Guilty Pleasures
18 Nov 2008A brief interlude from my Food Show recap for a purely self-indulgent blog post.
The underground trains are crowded. Always really really crowded. Usually it’s all I can do to squeeze into the car, and getting a seat in the morning? Not a chance.
However, I live on a rather obscure one-stop branch of one of the lines and while it’s always crowded if I take it in the morning, it’s usually nearly empty on my ride home. I don’t actually take that line too often because the trains run so infrequently but I have a secret guilty pleasure when I do end up at the right place at the right time and manage to be the only person in the entire train car.
Let me add at this point, I can’t sing. I entirely fail at hitting the notes and carrying the tune I am mean to hit and carry. And possibly worse, I’m not tone deaf so I can hear exactly how off I am. This is a problem because I love to sing. I sing in the shower, I sing when I’m home alone and… when I’m alone in that train car heading home after a long day, I can’t resist singing on the Underground.
Yes, there are probably CCTV cameras recording me looking ridiculous. And I’m not doing it for any reason except for the pure enjoyment of being able to do the one thing I would never do in public while in what is usually the most crowded place in town. And I have to say, it’s one of the most fun, liberating things I think I could ever do on public transportation.
So if you see a nearly-empty train wizz by with a girl singing to herself, wave… that’s me!
BBC Good Food Show: Tea
17 Nov 2008The BBC Good Food Show didn’t just feature food, it also had a fair number of drinks. What caught my attention, not surprisingly, was the range of teas available. Rarely have I seen so many styles and flavours of tea all in one place. Lucky for me they also offered samples so I downed my way through white teas, black teas, green teas, red teas and probably some maroon teas but I’m not entirely sure.
Top Pick for BBC Good Food Show Tea: Revolution Tea
Revolution tea instantly stood out due to the number of teas they had on display and their simple, elegant logo and packaging. I realise that marketing and packaging shouldn’t be the main reason I pick a top tea (and it’s not) but it definitely drew me in to begin with. They had the misfortune of being sandwiched between some of the more aromatic pork vendors, probably not the best placement for something as subtle as tea and were placed in an incredibly high traffic area. Therefore, when I noticed the simple smell and packaging I was instantly drawn in.
If the idea was to provide a relaxing experience they certainly delivered. The pomegranate white tea I sampled was a lovely break from the overwhelming flavours of the stalls around me and had a taste that held up even with the assault of the nearby pig roast. In exchange for my email address, I also got a sample of the pear white tea to take home which I enjoyed over the weekend.
Had I the time (or if I didn’t think they’d have kicked me out) I would have sampled a much wider range of their teas as they had an almost overwhelming amount on display. Possibly most impressive is that they stood out in the land of tea when they’re actually based in Arizona. Who knew such wonderful tea could come from America? While the natural ingredients do of course come out of Japan, China, India and other Eastern tea growing countries, the blend is perfected in the States – a perfect meeting of East and West.
Check out their website for the full range of their teas. I haven’t sampled the full range but I can wholeheartedly recommend the pear white tea as it was fantastic.
Other favourites:
Tiny Teas ltd
Tiny Teas once again had a wide range of teas available, all of it loose leaf. While this might make it a bit more difficult to manage at home if you don’t have a tea strainer (come on guys… who doesn’t have a tea strainer?) many people feel loose leaf teas tend to have a better flavour. They are also a world-friendly tea. All of their packaging and shopping bags are hand made by the Kawangware Street Children and Youth Project which aims to but a sustainable community structure in place in Kawangware. Pretty cool.
They also gave me a card with a recap of what different teas are good for. Here’s the rundown:
Black teas for relaxation, stimulation and digestion; Green for stress reduction (ooh, need some of that), metabolism and immune system; Oolong for general well-being; White for detox, bones and fatigue; Rooibos for skin, colds and allergies; Herbal for general wellness and their fruit infusions for lots of vitamins.
Check out the full range on their website.
My Cup of Tea
Again, I was won over by adorable packaging and then sold on the delicious teas. In this case I tried their black tea. Although I’ve been on a white tea kick lately I can’t pass up the classic. They do have a much smaller range of flavours (all available online) but what’s interesting is that they make and sell tea to businesses and the part of the business called My Cup of Tea is their consumer facing branch. With My Cup of Tea you know you’re getting the quality you’d get in a restaurant. Yummy!
Stay tuned tomorrow for my recap of Sweets, Squashes and Ciders from the BBC Good Food Show.
- Work-from-home Sunday. Yeesh, lots to do. And at some point I need to go grocery shopping for the week. #
BBC Good Food Show: Chocolate
16 Nov 2008Because there was so much to see at the BBC Good Food show on Saturday, I’m going to break down the day by types of food or drink. To get started, and before they all blur together in my mind in a haze of chocolaty goodness, I want to review the amazing British chocolatiers at the show.
Top Pick for BBC Good Food Show Chocolate: The Chocolate Alchemist
The Chocolate Alchemist is a West Sussex company that produces fully organic chocolate. I was immediately attracted by their impressive display of chocolate slabs. Chocolate slabs are much less common in the US but in the UK they come in a variety of flavours and designs and are effectively massive chocolate bars. The Chocolate Alchemist ones not only looked delicious but would make fantastic gifts.
They offered me a taste of their dark chocolate and peppermint bar which was divine. Although this, along with all of their other retail offerings showcased at the event, are sold year-round, they have a number of options that are great for the holidays including star-shaped truffles and cinnamon and nutmeg chocolate bars.
Their website is not set up to take orders online but they do have a full product list, a number to call to place orders and, for some strange reason, a comic strip featuring photos of stuffed animals making chocolate bars. Oh well, with chocolate this good they can throw in a few odd pages on their website.
Other favourites:
Jim Garrahy’s Fudge Kitchen
Unfortunately the Fudge Kitchen doesn’t have a shop in London (although they do ship worldwide and give you a free sample if you make it to their shops in Bath, Cambridge, Canterbury, Edinburgh, Windsor or York). Beyond tasting amazing, Fudge Kitchen immediately jumped out at me during the Show because it was such fantastic eye candy. Huge slabs of multicolour fudge in a variety of flavours were on display including some more unique flavours such as Strawberries and Cream, Banoffee Bonanza and Rich Chocolate Orange.
Check out their website for all flavours and ordering info.
This chocolatier gets a feature because of their incredibly awesome chocolate shot glasses. The chocolate samples were delicious but the shot glasses won me over. I didn’t buy a set but ideally I’ll get some for a party to serve Chocolate Covered Cherry Jelly Shots (cherry jelly – that’s jell-o for the Americans in the audience – shots served in the shot glasses. Yum!). Of course they had a wide range of other chocolates as well.
Also worth a look:
A few chocolatiers that are worth of note are Gorvett&Stone, The Chocolate Chef and Rumsey’s.
Tomorrow I’ll be featuring some of my favourite teas from the show.
Meaghan Fitzgerald is a marketer and entrepreneur building and growing consumer and gaming products and experiences. A Silicon Valley native, she started her first company, DormWise, in 2006 which she later sold in 2009. Meaghan spent 7 years in London in early stage consumer startups, two years at Xbox as a product marketer for Minecraft, and is currently the head of product marketing for VR experiences at Facebook and Oculus. Meaghan writes here about business, technology, gaming, and marketing. She has been named a top