About

What is a tea foodie?

Read my first blog entry to find out!

What is this blog about?

Tea Foodie [by Zanitea] is a journal of tea-inspired foods and cooking with tea recipes.

Who’s writing this blog?

Hi, I’m Suzanne Klein. I’m a marketing executive by day, but I moonlight as a self-proclaimed foodie, recreational cook and tea geek. I started Zanitea Organic Tea Blends several years ago. I make hand blended loose leaf teas and sell them online at Etsy and at local craft markets, restaurants and cafes around the Denver, Colorado, area.

I am an amateur cook. I have no professional training. While I take lots of cooking classes and read lots of food books, most of my experience is from pure exploration combined with an adventurous spirit in the kitchen. My mom and siblings are all great cooks, so there is a lot of inspiration in the family.

I am also an amateur when it comes to tea. I’ve been around tea for several years and have certainly learned a lot. But, like wine, tea has a rich history and comes in what seems like an infinite number of varieties from all over the world. One can spend many years learning about tea before claiming to be an expert on the subject.

In an effort to keep up my tea education, I am studying for a professional tea certification with the Specialty Tea Institute of the Tea Association of the USA, and I’m writing about Denver’s tea scene as the Denver Tea Examiner for the local news site Examiner.com.

Why does this blog exist?

In short, I love food and I love tea, so I’m combining these passions here. I spend many hours of my free time in the kitchen cooking and, more specifically, exploring the role tea plays with food. I’ve even taught several cooking with tea classes in promotion of my own Zanitea Organic Tea Blends business. The further down this food and tea path I get, the more I realize I need a place to chronicle my journey.

This blog will track my observations and experiences with food and tea, which may include reviews of cool tea-based food products I find at markets, restaurant dishes that incorporate tea as an ingredient, reviews of cookbooks with tea themes, and of course sharing the cooking with tea recipes I’ve tested.

Where does your content come from?

I create the content and take the photos for this blog. The recipes come from a variety of places, like food-based web sites, cookbooks and friends. In many cases, after rounds of recipe testing, I have adapted the original recipe that inspired me to fit my tea foodie style.  All recipes that I share in this blog will be credited with the source that inspired me to write about the recipe.