< Previous30 COASTMONTHLY.COM | JANuArY 2024 A Majolica teapot, right, and a vintage burgundy McCormick teapot are just two of the vintage and antique teapots at St. John Antiques in Galveston. JENNIFE r r EYNOLDS COASTMONTHLY.COM | JANuArY 2024 31 FEATURE STEEPED IN HISTORY Once considered unpatriotic, U.S. tea consumption is on the rise story by BARBARA CANETTI M ore than 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed worldwide each day. But tea drinkers consume 5 billion cups a day around the globe. Creating a tasty cup of tea is a ritual that depends on leaves, the right teapot and proper steeping and brewing techniques. “A lot of people inherit China sets or find them in antique stores and resale shops and incorrectly assume that everything with a handle and spout is automatically a tea- pot,” said Amanda Vermillion, aka The Tea Mistress. “But as the song lyrics go, a teapot is short and stout. If you have a tall and nar- row pot with a long spout, that is most likely a vintage coffee pot.” Drinking tea is growing in popularity in the United States. But in Europe and Asia, it has been popular for centuries. Tea drinking has a long history in this country. It was very popular in the colonial America before the Boston Tea Party, Vermil- lion said. “During the American Revolution, it was pretty much forbidden to drink it or you would be considered unpatriotic,” she said. “Tea did regain popularity in the 19th and early 20th century in certain social circles, mainly the wealthy upper classes, where hav- ing tea with others was a social occasion.” To properly steep tea, the water should be heated to a higher temperature than with coffee. The spout in a teapot generally is at the bottom of the pot, where the water is hottest. The teapots are usually large enough so water can circulate through the leaves to release flavor when heated.32 COASTMONTHLY.COM | JANuArY 2024 FEATURE A few of the vintage tea and coffee pots at St. John Antiques in Galveston, clockwise from top, Russel Wright ceramic teapots, left, and a coffee pot with a cream and sugar set, examples of “American Modern” dinnerware; a Homer Laughlin Fiesta turquoise teapot; and a red tea kettle and cream and sugar set made of aluminum and a teapot with an aluminum cover that slides on and off. PHOTOS: JENNIFE r r EYNOLDSCOASTMONTHLY.COM | JANuArY 2024 33 Vermillion has some suggestions about pot selections. First, decide whether the teapot will be orna- mental or used to prepare tea. For daily use, look for one with a wide opening at the lid for easy cleaning. Most modern teapots are dishwasher safe, and some washers even have a delicate china setting. Check vintage pots for cracks and crazing and note whether the silver plate or sterling needs polishing. Older pots should be safe for regular use unless they’re rusted, she said. And note that a teapot and a tea kettle aren’t the same. “You should never put your teapot directly on a stove burner be- cause they are not meant for open flame,” she said. “You should get a stovetop kettle or an electric ket- tle to heat your water and then add your hot water to your teapot.” Tea is ready to drink once the leaves release flavor in the heated water. Steeping time depends on the type of tea being prepared. A black tea takes anywhere from three to five minutes, depending on strength. Green tea, white tea and oolong have shorter steeping times. If they’re steeped too long, the tea will taste bitter, so Vermil- lion recommends only a minute or two for them. Herbal teas can be steeped for five minutes or longer. “The herbal tea contains leaves or flowers that steep pretty quickly,” she said. “Anything with roots, bark or seeds or dried pieces of fruit may need to steep for up to 10 minutes.” Boiling water is great for black tea and herbal teas, but the green, white and oolong and matcha (green) need a lower temperature to really bring out the subtle flavors, she said. And there are many flavors. In fact, Tammy Heim, owner of The Spice and Tea Exchange in Galveston, offers more than 65 varieties in her shop on The Strand. “Teas all come from the same bush, they are just processed dif- ferently for personal preference in taste,” Heim said. Many people seek- ing to avoid caffeine choose herbal teas, which possess some health benefits, especially those infused with turmeric or ginger. During allergy seasons, the hon- eybee ginger tea is a big seller, and those with cinnamon or cardamom are popular, too, she said. “There are so many lovely flavors and they all are fresh,” Heim said. The hot tea trend is growing, es- pecially among younger people who watch YouTube videos and learn about foods and beverages from all over the world, Vermillion said. Japanese anime also has a huge influence on tea drink- ing among the younger crowd. “And I haven’t even talked about ice tea, but as you know, that is very popular in Texas,” Vermillion said. Teapots come in all shapes, sizes and designs, including these quirky creations, to add some fun to your tea-drinking experience. PHOTOS: BArBArA CANETTI “As the song lyrics go, a teapot is short and stout. If you have a tall and narrow pot with a long spout, that is most likely a vintage coffee pot.” AMANDA VERMILLION© 2022 DOUGLAS ELLIMAN REAL ESTATE. 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UTMB Health has over 130 years of expertisecaring for patients of all ages. The University of Texas Medical Branch is in-network for most major insurance plans. knows how to care for you36 COASTMONTHLY.COM | JANuArY 2024 Doug and Ginny Levack’s kitchen in their West End home in Galveston is light and airy with plenty of room for baking cookies. COASTMONTHLY.COM | JANuArY 2024 37 COUNTER CULTURE COFFEE WITH A VIEW Inventors of a widely popular cookie- decorating tool are at home in their island kitchen story by BARBARA CANETTI photos by JENNIFER REYNOLDS D oug Levack starts each day with a cup of freshly brewed coffee and an extraordinary view of the Gulf of Mexico. His wife, Ginny, joins him, but she prefers tea, which she steeps from her flavorful collection. The Levacks live in Sea Isle on Galveston’s far West End, and from their kitchen and dining room, they have clear views of the beach from their wall of windows facing south. Porches on the second and third floors of the house wrap around the building, giving them views of beaches on one side and the quiet neighborhood on the other. When they moved into their topsy-turvy house — the living/kitch- en/dining rooms are on the upper level — they spent time refurbish- ing and repairing earlier design disasters. And although it’s relatively new, the kitchen needed some work. Their kitchen is large with white cabinets and drawers covered by a bright white quartz countertop en- circling the generous island with an induction cooktop. Large, round nautical lights hang from the ceiling, giving the room a subtle beachy feel. The storage cabinets and drawers are dark blue, contrasting against the white in the room. “The kitchen was very important to me,” Ginny said. “I’m a baker.” Their kitchen is rather high-tech, which isn’t important to the Le- vacks. Ginny knows the stove, refrigerator, microwave and other appli- ances are Wi-Fi enabled, but she has no idea how they work, she said. All she wants to do is bake. Not only is Ginny a baker, she’s also a professional cookie design- er. A dozen years ago, she was between jobs and started decorating cookies for fun. She attended her first Cookie Art Convention & Show in Salt Lake City and, although it was overwhelming, she was hooked. She started designing more and learning about the art of decorating with sugar and other edible substances. One of the tricks of the trade is the use of stencils for air-brushed designs on the cookies. The process was challenging because sometimes an unsteady hand would ruin the design, Ginny said. So, she and Doug, an engineer at the time with Texas Instruments, came up with a tool that would assist the baker/decorator. They creat- ed Stencil Genie, a tool that holds a stencil in place over the cookies 38 COASTMONTHLY.COM | JANuArY 2024 COUNTER CULTURE and allows designs to easily and perfectly be imprinted on the cookie surface. Doug came up with the design. “He is the wizard behind the curtain,” Ginny said. The business and patented Stencil Genie system took off, and in the past 12 years, their company has sold many thousands worldwide. Serious cookie designers sell their prod- ucts with elaborate designs and decorations for anywhere from $60 to $200 a dozen. “It was just dumb luck that we stumbled upon this,” Ginny said. “And during COVID, when everyone was home baking, it became even more popular. But this is one of those things that if you have an idea, go for it. Some- times, you get up to bat and you swing and COASTMONTHLY.COM | JANuArY 2024 39 (Clockwise from far left) Doug and Ginny Levack’s kitchen features an island with an induction cooktop and white quartz countertops. Nautical lights hang over the island and dining room table; one end of the kitchen features a coffee, tea and hot cocoa bar; a special ice machine that makes nugget ice cubes is tucked under the cabinet for adult beverages. miss. And sometimes, you hit a home run. “We hit it out of the park and it gave us the opportunity for the life we have now,” she said. Although she likes to bake, Ginny limits her cookie creating at home. The kitchen is the heart of the house, where family and friends gather. The bedrooms are in the lower levels of the house, in- cluding a bunk room on the ground level. In the kitchen, they created a corner for their coffees, teas and hot cocoas to Next >