Snow, Another Good Reason For Tea

More of Grandpa's view

Saturday it snowed - just enough to leave about an inch on things in the morning. By noon, the lovely, warm, bright sun has dissipated it all. The fur persons all ran out, tails up, noses twitching, to see this new thing. But wait! It is cold on the paws and it sticks. Meee- oooow! So they all rush in again, to warm their toes on our legs. Best have some tea, says I.




Silver Leaf Tea Company is offering a black tea from the Kenilworth Estate in Sri Lanka, still known as Ceylon in the tea world. The leaves are a pretty good size, almost all black with hints of brown. They have a deep throat-catching winey scent. I only brew it for 3 minutes, as my experience of both Ceylon and Assam is that they get nasty if brewed too long. All the tannin comes out and one could even say it was stewed. The resulting liquor is a very dark amber which gives off a combination of oak, fall vegetative matter and a roastiness. The tea itself, however, is only so-so, with no particular taste. It is much improved with a spot of half & half, which seems to bring out the oakiness and lift it into the pretty good realm.



Tea is always amazing me. Sometimes, with really good teas, you just get your socks knocked off, they ‘re so good. Some are subtle, some change their taste from the beginning of the cup to the end. Some teas are wonderful hot and dreadful iced. Some taste best with cream, others are awful that way. It is always an adventure and a comfort to have tea.



I bought some good coffee for my “best beau” and ya know what? All this tea drinking has sharpened my palette so that now I am better at coffee nuances as well. “Who’da thunk it?” If you have coffee drinkers in your house, the company is Gimmee Coffee, which originated in NYC, but I get it locally in Ithaca or on line at http://www.gimmeecoffee.com/ . The prices aren’t bad, the service is excellent and the coffee is roasted by them within a few days of delivery.



Since the flood, I have noticed that my water filter has been getting used about up 2-3 times as quickly and it is having a hard time filtering out all the chlorine. It’s a good thing we weren’t drinking it for several weeks.