Holding Back the Fall

On the plains of southern Austria, suddenly, there's a wall of rock!

Fall is beginning to let us know that it is coming. A few maples are
starting to have bits of red and gold and early morning can be quite chilly. I've detected a certain smell in the air you only get when autumn is in sight. I will be happy to have cooler weather, but not dark at 4 o'clock or all the cloudiness and gray.

I can hold on to the good parts of summer a while longer by having some Fruity Apricot tea from the Assam Tea Company. I must say, of the seven or eight samples I ordered, only one has not been all that good. The apricot is not one of them. What a treat to open the packet and be greeted with the deepest apricot scent, with hints of bubble gum. Almost as if the fruit were roasted. As it brewed - for just three minutes according to directions - the scent was mostly that of fresh tea with a nice blend of apricot. Sadly, no more bubblegum, though.

The brew tasted primarily of very fresh Assam tea, with a gentle accompaniment of apricot. Your taste buds won't get smacked around with this one, which is how I prefer any flavorings. I tried some iced and it was very nice that way, as the fruit lightened the tea somewhat. It struck me as a good drink to while away the afternoon, sitting on the porch, in the shade. My husband, of course, used sweetener and I have to say, this brought out the apricot very nicely. This would probably be really good with a dollop of apricot nectar, but I don't have any. I think I'll get some and try it.

No Earl in Assam

We associate the High Renaissance with flying buttresses -
the external supports that enabled people to build tall walls .
These buttresses are much more ancient and serve the same
purpose. If you compare a picture of Notre Dame in Paris to
this, you will see the similarities.

I thought I would be flying with today's choice of tea, an Earl Grey from the Assam Tea Company: Classic Bergamot, made from tippy black tea and organic oil of bergamot. It smelled so wonderful when I opened the packet. It was a very rich citrussy, perfumed bergamot with a great understory of very fresh tea. The leaves were quite dark, with an abundance of tips, on the small side. I brewed for 3 minutes, using boiling water and while it was brewing the bergamot scent faded quite a bit, as often happens.

The liquor was a lovely deep reddish amber and still smelled very fresh. The first several sips, I couldn't discern the bergamot, but gradually I could, in the back of my mouth, very faintly, sad to say. The tea is a good Assam, malty and rich, but I could not say this is really an Earl Grey. I added some cream and this did bring out the bergamot, but not enough to suit my taste. I still prefer several of Upton's.

Your Basic Little Black Tea

More mosaic. The gold doesn't show up too well in the photos, but
in person, it just shines.


I was shelling peas I bought at the farmer's market today. I was struck by the uneven quality of them – some were far too old, some too undeveloped and not nearly enough were just right. I got thinking about the knowledge one needs to judge the readiness of garden produce and fruit and of course, segued into tea.

It requires not only a great deal of knowledge, but also experience to first grow the bushes and then to recognize the exact day to pluck the tea, and then to process it into a high quality brew. Knowing how long it took me to really know how to garden, pick and prepare my veggies and fruit, I am really in awe of the tea growers and processors. There are so many, many factors to take into account. And just when you may have figured something out, the weather throws you a huge curve ball and BLAM! all your hard work for nothing. But then, there are the good years, when everything works out and your garden, or your tea is the very best its ever been. As gardeners or tea drinkers, those are the years we wait for.


While I was writing that I was listening to the Gramercy Brass play “American Anthems”. Such familiar music. I kept waiting for the elephants to come parading in or to ride on the carousel. Good stuff, though, and my favorite instruments. Probably because all of my McDuffee cousins played a brass instrument and there was always someone tootling away when I visited them. I also like music in the lower keys. When my son was playing the flute we had to be in separate rooms for me to be able to listen, because the flute is pitched so high.


Okay that had nothing to do with tea, except we all have certain types of tea that are our favorites. If you've been reading this for a while, you know I love black tea above all. I am gaining a real appreciation for Oolong and green teas and a bit for Pu-erh. However, white tea will probably always remain too finely pitched for me. However, today's tea strikes a good base note.

It is the Assam Tea Company's Kama Black. With great long black leaves, smelling of old wood, wine barrels and perhaps a hint of vinegar. I brewed up about a teaspoon and a half, as the leaves were so large, with boiling water, about 3.5 minutes. There is that wonderful "clean laundry on a windy day" smell, coupled with almost a corn smell, and still some hints of old wood. It never stops interesting me that the tea will give off so many scents before you even get to taste it. There aren't a lot of nuances to this particular tea. It's a good straight forward tea for when you just need a "cuppa". I am finding it exactly what I need today.

There is an article in the British newspaper, The Guardian, that says the British medical system has identified a new mental disorder, Nervous Healthy Eating Disorder. If you care about the amount of chemicals and junk food that goes into your system you have an eating disorder. I assume they mean people who are severely troubled by this and not us ordinary (if that exists) folk. So all you people who drink tea at least partly for its health benefits had better stop or we'll all be taken away, ho ho, and be forced to drink milkshakes while eating our bacon and sausages, (not that we all don't have our indulgences). I certainly know that anything carried to extreme can be unhealthy, but can't we just be a little neurotic and insist on good tea?

A Honey of a Tea

One of my favorite photos. It is of Karl's Kirche in Vienna, around sunset.

Today, my friends, I seem to have more of a brain; at least enough to make tea and drink it with some appreciation.

The tea in question is Honey N' Cream from the Assam Tea Company.It is from the Satrupa Tea Estate and is billed as "bolder broken leaf black tea". I can't see it, it looks like standard CTC to me. CTC usually looks like grains of coffee and pretty much stays that way - no unfurling leaves, no un-twisting, what you see is what you get. After I had brewed it for 3 minutes with boiling water, the little tea bits looked a small tad looser, but that's it.

This is really a nice Assam. Very smooth and mellow, it has a bit of maltiness, a bit of sweetness, a lot of freshness. Adding cream surprisingly seems to bring out more briskness, but very nicely. True to it's name thee was a honey taste but not that cloying sweetness you get with the actual stuff. This goes very nicely with food such as grilled cheese or peanut butter cookies. it compliments them without being overwhelmed. Good stuff.

Asleep at the cup

More Viennese Royal housing.

I had the best of intentions to discuss more of the Assam samples from the Assam Tea Company. I brewed one up and company arrived and then I had to take the Ernster [Ernie] to the vet. I drank the tea, thinking, hmm, this is nice and smooth, not even thinking about it being a sample and that was that. Talk about brain dead - that's me! I'll try again tomorrow.

One of my fellow tea bloggers passed on that it has been about 117 degrees in Delhi, India - something that has not happened in over 60 years at this time of year. Delhi, for those whose Indian geography is weak, is in the far North Central part of the nation. At about the same latitude as Darjeeling, although it is not at as great an elevation. It seems the weather and the earth itself are very unsettled this year, with it being too cold, too hot, too wet or dry, earthquakes all over the globe. Not an easy time for farmers of any sort or other folk living in the hardest hit areas.

That Creamy Assam

Angels all around us.

You can tell it is definatively Spring - the "road work ahead " signs are popping up all over. Miles of one lane roads, with nary a worker to be seen. Sigh. A happier indication is our peach trees are in bloom. Yumm.


I got a bunch of tea samples today that I had ordered before my ban on tea until after we move. They are from the Assam Tea Company – www.assamteacompany.us. I don't remember where I heard about them. Of course, I had to try one right away. Assam has not really come into it's own in the tea world. Most people consider it pretty ordinary. I have to say it is not real high on my list of favorites, but it is almost always a good reliable standby, and less expensive than many.


I am trying their Satrupa Tea Estate Cream of Assam. One of the things I already like is they tell you which estate, which style of leaf [FTGFOP CL] - smallest black leaf, and give you the time of year and the batch number of the picking/processing. The Assam Tea Company says they are in the “shadow of the eastern Himalayas", but I doubt their elevation is too high, as Assamica tea plants are not very hardy.


This tea is a lovely black with lots of golden tips and smells like very good tobacco. I followed the instructions of 1 teaspoon, boiling water, no more than 3 minutes. They caution you not to exceed the 3 minutes, which I appreciate. The brewing tea smells toasty and nutty, maybe a little fruity. It brews up to a beautiful orange amber and it tastes very thick and smooth, almost as though it were made with cream or milk, with nuts and fruit and a little bite in the back of your mouth. It takes a bit of milk or cream very well, but I'm not sure you'd want to, as it is quite nice on it's own. You'll have to judge for yourself about sugar, as I hate it in my tea. I think it is much smoother than many Assams, well worth trying.