Food and Things » Tea

Spices and Tease Opens on Broadway on the Upper West Side

Laura Weiss — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 16:01:41 +0000

Spices and Tease (no, it’s not a strip joint), a shop selling teas, salts and spices, will be opening on Broadway mid-summer. What a relief from the madly mushrooming Dunkin’ Donuts in the area. Located between 97th and 98th street, the new spice store will carry 30 varieties of homemade spice blends, an array of salts and 180 types of teas. Spices and Tease is actually a place I might frequent in the area above 96th Street, which is still somewhat of a retail desert.

Operating near Naples and in Paris and the South of France since 1933, the company has been selling spices, teas and salts in the US since 2003. Though the spice merchants have sold their wares at Greenmarkets around the city and at the Green Flea at 77th and Columbus, this is the company’s first retail location.

In addition to spices, salts and other items to purchase, the store will serve pastries and teas, according to its web site.

Some of the items for sale include:

fish and seafood spices
Moroccan Tajine Blend
18 different peppers
more than 13 types of gourmet salt
over 70 original spices and seeds
25 herbs and botanical plants
180 teas

Here’s a partial list of spices:

African Bird Pepper

Blue Poppy Seeds

Caraway Seeds

Cardamom Seeds

Cayenne Pepper Whole (Pili-Pili)

Fennel Seeds

Fenugrek

Green Anise Seeds

Herbes de Provence

Juniper Berries

Mustard Seeds

Nora

Nutmeg

Sage

Saffron

Star Anise

Turmeric

Vanilla Beans

Salts and peppers include:

Black Lava

Fleur de Sel

Green Hawaiian

Tomato Basil

Black Pepper

Cubeb Pepper (Java)

Green Pepper

Long Pepper

Teas include:

Green

Black

Fruit blends

Herbal blends

Spices and Tease

2580 Broadway
between 97th and 98th streets
New York, NY 10025

NY Coffee and Tea Festival Coming Feb. 19-20

Laura Weiss — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 03:06:31 +0000

Coffee pots. Photo by by Lotzman Katzman via flickr.

Coffee drinker or tea lover? Whatever your preference, the NY Coffee and Tea Festival may make you forget (at least for an hour or two) the awful winter we’re having.

Here are the details:

NYC’s COFFEE AND TEA FESTIVAL

What: The northeast Ultimate Barista Challenge® competition and a VIP tea tasting with two guest Hong Kong tea masters. Other offerings:

coffee cupping & tasting,
afternoon tea etiquette,
making tea cocktails,
incorporating coffee into your favorite recipes.
Exhibitors include: Melitta, Tavalon Tea, Harney & Sons Fine Teas, Jalima Coffee, Fang Gourmet Tea, Peet’s Coffee & Tea, TeaClassics, Aroma Espresso Bar, Hancha Tea, Coffee Lab Roasters, Montauk Beverage Works, Runa, Joe’s Coffee House, QTrade Teas, Entenmann’s Coffee, World Green Tea Association, and the Tea Association of the U.S.A.

Where: The Festival will be held at 7 W, 7 West 34th Street. The event is open to the public and the trade. www.CoffeeAndTeaFestival.com.

When: February 19-20, 2011

Tickets can be purchased in advance at: www.CoffeeAndTeaFestival.com. The event is sponsored in part by www.CoffeeAndTeaNewsletter.com. Prices range from $20-$40.

COOKIES: Buy or Bake These Tea Cookies for the Holidays

Laura Weiss — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:14:53 +0000

Dana Jacobi, an acclaimed food writer and cookbook author, will be contributing posts and recipes to Food and Things. Dana has written 10 best-selling cookbooks. Her latest is The Essential Best Foods Cookbook: 225 Irresistible Recipes Featuring the Healthiest and Most Delicious Foods.

Let us know how you like this recipe

Send us your holiday cookie recipes

A good cookie helps me chill out when holiday overload approaches.

When I can get to Amai Tea and Bake House, 171 Third Ave. (between 16th and 17th Sts.), I order their Tea Sweets—superb tea-flavored shortbread cookies. Together with a tea latte, they are as restorative as a yoga class.

Each shortbread tea flavor—from buttery green tea and spicy chai almond, to fruity white tea and strawberry—is filled with aromatic flavors. The individual flavors also boast unique shapes. For instance, the green tea ones are designed to look like a tea leaf.

And Amai’s decor, with its dark wood and exposed brick, is as soothing as its baked goods. The amiable service is calming, too.

When I cannot get to Amai, I make my own Green Tea Shortbread, from a recipe in the Essential Best Foods Cookbook. Putting a batch of this indecently rich treat together takes a total of 10 minutes. And there’s a bonus— your house will smell heavenly.

GREEN TEA SHORTBREAD
Makes 8 pieces

(Get matcha powdered green tea at most Japanese market, including Katagiri, 224 East 59th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Ave.) www.katagiri.com, Sunrise Mart (29 Third Ave) or the tea and coffee counter at any Whole Foods Market.)

3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon powdered matcha green tea
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup superfine or granulated sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut in small pieces
1. Preheat the oven to 325°F.

2. In a small bowl, combine the flour, tea, and salt.

3. Place the sugar in the bowl of a food processor. If using granulated sugar, whirl it for 1 minute to turn it into superfine. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture looks like pebbles. Add the flour mixture and pulse until a coarse, loosely granular dough forms.

4. Turn the dough into an ungreased 8-inch round cake pan. With your fingers, quickly work in any powdery bits then press the dough into an even layer in the pan.

5. Bake for 15 minutes. Make a border by pressing the flat bottom of the tines of a fork in a circle around the outside of the dough. With the tips of the tines, prick the dough all over. Using a sharp knife, score the dough into 8 wedges.

6. Return the shortbread to the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden. Do not let it brown.

7. Place the pan on a rack to cool for 10 minutes. Rescore the wedges and run a knife around the edge of the shortbread to loosen it. Invert the pan and gently unmold the shortbread. Cool and break into wedges. Serve the shortbread warm or at room temperature. The shortbread keeps in an airtight container for 5 days.