS)

My third tea trick is a dye: a boil-up in a strong brew will turn anything, from boiled eggs to silk ribbons, a delicate shade of tan. There are moments in life when such knowledge can be extremely useful.

SAVE THE DATE

MOTHER’S DAY CELEBRATIONS AT THE PENINSULA NEW YORK

Weekend Events Include Saturday Mother-Daughter Afternoon Tea and Sunday Champagne Buffet Brunch

The Peninsula New York is celebrating Mother’s Day this year with a Saturday Mother-Daughter Afternoon Tea and Sunday Champagne Buffet Brunch.

Tea Master Elizabeth Knight Hosts Mother-Daughter Tea

On Saturday, May 12, 2007, Gotham Lounge presents a delightful Mother-Daughter Tea hosted by internationally acclaimed tea master Elizabeth Knight.  Author of “Tea with Friends” and “Tea in the City: New York” Ms. Knight is a certified English Tea Master who has traveled the world expanding her knowledge of tea and tea traditions.  She regularly conducts tea tours and tea education classes in New York City.  Ms. Knight will speak to guests about the art of “Taking Tea” with topics including English tea time traditions, etiquette and history.

The Mother-Daughter Tea includes warm scones and a selection of finger sandwiches, breads, and petits fours presented on a silver three-tier stand, with a choice of Peninsula Signature Tea and a choice of Harney & Sons Tea.  The Tea is held from 2:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.  The price is $48.00 per person.  For reservations, please call 212-903-3873.  Gotham Lounge serves afternoon tea daily from 2:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.  Additional information is available at http://newyork.peninsula.com/pny/dining_03.html.

Happy Passover and Happy Easter,

Elizabeth Knight