Of Ships and Shoes and Sealing Wax and Cabbages and Kings

Okay, I am forced to put down my stuck up nose about mixes.  I made a scone mix yesterday from King Arthur Flour, given to me along with so very many tea things for Christmas.  They were absolutely delicious!  I put some raisins in as I like raisins, but otherwise followed the recipe and baked them in my new scone baker.  Such a cinch!  We had them with lemon curd and Devonshire cream.  Way to go sister-in-law!  They didn't last long.

A. C. Cargill has written a fun piece about cats and tea lovers - see the Little Yellow Teapot link at the right.  I must admit I am both and I also admit I share both tea and goodies with the worst beggar in the universe, Ernie, the Earnest.  He is very serious about his pursuit of goodies.  Usually he creeps up on my lap, purring as loudly as possible, but not looking at my tea.  Slowly he edges closer, purr at high rev.  Finally he ever so casually pokes his nose or a paw on my plate.  When he was a kitten he wasn't nearly so subtle - then it was the lightening paw flick and away he went with his prize.  At the present time I can make him wait his turn, but I usually pour him a small bit of tea because he will keep putting his nose in it and I don't want it to spill.

It is okay to share small bits of goodies with cats, but be careful they only get things that won't harm them.  Please look on line to see what these may be.  Of course, one could have well disciplined cats, but that, my friends is an oxymoron.

I am having some of my Christmas tea - Golden Monkey from Adagio.  It is a pleasant, somewhat sweet tea with a nice woodsy edge to it and perhaps a pinch of spice to add interest.  I brewed it for 3.5 minutes with boiling water, but I think next time I am going to push it to 4 and see how it does.  It is one of those all purpose teas, strong enough for breakfast, but pleasant enough to do for tea.  Cold, it makes a very nice ice tea, as it is somewhat light at 3.5 minutes.  I thought it was just fine with or without milk.

Did you know you can make tea from saffron, those expensive and heavenly orange stamens from autumn crocus?  Hop on over to http://www.bellaonline.com/artibles/art174619.asp.zzz for an article about it.  Bella online is a website with many areas of interest, geared mostly to women.  Some of the tea articles are pretty good. 

Here you have an Austrio-Hungarian Emperor and some of his summer palace near Vienna.  it is so huge that the "short" tour takes over 2 hours and only covers about 1/20th of the rooms.  The last emperor, Franz Joseph, much beloved by his people, was married to Cissy, even more beloved.  She spent upwards of 8 hours a day beautifying herself for the evening.  Her hair touched the floor.  I am sorry, but I think that is a wasted life.  But she was beautiful.

Tea and Clover, With Shortbread on the Side.

This is a house sided with stones.  It is in a tiny remote village in the

Palatine region of Germany, from which some of my ancestors

emigrated.

Hooray, hooray! My clover is sprouting. This is the fastest that has happened. I guess the old tea really helped, in spite of a huge downpour. Thanks, Alex! Another use for tea is to compost it directly on your garden and house plants. I water the latter in the winter with leftover tea quite often and they seem to enjoy it. Most plants like things a bit on the acid side. It’s not tea, but roses love coffee grounds and ground up banana peel. I knew a man with wonderful roses who made the rounds of our town’s restaurants to collect coffee grounds for them.

It’s a beautiful morning, all misty and golden. A perfect morning for Golden Monkey from Teas Etc. This is a black organic tea from China. There are lots of gold buds and dust around these long, twisted leaves. They smell of tobacco, with a sharp, spice and fruit component. I brewed it for 4 minutes with boiling water. The golden amber liquid gave off an aroma of fresh wash, with a really zingy spicy, floral edge.

After all this, I was really expecting something super. Alas, it was not to be. The tea did not live up to its heralding and was quite bland, with nothing in the way of nuances. However, all was not lost. I did not finish it and when I sipped some of the cold tea it had a pleasant, woodsy, sweet taste. So perhaps this is one that is better served iced.

If you like shortbread with your tea, you might want to try McDuffie’s, from central New York. It is at least as good as Walkers and about ½ the price. (9 ounces is $3.99) Go to http://www.mcduffies.com/ for stores or ordering on line. The owners are shirttail relatives of mine. If they were named McTaggert, I’d still recommend them, the shortbread is excellent.


Oh dear, one of our fur persons is too smart and demanding. (Of course he's not spoiled.) He has figured out where I keep the catnip and that the cupboard door won’t quite close and so he gets it open and drags out the container, crying piteously for me to give him some. He now tries that twice a day. But I am mean and nasty and concerned for his health, so he only gets it a few times a week.

More on Today's Tea

I decided to try the Organic Golden Monkey Black Tea with some cream and it's a whole new world. Even rounder than it was, with a subtle dark cherry flavor to it. It is somehow sweeter and more spice comes through. What a great trip!

HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! to all who are celebrating the Asian Lunar New Year. May you have joy, peace, prosperity and every other good thing!

May the doors you open lead to wonderful things for you.

We are celebrating here because the sun is shining and the sky is blue. The pines are brilliant etched against the azure sky and it's not even too cold.

Any day is a good day when you get new teas to try from a new-to-you company. I had heard so may good things about The PuriTea Company I had to order. They were having a sale on make your own tea samplers, so I did. My order came very quickly and they even sent 3 free samples. Wow.

I was going to discuss a couple of different Keemuns I have been drinking, but decided to go with another Chinese tea to celebrate the New Year. This one is from Aura Teas and is Organic Golden Monkey Black Tea. It is one of Wuyi Yen tea, [grown in spaces between mountain rocks], from the Wuyi area of Fujian Province, and is considered one of China's finest. It is a mix of black and brown leaves, heavily curled. It is processed by hand in the spring. It will yield up to 3 infusions. In the container the aroma is a fine mix of floral, sweet and a deep deep spice and wine bottom note. I did the first infusion for 2 .5 minutes and the second for 3.

The tea in the cup has a smooth, sweet, deep woodsy, spicey scent and the liquor is very, very dark. I can hardly wait to drink this! Usually I like cream in my black tea, but this is so fine, I can't do it. The tea almost feels creamy, it has such a rich body. There are so many taste sensations it is hard to sort them. It is sweet, with an almost honey flavor, then a bit earthy, then there's an elusive woodsiness, a little touch of acid to make your mouth feel juicy, along with oak. It is a wonderful tea. It is such a kick when there is so much going on in a tea.

Aura teas can be seen at http://www.aurateas.com/ They have always been very nice to deal with.