Up Up and Away!

Yes, we certainly are journeying far up into the Himalayas of Nepal for our tea today.  Simpson and Vail was kind enough to import some for us from the Ilam estate, simply call Nepal Ilam.  It is listed as a black tea, but like many of its "neighboring" teas from Darjeeling, it looks more greenish, with pale brown, gray and green chopped leaves.  There isn't a great deal of scent in my sample.  Often there isn't until it begins to brew.

I brewed it for 3 minutes, with boiling water.  There is now that good fresh, invigorating aroma of tea.  The liquor is a palish gold/tan.  At first I thought it was just a very bland tea, but then I noticed it had some sort of citrus lingering around the edges, more towards an orange than anything.  It's not sharp, nor is it yet sweet.  It's pleasant, but I think I need to drink more to give it a fair trial.

It is hard for me to reconcile my picture of the Himalayas, gathered from many a mountain climbing book, with somethng as domestic as a tea estate.  But I keep going to Google Earth and looking and sure enough, there they are.  Not quite up at the summits, of course.

In the very tidy town of Durlach, Germany, a very small front
garden