Big Blend Radio
Crafting Your Own Signature Masala House Chai
On this episode of Big Blend Radio, Linda Kissam "Food, Wine & Shopping Diva," talks with tea expert Friday Elliott about the world of tea, and the unique and interactive classes she holds online and in person at her tea shop, Friday Afternoon, that's located in Wallingford, Washington.
Linda attended the DIY Your Own House Chai class where she had the opportunity to dive into the art of blending, and then creating her own signature Masala house chai. Read about her experience that included some background on the rich history and traditions of chai-making, here: https://blendradioandtv.com/listing/crafting-your-own-signature-masala-house-chai/
Travel writer Linda Kissam appears on Big Blend Radio every first Saturday. Follow her podcasts here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzIUCV2e7qm1LoD5wiSJu4NM4KZxuJYoj
Follow Diva Linda's adventures here: https://allingoodtaste.info/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Duration:
- 59m
- Broadcast on:
- 06 Jul 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
Welcome to Big Blend Radio with travel writer Linda Kasam, the food, wine, and shopping diva. Welcome everybody, you know, Diva Linda, the food, wine, and shopping diva, Linda Kasam is her actual name. Of course, is here every first Saturday because she can't have it on the second, third, or fourth Saturday, she must be first. She really finds good things in the world. When we laugh about her being the diva, it's about finding good things, quality, and she had a quality experience at Friday afternoon in Wallingford, Washington. This is right within Seattle, and we're going to have Friday Elliot on the show. I encourage you to go to the website, fridayt.com, but first I'm going to bring Diva Linda on to give us a little insight of why she decided Friday needs to come on the show. And I think I know why, because we're going to be talking about tea, but not just any tea. We're going to talk about one of my favorite things, chai, and how to create your own signature Marsala house chai, which I think is exciting because you get to really understand about taste, figure out who you are. Right, Diva Linda, welcome back. How are you? I'm very good. Thank you. I'm in Seattle now, and the boat is in port. We're in actually Seattle in downtown the downtown area near Magnolia. But so when I come here to Washington for the summer, I like to try different things and see different things. And of course, if you've been following me, you know, that tea and wine or chocolate or one of my pickles are one of my favorite things. Also, and I went last year in the fall to the Northwest Tea Festival, and this is where I found hundreds of hundreds, probably a hundred different tea vendors. And one of those was Friday afternoon, and it was a tea shop. It's a tea shop. And it's the tea that I tasted there. It was quite wonderful. The people that served me were wonderful, and we had a little bit of a talk and so forth. And so I started following them, and then I noticed they do classes. They do virtual classes, and so I took one of those when I was in Arizona. But then when I came back here, I decided I would take a chai class because I don't know very much about it. And now I know a lot about it because the class was fabulous, and I want to let you know that if you're in Seattle, just as important as it is to go to the bike plays market is as important to take a tea class. It's just traditional Seattle. That is what you do, and this particular tea class is Weinberg, which is kind of just funky all by itself, and this tea shop is really nice, and the class was affordable and lovely, and I know we'll talk more about it. But that's how I came to this class, and this is how I came to understand chai. Well, welcome Friday. How are you? Oh, wonderful. Thank you, Lisa, and Linda. It's good to see you again. This is so cool. I know she was on the show earlier this year, Linda, talking about you and doing the virtual class, but I, you know, just to give everyone a little background, tell us what got you into the world of tea and then opening up your own tea shop. Sure. It's a funny story. I was actually raised by kind of crunchy granola wheatgrass drinking hippies on a commune in California. My grandparents are herbalists and my parents met in Star Trek Club, and so I sort of over the course of my life kind of evolved my interest in a direction that now I make tea for nerds. That's what I do. That's my vocation. So I've spent the last 20 years making tea, and I have a great, great passion for tea myself personally. It's one of those beverages and plants and cultures really globally that you can never learn everything about, which is my favorite thing in the world. I love having an interest that is so based in connection and exploration, and it's truly endless. It's a bottomless cup, really, the world of tea is, you know, all over the world, people drink their tea differently and they have different stories and different meanings attached to it and use it to connect with one another. That's kind of the only truly global factor of tea is the connection point. And I think that's just so beautiful. And, you know, being basically a human care bear myself, a beverage that is inherently designed to connect people despite their culture, their background, everything else. I think it's just so wonderful. So yeah, I just fell in love with tea and decided to learn everything about it, and I will never be able to. So I'm able to devote my entire life to it comfortably. That's nice. And now you have a shop, so you sell tea and then do classes. Yes, indeed. Yeah, we do both a wholesale and retail at our tea house, so we're able to really share our tea very widely. We do, we do. Yeah, it's very casual. Think like coffee shop style, right? We have French presses, people come in, we've got just a few seeds. It's sort of a combination of retail store and tasting room. So it's not, it's not a full service, you know, tea tray is at the table. We don't have a kitchen, but we carry little, you know, individual baked goods from local independent bakers. So we do have really lovely little pairings, but it's quite quite casual. I find when people come in expecting a full English tea, they're disappointed. But if they come in expecting a relaxed, good tea, good company, you know, we have a good time. We have a great time. It's just a matter of not expecting something that is not exactly what we do. But that's, but that's a, I think that's a happy accident for folks that are just maybe walking down the street and go, oh, let's have some tea. And then we're going to learn a whole bunch more. Do you travel at all for your tea education? Not at this time. I have in past, at this time I have, I have a senior who's just graduated high school a few days ago. I have an almost two year old. I have a warehouse for e-commerce. I haven't, you know, the cafe. So it's, it's a lot of pretty geographically grounded at the moment. I sure have high hopes of getting back into traveling extensively in a few years once the little one is a little bit bigger. And I've got, you know, open invitations at all times to all the farms that we work with. Farmers are the friendliest people, truly. And it's great. And one of the benefits of going farm direct and doing all of our own importing is we're not, we're not going through that middleman importer. So we do have a very personal relationship with all of our farmers. Like, we send each other pictures of our kids, you know, we tell each other about our day. And I have, I have, like I said, a standing invitation to go stay on any given number of tea farms on any continent at any time. It's just a matter of getting away from you. Linda. There we go. Linda. Yes. Excellent. She's going to need those farmer boots. That's what's going to happen, right? Oh, yeah. With bling. Deva, Linda, you need the bling for the boots to go on the farm. I do the rhinestone mud boots. Exactly. Bring along. Yes. I like that. How did it differ for you, Linda, doing the course in person versus virtual? Because the virtual one you loved. So I know you loved both experiences. But the first one you were learning about teas from China, and this one you now went into chai, which we should even talk about what chai is. This was more solid chai, which, you know, making your own more solid. That's a whole other thing too. So this is fascinating to me, but how was the actual in person versus virtual? I go like both, actually. They both have their pluses and they both have their negatives and not icky negatives, just the fact that Friday sends tea to you at your home. And you can taste along just sort of the same as being there when you take her tips like using a French press rather than doing tea in the original style like you might as steepen in a teapot. So I've been doing that since I took this class and I really like it. And I really think that the tea passes the way to go. You don't bruise the loosely tea. It doesn't get all icky all over the place for floating stuff. So either one is fine. And I love both. I don't have a, I don't know that I have a preference of then it was fun to get off the boat. It's always fun to get off the boat. And be there now. If I lived in Seattle, I probably would at full time. I'd probably be there all the time. But either one just depends on what you're doing. So when I leave, I'll do another virtual class because I think they were just wonderful. And when I'm here, I'll do a an in person class. Either one is fine. The difference is, with other classes that I've taken is that the samples were sent to me at home and I could follow along in a very interactive format, just like it is when you go to the shop. That's the difference is you can't buy as much. Right? Okay. That's the negative. But I want to say this too. But then you can buy on. Can people buy online. Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That solves that. But I want people to know that in our show, our episode notes, the show description, take a look. We have links to Linda's article about her in person experience. And also the past article and interviews she did about the virtual experience. So people can, you know, get in touch with that. But this is cool to have Friday here this time. This is awesome. So, but, you know, tell us a little bit about what chai is. Yeah. That's my favorite. Yeah. Yeah. So the word chai just means tea. The word chai only means tea. Right? So when you're talking about the difference between chai and masala chai, right? What we think of in America as chai really is masala chai. That's what it is the word masala just means spices. So it just means a spice tea. And the really wonderful thing about chai specifically among all other types of tea is that this is a beverage that every household has kind of their own version. And the intention there is to have something that speaks of your home culture, your values, what your home should look like and smell like and feel like and taste like it's the impression of a sense of home that you then extend to other people. So when someone comes into your space, you can pour them a cup of chai and that that flavor and the aroma and the texture of it says, you know, you are welcome here and that's what that looks like in my family. So the point of this class, we did a, you know, a DIY your own house chai. So the point of this class was what does home look like and feel like and smell like and taste like to you? What would you want to express to people who are entering your space as a welcome? What does that taste like, you know, and I think that's just so beautiful, you know, all these regions that make chai, which is widely throughout the Himalayas, but then also into the Middle East and we also see chai extending all the way to East Africa, right. And we see these chai's all over the world and they have different aspects to them, of course, different local ingredients or different brewing methods and they're all chai. And that's so cool that it's not like a closed and super specific practice that by design chai is for sharing and evolving and for every household to have their own way to express it. So that's really what we focused on in this class was the bare basic rule set is there must be cardamom. There has to be cardamom. That is a rule. That is a rule. Like every Earl Grey has to have bergamot oil. Every chai has to have cardamom and that's a rule. And, you know, I'm sure some households even would disagree. Oh, no, we never did it that way. Maybe, but, you know, as a tea professional, that's, that's what I've been taught throughout my career. That is the general rule. There's always exceptions in tea always, but the rule is, you know, cardamom and then the other rule is it should speak to your household hospitality sense, you know. So it was really interesting to see how everyone in the class had very different concepts of flavor profiles they would want to share with people entering their space. And, you know, not a single person put cinnamon in their tea this time, which is such a, what you think of chai, not a single. No, I maybe we had one with clove, maybe, but no cinnamon was the one that really struck me. I thought was so fascinating because imagining a chai without cinnamon was shocking to me personally, it wouldn't occur to me to make a chai without cinnamon. But no one in the class did, but there were, you know, fruitier chais or more floral chais and all this. And they were all so different. And that's the real beauty of chai. And that's the spirit of chai. And I mean, gosh, Linda, your chai was so exciting and so specifically you was wonderful. Well, see, she's a diva, she made the diva chai. Did you name her chai? Summer kind, and it was a summer blend. And it had, and thankfully Friday helped me. I tried to explain to her what I wanted, which is sort of a summer uplifting kind of comfort tea. So mine had vanilla peach, peach was a big ingredient for me, because I love fruit of any kind, anything I eat, I'd like to have fruit in it. And it had cardamom and I think that was it. There was only like three or four ingredients. And darlanging tea. So with that, it was worse as a base. And it came out beautiful. Oh my gosh, it was just exactly, we're going to be spritzed in there. We sprit something that was, it was a result. And then the vanilla, or did you do glitter in yours? Because I know we had a lot of fun with edible glitter and some of that. Oh, you didn't do the glitter. Are you kidding me? No, I didn't know. I was so focused on getting that peach flavor in there. And I really didn't understand how you blended it and you helped show me how you layered it. And then once I figured it out and I tasted it, I was able to go back, which is very good. Because you can go back and fill your pouch up with the blend. You just keep blending. And so I think if the class was in the fall, I might have added cinnamon and have a different take on it as the summer. I wanted a summer blend, but it was fun, fun, fun. I learned so much. And you have so much information in your head. It's just unbelievable. You do, and you are able to give that to your students. I didn't see anybody go on, what? What is she talking about? Whispering? What does she say? I think we all got it. It was not too much information because we're all really excited about understanding how to blend this stuff. But I like the scientific rules that you gave us. And I like the fact that you showed what happens when you put these ingredients together. And what happens to the brewing? That's interesting. You put the wrong ingredients together. It's not going to blend that well. Because some ingredients need just a little bit of hot water. And other ones need more. And she'd be very, very careful. You're talking about relative density of ingredients and volatile aromatic oils. Oh, wow. This is getting fun. I feel like we're going to explode. I like that. Once this explains to you, and you can see it on a piece of paper, you can review it. And then you're hearing what she's saying. And then you get to get up from the table. And you go over to where all the ingredients are. Can you imagine? Oh, I don't know how many you agree. And then you have stuff in the back, too. So I mean, it was. You could really lose yourself. But I was specific about what I wanted. And you helped me. It was wonderful. But you take this class and you get to do your own blend. Take it home. I have my daily. I love it. But also, you have all these wonderful combinations already made. They're already in packages. I got quite a good bump on my social media. Showing your black cat blends. Oh, I love it. It's a little bit about why is black cat and yes, yes, compared to you have lots and lots of different blends, but you have a black line. What does that mean? Well, the black cat is actually one tea. It's a part of the magical girls collection. So, yeah, black cat is the name of the blend. It goes alongside a tuxedo prince moon princess. And these are all sailor moon inspired teas. So, like I said, you know, my parents were raised me in Star Trek and I very much make tea for nerds. That's what we're famous for is making tea for nerds. A lot of what we do is comic on, you know, boo thing and things like that. We work a lot with like, you know, Dungeons and Dragons, like the company making tea to go with their releases and things. And so it's really fun. It's a lot of fun. So we specialize in making tea that tastes like things that people are passionate about. And Sailor Moon, personally, when I was when I was a tween, Sailor Moon, 4 p.m., Cartoon Network, every day after school, I love it. I love it. So when I started making these nerdy teas, Sailor Moon felt so obvious to me. And her sidekick, one of her sidekicks is a cat named Luna, who's a black cat, who is, you know, from outer space and is kind of the research and sort of guidance. What's the word I'm looking for here? The consultant for the team, magical girls. And so the way that I craft nerdy teas is in itself, involves neuroscience. There is actual chemistry going on in my brain that informs how I make tea for nerds. This is going to be such a strange one to hear, but this is what I do. So I have what's called lexical goostatories anesthesia, which means that my neurons are actually crosswired in a way that I do literally taste words and ideas and feelings. And I have been like this since birth. I actually didn't. I didn't know until I was 17 that not everyone tastes words, but this is my normal, you know. And so when I make a tea that's inspired by something like this cat from Sailor Moon, this is literally what I actually taste in my mouth when I'm engaging with that material. So like with some of these colors, there's the people who see the colors and they feel colors. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. It's like that. Sinesthesia has a ton of different subtypes. It's just the matter of which senses are crosswired. So like I also have what's called audio tactile Sinesthesia, which means I feel sound as tactile sensations that are very specific in different parts of my body. And so it's just a whole other way of perceiving things. So what I've done with my superpower is people come into the shop and I can taste how they're feeling and then taste what tea is the correct pairing for how they're feeling at that moment. And people come in and say, oh, it's like witchcraft, you know. Oh, yeah. Sure. So if you're going to make it easy for the movie, go as fast as you're going to go beyond marshmallow. Yes, exactly beyond marshmallow. And you know, marshmallow didn't even occur to me. Of course, of course, marshmallow, but I'm thinking ectoplasm, right? I'm thinking the like the fear factor and the camp like comedy factor at the same time that balance of like kind of freaky, slimy, anxiety inducing flavor and texture and like fun playful. Mm hmm. Yeah. So I'm already thinking like slippery elm bark. Yes, I like gunpowder, but maybe even something greener like a yolkato or something like that. You know, something really like a scent marshmallow goes with Buffy Buffy in the vampire. That's marshmallow. It does or can be or something. Yeah. What I'm about about what you might serve on the solstice, which is coming up, I think. Yes, it is coming up. And we actually have a witch is social every month that falls on the third Thursday. And this month, you know, happens to fall on the solstice. Sometimes it happens to fall on the full moon, whatever. You know, it's really nice. We call it tea coven. And it's a it's a non denominational, which is social. So whatever, you know, kind of witchy practices a person, you know, prescribes to cool. It's fine. You just come in like, you know, people bring their trophy cards and then they bring a plant or a crystal they've just got. And this this week is the solstice and we actually did a blending activity last solstice that I think we'll do again this year where we said, you know, bring your sunshiniest, most floral energy. The solstice is a celebration of, you know, the sun at its absolute most. Right. And it's when everything is flowers and fruits. And it's very much it is a kind of fertility festival, but it's a very specific fertility festival that is all about flowers and fruits and summertime kind of energy in that sun. That bright, bold sunshine. And so what we did last year was we brought out all of the flowers that we had at the shop and all the white tea and kind of the glowier tasting things. And we said, let's all, you know, make ourselves a solstice tea that we just did. So we had a gathering of six or eight, which is just having fun and putting together a solstice tea. And then we brewed them all up and we tasted them. So it was almost like a little blending workshop except there was no, there was no teaching aspect. It was, yeah, it was just a cauldron of ideas, really. So typically people, you know, bring in little snacks to share and we just hang out and enjoy each other's company and, you know, talk about what wishes we have for the second half of the year here and how we can support each other in being our sunshiniest selves. So we are actually having a little event. I love that. So you do this every full moon. So fall, I know, I know we're in the summer, but fall for people looking ahead. Do you do, you know, fall equinox has got to be pretty cool. It is absolutely. So it's actually every third Thursday. It typically falls right around a full moon, which is very convenient, but on our calendar, it's every third Thursday every month. And we just kind of look at, you know, if it is a solstice or an equinox, then we'll do something festive, kind of related arts and crafts projects are really popular. Like in the springtime, we'll plant flowers, you know, and send everyone home with like little flower pots around the fall equinox. Typically those are harvest festivals, right? So we'll, like everyone bake something to bring in and we'll have like a baked, good exchange, you know, things like that. And, and if it's not an equinox or a solstice, then it's typically, you know, what zodiac sign is just coming into season like, like tomorrow will also be the first day of cancer season, right? As we leave Gemini. And so sometimes it'll be like, well, what's cancer energy about? It's kind of the, you know, really big feelings sort of mom for an emotional support member of the zone. You know, so maybe we all talk about our feelings a lot that day. I don't know. Yeah. It's funny. I want to see if you're going to be able to go to any of the fall events on your way back to, to Arizona. Well, Friday, now we're talking just briefly that she may do a class that has healing herbs and things like that, but it's, but it involves the witches as well or there's a witch name or something and I don't have a fascinating. I want to go. It's not very often, but I think I think that would be for me. I think I would very much like to attend that. So I hope that that comes in the fall before I leave it in right around to refer. So anyway, but whatever class she has going, and now that I find out that there's on third Thursdays. And I know that you have other classes like on Sunday is it Sundays? Yeah, it's not a class. It's a, it's a gathering, you know, it's social. If you're immune sensitive, you can wear your mask mask on. Yes. Every Sunday, we do still require masks because that's the time that we've reserved the space, you know, to be protected for our immune compromised customers. And that's, that's something that they've asked us for and they really appreciate us maintaining for them. The rest of the time, you know, it's optional. And we find that our customer base does still prefer to mask. And that's great. That's fine. But Sunday is the day that we do insist upon it still for the protection specifically of our compromised neighbors. So they know what they're walking into and they know, you know, that they're being considered and looked after. But that is the day that we have our craft and chat are every Sunday afternoon craft gathering where people bring their knitting or their painting or their coloring books or whatever. And it just so happens that a large number of the craft and chat regular group are also amongst the, the immune compromised set and so that's a way for them to get out. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And then I wanted to ask about that in regards to tea and wellness, because tea to me has been a huge part of wellness journeys, not just for me, but for a lot of people I know, even Ayurvedic teas, herbal teas, it helped me stop smoking. Many, many moons again. I don't know how many decades. I don't want to age myself too much, but it's been a long time. Thank goodness. But tea helped me do it because it kind of detox my body in a very gentle way. And I wasn't allowed to see my friends for a few weeks. And I was a little crabby, then Nancy would be like, go to chamomile now because you're getting crabby. I want that. So, you know, so, can you touch on that? Do you ever do those kinds of classes? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Actually, that the class Linda was talking about the witchcraft herbalism class we did. It was back on St. Patrick's Day, which my family on my father's side is all very, very Irish, very Irish, and they're from like a long line of like druidic pagans, right? So herbalist healer Irish types. And so every year when I was growing up, St. Patrick's Day being the celebration of conversion from Irish, you know, indigenous spirituality to the Catholic and Protestant ways, right? So we will always have an anti-St. Patrick's party. We're doing extra witchy things to spite the church on St. Patrick's Day. So I kind of carried on that tradition at the shop this year of having an Irish witchcraft herbalism class on St. Patrick's Day, where we talked about all the things that my grandmother taught me and things you can grow in your own garden quite easily and really popular Irish witchcraft herbs for healing that are easy to find here on the West Coast. And that was a great class. It sold out instantly. As soon as I listed it, there was a lot of interest. So I'm definitely planning to pull more herbalism classes in. I think in the fall, we'll do one that is more from the, I'm Irish, Mexican, and both sides are very steeped in, you know. Oh, wow. Yeah, the folk medicine. Exactly. Yes. Yes. Exactly. Yeah. So I'm thinking that in fall, we'll have to lean more into that direction, especially as we lead up to like the endomorphos and so on, having teas and plants for healing that touch on sort of that darker half of the year and supporting for like a seasonal depression, supporting for, you know, trams, what a veil communication, right? As you get sort of there to the, since, you know, that's Halloween, it's all Zane's Day, it's Dina Martos, that's the time that people want to communicate with spirits. So, you know, we start to look at things like cacao ceremony, we start to look at things like, you know, mugwort meditation and astral projection, loose injury, make that kind of thing. So I think that we'll pull some Mexican folk magic and herbalism into the fall class, the fall witchcraft. When I was in Mexico, that's how I learned how to drink arnica tea from going through a dental, I had, they had to do all my wisdom teeth and all this stuff and I lived out there and the dentist was like drink pineapple juice. 'Cause it's an antibiotic, a natural antibiotic, so you don't swell as much, and then arnica tea, and I didn't understand this, but now I do, and it was like, you didn't have to take as many over-the-counter things if you did arnica. And it really helped calm, and yeah, I didn't know anything, and now I was looking for someone, and I was like, "Oh, I need to go to a Mexican shop for arnica." And then, that's how we learned about detura. Now, Linda, you lived in Arizona, and the Cuten deres, we had one on our show way back, maybe 15 years ago, wrote an amazing Mexican folklore book of recipes and healing modalities, and that's where we learned about the detura plant. Now, everyone be careful, 'cause it's Jimson Weed, and you can get high as a diet, and you could die. But we lived outside Joshua Tree National Park at the time, and Nancy, my mom, was out in the garden, pulled her back, was basically stuck in the garden, and I was out, came back home, and she's out there, she's crawling, you know, crawling on your hands and knees through the desert garden is not fun, because we do have cactus. And somehow, she's like, "No, I read it in that book, put the detura blossoms," or the leaves, I think it was the leaves, "in the bathtub." She got in the bathtub, I did make her a tea toddy, with a little bit of bourbon in there, she was happy about that. She went in that bathtub, and I swore to God she stood up and walked out and was completely fine, like it was like a miracle. But they do not drink him. I do not drink him. So it's important, and that's the thing about your classes, I think really important is that people actually understand, because it's like me going off playing with mushrooms in the woods. No, I'm not going to harvest them and eat them, because you could die, you could get high, or you could just have a really good nutritious meal. You know, I just don't want to die, I don't mind the other two, but I just don't like it. And they can disguise themselves, you know, there's plants and fungi that look like ones that are good for you, but they're really not. I mean, you know, we start to look at dangerous plants. Gosh, we've got yarrow, which is basically an all-purpose healing herb that looks alarmingly like water hemlock. But then also, sort of Queen Anne's Laces in that family, yeah, the big white ombles and the feathery leaves, it's very dangerous. So when I am teaching these classes, I absolutely teach about sustainable harvesting practices, like practices that actually help the plant, you know, when you harvest them. So responsible pruning, as well as identification, and like, I'm very alarmist with my students. I'm like, no, no, you need to understand how dangerous this is. If you screw it up, like, we're not, we're not playing. It says, you know, if I want you to be empowered to go and find all these things and all that, but I don't want you to die. I need you to understand the possibility. Knowing all of this, and I know Linda seems like you had a bit of a spiritual experience making your chai. Blending, we got to use that word to lend a lot. We love it. Our family history goes into witchcraft, and we have witches burned at the stake, and my genealogy is, it's quite fascinating. But some of it's Hungarian, and I always have the stream of this old Hungarian woman who made teas and tingsters and had to hide them within pots when the people came up. I don't know what's going on, but like, I've seen psychics on it. I've tried to do all kinds of meditation. I know Linda just got a little wonky, didn't it for you? I know. She's looking at me like, what the hell? I've done a lot of this. And so it just seems to me that I know there's a lot of men, male shamans here, healers. But what do you think the role of women in the world of tea, because you talk a lot about witches and there's male witches too? We've got warlocks in our history too. They were burned at the stake for talking to animals, not making tea, but this other woman, I think, had the tea thing going. So I'm just curious on the role of women in the world of tea. Is farming, then there's gathering, and then there's the actual blending, making, all of that. Sure, it's complicated, especially if you look at the contemporary world of tea. It's very complicated, because tea is like the food industry, right? This is kind of, I think, true across specialty food and beverage. I was a chef for 15 years, and I saw a lot of this in the restaurant world, just as I do in the tea world, where there's this misogynistic double standard that is still so prevalent and so obnoxious, where there's this idea that a woman's place is in the kitchen, a woman's place is in the field, a woman's place is, you know, whatever, until you get to leadership roles. And then, oh, this is a man's world. Oh, what do women know? And that is still a thing. It's been a thing for hundreds and hundreds of years, and it still is a frustration to this day. Like, for example, I have a really decent TikTok following, right? We're very active on social media, and any time I post a video that is about tea science, about botany, about blending, about the tea industry, something that I am an expert in my field. I've been doing this for decades. Inevitably, there is someone in my comments section tagging in a man who has just joined the tea industry recently and saying, "Oh, is she right about this?" Can you confirm this? Asking a man with less experience and knowledge to check my work. This happens constantly, and when I was in restaurants, it was, you know, "Oh, yeah, we hire women, women long in the kitchen. That's fine. That's fine until a promotion became available." And then it was always a man with less experience, and that is true working internationally. I do, you know, we do all of our own imports here. I work directly with farms. The farmers themselves are fantastic. I know very few women owned farms. They're mostly working in the field. The farmers I speak with are primarily men, and while they do speak to me very respectfully, we've got great working relationship. I always need to bring up. Talk to me about the role of women in your company. Talk to me about all of the women on the field doing just the brute labor, and none of them are in management positions. None of them are, you know, this and that. So we've really started to look more toward women owned farms, which there is a big social movement happening in the special DT world. We're starting to see, particularly in North India, a lot of entirely woman owned and operated farms, which is especially exciting in that part of the world because North India historically is one of the top five regions for human trafficking, especially of young women, into the tea industry, being abducted, you know, on the street from their homes, whatever, and sold into, you know, farm slavery. So to see specifically women owned and empowered and, you know, farms is huge, is huge, and we're starting to see more conversations around that. So I am starting to see really positive trends for women in tea. Here in America, I do think that our attitude is a little bit behind. You know, like I said, there's a lot of, oh, oh, cute. You're cute little tea shop, right? I get a lot of that. Oh, how cute. Your little tea shop over there. Oh, your cute little business. Or men will say to me, oh, well, good luck with your, you know, little business over here. It's so condescending and horrible. And then, you know, I see men in my industry that are just beginning and everyone's, oh, this man is an expert. Oh, you know, like he's just a guy. That's really what it is. So we still see that a lot where women owned tea companies are thought of as like a twee and cute and are very dismissed. Oh, your cute little tea shop. Oh, it's probably a hobby that your husband pays for is still an attitude. Yeah. And that's still an attitude that we see in America a lot. And it's so wild to me. And I just, you know, I've been doing this for 20 years. And anymore, I start to hear someone saying something like that. And I just stop listening. I just walk away. So there are a lot of wonderful people in the industry. And I'd rather spend my time and energy with them. Well, Linda, you know, you're going to, you know, Friday afternoon, going to the shop itself. Do you kind of feel that vibe of a strong woman? You know, even as a virtual, you can tell, but I mean, going in the shop to you, you kind of have that vibe when you go in. Yeah, it's a real interesting place to go because the vibe is a little bit different than maybe, of course, the afternoon tea shops and stuff. This is a place where you go and you're welcome to create, to relax, to interact. It's, it feels good. And there's so many wonderful things to look at and ask about. And can you just come in off the street and say, I'd like to blend. This is what I would like to come out with. Or is that too much? We typically only have one person behind the counter at a time. So shop is so small. So it's, it's a by appointment thing. People can absolutely set up an appointment to blend and to have either us do as much of it as they like, or they can play and blend themselves. But that's under the like custom blending and you need to make an appointment either with myself or with my right-hand man, Greg, who is our manager at the store day today. Yeah. There are so many wonderful blends that are pre-done, that packages that you can take out, that you probably don't need to do that. And learning how to do it, I think, is more important than anything else. I mean, your classes are just real informative and interactive. That's what I like for us. And you have so much in your head, as I've said before, that it's just, I mean, and any, almost any question that I ask at the class was answered in a very nice, comfortable way. Like I said, well, if I go to a coffee shop and they also offer chai, what is that chai going to be? What is a typical blend? And everything I think that's important to know because then I didn't know that a chai could be any blend you'd like that speaks to your soul. I mean, how fun is that? That's huge to you when you go in here. Other people were even more taken to a class. There's a couple seats left next to us and somebody had brought in a child and they were coloring and the mom was just relaxing and it was just a wonderful place to go. And of course, I think if you get the Wallingford vibe where they're sort of located, that's sort of cool as well. So, yeah, this is a very nice place to visit. It's like fun. It's fun. It's relaxing. It's comfortable. It's comforting. I don't know. I think when you're talking about coloring and creating and Linda, I think that is so important. You're an educator, you know, and that's the creativity factor, so crucial. As we are fed so much on our phones, on social media and games, we're just, where are we in that world? Are we going to lose our creativity? With AI happening, I think these kinds of experiences are so crucial that AI can't touch your teeth. You know what I mean? They may copy your voice. I mean, right now we're looking at all kinds of weird things like Photoshop now taking over your photography saying if you're going to be on Photoshop, we're going to use your photography as AI training, which is like I'm going to -- I have to watch -- I have to just stop on that because I want to say a whole bunch of wonderful, nasty words about it. But when it comes to T, there's wonderful things with AI, but these non-AI helped -- there's a lot of creative stuff that goes with it. But these experiences, I think, are crucial. And for, you know, people to just have some fun and get out there and be able to still be family-friendly like what you're doing. I could see like a mom-daughter thing, wouldn't you say, Linda, for something like this? Like a nice bonding experience. I would love -- yeah, I'm hoping my daughter will be here in the fall to go to the Northwest Teeth Festival. I had so much fun there. And she loves tea as much as I do. She is an earthy person, though. So the type of tea she drinks is not the type of tea that you're eating, and I like it. Give me a fruit. I'm good. She is earthy. She's real earthy things. I know exactly what you're talking about. She likes to know what I'm talking about. She loves them. She just thinks about when you -- Oh, yeah. She could go out with me, then, and go out hunting mushrooms, and then we'll look at them and go, "You touch it, not me." We'll just watch and see what happens to you. And this is awesome. The immediate thing on this conversation that got me was when you said "Chai is tea." And I grew up in Kenya when I was a very young girl. We lived right off of coffee and tea plantations in a neighborhood called Karen, which is what was owned by Karen Blixen. And I was really young. So there's a lot of bribery that goes on in these countries. So whenever you get through things, they would say your bribe, and it's called chai money. And so everybody would say chai money, and that basically here's your $10, $15, whatever. Mexico goes way up higher, and they don't call it chai money. It's Christmas money. But she would say it was like $10, $5, whatever it was. It was chai money. So when we got to this country and people were talking about chai and I was getting into all these Indian spices and stuff, but I kind of like that's kind of what we drank. It's kind of like a normal drink to me. And then when we lived in South Africa, we had Roybo's. That was normal. That was just like a normal usual day for me. But everybody here is like, "Oh no, chai always has the cinnamon, the cloves. It must be all these things." And I'm going, I kept talking to Nancy. And I'm going, mom, when they were asking for the money, were they wanting close cinnamon? It goes at a specific tea. She goes, "No, it's tea." But I'm like, but that's not what they're calling it here. So you just solve a whole thing that's been going on in class. This long-term discussion of what chai money is, because it doesn't get out. People argue with Nancy all the time, and they shouldn't, because she apparently was right. It just means tea. It's like chai in Chinese and Japanese. It's the same. It's the same word. There's a whole chart I saw on the etymology of the word tea. And there's a cute little mnemonic for it where it's either chai, I think it's tea if by land, chai if by sea. So depending on how the plant and the beverage and the culture transition from its point of origin to other parts. So I think maybe it is chai is by land, because there's the silk road there. And so the method that tea traveled informs the spread of the language itself. So with cha being tea in China and Japan, in Taiwan, and then chai in India, all part of the silk road, right? Whereas then tea, tea in French, right? Tea also in Spanish, but spelled different. We're looking more at sea travel ships heading from the south of India through around the cave and up to like Portugal and Italy and things like that. So it's interesting how language can evolve. Language and food are my two big things. So like the etymology of culinary language is something very interesting to me. And so yeah, I think that's really interesting how chai, cha, that is tea. It just means tea. Tea has always been a bribe. That's high weight because it's too funny. That's so funny. They just wanted to be able to buy their tea. That was all what it was about. So everyone's always arguing with Nancy, which again, like I said, they shouldn't. And Linda knows that. Never argue with Nancy. I love that. I think it's the equivalent of like, you know, milk money here, right? Yeah, your milk money. It's just like a little pocket money, right? It's a little pocket money that you could, yeah, your milk money here in America. That's kind of an antiquated term now, but could just mean just a little pocket cash that you carry around. Well, the tribe money was going to the cops because they were always like sure. You'd have to give them a ride if they needed a ride, you know what I mean? They, I mean, whatever they wanted, they needed it. So they didn't really do donuts over there. They did try. Oh, yeah. Kenya, Kenya tea culture is big time. It is. It is. And the way. I think Americans would freak out like, you know, Nancy had a magazine in South African. We'd have chai time or tea time. And so we had our, we had all different cultures working for us. And, you know, over there they would pour their tea onto their saucer to cool it off and pour it back in. I love that. That's a word to call. I mean, it was this, this was how they drank and like the British white people get, oh, no. And this is how it was, but they would cool it and then slurp it. It was not just, it was this full on. We're slurping and we're making all the food sounds nobody wants. And this is how we're drinking it. It tastes better. It doesn't look like wine. You're aerating it. It genuinely tastes better at the louder you drink it. It's exact. And I always tell my students this. You want to slurp it when people come in for their tasting classes in the shop, like Linda, like the terroir class that we did for China. They come in the shop and I always say, don't be embarrassed. I want to hear you drinking this. You are here to learn about the flavor notes of different regions. Let me hear you slurp it because then you have to get that aromatic, you know, cycling going on it. Linda, the wine industry needs to change to slurping. Oh, they do in tasting rooms. That's absolutely, that's absolutely how it's done. I'm not sure. Absolutely. It depends on the person. Oh, yeah. Oh, yes. Slurp and spit. Yes, absolutely. There's a reason that's done in wine tasting rooms and it makes sense and it translates to tea. It translates to coffee. It translates to chocolate. Like all of these things are so tied together. I think people don't realize that, you know, if you know about wine and you know how to appreciate wine, you already know how to appreciate tea. Those skills are transferable. I grew up in wine country in California and, you know, Calaveras County there. My parents are both from Lodi, which grows most of the wine grapes in the country and so wine culture huge. Everyone, everyone I grew up around was either part of a vineyard family or was dear friends and neighbors of a vineyard family. So still I go back home and my dad takes me around to all of his friends tasting rooms and all of that. That's what we do. But yeah, it's amazing how directly translatable wine appreciation is to tea, to coffee, to chocolate. So, Linda, when you're saying that you are a tea wine chocolate person, she's like, "Ah, yes." She's like, "Well, that's why her website is all-in-goodtaste.info." See? That's it. Yep. Well, Linda, which came first for you wine chocolate or tea? Chocolate. Oh, chocolate from a very young age. From a very, very young age. A lot of the other kids would like things like skittles or something like that. Like a sugar burst flavor, but I always like chocolate stuff. And it's very much like a wine journey. You start out with Hershey's and you end up with something from Sweden. You know, Swiss, gosh, the Swiss chocolate is just exciting. Yeah, Switzerland, yeah. Absolutely. And lately I've been doing tea and chocolate tastings. So, you get the right combination. I mean, some of them I went with, I don't know so much. Alright, you get the right chocolate and tea and they are, you should do it. I was about to tell you we're doing one, Linda. I was waiting for a polite box. But we were actually about to start doing a series of tasting workshops where we'll send you out a box if you're remote and it'll have, you know, chocolate from Switzerland. From Colombia, from Singapore. Oh, Singapore chocolate is my everything. And then teas that are optimally designed to pair and we'll talk about why certain flavors, textures and aromas pair the way that they do. So you'll be able to kind of cross try things and see why does this work, but then when you try it with this other one, it doesn't as much. So you know how much I love to illustrate. I love to, I love to tell you the chemistry and then let you experience it for yourself. So you have something tangible to apply that to. So we are about to start doing tasting kits as well in the shop. Yeah, I don't think a lot of people understand that the tea pairings are really fun. Tea with food and all that sort of stuff and chocolate happens to be my favorite, but anyway, so chocolate first. Yes. Food food, the food journey. And, and that's very specific to where you were brought up into incidentally and then wine and that's the same thing when I used to be the director of a wine region and bring media in. If I knew if they came from the East Coast, I better be giving them very lean types of wines. If they're from the West Coast, more jammy, more larger, a larger fruit forward sort of thing. And food's the same thing. I mean, it depends on a lot of where you were brought up and how you were brought up. You know, do you have a lot? Did you have a lot of fruit? That's why, like we said, we had so much fruit in my house. And, but some people didn't have fruit at all. Right. So when you become, if you wanted to do wine tasting and become certified and stuff, first thing they say in the first class is go to a farmers market, smell everything you can. And try to put that up in your brain, find a place to put it up in your brain. So when we say this has a green pepper thread to it, you can go, okay, you know, I might not eat it at home, but I smelled it and it's quite wonderful. And so for instance, MT is actually the same thing now, especially since they did the chai class. Very interesting that you can incorporate. I was expecting to go to the class. And you were going to say, here are the four ingredients that make a chai blend. I hope you like it. That's what I was going to go into. That's funny idea. Mm hmm, just like chocolate or food. There are so many variations that you can do and love. Take my daughter and I again, give me fruit every time and hers is much more. And the only team I have some can seem to really like is Earl Gray, and I can't stand. Sure. Just a journey, right? It's just your journey. So, yeah, so I don't know why YT is so important to me. I mean, it should be wine, but I love, I like the whole T culture, I think. It's calming. Yes, it's a good ritual to have. It's a good healthy ritual for sure. It's flexible. Yes, this is effective this chai class. Very flexible. So I'm going to have, I think this summer, I am going to try chai at various places to see how they do it and why they do it. I might even ask, why did you, how did you get this blend. I mean, I've been to like coffee places or tea places where they have choose one of five, right? Mm hmm. This is our blend and have a nice day. That's what I thought Chai was all about, but it's so exciting. Not bad at all. But I want to see what other other shops can do. Yes, yes. And I think that the most exciting thing about these classes to me and what I hope that you took away Linda, it seems like you did. Is that curiosity is a sense of curiosity and exploration. And I really wanted to send every student home with the ability to look at their own spice cupboard and say, Oh, I have this fennel here. You know, I want to crush that up and throw it in with my chai and see what that does. I want to play with this. Oh, I think these things would go well together. I want everyone to go out there in the world after my classes with this sense of playful curiosity and a willingness to experiment and try things out because there are so many correct ways to do tea. There's one wrong way to do tea and that is if you don't like it. If you're not happy with the way it came out, that was wrong for you personally. Yeah, but that's it. There's every other way is correct. If you like it, you're doing it right. And that opens up every possible door. It can be anything you want it to be. And that's really the beauty of it, you know. And if you don't like it, you get blueberries. There you go, meet at your blueberries. Yeah. Exactly. I don't know. The black cat. The black cat blend that you recommended and I purchase. What does that have in it? That is only three. That is a 50 year old plant grown charcoal roasted oolong tea, right? Fancy, fancy oolong. And then it has the vanilla extract on it. It has pomegranate seeds and lemon peel and that's it. Perfect for me. Just. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, I'm working my way through my own blend, but I've been eyeing that. As this country goes through a heat wave, maybe not where you guys are right now. I'm thinking iced tea is a nice, wonderful refreshment. Yeah. And get things. Yeah, that is awesome. This is exciting. Now I'm going to be starting looking at things differently. But at least now I can go around and say, Hey, I'm going to start sending invoices out for marketing clients going chai. Chai money. It's our chai money. Thank you so much for joining us Friday. It's been a real pleasure having you on the show. Again, everyone Linda's articles and her best article about the virtual class and interview and the current one about actually going to the class. Those are both linked in the episode notes as is Linda's website, which is all in good days. Info and Friday's website, which is Friday tea.com. And what's the best thing to do on a Friday afternoon? Have some tea. Have an experiment so that you, that's a good way to start off a nice calm weekend. That's, you know, but it's for every day, right Friday? Yes, indeed. Every day. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It's been an absolute delight. And thank you, Linda, for always bringing in everybody with good taste. I love your interesting people and anybody that has good taste can come on my show anytime they like. All right. Thanks, everyone. Take care and happy tea time. Thank you for listening to Big Blend Radio with Travel Writer Linda Kazam. Keep up with Linda at allingoodtaste.info. You can read her articles in Big Blend magazines and keep up with us at bigblendradio.com. [MUSIC]