Samovar Sample

Bacharach, Germany on a spring day.

Another gray and grizzly day. I so want to get out and garden, but I am afraid of drowning or at the very least, being mired in mud up to my ankles. Enough rain already. The perennials are very slowly moving towards growth, but, of course, the dandelions are forging ahead. When I was "at home" one whole hillside was covered with them and we all thought it was beautiful, the bright green overlain with the bright yellow.


The farmer's pond is finally free of ice and I noticed several ducks and the ubiquitous Canada geese all sailing along on it. The cats have started catching mice and snakes and the blue birds have returned. Our trees in the woods behind, are still pretty gray, although there is one sugar maple that is turning pink with buds.


Speaking of gray, I have yet another Earl Grey to sample. This one is from Samovar Teas. Upon opening the packet, I was nearly overwhelmed by the strong scent of bergamot. Phew! The dry leaves are smallish, mostly black with some brown. I brewed it up for 3.5 minutes with boiling water, using a 6 cup pot for the sample. The aroma was much gentled by this time. The brew is quite dark and very citrussy and quite pleasant, although I found it to be on the sharp side. I added some cream to it and that rounded out its edges, making it a very nice cup, indeed.

A note of caution - if you order samples from Samovar, do not use one sampler for 1 cup, it is enough for 5-6. I wrote them about this and they said they are working to change their labels.

Have any of you heard of Tea Talk Magazine? It is an English publication, probably not available here. However, it is on line at http://www.teatalkmagazine.co.uk/. There is a lot of information about tea rooms, tea, tea customs, all sorts of things. Check it out, it's interesting.