In Morocco, father and son share a glass
of mint tea. THE DVD provides a beautiful
tea experience, available in DVD with
a companion book.

The film takes you through China, India, Japan and Taiwan. It also talks to tea-drinkers in far-away Morocco, England, France, Ireland and even Tea, South Dakota, who enjoy the tea that comes from half a world away. Unveiling tea’s mysteries, the film contrasts ancient rituals and bonds, such as that expressed by a tea planter who would “dishonor his ancestors” if he could not continue growing tea. Then, there are the youth to whom the cultural heritage is unimportant, expressed by Taiwanese teens who disparage their grandmothers’ tea-drinking but enjoy spitting the tapioca balls in bubble tea at each other, and young adult Japanese who prefer coffee because “it’s Western and cool.”

Contrasted against this sea change are the seriousness of purpose of people who have spent their lives working in the tea industry and consumer tea lovers. Two middle-aged brothers who sell Pashmina scarves in India remonstrate that they could survive without anything on a desert island including water, but not without tea. A Moroccan man describes the ritual and pleasure of searching in the market for the perfect bunch of fresh mint with which to make his tea, and the satisfaction of brewing the perfect pot of tea with it.

Experiencing the bonds that so many people have to tea is an emotional and cultural ride we’d like to take again. This handsomely-shot, wonderfully-edited 74-minute DVD includes 45 minutes of special features. There’s a companion book with 150 photos that explores tea through the words of tea growers, tasters, entrepreneurs, shopkeepers, scholars and experts from eight countries. Get the DVD and invite friends over for tea. It will be a memorable experience!

• For more information or to purchase, visit TheMeaningOfTea.com, telephone 1.212.691.8899 or email info@teadragonfilms.com. 

The recipe was created by Andrea Watman, Creative Director at Zabar’s in New York City. Another twist is the gingersnap cookie crust, which brings even more holiday flavor into the recipe.

• Try the pumpkin mousse cheesecake recipe.
• No mousse for you? Here’s a full-strength mocha pumpkin cheesecake (cheesecake with a coffee bean-graham cracker crust and a mocha glaze).
• Find more cheesecake recipes, including Burnt Caramel Cheesecake Brûlée, Cranberry Cheesecake, Irish Coffee cheesecake, Mango Cheesecake, Mascarpone Cheesecake, Rosemarie Brie Cheesecake and Sour Cream Topping Cheesecake.

Pumpkin mousse cheesecake is lighter than other recipes.

The difference between cocoa and hot chocolate: Cocoa is made from cocoa powder. Hot chocolate is made from bits of actual chocolate (it was originally invented in Switzerland by shaving chocolate bars). It’s also called “drinking chocolate.”

• Here are 24 more hot chocolate tricks.
• Take our hot chocolate trivia quiz.
• Read about some of our favorite cocoa and hot chocolate (we’ve reviewed more than 70), and the difference between dutched and non-dutched cocoa.

Get free shipping through October 31 plus
a new Bloody Mary recipe. Photo courtesy
of RicksPicksNYC.com.

Enter coupon code: octoberfree (all lower case) when you order at RicksPicksNYC.com to get the free shipping. We love all the products, but go batty for the Phat Beets (the top seller), the Green Tomato Condiment (formerly called GT 1000s, curried green tomato pickles), Windy City Wasabeans in a soy-wasabi brine, Smokra (pickled okra seasoned with smoked paprika) and … heck, we may as well list everything.

Enjoy the screaming good Bloody Mary recipe below for Halloween, which features Rick’s Picks’ Mean Beans, a spicy dilly bean (cayenne joins the traditional dill and garlic seasoning). Low in calories—just 20 per 7-bean serving—the brine is used in the Bloody Mary, and you can toss fresh string beans from the store into the remaining brine to make new pickles. As with all of Rick’s Picks, there’s no hidden sugar.

Ingredients:
– 1 ounce vodka
– 3 ounces tomato juice (see our review of the best)
– 2 dashes Worcestershire
– 1/2 teaspoon prepared horseradish
– 2 dashes Tabasco or to taste
– A dash of freshly-ground pepper
– 1 quarter lemon, squeezed
– Generous splash of Mean Beans brine (try other dilly bean or pickle brine if you don’t have Mean Beans—but it won’t be as good!)
– Mean Beans to garnish

Preparation:
1. Combine ingredients. Shake or stir.
2. Pour over ice. Garnish and serve.
3. Have extra Mean Beans on hand for demanding guests.

The bowls products use Hokkien noodles, round egg noodles of medium thickness—think fat spaghetti. (Hokkien is a Chinese dialect spoken in southern Fujian, Taiwan, and throughout Southeast Asia.) In less than two minutes, you can microwave:

• Garlic Scallion Noodle Bowl. Combining two of our favorite flavors and mild, this has broad appeal. Scallion lovers can add some fresh scallion for more kick. (Vegan)
• Korean Sweet Chili Noodle Bowl. This flavor ratchets up the heat nicely. The “sweet and spicy red chili sauce” will please many Americans who have become accustomed to lots of sugar in everything they eat. (It was pleasant, but we found ourselves looking at the package label for the sugar grams). (Vegan)

Have microwave, will feast: Annie Chun’s
Noodle Bowls provide an almost-instant Asian
food fix at home or at work. Photo by Erika
Meller | THE NIBBLE.

• Vietnamese Pho Soup Bowl is a tough one to write about. It’s advertised as a “complex and flavorful organic beef broth.” A real pho is a thing of beauty, piled high with stewed beef, noodles bean sprouts, onions, scallions, and a great complexity of spices: chile, cinnamon, star anise, ginger, black cardamom, coriander, fennel and clove, topped off with fresh lime squeezed at the table. Granted, this is the fast food version, largely broth and noodles, but the broth was so weak and indistinct we wouldn’t have known it was beef, and the only apparent seasoning seemed to be black pepper. We couldn’t help but long for the pho (a.k.a. stewed beef soup) at Talent Thai restaurant in New York City, which is a knockout dish that you want to have over and over again. (If you’re in town, you must have a bowl.) This variety is very light and mildly peppery; we would love a “complex and flavorful” re-do.
  Other flavors of Noodle Bowl include Kung Pao, Pad Thai, Peanut Sauce and Teriyaki. Soup Bowls include Chicken Noodle, Hot & Sour, Korean Kimchi, Miso, Thai Tom Yum and Udon. Suggested Retail Price is $3.49 for an 8.4-ounce bowl; $34 for a 12-pack at WorldPantry.com.