Cookstuff

Tea triangles

These infusers are miniature temples to the art of drinking tea. In each silken pyramid, whole tea leaves unfurl, or flowers and herbs darken as they steep. The effect is as pleasing to the eye as the tea is to the palate. And with its jaunty leaf handle and flat base, each bag invites repeat infusions. Just lift and set aside. It’ll sit pretty till you’re ready for another cup.

Pyramid tea bags. Prices vary with package size; $15 for a (12-count) sampler box with five herbal, green and black flavors including citrus mint and black currant. Available online at www.teaforte.com. Also available in two flavors at Via Dolce Cafe, 332-A E. 2nd St., Los Angeles, $11.99 for six bags in a gift box.

Cartoon cocktails

The latest installment in the New Yorker’s cartoon compendium, “Olive or Twist?” is a blithe drinker’s world where home is a bar. The only odd thing is the title. The author needs no shakers, no ice, no garnishes. His own boozy netherworld appears to be a swizzle stick-free zone: His cartoons attest to the preoccupations of a beer and scotch man. Six-packs arrive instead of candy-grams; as a husband piles a shopping cart with four cases of beer, he says to his wife, “OK. That’s my list. You got anything on your list?”; a man in top hat and bow tie slips into a corner joint for a beer saying, “I get no kick from Champagne.”

“Olive or Twist? A Book of Drinking Cartoons” by Jack Ziegler (Harry N. Abrams), $19.95, at bookstores.