LA trip end of Jan

[wyardley]

It seems to me like we are trying to do too much.

I also wanted to go to Tea Habitat, they do tastings on Saturdays and we can start there to hang out and talk. All my info I was gleaming off their web sites and info from Bears. I believe we can skip Chado and Palais Des Thes. Its still early in the planning stages here as well so give me some room .
[...]
I have Tea Habitat's number to setup the reservation for tea tastings. But as you know the person there, it be best if one of you set that up. We don't have to do it right now as I don't have a full head count.

I talked to Imen (the owner); Saturday is probably better, as she's better staffed on Saturdays. I don't think we need to make a reservation, but I'll give her another heads up when there's a final head count.

If we don't do a formal "tasting", there is no charge to try some of her teas.

[Cofftea]

I am not sure how many people are around here in So Cal. I learned that Victoria was just north of me by a couple hours. I started discussing a trip up to LA to check some vendors and see what other tea mischief we could get into. So far its looking to be the 24th or 25th of January. We only have 2 places on our list so far but they are Hankook and Lupicia...

Vulture, you MUST, MUST, MUST go to Dr. Tea's shop, The Tea Garden & Herbal Emporium located @

8612 Melrose Ave.
West Hollywood, CA 90069

[wyardley]

Vulture, you MUST, MUST, MUST go to Dr. Tea's shop, The Tea Garden & Herbal Emporium located @

Oh god. Don't get bears started.

I've never been there myself (despite living fairly close), so I have no comment.

[bearsbearsbears]

Vulture, you MUST, MUST, MUST go to Dr. Tea's shop, The Tea Garden & Herbal Emporium located @

Oh god. Don't get bears started.

Too late! <g>

Avoid Dr. Tea. It's garbage.

1 tsp of bad quality, mislabeled, or fake tea in a 16oz glass coffee pot for $8 and up, served by a staff that knows nothing about tea. All teas served at the same temperature: cooked greens, bland blacks, fishy pu'ers, and weak oolongs. I sent them two emails asking about their aged pu'er and never received a reply. They make ridiculous unfounded claims about tea as panacea and weightloss enhancer.

The location was worth visiting before Dr. Tea bought it, when the shop E.lix.ir had the space. The garden is pleasing when the weather's nice. But Dr. Tea buys cheap benshan, calls it taiwan gaoshan, and charges an arm and a leg for it.

Do not want!!!

[Victoria]

Tell us how you really feel!!!

Ok, that's out before it was even in!!

I really, really, REALLY like the idea of Tea Habitat.

I just don't like it combined with the LA trip. My thought is even if we say 12:00, it or we may not all get started till 12:30. I would be very amazed if it took us under 2 hours. (I would not be surprised at even 3 hours.)

Did you see the traffic drive time estimation to LA? 1.5 hours in traffic. And there will be traffic. But being conservative - say 2 hours there, one hour to get to LA, so that would put us in LA around 3:00 or 3:30. That is not much time at all, and remember it gets dark now around 5:00. I'm not so keen on driving around in LA at night alone.

I think we need two separate trips. Or a much earlier start.

[Cofftea]

Ok, that's out before it was even in!!

I haven't been able to make it there, but will in March. I have; however, ordered from there and prepared the recipes from the book. All with good results. I've even lost weight. So my advice would be don't take the advice of one person over another. Go and decide for yourself.

[Cofftea]

Ok, that's out before it was even in!!

I haven't been able to make it there, but will in March. I have; however, ordered from there and prepared the recipes from the book. All with good results. I've even lost weight. So my advice would be don't take the advice of one person over another. Go and decide for yourself.

[bearsbearsbears]

So my advice would be don't take the advice of one person over another. Go and decide for yourself.

Or you could take the advice of doctors, nutritionists, and researchers.

A 2004 study of 104 people in the British Journal of Nutrition showed habitual caffeine intake via green tea was associated with greater weight gain after dieting, and the 2005 study of 7006 people by Maastricht University showed tea had no effect on weightloss during dieting.

In fact, studies in humans have not shown tea by itself helps weight loss, with or without dieting. Only one joint study by the Netherlands and...Italy? showed people who drank 1 liter of tea and were dieting and exercising lost ~3% more weight over those told to drink water.

The only way to lose weight remains to decrease your calorie intake to below what you burn in a day: take the fork out of your mouth and go exercise. If tea replaces a high calorie drink, such as a soda or large bottled juice, it helps do the former, but the tea in and of itself has not been shown to have a weightloss benefit in humans.

Tea just makes dieting more enjoyable.

[Cofftea]

So my advice would be don't take the advice of one person over another. Go and decide for yourself.

Or you could take the advice of doctors, nutritionists, and researchers.

I meant specifically for the tea drinking experience/quality of tea.

[Chip]

This sounds great, maybe I will fly out.

I am certainly envious at the number and quality of tea places to visit out there. I am sure whatever you all decide, it will be a great experience.

[Pentox]

This sounds great, maybe I will fly out.

I am certainly envious at the number and quality of tea places to visit out there. I am sure whatever you all decide, it will be a great experience.

Heh if you were going to fly out here you should go to SF.

[Chip]

My nephew lives maybe 30 minutes from SF, I would love to visit him and the fantastic tea sites!

[Pentox]

My nephew lives maybe 30 minutes from SF, I would love to visit him and the fantastic tea sites!

Oh? Where at?

[Chip]

I am thinking San Jose maybe, or is it Palo Alto. Sounds like a nice area.

[Pentox]

San Jose/ Palo Alto has it's own group of stuff to check out, albeit not as cool as SF though. There's that one in Santa Cruz as well that's not that far from there (relatively).

That's a whole different trip altogether though!

But San Jose does have it's own Lupicia. (saldy I don't like it as much as the two SF ones).