Another Good Reason to Drink Tea

The lichens on the trees along the dirt road are "blooming".  A beautiful golden apricot over the very ordinary gray green that these lichens usually are.  They are especially beautiful in the sun, but they certainly light up a dull day.  If only it were the beginning of April and not February.  This warmish weather, while welcome, has my system all out of sync.  It also means we will be inundated with bugs this summer unless we get some good long freezing weather to kill them.

However, in honor of the lichens' glorious color, I am having Apricot Black Tea from Lupicia Teas, a Japanese company.  The name always makes me think it should be Italian.  The neat black leaves and marigold petals smell pleasantly of apricot, with a touch of sharpness.  I brewed it longer than recommended - 4 minutes in stead of 3. Even so, the resulting brew smelled wonderfully of apricots, with a tiny, almost medicinal twist.  I don't know if that is the marigolds or a different variety of apricot from what we may be used to, or just a quirk.

Oh my, such a nice tea.  It tastes wonderfully apricot-y, sweet and rich.  For once, I will not complain about not being able to taste the tea itself, but just enjoy this lovely flavor.  For one thing, there is no discernible chemical taste, which really turns me off, big time.  For another, this is a very clearly defined one fruit - apricot.  I don't have to try and dissect what flavor it really is.  It is just itself and very good that is.

I also made some scones today from a recipe I really like, although I needed to make a correction.  It is from "Sacramental Magic in a Small Town Cafe" by Brother Peter Reinhart, copyright 1994.  The recipe calls for 3 cups of flour, which produces something like cake batter.  I use 3 and3/4 and it works just fine.  I would give you the recipe, but it is somewhat lengthy and I am lazy today.  It works very well, and produces 12 excellent scones, no matter what I've added to it.  Actually, while the list of ingredients is a bit lengthy, you just put all the dry together, add all the wet all at once, stir it around, and voila! scones ready to bake and eat, yum, yum.

This looks like a lovely long walk to me, on and on to the mountain tops.