Pause: Tea in Texas yet again

Please forgive yet another delay in the posting stream. My travel tea mug and I are on the road again. I had to speak at a conference, and now I'm back in Austin, Texas, for the annual South by Southwest music hootenanny.

You can bet I'll be escaping mid-afternoon for a respite at the tea shop I discovered here last year: the Tea Embassy.

In the meantime, I managed to snag this adorable promotional card for a digital marketing firm in L.A. ...

Tuesday tea TV: Wu-Yi documentary

I've been down for days with a dreadful cold, the only upside of which was that I finally got to watch most of this five-part documentary series on tea production in the Wu-Yi mountains of China. Produced in 2009 (and thankfully translated into English), these half-hour segments are informative, sure (well, keep in mind this is produced without blemish by China's state television), but also loaded with some great scenery.

Watch: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

The Queen likes Fortnum & Mason, so will you

Queen Elizabeth, Camilla and Kate caused a stir this week when they visited London department store Fortnum & Mason.

Unfortunately, there seem to be no photos of the trio actually having tea. Allegedly, they did so "with some of the store's staff, suppliers and former employees." F&M's renovated restaurant now has been renamed the Diamond Jubilee Tea Station to mark the queen's 60 years on the throne.

I note the occasion only to trumpet Fortnum & Mason one more time. I visited there a couple of years ago on a tea junket. Their Grey Dragon Oolong is still one of my favorites, and the store is a delightful shopping experience, especially compared to the tourist insanity of Harrod's.