Two Peas in a Podcast: Barb's Tea Service launches new podcast (with special guest!)

Learning the recording ropes. Barb and Chris Gulley, two peas in a podcast.

Barb's Tea Service is excited to share we've entered into the world of podcasts. Starting this week, we launched our very first recording of "Barb's Tea Service presents:  But First Tea. . . " courtesy ONTV studios in Lake Orion.

In our inaugural podcast - a full twenty minutes (!) - we introduced Barb's Tea Service, covering who we are, what we do, and our favorite themes/obsessions (Gilded Age, Downtown Abbey, Jane Austen, lemon curd, knife rests. . . ). In addition, we did a high level Tea 101 discussing the different types of tea, which lead to more conversation on what one can add to tea. 

Recording our the first BTS podcast this week.

Our very special guest was Chris Gulley, tech support and self-labeled "arm candy".  While manning the sound board, Chris also shared some tea and tea-adjacent stories, including our last tea outing in NYC at Lady Mendl's as well as "spilling the tea" on our Bridgerton tour in Bath, England last Fall. Chris outed the winner of the Bridgerton Trivia contest given by our tour guide.  For the full story, you'll have to listen to the podcast. But here's a preview from our YouTube channel:

Sneak Peak of Barb's Tea Service's first podcast! (youtube.com)

Chris, tech support and "arm candy"

While we had a great time, we also know, our first entree into this podcast world came with a few bumps and missed signals. As Chris noted, it's a learning curve, and we're sure we'll smooth out the rough edges soon. We adhere to the advice of 1980's singer/songwriter, Howard Jones:  things can only get better!

We'll upload the link to the podcast as soon as ONTV posts it on-line. In the meantime, we're back in the studio next week for the second in our series, "But First Tea. . ."  We hope you'll give us a listen!

Waiting for the tea kettle to signal, that's a wrap!

We're also looking for topics you'd be interested in hearing more about as well as other guests you'd like us to host. Let us know at barb@barbsteaservice.com. 

Lazy Kungfu teapot: It brews with expert timing (In fact, it's a little bit frightening)

The Lazy Kungfu Drip Teapot: masterful brewing with beautiful presentation

 

♫ Everybody, of kung fu I'm writing,
    It's a teapot that steeps fast as lightening,
   In fact, it is a little bit frightening,
   How it brews tea with expert timing.🎝

With our apologies to singer/songwriter Carl Douglas, we at Barb's Tea Service are bringing the exuberance and admiration of mastery from that 1974 classic pop hit and applying it to, not martial arts, but tea brewing.  Specifically, we're talking the "Lazy Kungfu Drip Teapot" which combines beautiful presentation with masterful tea brewing in a convenient tabletop display.

I was gifted this intriguing teapot by my husband, Chris, for Christmas and while I had the teapot front and center in one of my kitchen cabinets with glass doors, I hadn't actually used it until this week. I'm excited to share the positive results.

Kungfu teapot displayed in kitchen cabinet, but now ready for use!

"Lazy" is a bit of a misleading label, as one likes to think of tea making as an exercise with time put in for measuring, boiling, steeping and then repeating (unlike the "dark side" machines that can brew up to twelve cups of coffee with a single button press). But, the Kungfu teapot does offer a clever feature that stops the steep and pours with one slight push. And, if that qualifies as "lazy", okay (although, I'm thinking "leisurely" might be a tad more complimentary).

Kungfu teapot ready to make tea

Measured out loose tea for one cup

The "catch" of the Lazy Kungfu is, quite, literally a catch. Under the tiny teapot is a screen filtered spout which is locked by a steel ball. When the tea is done steeping, one can place the glass cup under the teapot. The cup's handle has a magnet that pulls (or "catches", to be consistent), the ball away and allows the decanted tea to stream through, leaving the tea leaves behind.

Pouring in the hot water to begin the steep.

The Kungfu teapot provides a "dinner and a show" -  one gets a lovely cup of finely brewed tea as well as the joy of watching the whole process. 

The downside is that it doesn't yield much more than a single cup of tea. So, if you want to brew for a guest (or give yourself a second cuppa), you'd need to rinse out the teapot, dispense of the leaves, and start anew - which, again, doesn't sound so lazy to me.

At the base of the teapot, an infuser with a steel ball

The cup handle's magnet catches the ball

However, it is perfect for sharing in an intimate setting, with a few friends, in more of a Chinese tea ceremony fashion, with small cups and several steeps of the same tea leaves. And, that's exactly what we'll be using our Kungfu teapot for next - serving up another gift from the holidays: Puerh tea directly from China.  So, as we are fond of saying at BTS, please stay tuned! 

The Kungfu teapot yield one cup or several small pours

In the meantime, check out our latest BTS video on You Tube where we demonstrate the Lazy Kungfu teapot! https://youtu.be/EiZpY24uWL8

Lady Mendl's tea room: Discovering a hidden gem in Manhattan

Barb of Barb's Tea Service with Lady Mendl's tea room manager, Christine with TeaTime 

Lady Mendl's may be aptly described as a "hidden gem" in New York City, a tea room that blends in so well with the neighborhood, we walked passed it on the day of our reservation. The only sign that lets guests know of its location is a small brass plaque engraved with a tea cup design that hangs to the left of a stately wooden door. Perhaps its understated signage is only fitting for a building that began as a private tea salon in 1919 and during Prohibition also served as Speakeasy.

Understated signage, a nod to its past, Lady Mendl blends in with its neighbors

We were made aware of Lady Mendl's by great tea friend, Barb T, who knows, these days, we're pretty regular visitors to the Big Apple.  Barb had recommended Lady Mendl's based on her own experience there a few years back. She put it on our radar and, finally, this month we were able to follow through. We were not disappointed.

Modern/Vintage room filled with TeaTime publications

When we passed through the door of the 1830's brownstone, our party of five -  me, husband, Chris, along with son, Matt, his girlfriend, Jenna and our daughter, Rachel - arrived at the parlor floor of the onetime private residence. This level encompasses the traditional high ceilings, elegant crown moldings and arched doorways, but, now accented with modern decor, especially evident in the waiting room's bold striped furniture and colorful paintings. It was in this special place we not only met up with manager, Christine, but found an array of TeaTime books and magazines (including the March/April issue with our "Escape to the Chateau" article!)

Once our coats were off, we moved across the hall to our table in the corner, a lovely spot bordered by large windows, a fireplace and a wild fern.  (The latter seemed intent on visiting our table from time to time, but mostly with good humor). 

The table was set with an assortment of colorful china with varying patterns and hallmarks. We enjoyed lifting the plates (empty, of course!), to identify their origins and calling out our favorites.

Rachel and Jenna looking over tea selections.

The afternoon tea fare is a fixed menu of scones, savories and sweets, but with a few welcomed surprises.  Guests have the option of choosing a particular tea or select a tea pairing which brings a new tea blend with each course. Most of our party took advantage of the pairings and with delightful results. As one who loves Earl Grey, and, for the record, that's what Lady Mendl's pairing selections began with, I found the nudge to explore other well-curated teas that help bring out the most in the tasty tea fare a rewarding experience.

Savories in three-tiered tray

Table filled with an assortment of china

The only other choice on the menu is the first course where one can opt for soup or salad.  Rachel was the only one in our party who had the potato leek soup, served up beautifully in a small, slender glass. Rachel reported it was amazing, once she got used to drinking her soup rather than having the usual assistance of a spoon.

Curd, jam and cream housed in a BTS' favorite, salt cellars.

The scones are served warm and, with our admiration, the accompanying curd, jam and cream were housed in cut-glass salt cellars (a favorite Barb's Tea Service tea table accessory!).

The tea sandwiches were satisfying as well, but the desserts were the show stoppers. Aside from petit fours, chocolate-covered strawberries and macarons, there was also a crepe cake with 20-plus layers, a magical creation that was both light and rich.

Petit fours, macarons and strawberries

Multi-layered crepe cake, both light and rich

And, yes, there really was a Lady Mendl! Born, Elsie de Wolfe in New York in 1859, she had various occupations in the arts, starting as an actress, then gaining much success as an interior designer. Later in life, she married a British diplomat, giving her a title. She resided in the same Gramercy Park brownstone building of the current tea room where she was known a grand hostess with great style.

A hidden gem, we won't walk by again.

We'd say this tea room captures the spirit of the best of Lady Mendl - an eclectic blend of old and new, where food and service excel.  A true Manhattan treasure, now that we've found it, we plan to be back!

Escape to the Chateau: Our escape to NYC, the last stop on the "Dare to Do It" tour, (and a bit of "tea time" with Angela!)

The Gulleys meeting up with the Strawbridges at Manhattan's Town Hall

Dick and Angel Strawbridge have "dared to do it" from the beginning of their "Escape to the Chateau" television series, inspiring a league of devoted fans from their native UK to their adopted home in the French countryside, and extending across the pond to Canada and US. We at Barb's Tea Service, members of the latter group, along with some our family, dared to meet up with the Strawbridge's at the last stop of their first North American tour with our own escape to New York City.

Barb and Angel, a shared passion for vintage china and tea parties

As a fan of "Escape to the Chateau" from the beginning of the series, originally on HGTV, now available on Peacock, I would eagerly await each season as Dick and Angel, along with their children and a streamlined team of skilled crafts folk, would lay out a new project to be tackled at their dream home - a 19th century chateau filled with charm, but in desperate need of repairs and modern conveniences. 

The Town Hall stage before the Dare to Do it show (note the faux ferns on either side).

In nine seasons, the Strawbridges provided us first-row seats to their chateau renovation, turning the estate not only into their "forever home" but creating an events venue for weddings and other special occasions. I was especially enamored with Angel's collection of vintage china and her tables set for teatime.  With her background running a vintage tea party service, it's no surprise I felt a deep connection with Angel & co. from the get-go.

I had corresponded with the delightful Chateau team for over a year and when the series ended and Dick and Angel took their story "on the road", finally coming to North America, I was twice blessed:  one, an interview with Angel in January for TeaTime Magazine and two, prime viewing with my family at their New York tour this week.  

Sharing some 'tea time' with Angel 

Chatting with Angel via Zoom in January

The "Dare to Do It" show in New York was especially great for my husband, Chris, and me, as our favorite NY couple, my son, Matt, and his girlfriend, Jenna, were able to join us as well as daughter, and BTS ops manager, Rachel. 

In our prime seats before the show with some of our family.

We thoroughly enjoyed the evening spent with the Strawbridges at the Town Hall in Manhattan. Natural storytellers, aided by a lively slide show, Dick and Angel shared highlights of both their personal and professional lives, sometimes poignant, sometimes cheeky, but always in good humor and with deep appreciation. It felt as familiar and comfortable as many of Angel's vintage treasures - a big group hug shared by those on stage with those in the seats.

Chris (aka "arm candy"), Dick and Barb

Afterwards, we met up with Dick and Angel, feeling as if we were reuniting with old friends. Dick asked Chris if he was the "tagalong" to which my husband replied, "I'm the 'arm candy'".  From then on, that's how Dick, sporting a large grin that couldn't be masked by his grand mustache, referred to Chris.

A warm hug after the show. 

Angel, truly a born hostess, greeted us warmly with literal hugs and we talked about our last chat that made up a good deal of the TeaTime article.  

And, the positive vibes that Dick and Angel send out permeate throughout crowd as though it's more of a family gathering than a hodgepodge of unacquainted guests. We met and became fast friends with Nadine G, chatting at length about our mutual fascination with the Chateau series. She was also the recipient of Angel's generosity and endearingly quirky style. When she found out that Nadine was a resident of the Big Apple, Angel insisted she take one of the show's stage accessories - a large, gold, faux fern, with significant heft. (Truly a cherished conversation piece, it that now resides in Nadine's home. However, it's the tale of getting it into the taxi that is the best example of what happens when Chateau-meets-New York and we're thrilled to have witnessed the whole experience.)

Nadine gifted a faux fern from Angel

Taking the faux fern home in the taxi:  NY meets Chateau

For more information on Dick and Angel and their Chateau journey, see TeaTime Magazine's March/April issue . You can find it in retail stores (Barnes and Noble, Publix, and more!) and also on-line at TeaTime Magazine subscriptions.

Now that we're back from our escape to New York, what's next? I'd say we've added a direct escape to the Chateau in the future.  Thanks to Dick and Angel for taking us with you on your "Dare to Do It' journey, welcoming us into your forever home and a most wonderful evening in Manhattan.

Tuesday Tea and Tomes: BTS takes a swan dive: 'Capote's Women' and 'Answered Prayers'

BTS took a swan dive with Truman Capote books:  "Capote's Women" and "Answered Prayers".

 

The recent miniseries on FX, "Feud: Capote vs. the Swans" has many of us eagerly anticipating Wednesday evenings at 10:00 pm for the latest installment. With only two more episodes to go, as of this week, the true-life drama of the gifted and celebrated author and his cadre of elegant socialites, the series inspired us to read more about Truman Capote's roller coaster ride of fame, friendship and betrayal - specifically, "Answered Prayers" and "Capote's Women".  The former is Truman Capote's unfinished book, filled with gossip and scandal and the latter is a recently published tome which the current "Feud" miniseries is based.  Both books are filled with as many captivating and cringey stories as the television adaptation, but this wasn't our first encounter with the "Swans", the name Capote gave to his exclusive club of beautiful and wealthy women. That came with the 2021 book by Anderson Cooper.

Anderson Cooper's mother, Gloria, was once a Capote "swan" as noted in his 2021 book.

A quick step back to a past BTS Tea and Tomes featuring the book "Vanderbilt, the Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty", by Anderson Cooper, which details the family's astounding rise to wealth via Cornelius Vanderbilt, his great-great-great grandfather, and the equally spellbinding spiral of loss by generations who were more gifted at spending than fortifying the clan's fortune. One of the last Vanderbilt's to live that unchecked lavish lifestyle was Cooper's mother, Gloria, once one of Truman Capote's "Swans". Anderson Cooper devotes several pages of his book to Cote Basque, the favored lunch spot of New York elite and, eventually the title given to the spare-no-feelings, tattle-tale chapter from "Answered Prayers". Gloria's instincts cautioned against sharing intimate details with the author of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and that served her well. Although Capote's depiction of Gloria Vanderbilt is certainly not flattering, she was not as brutally exposed as many of her fellow "swans".

 Which bring us to "Capote's Women" and "Answered Prayers".

"Capote's Women", by Laurence Leamer, published the same year as Anderson Cooper's "Vanderbilt" , certainly focuses on Truman's swans, but also weaves the story of Capote's life throughout the 316 pages, starting with his southern roots in Monroeville, Alabama, relatively undistinguished save for his next-door-neighbor and friend, Harper Lee, author of "To Kill a Mockingbird" (another BTS Tuesday Tea and Tomes).  The book also charts Capote's impressive writing career, which peaked with his wildly successful "In Cold Blood", a true story masterfully told in the style of fiction. 

Unfortunately, the time at the top, professionally and socially, was not to last. Leamer takes the reader through the slow and sad decline of Truman Capote, propelled by a self-sabotage mix of drugs, alcohol and abandonment of people he considered "friends".

We visited the Monroe Museum in 2022

The Alabama museum includes a Capote section

                                 

We visited Monroeville in January of 2022 and stopped in the Monroe County Museum, which served as a model for the courtroom in the movie, "To Kill a Mockingbird". It also includes rooms devoted to the hometown's two authors, Harper Lee and Truman Capote. A fascinating building full of history in an otherwise small, sleepy, southern town.

"Capote's Women" is a page-turning, entertaining read.  A highlight of the book, as well as Truman's celebrity, is the "Black and White Ball" he hosted at the Plaza Hotel (and, yes, we had afternoon tea in this sumptuous place last year, see,  Afternoon Tea at the Plaza). Using a trick from Gilded Age hostesses (or versions of New York's Studio 54's strategy), keep the guest list so exclusive, everyone will want "in" no matter what the party really delivers. (With chicken hash as an entree and balloons for decorations, in substance, it didn't match - or even come close to, for that matter - most of the grand parties of this high-end social strata, but the attraction was being "included". Only the well-heeled party from Italy left early and were overheard grumbling - we flew in for this?).

NYC's Plaza Hotel, home of Capote's Black and White Ball, 1966, and our afternoon tea, 2023

Many over-the-top details of the "jet set" lifestyles from European palaces to oceanside estates in Palm Springs, Florida, elicit both feelings of awe and awful. Endless parties of look-alike one-percenters whose world is so tightly bound, they divorce and remarry each other spouses, as though there's danger outside the circle. Titles (real, removed or faux) are cherished, even if the one bestowed is as dull and dim as unpolished silver. 

It makes sense that Truman Capote would add some color to this society. He was a favorite invitee - his dramatic storytelling enchanted the upscale crowd, like their own personal one-man reality television show, before it was even a concept.

Palm Beach tea, "swimming pools, movie stars"

Flagler Museum in Palm Beach Florida.

                

We visited Palm Beach, Florida, in January of this year and visited the Flagler Museum (a Gilded Age mansion). We entered the world of docked yachts as big as school busses and a city center so clean and manicured, it looks like Disneyland  - "swimming pools, movie stars." IYKYN ( more in a future blog).

Some sad, but at times funny, stories include Jackie Kennedy Onassis' younger sister, Lee Radziwill's attempt at a mid-life acting career and Joanne Carson's in-house wake for Truman. The second wife of Johnny Carson, Joanne trumpeted that her memorial for Truman would be a star-studded attended event, but the only celebrities who came were an aging and senile, Jim Backus, propped up on a couch, and an unrecognizable Esther Williams.  The press that camped out on Carson's lawn were sorely disappointed. 

We enjoyed "Capote's Women" and found it a bit easier to follow the jumping timelines in the book than the series. But, nonetheless, we eagerly await the final episodes of "Capote vs. the Swans". The rollercoaster ride of Capote and the swans provides readers and viewers a "fantastic voyeur-age" into the thrills and spills of an almost alien lifestyle, but once it's over, it's good -actually almost a relief - to unbuckle and return to the pleasures of the happy ordinary. 

And, for "Answered Prayers" interesting, but meandering (though, we're fond of "meandering"), especially the first chapter, "Unspoiled Monsters".  The third and final Chapter, "La Cote Basque" is gossipy with unlikeable characters bound by an oddly codified society that's both shallow and confining, with consequences to those who puncture the glittering bubble.  Sentenced by the tribe, Truman Capote was quickly outcast for exposing confidences, finding there was a cost to biting the satin-gloved hand that fed him.