Wish I could see the courtyard behind the big doors.I'm back with the Golden Moon Tea sampler I ordered and today I am going to compare their French Breakfast with their Irish Breakfast Special Reserve. These are both excellent teas, worthy of a good morning, but they are quite different in character.
The French Breakfast is a high mountain Ceylon and dry it smells like very good tobacco with a very small whiff of perhaps cherry and a hint of cinnamon. I brewed it for about 3.5 minutes with boiling water. It has a nice smooth, almost light taste, with perhaps the barest hint of lemon. There is no bitterness to the tea. It is improved by some cream and a bit of sweet.
The Irish Breakfast was quite different, smelling like good quality hay or chestnuts when it was dry. I steeped this one the same as the French and added a bit of cream. It has a deep fruity taste, like plums or prunes or dark cherries. A bit of sweet brought out even more of the flavor. It is heartier than the French, but not too much.
Both of these teas were a surprise. Somehow, I expected the French to have a bit of cocoa in it and the Irish to be almost bitter and very very strong. Neither was true. I really liked both of them and felt they were excellent choices for mornings or, really, anytime of day. They are both strong enough, sturdy enough and that is their beauty – enough, not too much.
I just had to make a big pot of tea in addition to the 2 cups we tasted because I just received my BIG Swissgold teapot infuser! I think I am in love with it. It fits all my big teapots, it has a handy, dandy top that becomes its drip catcher and I can make 9 cups of tea at once in it with no loss of flavor, because it is so BIG and holds all those leaves with space to unfurl. Hooray!
It is indeed becoming Spring. The skunks have begun to come out of hibernation. Sadly it means a number of them are killed on the road. They may smell bad, but they do a good job keeping down mice and insects. We once lived in a small town with a huge population of them and we all learned to get along without incident. In the evenings, both people and skunks would stroll the sidewalks.
2 comments:
"We once lived in a small town with a huge population of them and we all learned to get along without incident. In the evenings, both people and skunks would stroll the sidewalks." Wow! This is great! I once rescued a few new baby raccoons. That was the first time I had ever touched a raccoon, and all the time I was thinking, luckily they are not skunks! :D
I enjoyed my visit to your blog!
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