have you tried blossoming flower teas?
I finally watched Sophia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette over the weekend. It wasn’t nearly as bad as people had said it was. It fact I was completely entertained by the satiny, lacey, poufy and excessive lives of the young queen and her cohorts. (I think it’s because I saw Grindhouse during the day and needed a girly anecdote to Tarantino’s machismo.) At one point near the end of the film, Marie’s brother comes to visit her from Austria, and she pours him a cup of flowering jasmine tea — “a gift from the emperor” she says. It was so beautiful, I’m dying to find some myself. I tracked down these two at Tea Palace in London but would rather not pay such steep shipping costs. Do you know a U.S. store where you can buy such magical brews? What does lotus flower tea taste like, anyhow? Wouldn’t this be a great way to make an impression for a special guest! Let them drink tea! — Angela M.
April 17th, 2007 at 8:09 am
I think adagio teas has some that bloom under their display teas section
April 17th, 2007 at 8:13 am
Dragonwater Teas is an online store here in the states. They are great. Fast shipping and the eas are wonderful. It is hard to limit what I buy! They are all in stay fresh bags. You even earn dragonwater money for each purchase.
Here are the flower teas they carry
http://www.dragonwater.com/search.tf/tea/flower_tea/
April 17th, 2007 at 8:14 am
Hi, if you are near a Whole Foods, go to their tea section. Look for Numi; they have flowering teas that are pretty good, and not terribly expensive. A lot of specialty/gourmet food shops will also carry flowering teas. Also, after you have finished the tea, you can keep the “flower” in a shallow dish of water for a few days as a centerpiece or whatever.
April 17th, 2007 at 8:17 am
Teaposy makes these teas and they come with glass pots. They are beautiful and taste great. Here’s their website: http://teaposy.com/
April 17th, 2007 at 8:29 am
gotta try numi teas. they are the best.
April 17th, 2007 at 8:30 am
http://www.worldpantry.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/CategoryDisplay?cgmenbr=175633&cgrfnbr=191379
*Numi’s website
April 17th, 2007 at 8:32 am
http://fullbloomtea.com/ is the main source I know of. Their prices are reasonable and they sell teapots and mugs (even travel mugs!) that show off the blooms.
April 17th, 2007 at 9:54 am
http://www.Adagio.com
Fantastic tea vendor with one-stop tea shopping of all kinds, and the coolest brewing contraptions ever. They also have those clear teapots for flower teas.
April 17th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Full bloom Tea as Sarah mentioned has a nice supply of Silver White Needle Teas, glass teaware. And are packaged in a unique way suitable for sending someone as a gift. I am the founder. We have a sample of 3 of our tea blooms at just $2 each to cover shipping/handling for those that want to try first.
April 18th, 2007 at 6:44 am
I completely agree with Adagio teas they have anything and everything tea related! And if you are anywhere near a Sur La Table store they also sell the flowering teas, teapots and glass tea cups as well.
April 18th, 2007 at 8:43 am
have you tried this? http://www.sympathyforthekettle.com. Also Salon T on 21?
April 18th, 2007 at 11:24 am
Primulatea.com has a good selection and I hear they are coming out with a flowering tea in the shape of a star….
April 19th, 2007 at 6:50 am
Try your local Chinatown — tea shops there should carry some flowering teas, often sold in bulk so you can buy one or two to try.
April 20th, 2007 at 7:31 am
Go to http://www.violet.com; they even have one of those beautiful clear teapots to go with it. I got one for my yoga instructor!
April 21st, 2007 at 8:37 am
http://www.rariteas.com/
I have ordered from this website before and the teas are great!
April 24th, 2007 at 12:01 am
I eighth the recommendation of Numi teas. (Not a flowering tea per se, but we live on their “Monkey King” jasmine green tea around my house. The only other ones I’ve liked as much are Foojoy’s canned stuff that you can get at Pearl River Mart (so inexpensive, with full leaves that rehydrate and look almost fresh after they’re steeped - the one I had was a blue cylinder with white cranes on it) and Yamamotoyama’s tea, which you can get either from Asian markets or in a repackaged version imported by Stash.)
I have a tea question, though this post may be too old to get much note… I used to get a tea called Mad Hatter’s Tea Party from the Virgin Megastore Cafe in Orlando, FL. The tea came in a box with mostly black and hot pink or violet cover art. It was black tea flavored with a few things… vanilla for sure, as well as at least one or two kinds of berry, maybe also rose. I don’t have the box anymore, and I don’t remember who made the tea. I last bought it about 3.5 years ago. I think their website was still up 3 years ago, don’t know if they are still around anymore. (I think it might have been “RealiTea”, but there’s nothing at realitea.com or realiteas.com.) Can anyone help? Googling “Mad Hatter’s Tea Party” doesn’t help, for obvious reasons.
April 30th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
VivaTerra usually carries them. It seems as though they’re currently only available as part of a larger assortment, but I’ve seen them in the catalog as a standalone item.
http://www.vivaterra.com/pls/enetrixp/!stmenu_template.main?complex_id_in=482007.488301.493435.1065548.page
May 1st, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Thank you Trillan for your kind comments…we have expanded our line …please allow me to send you a couple of our new bulbs n/c.
You are kind and we are thankful for your patronage.
mdh
May 7th, 2007 at 8:36 am
[...] teas, something I had seen in a movie but had never tried in real life. A bunch of you left great suggestions on how to find them, and now I am happy to report that I have! I brewed a bunch from [...]
June 5th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
You can buy these teas at: http://www.teasetc.com
June 21st, 2007 at 5:27 pm
Thank for the tip on http://www.TeasEtc.com and flowering teas.
While I’ve bought from several of the other vendors mentioned - and always been very satisfied - this site has amazing prices and GREAT tasting flowering teas. Nice assortment of all glass teapots to boot.
August 9th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
I am an avid collector of these teas, and the largest selection I’ve found anywhere is http://www.kasora.com. I’m not affiliated with the company, and I’m not joking either. You could spend a lot of time bouncing around from website to website and never get the selection you get from Kasora. Take a look at their website, and you’ll see what I mean.