Pittinnh

I can see this BYO Tea Bag thing becoming more and more of an issue as the interest in tea grows and grows, and many more people consider themselves to be tea connoisseurs. A number of companies are producing 'fill your own teabags' ( T-Sac, Easy-Pocket are two, but there were others at the last World Tea Expo). My company, Thistledown Cozies, as well as others, makes a 'Tea Wallet' expressly for carrying those teabags with you. We in the tea world do pride ourselves on our good manners; perhaps some self policing is in order. We need to establish some proper etiquette for this act. In the meantime we should be as discreet as possible. Personally, I have no problems with ordering a cup of hot water in an airplane; and ordering a pot of tea with the bag on the side in a restaurant - as long as I'm not insulting the host. The temperature the water arrives at determines which tea I use. If I'm lucky it's the one I was craving.

Does anyone know of any North American suppliers of frozen, ready to use Danish pastry aka Wienerbrod aka Viennabrod??

May I suggest these hot dessert soups from my family's Danish heritage: (I see a Danish cherry soup above - only Danes in this catagory???) Hot Rhubarb Soup Very simply done with stewed cubed rhubarb and sugar to taste. I love it with the pulp still in, but makes a gorgeous presentation strained - a crystal clear ruby. Hot Rose Hip Soup Difficult to make from scratch as cleaning rose hips is tedious work, but watering/juicing?? down a jar of rosehip jam is a possible substitute. I have used canned guava as a sub in a pinch but it is a bit grainy. Again this is just the stewed fruit, but the rose hips are very intense. My mother would swirl some very lightly whipped cream on top; and further top with sweet 'croutons'. Sweet Croutons: shake 1/2" cubes of white bread in a pan dusted with granulated sugar. Heat and gently stir until sugar carmelizes and covers all sides of the croutons. Cool and float on the hot soup. Hot Lemon Soup Stew any number of dried fruits in sugared water: prunes, raisins, apples, currants... Also in the stew, shavings of lemon zest. Use a potato peeler to shave the zest into pieces about the size of an elongated coin. The stewing will candy the lemon somewhat making it quite delightful. When lemon is soft and edible, and the fruit stewed but not cooked to a mush, add a beaten egg to the soup. Temper the egg with a little warm soup and then add to the pot. The egg should cloud and thicken the soup - Not curdle (this is NOT egg drop soup.). I hope these 'peasant' foods will inspire you to create something worthy of presenting at your Soup Fest. Is the public invited to your event?