Tomato Soup for Tea?

A beautifully worked gold covered prayer book from the Palace museum in Vienna.


What a great day – so far it has been all sunshine! And we had some super news! We've been accepted into a program for retired Presbyterian pastors to receive free housing until we die or can no longer live independently! We are so excited we hardly know what to do with ourselves, at least in part because we surely don't want to think about all the work involved in moving yet again. The house will be a new 2 bedroom, 2 bath home and we've seen some of the others that were recently built and they are very nice indeed.


Well that certainly needs a super cup of tea to celebrate, doesn't it? I decided to break into my stash of Thunderbolt Darjeelings I recently purchased and have some Arya Estate second flush SFTGFOP1. The tea is quite pretty, a mix of black brown and gold. It smells of really good tomato soup, with a hint of tobacco and wood shavings. As it is brewing I caught a strong whiff of old-fashioned molasses cookies. Can't wait for the taste with all this going on. Sadly, this is where it all came to a crashing halt. It tastes like tomato soup! Two whole cups of tomato soup! Well, phooey, I had really been looking forward to this as generally, Arya Estate has good to excellent tea. My husband said it tasted like I brewed it too long. I thought maybe my taste buds are off due to all the meds poured into me lately. So I will leave it for now with a big question mark and come back to it later.