Longing for Snow

I hope you all had very nice Christmases, with lots of wonderful tea gifts.  I certainly did.  My sister-in-law gave me a whole tea party, complete with Devonshire cream, lemon curd, scone mix and a pan to bake them in.  We're supposed to have company this week, so I am going to have afternoon tea with some of the goodies.  I'm dying to try the pan. 

My husband and I had to laugh - I bought him a bunch of good coffee and he practically cleaned the shelves of our local tea store.  We got lots of specialty food items as gifts, so we are going to party hearty with our friends.

Speaking of which, I just had a pretty hearty tea.  It is Keemun Encore, from Adagio Teas.  A Chinese black tea, the thin wiry black and brown leaves gave off an aroma of smoke, mixed with roasting corn and, of all things, onions - very faint, but I think it was there.  I brewed it up for 4 minutes with boiling water and the smoke remained, but the scent morphed also into red wine and that unmistakeable fresh tea smell.  You can imagine I was wondering what the taste would be! 

The taste was still smokey and the corn and wine were still there, but no onions.  It was deep and solid and hearty.  I happened to have it with a couple of Christmas cookies and I won't repeat the experience.  They really set each other off in an unpleasant way.  With a small ham sandwich, it was excellent.  I can't say I really liked this tea a lot, but it was certainly an experience.  That's what I like about tea, every cup is like an exotic trip.

See that white stuff on the mountain?  That's snow, which I wish we had.  I can say lots about being forced to notice things more carefully since we are in a gray/brown period, but my heart is longing for snow.  Maybe 6 inches.  Enough to cover everything nicely without it being too hard on  anyone.  Actually, I like lots and lots of snow, but I am trying to be nice  
We went out for dinner on Christmas with a bunch of friends.  We've never done that before, but I think we will again when our kids aren't here.  We had a lovely time, with excellent food, wine and company.  What more can you ask for?  And no prep, no clean-up.  Yum.