Chamomile and Jasmine

Last week, being new to New York City and looking for new ways to nerd out and fulfill some odd desire to do this, I took a class on making my own tea.  The class was at the New York Open Center with a tea-master named Karen Dunlap, who you can find at karendunlap.org.  I was inspired by her, in that she does what fulfills her spirit and makes her happy and seems to make a good living being a tea consultant, consulting for restaurants and teaching classes in New York.  It also gives her lots of excuses to travel, which who doesn't need an excuse to travel?  Anyhow, she was doing a class on Chai tea, which she described as a contradiction in terms, seeing as in India, Chai actually means tea.  She brought a large pot of water to boiling, crushed up some cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and pistachios, threw them in with some black tea leaves, strained the tea into a smaller pot, and a few minutes later after adding some almond milk and sugar, we were sipping her delights.  I was inspired again.  I can do this.  I love her idea of building and recognizing the cultures around tea and it's something I fully intend to incorporate into my own life.  So tonight I gave it a go.  I went to a store called Pearl River in New York City, which is SUCH a find.  They carry all kinds of Eastern flavored designs, from clothing, to food, art, candles, plants, fabric, you name it.  Upon Karen's recommendation, I bought a very small, about 2 mugs quantity tea pot with the little mesh basket inside for the leaves.  I'd bought a bag of organic chamomile loose leaf tea at my yoga school a few days before, but at Pearl River also bought some jasmine and lavender at 1.95 and 3.95/ounce respectively.  I've been trying to stay off caffeine, so I picked what I hoped to be gentle, caffeine free options, I'll let you know how sleep goes tonight and decide then if they are actually caffeine free.  Here is what I did to make my first pot of tea (so easy):

Bring a tea pot of water to boil
crush 2 tbsp organic chamomile loose leaf tea in a ceramic masher (like an antique pill crusher bowl)
Added a couple of pinches of loose leaf jasmine tea and crush that with the chamomile
dump those contents into the mesh basket of the teapot
Fill the teapot with the hot water and steep for about 10 minutes and serve with a slice of lemon

I can't even believe how much more enjoyable this is than the regular bagged tea I've been drinking for years. This particular pot has a sweet taste and aromatic scent, just lovely.  More experiments to come!