by Alison

green tea and kale chips

yoga and inspiring books -

I’m feeling healthy

by Alison

The leaves are turning, it’s getting chilly and I’m craving all things cozy.

This means it’s tea time - and often. My ritual is to make a cup first thing in the morning and my husband always serves me a cup late at night before bedtime.

Green tea just happens to be a favorite of mine. It’s earthy, slightly grassy and provides just the right amount of caffeine. If steeped properly I feel a nice little pick me up without the neurotic edge that coffee gives me. A nice cup of green tea and I feel both placid and alert.

So I was excited to receive a package of Sencha Green Haiku Tea in the mail from Kelly. I love Sencha - it’s the most popular Green tea in Japan and is renowned for it’s health benefits. I’ve been drinking Sencha for nearly 20 years so I can be, ahem, a bit picky about my tea. Too many tea companies get green all wrong and end up leaving me with what tastes like a cup of warm dish water. So I wondered while preparing my first cup of Haiku tea - will this tea live up to it’s poetic name?

Oh yeah.

And I’m not giving the glowing review that I am about to give because of any sort of haiku bias - I care about tea far too much. Sencha Green Haiku Tea truly makes for a most fabulous cup of tea. With a fresh green scent, the aroma of my Haiku cup of tea was intoxicating. Robust and complex with a subtle sweetness, I thought to myself - now that’s a cup of tea! I was honestly amazed. I had never had such a good cup of green tea that I so easily prepared with a simple tea bag. And so I wondered, why is Haiku Tea so good?

Is it because Haiku Tea is organic? Is it because it is grown on a centuries old tea plantation in the Uji River Valley in Japan, a region long famous for growing the best green tea in the world? Or is there some sort of magic within it’s haiku namesake which gives this tea a feeling of balance and serenity?

I am a tea drinker and not an expert, so I may never know the secrets behind why Haiku Tea is just so much better than your average green tea. But I do know that I am very inspired by tea once again so expect many more tea haiku from yours truly!

by Alison

two teas in Peru

almost thirteen years ago -

chamomile flowers

by Alison

we don’t always see

eye to eye but come share a

pot of tea with me

by Kelly

a hot cup of tea

a cookie, a fireplace

a mystery and me

by Alison

Before becoming a mom, a typical Saturday morning for me would include yoga class followed by a leisurely coffee at my local cafe.

These days I can only look forward to such a morning in the form of a birthday or mother’s day gift from husband — you know, one of those handmade coupons tucked in a pretty card and promising me a day to myself.

Ah, well. But I still love cafes, even if my weekly jaunts to a cafe are a little less leisurely.

I love a good espresso or the occasional caramel latte, but truth be told, my love of cafes is not about the coffee — it’s the human connection that draws me.

Whether I am at a cafe to sit quietly and read, meet up with a girlfriend or stop in for a quick caffeine fix, I just love the company cafe life allows me to keep … busy professionals, teenagers texting, blind daters over expressing, moms chasing toddlers along with writers tapping away on their iMacs. Cafe life is vibrant and varied.

And with this in mind I assumed Cafe Haiku was written just for me. It’s a collaboration of photographs and haiku by cross continental friends Zenbu Nometa of Shingu, Japan and Jeffrey Goldsmith of San Francisco, USA. Their book, Cafe Haiku, is a fun and cheeky little look at cafe life.

The haiku that were most interesting to me were (of course) about the people. Such as this one:

Hi there, Nicotine.

Would you like one? Oui, bien sur.

Devilish cafe friend.

Perhaps it’s not legal to smoke in many cafes in the States anymore, but I love this one for painting a little scene of boundaries being blurred and intimacies being formed which is so common in the world of cafes.

Also memorable for me is this one, which makes me think of my college days:

To cafes they go.

To talk of one thing most dear.

Michelangelo.

I might feel a little pretentious waxing on and on about the great artists in some settings. But at a cafe? Never!

Now a book about cafes would not be complete without mention of coffee and this is where Cafe Haiku puts it’s focus, which was not surprising after all seeing as how the book was published by the Caffeine Society.

And although I wish Cafe Haiku contained more haiku about the living pulse of cafe life, I did enjoy many of the caffeinated poems. Such as this one:

Why just go Euro?

Vietnam’s got great Java.

Condensed black and white.

Oh, that sounds intriguing! And with the very pleasing accompanying photograph, oh yum! I could use a Vietnamese Java tout de suite.

Wait. What did I just say???? I do not speak French but it seems this book has made an impression on me. I think I’m going to have to cash in that coupon gift from husband and head to a cafe. And then I shall surely spend half the day reading, chatting, people watching, drinking Java and of course…. writing haiku.

by Alison

heart palpitations

and heightened anxiety -

green tea overdose

by Alison

Where’s my cup of tea?

Packed away somewhere in a

moving box of course.

by Alison

tea, pan chocolate

kind women and Greek songs my

home away from home

by Alison

green tea and kleenex

for two no marshmallow peeps -

but still we are blessed