HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! to all who are celebrating the Asian Lunar New Year. May you have joy, peace, prosperity and every other good thing!

May the doors you open lead to wonderful things for you.

We are celebrating here because the sun is shining and the sky is blue. The pines are brilliant etched against the azure sky and it's not even too cold.

Any day is a good day when you get new teas to try from a new-to-you company. I had heard so may good things about The PuriTea Company I had to order. They were having a sale on make your own tea samplers, so I did. My order came very quickly and they even sent 3 free samples. Wow.

I was going to discuss a couple of different Keemuns I have been drinking, but decided to go with another Chinese tea to celebrate the New Year. This one is from Aura Teas and is Organic Golden Monkey Black Tea. It is one of Wuyi Yen tea, [grown in spaces between mountain rocks], from the Wuyi area of Fujian Province, and is considered one of China's finest. It is a mix of black and brown leaves, heavily curled. It is processed by hand in the spring. It will yield up to 3 infusions. In the container the aroma is a fine mix of floral, sweet and a deep deep spice and wine bottom note. I did the first infusion for 2 .5 minutes and the second for 3.

The tea in the cup has a smooth, sweet, deep woodsy, spicey scent and the liquor is very, very dark. I can hardly wait to drink this! Usually I like cream in my black tea, but this is so fine, I can't do it. The tea almost feels creamy, it has such a rich body. There are so many taste sensations it is hard to sort them. It is sweet, with an almost honey flavor, then a bit earthy, then there's an elusive woodsiness, a little touch of acid to make your mouth feel juicy, along with oak. It is a wonderful tea. It is such a kick when there is so much going on in a tea.

Aura teas can be seen at http://www.aurateas.com/ They have always been very nice to deal with.