Tea, Tisane and Teapots

A lovely bright day today after much wind and some snow. The birds are back at the feeders. I got a "squirrel fooler" feeder for Christmas, which I am hoping I will be able to put up closer to the trees and then see if the little buggers and the deer can empty this one!

Do you know the difference between tea and a tisane or infusion? I'll tell you. Tea only comes from the tea plant - Camellia sinensis. Just like coffee comes from a coffee plant. Anything else is not tea. It is an infusion or a tisane. This includes all herbal teas, all rooibos, all mate, honey bush, peppermint, sage, tulsi, etc. There are hundreds, if not thousands of variants of tea, depending on where it is grown and how it is processed. Personally I don't really consider the tea drinks to really be tea, but just a step away from soda and almost all of the flavored stuff falls in that category to me, also. I really prefer my tea straight up, although I do occasionally like Earl Gray and Jasmine. I may report on them here, but if I am drinking tea, it is tea, period.

Today I am preparing the first of my 2 new YiXing teapots for use. This one is for green tea. I first scrubbed it with a new sponge to get rid of any dust clinging to it and then rinsed it several times until it no longer smelled of clay. It is very importent to never use soap, as the clay is very porous. You also only use one type of tea per pot. Then I filled the pot with hot water and let it sit while I brought a pot of water to boil, threw in a handfull of assorted green teas - obviously I am not a purist - and let that boil for 5 minutes. Then I drained the little tea pot, took out as many tea leaves as I could and gently lowered the teapot into the water and turned down the heat to a simmer for 30 minutes. I drained the teapot and put it in a safe place to thoroughly dry. Then it will be ready to make tea.

This is one way to season a YiXing pot. There are others. This was the simplest. These teapots acquire a patina over the years, just as silver does. I've read that with very old pots, you can practically make a cup of tea from the pot alone. We'll see how this all works. Tomorrow I will do the other one for flowery Oolongs, which I prefer to the more roasted tasting ones.

Differnt Strokes for Tea and Folks

These 90 foot tall windows are in a church in Germany. During WWII they were buried, in order to save them. I am glad they did, as they are magnificent.

I came across two new-to-me teas recently. One is Indian, from Kashmir. It is a green tea flavored with saffron, cinnamon, cardamom and sometimes scented with Kashmiri roses. It is then sweetened with sugar or honey and served with crushed nuts. It is called Kah weh. It sounds wonderful, but I was unable to find a source for it. Guess I will have to go to Kashmir. I only mention it because most people feel it was the British who brought tea to India, but the Kashmiris say this has been traditional for hundreds of years.

While this tea sounds delightful, the other one I heard of did not. It is a blend by 52 Teas and is Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup black tea. Somehow, I just cannot wrap my head around that. I've had several chocolate teas, some of which have been excellent. For me this crosses a food line I don't want to cross. How about you? Would you want to try it?

I am disappointed by the Darjeelings I've had this year – with a few notable exceptions (see previous blogs). And I am again today. I am trying another of the Thunderbolt Teas I ordered – Second flush Goomtee FTGFOP1, Muscatel Valley. It is quite pretty, with a mix of black, brown, tan and gold leaves and buds. It smells very fresh and slightly of chocolate, green veggies and grass. As it brews at 205 degrees for about 3 minutes it continues to smell very fresh, with some nice earthiness. However, to me it just doesn't have anything like a characteristic Darjeeling taste and there is no grapiness to it. There is a bit of a hint of mint and fruit, however. And, as it cooled, a medium amount of a nice floral came to the fore. It is quite tannic, which leads me to believe that I overbrewed it Again! I think I have to take my own advice and play with all these Darjeelings until I do a better job of brewing them.

While there are "standards" for brewing tea, which I and many others have discussed, they really are only guidelines. We need to start there, such as boiling water, 3-5 minutes for black tea, but we need to adjust the time and temperature for the particular tea we are brewing. My experience with many of this year's second flush Darjeelings is they need to be treated more like a green, with a lower temp and shorter brew. I am going to start experimenting and I'll let you know the results.