Aaah, a cool day. It is not even supposed to hit 80. My kind of summer day. I know I am in the minority, but there you have it. Morning was further enhanced by seeing a doe with her fawn, who is pretty well-grown by now, but still spotted. I have temporarily foiled them by tying plastic bags to my new plantings, which blow in the breeze and scare them. Putting up fencing is one of our next projects.
If you like reading tea blogs and wonder what ones are on line, go on over to http://www.teapages.blogspot.com/ . Katrina has a long list of them, just above her blog writing. She also has a book coming out this fall.
I have heard of mixing wine and tea and have had some myself, but tea and beer is a new one. The Stone Brewing Company from California has worked with some Japanese companies to produce Green Tea IPA (India Pale Ale). All proceeds will go to the Japanese Red Cross to support aid efforts of victims of the earthquake/tsunami. I am not much of a beer drinker, so I won't be reviewing this, but it is a nationally distributed company, so if one of you would like to do a guest blog about it, let me know and we'll arrange it.
Calling all West Coast tea people! There will be a tea festival in Los Angeles August 13-14, sponsored by the Japanese American Museum. For more information, go to http://www.teafestivalla.com/ .
Speaking of festivals, there just was one in Bratislava, Slovakia. Michal writes about it in http://poetryintea.blogspot.com/ . Lots of nice pictures, too.
I have 3 successful ice teas sitting in my fridge at the moment - Tie GuanYin from Dream About Tea, Hajua Sessa Assam from American Tea Room and that lovely Yunnan from Upton Tea I reviewed earlier this week, which is the least tasty - the cold seems to have eliminated the spice and sweetness.
My tea today is an experiment. If you remember, I had a very unhappy tea experience on vacation, trying to use bottled water for my tea. Today I got 2 kinds of water from the grocery store, Fiji, which was recommended in a tea magazine and Poland Spring, which is readily available everywhere in the Northeast. I am using Culinary Teas Lady Londonderry for the experimental tea, as I like it a lot and know what it tastes like. I brought both waters to a boil and brewed the tea for 3 minutes.
Wow, what a difference in color. The Poland Spring (PS) was a nice bright amber. The Fiji, a very dark brown, almost black. The taste was also heavy and dark and had a bit of tannin, it actually didn't taste much like Lady L, but was pretty flat - more like a not so hot teabag. The PS tea was lighter and more nuanced, much more true to the taste and aroma of this particular tea. I am going to try some others, just to make sure, but if PS works across the board, it will definitely be my tea traveling water. It is also much cheaper, which is an added plus. This was a blind test, so I wouldn't know which was which.
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