Thanksgiving Holiday Hours

Just a heads up: The Good Leaf will be closed for the Thanksiving Holiday on November 27th and 28th, and we'll be closing at 7pm on the 26th. We will be open for biz as usual on Saturday the 29th.

More than a cuppa tea

When I decided to go into the tea business, I wanted to offer more than just a cuppa tea (not that there's anything wrong with that). I was enthralled by the history of tea, as well as by the capacity of tea to offer unparalleled health and well-being benefits. Tea is associated with ceremony, spirituality and connection; and for centuries, tea has been the chosen beverage for meditators seeking insight and personal awakening. Tea's association with hospitality and ability to facilitate connection and transcendence is elegantly portrayed through the Japanese tea ceremony, chadao (chadao means the way of tea), which builds on four priniciples: harmony, respect, tranquility, and purity.

In designing The Good Leaf teahouse, I hoped that in addition to providing bubble tea to the tapioca deprived population of Albany, and premium loose leaf tea to our local aficioanados, I could also provide an oasis in the heart of urban Albany and an atmosphere conducive to experiencing "the way of tea".

Although I offer no formal tea ceremony, every once in a while I am delighted to get a hint that I achieved my goal. Most recently, Deb Cavanaugh was sitting in the teahouse and asked me for a piece of paper and pen. Later she offered me the following:

The Good Leaf

It's tea time on Lark Street,
The sound of inspiration floating through the air.
Apricot Oolong warms me from the inside out.
Pumpkin bread with orange glaze soothes my sweet tooth
and calms the growling beast in my belly.
I am at peace in this timeless place,
The big red Buddha laughing away my busy bustle,
a zen fountain washing away all anxiety.
I have found my muse.
I am at peace in this world.
Aaah...

I thank Deb for allowing me to share her prose.

Deb Cavanaugh is a poet and musician. She is a member of the musical duo Cavanaugh and Kavanaugh, www.cavandkav.com and will be celebrating the release of their CD at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs at 8pm on November 29th.

Brrr

My neck hurts; is it possible to have meteorologic whiplash?

Just this weekend, customers were sitting outside enjoying our cafe tables, and today we're winterizing the place. Because it's Upstate New York and it's October and it's snowing. Big, giant snowflakes that delighted me as a child, but have lost their ability to enthuse.

So I was sitting here complaining and feeling annoyed and preparing to post a rant, and suddenly realized that I'm warm and safe and hanging out in a cozy setting that smells good, listening to relaxing music and surrounded by hot tea which, obviously, I love; I guess I have nothing to complain about.

Some early closings

Just want to offer a little heads up - The Good Leaf will be closing at 8pm on Tuesday September 30th. We'll also be closing at 7pm on Monday, October 6th. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Inspirational Green Teas

Yesterday, 12 year-old Liliana spent some time in the teahouse with her brother and mom. They're home-schooled and working on a tea project this year. As part of their studies, they visit The Good Leaf from time to time and sample different teas. Yesterday, while comparing Japanese and Chinese green teas, Lily was inspired to poetry:

a light scent of grass

washes through boiling water

Japanese green tea

like dreamy summers

smoking on a charcoal grill

Chinese strong green tea

I think her impressions were spot on.

Yesterday Lily was inspired by green tea, and I was impressed and inspired by Lily.

Changes on the Horizon

As many of you know, The Good Leaf runs a small teashop at Albany's artisan market, "At the Warehouse". We were the first merchants to become involved with Fred and Camille's warehouse venture, and we've enjoyed being part of the evolution of such an eclectic and creative project. Since the Lark street teahouse has been open, Joe has been running the warehouse teabar and I'm so grateful for his enthusiasm and assistance. But with the opening of the new shop, along with the online business and other projects and accounts, we're finding ourselves spread a bit thin. So I've chosen to close the warehouse location at the end of September. We'll be there for the next two weeks - hot tea, iced tea, bubble tea, loose tea, teapots and all. Hope you'll stop by and visit, and if you haven't been to the new shop at 274 Lark St, we have everything we've had at the warehouse, and much more. I'd love to see you there.

Why I Love it Loose!

Why do I prefer loose tea to teabags? It could be because I'm very fancy, or because I like to complicate my life, but it's not. I love it loose because it's better that way.

I grew up in a tea drinking family. My mother kept a cabinet filled with teabags of all varieties and it was always a little exciting choosing which tea to drink. When I reached my mid-teens I turned to coffee and drank my share of Joe for many years. I would go through occasional tea phases where I would only drink tea. It was bagged tea and I enjoyed it, but my tea phases weren't long lasting. I would lose interest. In retrospect, this was probably because the tea was not that compelling.

I can't remember how I happened upon my first cup of loose leaf tea. It was an Earl Grey. I had been drinking bagged Earl Grey my entire life, and truthfully, never much cared for it. I found it to be dull and bland with a weak flavor that I had difficulty identifying. But when I first experienced the aroma and later the crisp, bergamot fruitiness of the loose Earl Grey tea, I was completely delighted. I realized that I never really tasted Earl Grey tea before. Then I tried an English Breakfast and had the same experience. Who knew that unflavored tea could have so much flavor! This was a profound experience for me because those first couple of cups of loose tea were so compelling that they set me on a life-altering path.

I soon discovered the reason loose tea tends to be better than bagged tea. When tea is manufactured, one of the final steps in the manufacture is sorting and grading of the tea. The tea leaves are passed through sieves in order to sort out the larger leaves from the smaller leaves. The larger leaves (sometimes graded as Orange Pekoe or Flowery Orange Pekoe) are higher grade teas than the smaller pieces (or Broken Orange Pekoe). The smallest pieces that pass through all the sieves are known as fannings or tea dust. These fannings are often reserved for the manufacture of bagged tea.

That already sounds kind of disgusting, but, the truth is - dust of fine quality tea will be fine quality tea, and flowery orange pekoe leaves of poor quality tea will still be poor quality tea. I believe the main problem with bagged tea arises because the small pieces of tea have more surface area. The greater surface area means that more of the flavor yielding essestial oils in the tea leaf are exposed to air. Any off flavors will be magnified. And another thing: once exposed to air, the staling process begins. The smaller the tea particle, the more quickly it will become stale and lose its inherent flavor characteristics. And for me, that's the biggest problem with bagged tea, especially supermarket varieties. There's no way to know when it was produced and how long it has been sitting on the supermarket shelf. Your brand new box of Earl Grey tea may be fresh and wonderfully satisfying or it may be years old and completely stale the day you open it.

And there's no reason to use bagged tea for convenience because it's really simple to brew loose tea nowadays. There are so many nifty brewing devices. Stop in the shop and I'll be happy to show you a variety of options. I really love the Smart TeaMaker, and other choices like pots with built in infusers, tea sacs, infuser mugs, and even teaballs (not my favorite - but I'll save that for a different post) also work really well. It's just as easy to infuse high quality, beautiful, aromatic and delicious loose tea as it is to use an old, stale, dust filled tea bag.

Oh, and loose tea is a better value too!

Gotta go, Earl's waiting.