Tag Archives: teaism

Food and Drink, The Features, We Green DC, We Love Food
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We Love Vegan: Part 1

Photo courtesy of
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courtesy of ‘erin m’

Over an especially gluttonous meal one night, filled with lamb chops and veal, we had a thought: What would life be like without all this meaty goodness? But not only without meat, what about life without this cheesy, eggy goodness? That crazy night (after maybe a few too many glasses of wine) the idea of Vegan Week was born. We, your loyal food writers here at We Love DC, decided to tried are very best to eat completely, 100% vegan for one week.

Well…one work week. Ashley ate most of her meals out of the house, for no other reason than everything she knew how to cook had bacon in it, while Katie had to make her decidedly unveg work location work for her. What follows is the sometimes humorous, sometimes surprising, sometimes depressing account of Vegan Week 2010. (For more on our decision to go vegan, check back here Thursday at 11 a.m. for the wrap-up post in this series, We Love Vegan: The Question and Answer Session.)

Dun-duh-duuuuuuuh.

A disclaimer: Through plenty of Plant Alternative research and polling our friends who know a little bit about living a meat-free lifestyle, we came to our conclusions about how to attack Vegan Week. We tried, to the best of our abilities to eat vegan, and to our knowledge we did. If we screwed something up along the way, it was on account of our own stupidity more than anything else. We are not vegans, not even vegetarians, but we tried our best. Also, just a reminder, we here at We Love DC respect all lifestyles, from the meatful to the plantful, and expect that you do too. Take your haterade elsewhere, thanks. Continue reading →

The Features, We Love Drinks
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Tea Time!

Tea Time at home
Tea time at home by Corinne Whiting

A few years back, a loveably zany Irish friend of mine lugged tea bags with her from her Drogheda cupboards to the communal hostel kitchens of Buenos Aires, Rio, La Paz and Cusco. I’ll admit that I didn’t really get it. (“If only I had brown bread right now too,” she’d sigh dreamily, nearby mate drinkers looking on curiously as she downed cup after cup of her smuggled vice.) To say that Edel is a tea enthusiast is an understatement.

I didn’t understand her tea passion…that is, until I moved east to windswept Scotland, where a steaming cuppa is sometimes the only sure way to chase the chill from one’s bones. There I also learned to appreciate the soothing and intimate ritual of gathering with friends over a shared refreshment that requires time—time to steep, to cool, to sip, to savor, to merely pause and take it all in.

Coffee culture seems the more visible beverage addiction in most US cities (DC included), while the army of tea devotees tend to fly under the radar. But I suspect they’re out there. So where can a tea lover get a fix here? The options include spots pretentious and proper, casual and cozy, and those somewhere in between.

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Downtown, Food and Drink, Penn Quarter, We Love Drinks
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We Love Drinks: Teaism

Happiness is a Warm Chai, by alykat on Flickr

It may seem odd to launch our new recurring feature on DC’s watering holes with a nod to a mainly non-alcoholic spot, but make no mistake – Teaism can just as quickly become an addiction on par with your favorite bar. Though the food can be some of the most reliable in town (oh, that salmon ochazuke soup! comfort in a bowl), we’re here to talk about its liquid libation. Devotees of tea are never disappointed when
faced with the exhaustive menu of black, green, tisanes – served iced or hot – from a wall of colorful boxes.

There are three Teaisms in DC (Dupont Circle is the original, opened back in 1996). I’m lucky in that my office is equidistant from two, each with their own distinct vibe. The Lafayette Park location has a sunny classical interior, befitting its Decatur House view, and is usually full of suits. Whereas the Penn Quarter branch has mainly subterranean seating, bustling with tourists. Despite the setback of the fannypack crowd, the PQ boasts a koi pond and an adjacent tea shop where the true addict can load up on her own supply to brew at home.

If I head to Penn Quarter, I’m most likely desiring an iced Japanese sweet green tea to takeaway and sip while staring into the nearby fountains of the Navy Memorial. “What makes it so sweet?” I asked the tea shop lady once about the surreally green elixir, “is it a special kind of tea?” “Um,” she replied, “you do know there’s a lot of sugar in there, right?” It was a truly blonde moment.
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