Still low on actual call-in participants, but we already have a few friendly regulars in the chatroom. Take a listen (click HERE to subscribe in iTunes):

In the future, extra tea from the samples sent to me will be given to those willing to call in and review them with me on the live show (as an incentive for jumping into the live conversation and helping me keep things going).

Keep an eye on the STeaP calendar and you'll be seeing more scheduled episodes further out so that you'll have plenty of time to order the tea and try it with me. Show "notes" will also be coming in the form of Del.icio.us links that I will update during/after each show and hopefully get set up automatically post in a digest after each live show. See you next week!

Here's the recording to listen to if you missed the live broadcast (click HERE to subscribe on iTunes):

Tea: Tea Guys / Tease Tropical Green tea, 1.5 teaspoons per cup, 180]]> Wed, 04 Feb 2009 03:51:40 -0800 http://virb.com/steap/posts/text/1069652 http://virb.com/steap/posts/text/1066911 Are you READY? Tomorrow evening marks the first ever live audio-only episode of STeaP on TalkShoe, and we'll be reviewing Tease Tropical Green from The Tea Guys.

If you've purchased the tea, you can try it along with me, or you can listen as I try the tea for the first time. I'll also be taking questions from any and all of the live listeners and I'll have some questions for all of you as well so that we can keep the conversation going!

To get ready for this big event, click on the image above and get yourselves comfortable and familiar with TalkShoe. Sign up if you'd like, follow the show, and check out some of the other live show to see what the chatroom looks like and figure out how you want to listen and participate (via phone, VOIP, the TalkShoe ShoePhone, etc).

I can't wait to chat tea with all of you! Hopefully it will be a blast! :)

Host: Brandice Schnabel
Guest Co-Host: Cathy Schnabel

Teas: Teavana Silver Needle and Ocean of Tea Silver Needle

For discussion of this and other episodes, or to ask questions about STeaP or tea in general, check out our online community, or leave comments at STeaPtv.com!

STeaP Live Discussion Thread - Tell me what you think, and learn more about the specifics of the plan!

STeaP Live on TalkShoe - First show on February 3rd at 8 pm EST.

And prior to the launch of the live portion of STeaP, next week will be video episode #67, co-hosted by my mother-in-law! :)

To start, the tea should be placed in a strainer that allows the tea leaves room to expand during steeping. Many loose leaf teas are curled or balled up during processing and when you add the hot water they need room to unfurl so that the final cup gets all the flavor that can be extracted from the leaf. If you use a strainer that is too small, you may not get the full flavor of the tea because the leaf remains constricted.

Water matters for a number of reasons. First of all, tea is mostly water. So the flavor of the water will effect the flavor of your cup. Some people use spring water, some people use tap water, some people filter their water - whatever tastes best to you.

After water source, the preparation method is important. Heating your water by boiling is generally seen as a better option then microwaving. Because of the way that microwaves heat the water, it effects the amount of air that moves through the water during the heating process and this can cause a "flat" taste from water that is microwaved. Boiling moves the water around more and is believed to create a better tasting tea. The water that comes from your tea kettle - or even the hot water spigot on your office water cooler - will likely create a tastier tea then one made with microwaved water.

Water temperature matters because tea can be a delicate plant. If you scald a delicate tea leaf by using water that is too hot, the leaf is shocked into releasing more tannins - which leads to bitterness. Using water that is too hot is what I believe leads to many people who say 'I don't like green tea." I don't like bitter green tea either. An easy way to measure water temperature is with a instant-read thermometer, I use a meat thermometer at home. They also make fancy electronic ones, with digital read outs and lasers. Use whatever works for you. (There are other ways to guesstimate water temp. That's another post.)

Always pour the water over the tea leaves, this allows the water to move through the leaves and prevents clumping of damp or dry leaves in the center. Dunking the leaves into the water may lead to clumping, which prevents you from getting the full flavor. A little agitation is good for the leaves as it helps move the water around - feel free to bounce your filter of choice around in your cup or pot a little bit to get every last yummy .

The amount of time you steep your leaves for is important because of the tannins in the leaf. The longer the leaves are in the water the more tannins are extracted into the water. The amount of tannin in relation to the amount of water effects the bitterness of the tea. So the more tannins in a single serving, the more bitter it will be. If you over steep, aka leave the tea in the water too long, your cup will extract more tannins from the tea then may be desired and you will likely end up with a bitter cuppa.

I always recommend starting with the manufacturer's or retailer's suggested preparation directions. After that play with it some and see what you prefer. Some teas work best with lower temperature waters and longer steeps, some with hotter water and shorter steeps.

I hope this has helped you better understand why you prepare loose leaf tea the way you do. If you have any questions, or I've missed something, or you'd like more detail on any of the above items, leave a comment here or over at the forums, and I'll be happy to answer your questions.

Leaving typical tea bags behind can seem daunting from the outside, but it's much simpler than it looks, and very worth the transition, so this episode if for anyone who wants to know more about the basics of making loose leaf tea. If you're already an expert and you receive that same blank stare from your friends and co-workers, share this video with the people who might benefit from a (hopefully) straightforward crash course on the basics.

Keep in mind that this is simply the talk that I typically give to a tea novice, and the advice is based largely on my own opinion and my own experiences. It's also simplified for a tea beginner, and I sincerely apologize for the glare on my glasses, but it went so well on the first take that I simply balked at the idea of filming it again with better aligned lighting. This will have to do. :)

Host - Brandice

For further talk of tea and further advice on that tastiest beverages, please visit STeaPtv.com and browse our past episodes, or interact with other fans at our tea-chatty STeaP community.

I decided to share the footage with you anyway, because while Dianah did not enjoy the tea (I can tell you that since we barely mention the tea in our bizarre and disjointed filming), I very much did enjoy the tea, and you all know how intensely critical I am of the Earl Grey category of black tea.

I don't mention it enough during what became an ever-wandering conversation about Christmas, but the tea was a very respectable Earl Grey, and it is finally an Earl Grey (other than the one I had a hand in) that I feel comfortable recommending on the show, if you're looking for something light.

Enjoy some post-holiday debauchery, and we'll see you next week!

Host - Brandice
Guest Co-Host - Dianah

Tea - Ocean of Tea Earl Grey Premium, 3 minutes, boiling

For discussion of this and other episodes, or to ask questions about STeaP or tea in general, check out our online community, or leave comments at STeaPtv.com!

Host - Brandice
Guest Co-Host - Dianah

Tea - Teavana Golden Monkey

For discussion of this and other episodes, or to ask questions about STeaP or tea in general, check out our online community, or leave comments at STeaPtv.com!

Hosted by Brandice, with guest co-host Dianah.

Beverage - Tea Frog Assam Banaspaty, first in apple cider with Biltmore Estate Wassail Spice Blend, then steeped with just the Biltmore Wassail Blend added

Blog - http://steaptv.com
Community - http://steaptv.ning.com

Host - Brandice
Guest Co-Host - Dianah

Felicitea Vanilla Spice - 5 minutes, 212]]> Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:45:58 -0800 http://virb.com/steap/posts/text/987607 http://virb.com/steap/posts/text/960545 Sometimes, you just have to take a second sip... ;)

What does this mean? Well, for starters, you'll be seeing Summer on the blog as one of our contributors. The other thing you will be seeing down the line is occasional footage (especially tutorials) on tea that Summer will be doing specifically for STeaP. We're very excited to have her, and I'm happy to share the interview below with all of you. Enjoy!

When was the company founded, and where?

What eventually became Felicitea was founded in 2001 in Lancaster, PA and was called Seasonal Touches with a focus on more then just tea. When I went to massage school, it was changed to A Touch of Autumn focusing on teas and massage.

Then, in October of 2007, we found the perfect name in Felcitea, a company focused on bringing everyone a taste of happiness through tea, massage, and related gifts.

Talk a bit about starting your company.

When I was 14, we lived in a little town called Wharton, about an hour south of Houston, TX. There was a small cafe/coffee shop/book store there that I simply adored called the Blue Moon (something or other). I decided, upon my first visit, that I wanted to have something like this when I grew up. I still do.

I hung on to this dream all through my teens. I wanted to pursue this actively but was nay-sayed and doubted by many around me. Then a friend saw me scribbling a sketch of store front ideas. She asked what I was doing and I told her about my dream. That night she said, "Let's do it!" The next week we ordered our first small batch of teas. Refreshing Afternoon and Day Dream blends were created out of that first batch of herbs.

I started there because as a child my mother would make herbal remedies when we were ill. These helped but tasted awful. I wanted to create blends that were good for you AND tasted good. I think I've managed to find a good balance between health and taste.

We started with green and herbal blends, and have included oolongs and blacks as both our market and my palate increased.

Wholesale, retail and custom blending is not where I pictured being when we started, but I'm very happy with the organic growth and change we've experienced. I love tea and I can't imagine doing anything else.

What are your company's specialties?

Felicitea is special for a number of reasons.

First, we're tiny. And every customer gets to interact with the owner/blender. I take a lot of pride in the fact that I am involved in every step of the process.

All of the blends are special. They were created in the test kitchen based on what I liked, enjoyed and thought would go well together. Many we custom made for friends, and then happily shared with the world. Each blend has a true story, something you'll only find at Felicitea.

I think the best service/product we offer is custom blending. Find the story that a customer wants their tea to tell, and creating a blend that does just that. I think of it much like creating a play. The customer gives me the lines, and I fill in tone, set, props, costumes, music and lighting to create their vision in a cup.

I also do these custom haiku tea cups. You can get a tea cup with a tea related haiku on it - customizable to an idea or a name.

What do you sell the most of?

My best selling tea is Sloth Tea. It's a delicious blend of gunpowder green tea, peppermint, catnip and chamomile.

I think it's one of those teas that offers a little something for everyone: it tastes great, it's good for you, it's fantastic iced and hot. It's the tea I offer people who say, "but I don't like tea." I haven't met a single person who's tasted it and walked away still feeling like they don't like tea.

What tea would you recommend to a novice tea drinker, and why?

Sloth Tea, again, because it's easy and if you over steep it the herbals mellow any bitterness from the green tea. It's a strong tea that can handle a little scalding or over steepage, and it just wonderful when made perfectly.

What is your process? How does your company work?

I select herbs from a number of sources. I try to get as much local, organically grown herbs as possible. What I can't I get from a sustainable, earth-friendly source. Teas also come as close to the estate as I can manage.

From there teas are blended based on my awareness of flavors. I love playing with flavors and using just a hint of this to add a touch of sweetness or spice to a tea. I think some of the best tastes, in tea and food, are the little surprises you find in your cup or plate and I aim to bring that to my customers.

What is YOUR favorite tea?

This is tough! I carry at least 20 blends currently.

Lately I've been drinking this new blend called Earl Grey Brandice ;) in the mornings. It's delicious and I think it'll be my winter favorite. Though Oolong Summer is my favorite oolong, and Sloth Tea is my favorite green blend.

In the summer I love Oolong Summer and Sloth Tea iced. Made double strength and poured over ice, blended with juice, lemonade or even some vodka, they're awesome.

For caffeine free yumminess I go with the Rooibus Sweet Tea, which simply rocks my world with a touch of local honey!

I told you - tough to choose just one.

Do you offer purchasable samples of your teas?

I do!

I offer sample tins that cost $2. They hold enough for 3-5 cups of tea, breaking it down to 30-50 cents a cup. A deal for a tasting.

Plus, the tins are recyclable. I use them for paper clips, spices, stitch markers, any small sewing notions, spare screws.

Take a look at what Felicitea is offer right now during the holiday season!

• Intro to Tea Class
• Felicitea Gift Sets
• Etsy Shop with customized mugs and gifts

The plan is to get the domain moved from Joe's hosting to mine, eat some turkey over the Thanksgiving season, figure out a schedule for the new contributors (including some possible video footage!), make some adjustments to the website once it's moved to my hosting, get a large backlog of prizes mailed to most of you, get some raw STeaP footage piled up for a few episodes, and then jump back into STeaP before Christmas so that I can give away some Christmas goodies to all of you (of which I have many!).

In the meantime, enjoy some more activity on the blog outside of just podcast entries, and please let me know what you want to see and read from STeaP as we continue to evolve into something that I hope will be increasingly successful long term. :)

To make up for no episode this week, check out Anthony Bourdain's tasting of Uzbekistan tea? Sounds a bit like the men are the only ones who get to enjoy it, but the customs around the tea are interesting... how much tea to put in a cup, etc. If anyone finds any and send it my way (or just tell me where I can order it), there will be tea prizes!

See you on the forums and on the flip side!

My first interview is with Mike Morton, the owner and founder of TeaFrog, founded in 2006 and based online out of Oakville, Ontario with distributors throughout Canada. I've spoken with Mike through reviewing many of his teas for the STeaP podcast since late 2007, and he was all too happy to answer a few questions about his company. Enjoy!

Tell us a bit about starting your company.

I have been a tea drinker for all of my life, and until about 4 years ago, the only tea I knew was Orange Pekoe Tetley Teabags. :) My daughter visited Japan in 2004 and the family that she stayed with sent back a gift package of good green tea. At the time I had no idea how to brew it, taste it, etc, and we could not even read the packaging because it was all in Japanese! We figured out how to make it eventually, and were surprised at how amazing it was compared to the teabag store bought that we had been drinking.

As I started to research and explore tea, I grew a passion for finding good tea, and sharing what I knew with friends and family. As I grew evermore - lets say, *obsessed* with it, I started to notice that tea was getting more popular, but the outlets for different varieties and flavors for experimenting with were limited. I just naturally took what I knew about business from previous experience, paired it with a passion, and lo and behold, TeaFrog was born! :)

What are your company's specialties?

While we offer a wide variety of blends and single source teas, I think that most of my customers would say that we are best known for our friendly natures and willingness to educate! So many people are just not familiar with tea, but want to get into it from what they have heard of. They do not have a frame of reference or a starting point, and lets be honest, it CAN be a bit intimidating! So we provide education through tastings, and through talking to individuals one by one, be it on the phone, at craft shows, or online. So I would say that our ability to teach people how to explore and enjoy tea is what we are known for.

Oh, and our Rooibos Love blend - customers just cannot get enough of that! :)

What do you sell the most of?

Rooibos Love, by far and away is our most popular, tho our flavored white tea blends are quickly gaining popularity and nipping at the heels of our Rooibos blends! In particular the Blueberry White and Coconut Vanilla White teas are almost always out of, or close to out of stock!

What tea would you recommend to a novice tea drinker, and why?

I never recommend only one tea. We offer small, 10g sample packs, and if someone truly does not know where to start, I build them a pack of China Moon Palace, Kiyoto Lemon, Assam Banaspaty (when in stock...;0 ), 1001 Nights, Rooibos Love, Rooibos Caramel Cream, Stress Reliever, Hawaii Cocktail and Blueberry White to get them started. Inevitably they find a type of tea that they enjoy, and from there I can start recommending the direction that they take to grow their love for tea. There are so many different teas, and different experiences to be had, that there is never enough time for one person to explore them all!

What is your process? How does your company work?

We are always exploring all different avenues for different teas, and different blends, whether it is making our own blends, or sourcing and sampling blends and single estate teas from around the world. As a tea company we are always approached by different wholesalers to purchase their products. As such much of my day is spent tasting these samples, and evaluating quality for my customers.

Once we have found a tea or a blend that we think our customers will enjoy, we carefully scrutinize the source of these products to ensure that we can consistently get a high quality product, at a low price and that the company is a responsible business that is environmentally aware and works to preserve and protect through accepted methods of production. Whether this means they use only food grade blending materials, or that they follow standard and/or above standard fiscal practice for their region, we ensure that all aspects of that product are safe for our customers before we even consider selling it.

What is YOUR favorite tea?

Ahh, so many to choose from and so little time....

Let me see, in the mornings, I have been enjoying a brand new estate that is not even on the website yet (gimme about a week or so) - the Rani estate that will be listed as an Assam Organic/Biodynamic SFTGFOP - it is so tasty and complex that it challenges my tastebuds to get active for the day!

With lunch it is inevitably a white tea, specially in the summer, something light such as a Pai Mu Tan or a Coconut Vanilla. Dinner is green - Genmaicha most usually or maybe a Sencha.

This past summer, I have made a great deal of iced tea, it has been so darn HOT! The most refreshing recipe that I make is our Canadian Berry tea, brewed at double strength, then cooled, and blended 1/2 and 1/2 with a good lemonade - unbelievable.

Uhhhh, you just wanted one right?

Do you offer purchasable samples of your teas?

Yes. Each bag is 10g of tea, enough for between 3 and 4 cups of tea. The price for any sample is the same - $2 CDN.

Do you have anything new that you're currently offering?

We always have tea on sale, anywhere from 25 - 50% off. We also offer promotions all the time to enthusiast sites or productions that never expire, and are always valid! Everyday customers can get free shipping in our local area (hand delivered by me, with a smile!!!!) and for all orders to anywhere in North America over $75 shipping is always free.

Oh, and we are now offering a similar product to the ingenuiTEA - the BrewT - similar in operation with an improvement in execution - higher quality body and filter that do not discolor as the ingenuiTEA does (very quickly with my rooibos consumption I may add ;) )

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

STeaP ROCKS! ;) I faithfully tune in every Monday, whether STeaP is reviewing a TeaFrog tea or not, and if you are, I even enjoy the not-so-positive reactions as much as the positive ones.

Thanks to Mike for a great interview and for the passion and enthusiasm he clearly brings to his tea company. Keep an eye out for more Tea Company Spotlight interviews in the future!

Host: Brandice Schnabel, with guests Renae and Dianah

Tea: Mighty Leaf Abaca Tea Box (6 Teas: Organic Breakfast, Bombay Chai, Marrakesh Mint, Organic Hojicha Green Tea, Rainforest Mate and Ginger Twist)

For discussion of this and other episodes, or to ask questions about STeaP or tea in general, check out our online community.

I promise you that we will not be wearing the head gear any longer after this week, and if you'd like to leave some "Yes, STeaP is Revision3-worthy!" comments in the timeline to encourage Revision3 to give out some tea love, please feel free.

As always, you can discuss the show here in the comments or at the Ning community (did you know that you can view the STeaP community on your mobile device in mobile format?), on Twitter (@STeaP), or by emailing Brandice at brandice [at] steaptv [dot] com.

Stay tuned for next week's review of Mighty Leaf's Holiday Tea Box!

Host - Brandice
Guest Co-Host - Dianah

Tea #1 - SerendipiTea Red Oz, 5 minutes, 212
Tea #2 - Tea Guys (Tease) Citrus Burst, 5 minutes, 212

For discussion of this and other episodes, or to ask questions about STeaP or tea in general, check out our online community.

Host - Brandice
Guest Co-Host - Dianah

Tea #1 - Stash Mangosteen Green (3 minutes, 180]]> Mon, 27 Oct 2008 23:32:38 -0700 http://virb.com/steap/posts/text/896151