Halloween is passed, and I'm already looking forward to future spooky seasons. To this end, I thought I'd share with you one of my favorite tea rituals - that is Tea-Leaf Reading. Below I've laid out a step by step guide to reading leaves, something you can do for yourself and your friends. All you need is a question,  some tea, a cup, a plate, and an open mind to get started. 

So here is my labor of love, the stitchbook, scanned page by page for your viewing pleasure. I'm about halfway through the book now. It gets a lot of use, so don't mind the frayed edges or the tea stains!

Have you visited Sarah at Juniper yet? She's a super friendly MICA alum with an intimate spice shop in Mt Vernon Marketplace, and an intimate knowledge of tea blending. There is one tea on her shelf that mustn't be blended, however. That's the Pu-erh: our sip of the month.

Tea makes my world go round because it comes from all around the world. Every cup is different depending on where it's grown. Because of this sensitivity, a plant like the Camillia Sinensis (tea) can be grown on two mountain tops, treated the exact same way from pluck to packaging, and still end up tasting distinctly different from each other in the cup. That's the Terroir, the taste of a place. This month I have for you the taste of two Greek mountain tops, courtesy of Katie O'Keefe.

I can't remember my first cup of tea, only that I hated it. Tea was my mother's drink, my grandmother's, my great aunt's, my nana's, but not mine. More appealing were the fizzy syrupy sodas, milk swirled with chocolate, juice out of a box. I had a young uncomplicated palate. Thankfully tastes change, it's the growing that sticks with us.