Spring Has Sprung!

I must say, if I was using green tea to urge Spring into springing forth, I must have overdone it just a tad. Yesterday was cool, bordering on cold, gray, grim, rainy. Today it has just skipped right past warm and gone to hot - 72 and still climbing. In summer time, this would be pleasant, but my body isn't quite ready for it. I even made some ice tea from some rosy Earl Grey I had.


I am slowly working my way through the tea cupboard. I finally got smart and put them in order by company and got them out where I will see and try them again to see if they are compost, giveaways or keepers. A giveaway isn't bad, it's just not to my taste.


Today I am having a green tea again, because it is hot and this is a lighter tea. It is one of the samples I got from the puriTea - Emerald Needle Green. The dry leaves are indeed a fresh green and quite long. I expected them to be rolled into long thin needles, but they weren't. I brewed them for about 2minutes with 170 degree water. The resulting tea was very, very pale, with almost no discernible scent. I couldn't really detect any taste, so I tried 3 minutes - still not much I had to push the leaves to 5 minutes and still there was not much there. A hint of green, a bit of vegetal, just not much. I think I will mix it with something else and make ice tea with it. I really like green ice tea, much more than most black teas. I often find that where they fail hot, they really shine cold. I have often found the opposite to be true of black teas, they often are heavy and overbearing cold, whereas hot, they are sturdy and comforting.

How about you - what is you experience with ice tea versus hot? By the way, I almost always do mine as a cold brew where I put about 10 teaspoons of tea in my pitcher, add cold water and stick it in the fridge. It suits my exceedingly lazy nature.


The Japanese tea harvest is in full swing, but power outages and overly careful government bans may cause this tea to be late in arrival and very expensive.

Several companies, such as Harney and Sons, are putting out teas for the Royal Wedding - I hope you got yours if that is your interest. Once again, it was either more tea or keeping the husband and as usual, he won. LOL

How are you celebrating THE wedding? I think if I manage to be awake enough to watch, that will be a celebration for me. I know many of you are having tea parties that morning - have fun. I could never do that - it takes me 2 hours just to be awake. The thought of having to cook and play hostess in the early morning just wears me right out. Now if it were 11 pm, it would be fine, since I am a night owl.