Oh yeah, Spring is "a cummin' in". Our neighbor farms have new calves and another has two new lambs. They are just so, so...new! Tiny hooves, big eyes, soft little noses. But they know what's what as they bump their mother's udders for milk. When I was on the farm it was my job to wean the calves and teach them to drink from a pail. It usually took about two days. It was the beginning of the gentling process so they would be easy to handle as they grew up.
That doesn't have much to do with tea, but Upton's does and I am drinking some of their Kairbetta Estate Nilgiri BOP CL/CH, which means, broken leaves, Chinese clonal. And they are - quite small bits, but definitely not CTC. I am only brewing them for 3 minutes, with boiling water. The dry leaves have a kind of sweet earthiness, while the brewing tea has a good bit of malt along with the earth. Even at 3 minutes, the brewing is almost over the limit. The tea is definitely malty, nutty, roasted tasting. Actually, this is one of those teas that I think is best with some milk. A good breakfast tea or one with sturdy foods with strong flavors. A good St. Patrick's Day tea. Which is tomorrow, you know. Celebrate, all you Irish. I am surely a European mutt, but I only have a bit of Irish, and Northern at that. But I celebrate with some nice soda bread and Irish stew. Irish Breakfast Tea for the first meal of the day and maybe Irish Cream from a local shop to end it.
Uh Oh, Ernie is on top of the fridge, contemplating a jump into the cupboards, so I'd best go do rescue detail - of MY stuff, he's fine.
1 comment:
I definitely notice a huge difference between BOP (Broken Orange Pekoe, orthodox tea) and CTC (Crush-tear-curl) tea.
BOP tea can be quite exquisite; I've had some amazing BOP Darjeelings, as well as ones from other regions. I have yet to try a CTC tea that really excites me though.
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