Of Tea and Churches

Mother's Day is coming soon.  Are any of you doing something special  for a mother in your life?  All my mothers and grandmothers have gone on and the one I kind of adopted is far away, so all I am doing is sending cards.  However, when I go see her later on, we are gong to tea at one of our favorite places - Thyme for Tea in Lansdale, PA.  They have a great assortment of teas and their food is wonderful.  They also have a very nice little gift shop.  I am in hopes they will have a violet sprinkled tea pot, as I have cups, but no pot.

Today is perfect for a hot cuppa.  It is gloomy and cold and I am going crazy trying to make my house as kitty fur and clutter-free as possible.  My cousins are going to visit and they are allergic to the little darlings.  So, of course, we all know they will climb all over them, they who have raised ignoring people to a fine art.

I'm taking tea with Upton's again.  It is TD60, Premium Darjeeling Blend.  I brewed it for 3.5 minutes with boiling water.  The dry leaves are definitely a blend, with black, brown, green leaves and some stems here and there.  There really wasn't much scent other than "tea".  As it brewed, however, there was that fresh-wash-on-the-line aroma, coupled with a bit of toast and muscatel.  At first I thought this gentle tea tasted a bit like bamboo with a hint of green, then there was some sort of wet wood/vegetation taste.  It is a pleasant tea, light and suitable for afternoons, but it isn't anything special and I don't know that I would label it premium.  But then, quite a while ago, I seemed to have lost my taste for Darjeeling, unless it is superb.

Yet another Italian church, filled with inlaid marble, this one is also on Ischia Island.  This is more to my taste, as it is less fussy.  The little church I attended as a child was plainer than plain, with huge clear glass windows, the better to watch birds during boring sermons.  It had a long shed behind, for stabling horses, a holdover from years ago and now filled with the junk such structures seem to acquire.  To this day, when an institution fires up its gas ovens or burners, the smell returns me immediately to the church suppers held in the basement.  It was a good time and place.

Conventions With Tea

We have been hosting a three day crow convention.  There seemed to be discussions on territory and food supply and classes for the youngsters in feather care, recognizing good carrion,  and the avoidance of cars.  I believe there was also a lengthy seminar on nest building and one on making and using tools. 

Between their momentous discussions, the early morning drumming of the woodpeckers, the dawn chorus of the other birds, and the vocalizations of approximately 370 trillion peepers, it gets pretty noisy out here in the quiet countryside.  But I don't mind, our own small ecosystem seems to be working well enough, and for that I am glad.  If the peepers are peeping, it means the bog is still pretty healthy.

Nevertheless, it is all enough to drive me to drink - tea, that is - Harney & Sons Pussimbing Autumnal Darjeeling.  Darjeeling has a three season pluck - first flush, second flush and autumn.  First flush you almost need to treat like a green, I've found.  Of the 3, most of the time I prefer the heartier autumnals.  This one has a nice mix of brown and gold dry leaves, with a floral and wine-like scent.  I brewed it for 3.5 minutes with boiling water, which is generally my starting point for new teas.  It brews up to a medium amber and has a hearty roasted aroma.  It has a hearty flavor as well, kind of nutty and woodsy, but it's not really anything special.  Just okay tea.  Did you know there is a Darjeeling tea estate named Okayti?  I am sure it does not mean the same in whichever of the several hundred Indian languages spoken there, especially since the Hindi word for tea is chai.

The Amalfi Coast.  If I were rich I would live there in the winter and early spring, living the rest of the time in Switzerland.  Since I am not, I will just live here.

Alex Zorach was right, now that the ginger I planted has the hang of growing, it is pushing out leaves like crazy.  Of course, we have had those rare Northeastern items, sun and warmth, which helps.

One For The Money, Two For The Show

I received many tea bags in my latest tea swap and some were the same variety, so I thought I would do some comparisons.  Today's pair is Darjeeling, one by Ahmad Teas, the other by Teekanne, a German company.  Both were nicely wrapped in individual packets, both were a pretty standard teabag, both had directions to use boiling water and brew for 3 minutes.  So I did.

The Ahmad Darjeeling, as with most teabags, had no real scent until it was brewing for a bit and then it smelled like biscuits or baked squash.  When the three minutes were up I started sipping.  The tea did taste like baked or roasted veggies.  It also tasted a bit like toast.  However, it also had a harsh, astringent side, which really over rode the other, more gentle flavors.  They may have been gentle, but I didn't find them particularly like most Darjeelings.

Teekanne Tea's Darjeeling also smelled like something baked, once it was brewing, in this case, sugar cookies.  It was a much darker amber.  The taste was a real mix of wine, roasted veggies and some nuttiness,  It was smooth going down and had a pleasant residual taste.  By comparison, it wins hands down. 

Tomorrow I am going to do and English Breakfast comparison.  I find doing these, either with teabags or loose tea, really shows up the characteristics of particular teas and can help one decide which tea  is really  preferred.

More German church.  I loved the organs and the painted ceilings.  After WWII there was a lot of restoration done, removing years of paint and other things, to reveal original colors and in some cases, murals and other artwork.

Summer in the Darjeeling Hills

I think this is a death of Christ scene.  I would guess the bars are to prevent casual theft of the figures.  It was the only thing in the church that was so protected.  In a small German town.

It's a good day to go to an Indian tea estate, via Adagio Tea's Darjeeling Sungma Summer.  As the name indicates, this organic tea was picked during the second, or summer flush of leaves.  That means it has a little more body, , deeper flavor and less astringency than a first flush.  The dry varied brown leaves give off an aroma composed of wine and cork.  I brewed it at 212 dgrees for a little over 4 minutes and was rewarded with a medium brown cup, with a floral aroma reminiscent of a floral Oolong, with a grape edge.

This is a very nice tea with floral, grape and sweet components.  It is juicy in that it makes your mouth feel juicy, as it does when chewing gum.  That makes you want more.  Which is fine with me, as this is a very nice cup of tea, which is needed today, as the gray uglies are back, spitting rain.

One brave little chickadee is singing his heart out at the bird feeder.  They are cheerful little things and don't squabble as the sparrows do. 

My favorite for the moment hibiscus, the double red, is getting ready to bloom again.  They are such gorgeous flowers and easy to care for, easy to start from cuttings and give you such gorgeous flowers.  Their one drawback is they do get a huge number of white flies in the winter, but it doesn't seem to harm them.  I don't think these are the hibiscus in so many herbal tisanes.  They have got to be much too pretty.

Darjeeling Day

 My favorite German church windows - all 90 feet of them.

At last, the weather is beginning to slide into November.  It is getting colder rapidl y, the sky is gray upon gray and it is raining.  Perfect weather for tea.  But then, any weather is perfect for tea, isn't it? 

The Boston Tea Company gifted me with some Darjeeling Tea Bags, so that is on for today.  I do the usual for brewing - 1  tea bag, 212 degrees, 3.5 minutes. It has an intriguing smell, fruity, woodsy and nutty all at once, mostly hazelnuts, I think.  It is a medium amber brew and tastes remarkably of nuts and what I imagine old oak would taste like.  A very interesting flavor in tea.

I have to say I am really surprised and pleased to get such good rich flavor from teabags.  But this is.  Okay, I guess I have to admit I have turned into a tea snob.  But I try to only be one at home.

I am feeling some sort of cross between gratitude and sentiment this season and find myself remembering Thanksgivings and Christmases past.  I thought that this month, I would share some of mine and encourage you to share some of yours.

The first one that pops up is the first Christmas we were married and flew from Michigan to Rhode Island and then to Schenectady to be with our parents.  Christmas Eve is special in Italian households for the 7 fish dinner that obeserves the fast from meat but also ensures good luck in the coming year.  I hate fish in any way, shape or form.  I can't stand the smell, the feel of it in my mouth nor the taste.  But, hey, these are my very new in-laws and I will be a good daughter-in-law and eat up.  That lasted until, much to my horror, my mother-in-law plopped an enormous hunk of conger eel on my plate.  I tried to eat a bit - euuuw, fish grease - they're very fatty.  I tried to hide it - not enough mashed potatoes in the world would hide that thing.  I even tried to drop it on the floor for the dog, who wouldn't touch it and then I got another piece.  Finally, my laughter-stricken husband told them I didn't like fish and all was forgiven.  Since then, there had always been something non-fishy to eat, as my mother-in-law was one of the most loving people in the world..  So much for the good dughter-in-law gig.

Oh my, fights at the feeder station!  The greedy little sparrows are giving the purple finches the bums rush.  They are feisty, argumentative little buggers.

Hooray For Darjeeling

The scissor cutter's art

Some good news from Darjeeling:  The European Union, and hence, the World Trade Organization, has granted Darjeeling status as a Protected Geographical Indication or PGI.  This will put an end to fraudulent claims from tea growers in other areas.  This is much the same issue that has plagued food and wine producers, with  companies from other areas riding on the coattails of highly regarded and well known commodities, while not having the same quality, or just being different.  I am personally all for this.  I want my Swiss cheese to be from Switzerland ( yes, Virginia, there IS a difference), my French champagne to be from its home.  The final product, in wine, cheese and tea is a result of specific factors related to the concept of terroir, the minerals in the soil, the components of the air, the amount of rainfall or cloud cover etc. - all those infinitesimal things that produce that specific food or wine or tea from that area.  This PGI protects and enhances and encourages the reputation of growers and producers.

I know this is something that can be argued on either side.  I have nothing against Iowa Swiss cheese, as long as it is labelled Swiss type, for instance.  For what it is, it is very good.  But it is not Emmentaler or Gruyere.  Similarly, I don't want tea from Rwanda labelled Darjeeling.  It gives people the wrong impression, especially if the quality is poor.  We have few enough orthodox tea producers and I think we need to support them, lest we lose them.  So I say "Hooray for PGI and Darjeeling"

Which leads me right into today's tea, an Upton's Darjeeling, TM52, Kangra SFTGFOP1 from the Wah Estate in Darjeeling, India.  This is a first flush from this spring.  The smallish leaves are a mix sliding from green into brown and smell of fruit peels - maybe lemon - and drying vegetation with some orchid in there for good measure.  The suggested brew time is 3 minutes with boiling water, but I have done that before with a first flush and it's been awful, so I decided to do 2.5 minutes at about 190. 

Lucky me, I was rewarded with a very nice cup, with the aroma of an orchid Oolong, along with a green, vegetative scent.  The tea did indeed taste like one of the orchid Oolongs - a natural flavor, not something added.  It was smooth and flowery, with an undergirding of Springy greenness and a touch of astringency to perk it up.  I would really recommend that if you are brewing first flushes that you treat them more like greens and Oolongs and not like sturdier blacks.  It's been my experience that they are almost always much better that way

Ah, the Golden End of Summer

A lovely old stone watering trough in Switzerland.

What a gorgeous sight out my back window. It’s one of those moments in time - there is a soft mist the sun is hitting just right. It looks like the finest gold mesh over everything. It reminds me of one of my favorite paintings at the Smithsonian, where the artist has painted a gauze head covering so fine that the underlying cloth is clearly seen, as well as the gauze. I can tell you exactly where it is, but I don’t remember the name of either the artist or the painting. Typical of me.

It is now afternoon and this is one of those sterling summer days - warm enough, slight breeze, gorgeous sky. I was in trouble again today for not having enough suet out. This time, I got the lecture from Papa Jay. I ‘d rather listen to the Downy, she at least, is quieter and doesn't cal all her aunts and sisters and cousins by the dozen to add to the racket.


It must be heading for fall - the mums are available. I always get ones that are in bud, with only 1 or 2 flowers showing, other wise, they will be over long before it is too cold to have them. Unless I really am brave, they won’t go in this year’s garden - too much digging. I’d rather do roses and berries.


Today’s tea is from Culinary Teas, Darjeeling Soom, Gunpowder - BPS. I don’t know what those letters mean, Soom is the name of the tea estate.  It is a black tea, very black, actually, very tightly rolled little pellets that smell of earth and chocolate, with a slightly sour twist at the edge for piquancy. I brew it up for 3.5 minutes with boiling water. Those little pellets sure do expand hugely into leaves that look chopped in half. The aroma is mostly earthy, with a mere hint of chocolate. The brew is a medium amber. It is smooth and medium bodied, with a slight earthiness, but mostly it is just a middle of the road tea, nothing awful, nothing special. However, a bit of cream and a little more cooling and this is a lovely, sweet tea, with indeed, some hints of cocoa.  So, I guess I will serve it a bit about 120 degrees and it will come into its own

Chocolate + Tea = Bliss

Today I seem to have my brain connected to my hands and managed to get the tin of Twining's Darjeeling Tea - Classic, no less. It is a blend of teas and when I opened the tin, I was a bit disappointed, as the tea was such tiny bits. It is not the hard core pebbles of many CTC teas, but tiny, nevertheless. It smelled kind of hay like, but heavier, almost toasted. It was clearly a mix of black, brown and silver bits.

I used my usual, 1 teaspoon, boiling water, but only 3 minutes, as the leaves were so small. While it was brewing, it again had that roasted hay aroma. The tea was much darker in the cup than I expected, almost black. Rats, the 3 minute steep is too long and the tea is pretty tannic. Cream does help, but I guess I had better try for 2 -2.5 minutes tomorrow.

Oh goody, the mail just came and with it my order from the Tea Table. I am very taken with their Tsarina blend, which I reviewed a long time ago. I also got a couple samples - one of which is coconut. My husband loves coconut tea and I am trying to find one I like as well.

For those of you with an iPhone, there is now a tea app, accessible at http://www.teaapp.com/ or for a $3.99 download from iPhone. There's a tea map and James Norwood Pratt's Tea Dictionery available there as well.

What Ho! Somone has finally come up with the ideal melding of chocolate and tea - chocolate tea cups! They are infused with several different teas and come in a tea tin. They come from Kitchen TLC (tea, life, chocolate). I am not sure how to order from them, but there is a place on the site for stores and to contact them. http://www.kitchentlc.com/

Orioles for Tea!

Another Amalfi Cathedral shot. It's a gorgeous place, set up on a hillside - which is most of Amalfi. Everyone there has great legs!


I am so excited! A gorgeous black and orange Baltimore Oriole was at the bird feeder today. So beautiful! I hope they nest close to here, wish we had some elms for them.


Now that part of our creek has been "improved" for better water flow, leaving a huge mess, I can see the bridge for the side road. It is a lovely structure, all hand laid stone, without mortar. That's been there a while.


All you gardeners that want to grow tea plants, The Camellia Shop at http://www.camelliashop.com/ has a selection of 5 or more, and an on-line, downloadable guide to growing and harvesting. I decided we are much too far north and it would involve far too much fussing on my part to attempt, but all of you in zones 7 south could fairly easily do it. Zones 9-10 would be easiest, of course. My guess is that these are not the super hardy Chinese clonals that grow in Darjeeling and Nepal. Sigh.


I went garden centering today and got lots of stuff to plant. We have to have deer resistant stuff, but I found a 2-fer daylily sale, with some super colors and some dwarf German bearded iris - this is not the early spring dwarf iris, but true miniatures of the usual kind. It is supposed to be warm this week, so maybe things can go in, I hope, I hope.


I found a packet of the American Tea Room's Giddapahar China Delight, a Darjeeling in my clean out the cupboards frenzy. It is a first flush from the Eagles Nest, a family owned estate. I brewed it for 3 minutes with 190 degree water. Dry, the leaves were a mix of green, brown and silver. They smelled of bananas and nuts. The liquor was a lovely gold, giving off an aroma that was again nutty and biscuit like. Which is what the tea flavor was, with a floral or sweet edge. I guess that all comes pretty close to the description of floral, honey and almond, doesn't it? It's always nice to know your palate is functional.

Autumn in the Early Spring

A church in Sorrento, Italy.


I can hear a lot of new birds in the woods and the red-bellied woodpecker finally has at least a girlfriend, if not a mate. It is supposed to rain all day and all night and where all that water will go is a mystery, as there are no ditches and the streams and rivers are full and the ground is frozen. We are only in "those d******n potholes" season and not yet into mud.







I made a discovery - if your cup is very full, you can't really smell the fragrance of your tea - it dissipates too quickly in the air. I really like the relatively tall and thin Chinese scent cups - they kind of look like a small juice glass. They do capture the aroma.







I had another interesting tea. This is Arya Clonal Exclusive Autumnal Flush '09 from Darjeeling, India via Thunderbolt Tea. Generally one thinks of Autumnal Flush teas as having a fairly high dose of muscatel grape aroma and taste. Not this one. First of all, it smelled like peanuts, yes, peanuts. I never had a tea smell like that. The brewed tea, as you might expect had a full, rounded nutty, toasty taste. Definitely different, but delightful.









I decided to clean out my teas, giving away or composting the ones I either don't like or are too old. That should take a while. I found some Bolivian Long Leaf from Simpson and Vail, which I reviewed last on Nov. 29, 2009. Then I said it was floral, astringent, vegetal. This time around, with a different year's tea, I found it to be mostly malty and tasting definitely of walnuts. It is earthy, but has a sweet edge that is very tasty and smooths out any roughness you might get from the walnuts and earth. It is always interesting to me to see how tea changes from year to year, even though I want my Prince of Wales to forever be unchanged. I guess I expect blends to be the same but tea from particular place I want to reflect that harvest's conditions.

My grandfather's hometown in Switzerland.

We had the most amazing rainstorm this morning - it rained one way, then the other , then both at once, then straight down. Everything on the porch is soaked and it is about 20 degrees cooler than it was at the start of the day. A good day for tea. And I just happen to have some to try.

Silver Leaf Tea, www.silverleaftea.com had a nice special on, so I bought some. Today's is Castlton Estate First Flush Darjeeling. The dry leaves are an attractive mix of brown, tan, black and green and smell like drying hay with a hint of wine in the background.

I brewed it with almost boiling water for 2 minutes and it smelled very light, very fresh, almost an Oolong scent. The liquor was a pretty pale orange. I think I must have underbrewed it because it seems to have little taste. I had a cracker to see if perhaps I had some leftover taste from lunch that was interfering, but that didn't help. As it cooled, it got fairly tannic, but still with no real discernible taste.

This will just be a partial review since it seems I goofed on the brewing - I will do it again tomorrow for 3 minutes at a lower temp and see if that helps - often Darjeeling first flushes have to be treated like green tea and that may be the case here - I'll let you know.

Oh, the Weather Outside is Frightful

This is a much better view than the one out my window, but it is in
Amalfi, Italy, not here, sigh.

I don't know how cold it was today but the fur brigade stuck their noses out and promptly turned around and stayed in. The wind is howling, there is snow blowing, a good day to be inside myself.
We had company for lunch and afterward decided to try a new tea I recently purchased from The Tea Spot. These are the folks with the interlocking, stacking tins, hurray! Today's offering is their New Moon Darjeeling, which is part of their organic line. Part of the purchase price of this tea goes to cancer research and wellness clinics. Lots of pluses here for The Tea Spot.


The tea is a quite attractive reddish brown with bits of tan and gold to liven it. Dry, it smells like a cross between tobacco and hay drying in the fields, very pleasant. As it brewed at just below boiling, 1 teaspoon per cup, for 3 minutes, there was also a whiff of floral. The brew was on the darkish side. I didn't particularly care for the tea plain, it was just kind of ho hum – kind of woody or too roasted tasting. Our guests had it with sugar and were not impressed either. I finally added some milk to mine and it made a world of difference. The tea became rounder and sweeter and I wound up having three cups. It is always amazing to me how the addition of milk, lemon or sugar can so completely change the taste of a cup of tea.


I came across an interesting site the other day. It is strictly for chai lovers and lists about 100 different types of chai and where to purchase them. You don't purchase them here, but are redirected to the appropriate merchant. If you're a chai lover check out http://www.chaibuyer.com/ .

The case of the strange but wonderful Darjeeling

Yesterday I tried some Autumnal Flush Risheet Darjeeling SFTGFOP1 Wiry 09 from Thunderbolt Teas, one of the samples Benoy kindly sent with my order. The dry wiry leaves are a pretty brown with bits of gold buds and green leaves scattered throughout. The scent reminds me of Cracker Jacks, roasted corn and fresh tomatoes just starting to cook, all scents I really like. I brewed up about a teaspoon with boiling water for 3.5 minutes. The brewing tea smelled even more of roasted corn and was a kind of dull yellowy brown. I have to say that it also tasted mostly of roasted corn and was not to my taste. It did not seem to have any of the fruitiness I would have expected from an autumnal flush. Very disappointing. But wait!
Today I tried the Risheet again, using water from a different kettle and a different teapot. It is wonderful. Still with a roasted edge, but very grapey, with a prettier color. It is still a mild, gentle black, just right for those who don't like the heavier or more assertive blacks.

This all brings up the importance of water. Tea is 99% water and if your water is weird, your tea will be, too. I am not sure what caused the very great differences in these two cups of tea but here are the facts: the tea was from the same sample; the water was straight from the tap through the filter I always use; day 1 was from my new Panasonic water boiler in my Adagio Giant cup and saucer; day two was with the water boiled in my old electric teakettle in my Teavana Perfect teamaker. I am going to experiment some more. I don't think it was all the problem of the water boiler, as I had made a cup of Devonshire Earl Grey from Upton's with it yesterday as well and it was superb. And today I had a Ceylon I felt so-so about before and it is much better than the last time when I used water from the electric kettle. Maybe Darjeelings are pickier about their water or their pots. I'll keep you posted. Maybe it is just the innate perversity of matter.

Day 13 of snow, early this am. But now there is SUN!

Tea on a gray day

I hope all of you had a lovely Christmas Day.We did. Quiet, but very pleasant, enlivened by watching one of our favorite "Brit Coms", "The Vicar of Dibley". The high art of wackiness, as only the Brits can do. We don't generally have tea on Christmas as we have a long tradition of kaffee mit schlage, which is coffee with sweetened whipped cream. It is almost a meal in itself. However, by afternoon, I was ready for some plainish tea.

I chose some from Golden Moon, (such a good name for a company, makes you feel comfortable right off the bat.) I am digging into my sample box I got a week or so ago and I'm trying their Darjeeling, described as an exceptional single garden FTGFOP1S. I assume the S stands for Spring. It has a lovely floral scent and I brewed it the usual way. I may have over brewed it a tad, as it seemed astringent at first, but then that seemed to morph into that slight puckeriness you sometimes get from walnuts. There was a nice fruitiness to it, but I wouldn't really call it muscatel. I'm not sure it was as fresh as it could have been. It was a pleasant tea, but not really great. I think if something comes from a single garden, the company ought to tell you which one right away.

Did you get any nice tea goodies as gifts? I got 2 teapots - both alike. One I will return and get another one I've had my eye on.