AMA with @foodyatra

[chase-h-dimond Tea Master]

Culinary influencer @foodyatra will be doing a live AMA (ask me anything) tomorrow (4/18) at 10:30AM PST.

Start writing any questions you might have below.

Topic ideas:

-Best food recipes

-Best restaurants in a specific place you’re interested in

-Their favorite kind of tea

-Best tea recipes

-Becoming an Instagram influencer

-Anything else you can think of

 

[Lama Gharaibeh Tea Lover]

What are the main things I should do to have a successful instagram page ? https://www.instagram.com/lama_gharaibeh

[ANAND SAFI Tea Lover]

@lama gharaibeh –

the main things always are:

• finding your niche where you can get the most engagement
• creating authentic and beautiful content
• try to have it possibly around a theme
• post at least a few times a week ideally
• interact and engage with your followers
• ideally choose 5 to 7 most relevant hashtags

[Dana Tea Lover]

Which teas from around the world (i.e. Moroccan mint, Russian Caravan, etc.) do you recommend?

[ANAND SAFI Tea Lover]

there are numerous options all around the world and wish we get a chance to try them all. the top 5 we would probably recommend are:

1. Noon Chai/ Pink Chai (Kashmir Valley, India) – Noon chai is a traditional tea beverage from Kashmir made with salt, milk and baking soda
2. Oolong Tea (China) – traditionally rolled, twisted or curled into tight balls or thin strands.
3. Maghrebi mint tea (Morocco) – a green tea prepared with spearmint leaves and sugar
4. Darjeeling tea/ Masala chai (India) – a tea steeped with milk, sugar and  some classic Indian spices (like cinnamon, cardamom, clove, and even black pepper)
5. Yerba mate (Argentina and South America) – “strength of coffee, the health benefits of tea, and the euphoria of chocolate” all in one beverage.

• This reply was modified 7 months, 3 weeks ago by  ANAND SAFI.
• This reply was modified 7 months, 3 weeks ago by  chase-h-dimond.

[Francesca Tea Lover]

Which sweet or salty food do you recommend with a cup of tea?  🙂

@percorsi_inarte

• This reply was modified 7 months, 3 weeks ago by  chase-h-dimond.

[ANAND SAFI Tea Lover]

@percorsi_inarte

Best sweet pairings:

• tiny chocolate truffles
• macaroons
• cream scones

Best savory pairings

• cheese sandwiches
• samosas or pakoras
• cumin cookies

[Alexa L. Tea Lover]

Do you drink a different tea/blend depending on your mood or daytime (e.g. something stronger/richer in the morning)?

[ANAND SAFI Tea Lover]

Yes. Normally you would have tea 2-3 times a day in little quantities.

Morning is ideally a little mild/ light blend to just start off from night’s rest and get a little warmth in your body.

For afternoon, any green tea blend would work best post lunch around 2-3 pm. Green tea is cool to the body and works well to dispel the heat of noontime

Evening around 6-7pm, we normally prefer a little strong spiced chai (ideally masala chai). It frees the mind and relieves the stress of entire day.

There is an optional dessert chai that one could have as a lighter option but that varies from person to person.

[chase-h-dimond Tea Master]

How long have you been on Instagram? How did you go about growing your account? What’s the best part of being an Instagram influencer?

[ANAND SAFI Tea Lover]

We have been on Instagram for 1 year and 8 months now. We made sure we stayed grounded on where we wanted our account to grow. Always used the right hashtags, tagged the right influencers, engaged with the audience, posted several times a week and stuck to this schedule. The best part of being an influencer is when a foodie reaches out to you in joy when they found value in one of our posts or we featured them on the page.

[Jamie Wilhelm Tea Lover]

What’s your favorite kind of tea?

[ANAND SAFI Tea Lover]

Jamie – Our favorite tea is always the “masala chai” from Indian subcontinent. That balance of sugar, milk and 5+ spices is simply tantalizing to our tastebuds and the bold flavor helps relieve any stress!

[Alexa Hall Tea Lover]

What’s your favorite food to cook?

[ANAND SAFI Tea Lover]

Alexa – pardon our choice but we love making a classic mac and cheese at home. Experimenting a little with different cheese combinations! 🙂

[Jared Stephens Tea Lover]

What inspired you to start @foodyatra?

[ANAND SAFI Tea Lover]

Jared – Great question. I am a huge foodie and always on the hunt for something exciting. I kept on keeping a log of places to visit, cocktails to try, food to eat and kept clicking numerous photos. My wife turned to me one day and said: “Why don’t you start a page where we can share these discoveries with the community more broadly and spread culinary joy!” That night – @foodyatra was kicked-off (August 22, 2016)

[Cathy Bradford Tea Lover]

Any suggestions on incorporating tea into dessert recipes?

[ANAND SAFI Tea Lover]

Cathy – Absolutely. There would be lot of recipes easily available but our all time favorite is at a little place called “Pondicheri” in NYC. They bake a signature chai pie and it is fantastic. It is a normal pie but you top it off with chai spice infused cream and that spice combination does wonders. It is a New York Times award winning dessert as well.

http://shop.pondichericafe.com/bake-lab/chai-pie/

[Bob Dainko Tea Lover]

Do you make a living from your Instagram? Or do you have a full-time job?

[ANAND SAFI Tea Lover]

Bob – we do have a full-time job and Instagram page was more of a hobby which is definitely not the case now. We do get to try amazing products and go to great events but we still do not make a full fledged living out of it. We could do that for sure and that requires a whole different set of time, skill and dedication. We are getting there slowly, not just there yet 🙂 There are some amazing influencers who do that and are extremely successful.

[Heidi Zetz Tea Lover]

What’s your favorite type of food?

[ANAND SAFI Tea Lover]

Heidi: Cuisine wise – we are little more inclined toward Indian and Thai food. A single item wise – ramen bowls are our kick!

[Danielle Tea Lover]

I’ve been to a lot of coffee shops in NYC, but haven’t ever come across any good tea shops. I know there must be some great ones, do you have any recommendations?

[ANAND SAFI Tea Lover]

Danielle – Excellent question! You are correct that it is hard to find them. Here are few that we have been to and love:

1. Bosie Tea Parlor
2. Janam Tea
3. Té Company
4. Harney & Sons SoHo

[Izma Tea Lover]

Hello,

I hope you’re good. I wanted to ask you if you’ve

ever tasted the tea leaves grown in Sikkim and Darjeeling. What do you have to say about the Tibetan salted butter tea?

R:)

[ANAND SAFI Tea Lover]

Izma – we have tasted the tea leaves from Darjeeling. We even have visited couple of tea estates and plantations in Darjeeling and Assam. About Tibetan Salted Butter Tea, we are yet to taste it but know for sure it works wonders for the locals there. Specially yak butter and hot tea keeps them warm and energetic!

[ANAND SAFI Tea Lover]

Hello Tea Lovers and fellow influencers,

We want to start off by thanking each one of you by participating today and giving us a chance to interact with you. Apologies on the delay but we are here now and happy to get things started.

We will begin by responding to the questions already posted but feel free to ask more anytime.

Best,

FoodYatra

[LeafyGreen_Tea Tea Lover]

Who are your favorite online tea vendors to order from?

[ANAND SAFI Tea Lover]

We love Teabox in particular and their site has some terrific options.

[ANAND SAFI Tea Lover]

Thank you all for asking such wonderful questions. It was great to articulate our thoughts and share them back with you. We want to thank @tealovers and Chase as well for setting us up with this opportunity to interact with the community.

Feel free to checkout @foodyatra on Instagram and please please send us a DM. All of you that asked questions today, we specially would love to chat more with you and learn something from you as well. We will be happy to follow you all back on Instagram since you guys are our “Tea Lovers” family!

 

[chase-h-dimond Tea Master]

You are so awesome! Thank you so much for doing this!

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