Great Eats at Chado Tearoom

Hi Everybody,

Today I went to a wonderful tearoom in Pasadena and of course there is a story connected to this.  Well, last Christmas I received a gift from my “almost” sister-in-law Jennifer.  I say that because my son married a twin and Jennifer is the other twin – so we really all are so close that she is considered part of me.  Anyhow, this gift was a gift bag of some wonderful loose tea from this great tearoom called Chado (www.chadotea.com).  Well, I’m kind of weird – after tasting it and enjoying it so much, I didn’t use it often because I didn’t want to use it up.  I sometimes do these strange things.  Last week I made a big pitcher of iced tea with that special tea and it was totally amazing.  My family craves iced tea whenever they come over, so I absolutely must have iced tea in the fridge.  I always have fruit flavored brewed tea ready for them, otherwise I would be in big trouble.  Well, this particular iced tea was so amazing that again I was afraid they would drink it up and “bye bye” special tea.  So, Jennifer and I went to Chado today and had lunch and of course, had the tea.  I didn’t know what the name of it was, so I brought what I had left from my Christmas present with me.  Lunch was great at Chado and we both bought a good size bag of the loose tea.  It is a fruit flavored black tea made up with different berries blended together.  Yummmmmm!  When I make iced tea I use one of those round screened tea infusers on a chain and put about 3 teaspoons of loose tea in it and hang it over a quart pitcher.  When the water almost comes to a boil, I pour the water over the tea infuser into the pitcher and let it steep for at least 25 minutes.  I do it that long because when ice is put into a glass before you put the cold tea into the glass, in time the ice melts and then the flavor of the tea isn’t as strong.  You certainly don’t want to do without that flavor.  Anyhow, that’s how I do it and I better keep making it.  I bought enough to last for quite awhile so I’ll be generous to my family.  HA!  By the way, we are a fun family group and as I keep blogging, you will see what I cook for them and my friends.