Too Much Vanilla!

Kind of what it looks like here - greyish.

Our small flock of 4 grackles has really fascinated me this week. As I said in an earlier post, they are quite beautiful, with glossy black feathers and iridescent blue heads. They are about the size of a blue jay and I consider them one of "The Bully Boys" as they can crowd out smaller birds. They are too big and not built quite right to use either the suet or seed feeders. However, in the past 5-6 days, they have taught themselves to do both. They have been very persistent, overcoming many, many falls and upsets and are now expert feeders. I just wish they wouldn't claim everything and jab others on the head. They are not nearly as ferocious as some of the bossy little sparrows, however. Wow, when they want to hog the feeder, everyone else better look out!


On this very dull day I am having some green tea - green for spring, right? Actually, it is a mix of green and black teas, with jasmine and vanilla. This is Golden Moon's Vanilla Jasmine. You certainly can smell the vanilla, it is almost overwhelming. I don't catch any jasmine in the dry tea. I brewed it for 3 minutes with water off the boil for a minute or so. The brewing tea gave off a much more well-rounded aroma, of jasmine, with a hint of vanilla. I hoped it would taste well-balanced as well. I was not disappointed at first, as both flavors melded well. However, the vanilla, which did become overwhelming, stayed in my mouth looooooooong past the time it was pleasant. I also could not taste the tea, which I do not prefer.


We had "Squirrel Convocation" here this morning. Instead of the usual three, I guess they invited their cousins by the dozens to visit the bird feeder. There's not much there as I got smart and only put out enough for one day. However, superfast Ernie chased them away, once again nearly catching one. I guess we need to do sprint work with him, so he is faster.

The great celebration of Passover begins tonight. Best wishes to all of you who are celebrating. Next year in Jerusalem!

The Christian world is getting for our great celebration of Easter. I will not be writing anything on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, as I take the first 2 days for a time of preparation and Sunday is filled with celebration. For those of you also celebrating, may it be a time of great joy and renewal for you all.

Khaki Chocolate

Sunday, February 6.

Is that or is that not the quintessential Italian tree?


Along with lots of teas to try, Gingko from Life in Teacup sent me some green tea chocolates. They are Keiko, a Japanese company, although they are labeled as a product of Germany. From what I can gather, they were probably made in Germany for a Japanese company, using Japanese green tea. I cannot make up my mind about them. First of all, there is the color - khaki, when I was expecting chocolate brown. They taste more of green tea than chocolate. They have bits of tea stem when I was expecting smoothness. They are sweeter than I expected, too, but that is typical of European chocolate. They leave a pleasant green tea after taste in my mouth, with a bit of sweet. I like them, but I am not overwhelmed by them. However, this is the first green tea chocolate I have ever had, so I have nothing to compare them with. I think they would go nicely as an after dinner sweet, with an Asian meal. I guess I need another one to decide.





Speaking of green teas, I have one from my Golden Moon Tea samples for today, Sencha. Sencha is one of the most common and least expensive of the Japanese teas. I have to say I am already prejudiced against it, as my experience of these teas has not been stellar. However, I persevere. The leaves are long and thin, with an aroma of seaweed. Hoping for the best, I brewed it up at about 175 degrees, for about 2 minutes. It is a very pretty spring green color. It is surprisingly delicate, smooth, vegetal and grassy, but very pleasantly so. Huh, I may have to change my mind about Japanese teas.





Tomorrow is only a week away from Valentine's day - have you got all your goodies ready? Picked out the teas to serve to your Sweetie? There are some very nice ones available, like Mariage Freres Wedding Imperial, Harney's Valentine Blend, the many blooming teas available from a number of sources, any of the chocolate teas, too many to name, and if you're really pressed, check out the supermarket tea aisle. You can always float those little candy hearts in the tea or serve the heart shaped Dove chocolates. Make sandwiches and cut out hearts from them. I will probably make a heart-shaped cake, as I still have my mothers heart pans; maraschino nut, my sweetie's favorite. I even found some heart shaped plates at TJ Maxx.

Cha, Cha, Chai

I apologize for the paragraphing, Blogger is misbehaving again.


Another gray day in the neighborhood, but I see on the weather map we are about to have snow. It smells like it and the fur persons have been running in and out. There's an air of waiting outside and in spite of the gray, it is very bright.

We are in that awful period between ordering the plants and seeds for the spring and when you can start some seeds inside. It is always so heartening to see their little leaves poke up through the ground and amazing that these tiny 2 inch plants will become an 8 foot tomato vine. However, I have to wait until the end of February.

Today I am having a lovely tisane, sent from my friend Elizabeth in Canada. She is a fellow chocoholic and the tisane is President's Choice Chocolatey Chai. It has chicory, carob, spices, natural flavorings, cocoa shells, ginger, licorice root, stevia and cocoa, all packed in one small teabag. The bag comes in a wrapper, which has tiny pictures and written directions on how to brew this tea. It smells exactly like one of my favorite cookies - chocolate jumbles, which are thin, frosted chocolate spice cookies. It has a rich, deep aroma, which is pretty much how it tastes, with the chocolate, carob and chicory giving great depth and the spices rounding out a very tasty cup. My husband says it is very flowery and aromatic. This would be an excellent dessert tisane with some sugar cookies or pound cake.

I am making a sad comparison of this this with Golden Moon's Kahmiri Chai, made from black and green tea, cardamom, clove, cinnamon and spice oil. It smells very spicey and floral in the packet, with lemony hints from the cardamom. Unfortunately, it is very weak. The cardamom is the most forward spice, followed by the cinnamon. The flavor is well rounded and tasty. Perhaps if the sample had been larger, so the brew was stronger, I would have given it a higher rank. Compared to the other chai, this is a mere weakling. This comes from Golden Moon's sample pack of 30 different teas. My only complaint about the sampler is the samples are one cup only and kind of on the small side. However, I have had some truly excellent teas from them.

In spite of my quote a few days ago from MFK Fisher, I want no nasty comments about "boiled mice" and I am not drying this mouse to reuse it.

Showered with Flowers

Ballenberg Museum -A small chalet that was used by the cowherds in the

summer high mountain pastures. I have a small bell that my grandfather brought from Switzerland that had hung from the neck of one of his cows. All the cows, goats and sheep have bells and it is a lovely sound to hear.

I just got the nicest gift from Alexis at www.teaspoonsandpetals.com/. I put my name in for a drawing and received a beautiful silk neck pillow stuffed with tea. It smells wonderful, like a good Oolong or green tea, with a whiff of rose. It has a lovely rose and magenta silk covering and is shaped perfectly to fit my neck. Thank you, Alexis!

It's a sunny day! I am always excited to see the sun, as it is such a treasure as we move into winter. I felt a little bad about skimping on yesterday's tea, so I had some this am and came to the same conclusion - pleasant with cream, but not exciting.

Today I am going to try some more white teas. I have several bits I either bought or was given as samples, so let's see what we can try.

A Green Afternoon

This is a tiny church on Ischia Island, where the statues have real hair.
It is the church of St. Francis and I wonder if it is the one my grandfather-in-law was christened in. The main body of the building is round.


Have any of you used a tea sock? Not t-sac, sock? These simple handy gadgets are basically a sac of something like stockinet attached to a ring with a handle, for brewing tea. No little bits escape and they are very easy to turn inside out, rinse and reuse. I first saw these in Puerto Rican bodegas in NYC, used for coffee brewing, but they woork equally as well for tea. Isn't it amazing the number of gadgets there are for getting our tea out of the packet and into our cups?

I just used an ordinary Finum filter to make my cup of Temple of Heaven Gunpowder green tea from Golden Moon - another one of those samples. The tightly rolled little balls smell mostly of hay, with a tiny whiff of smoke. I used water at about 180 degrees for about 2.5 minutes. It is a pleasant pale gold. As it brews, the tea smells more vegetal, but still with that slight hint of smoke. This strikes me as unusual in Green teas. Maybe it's the leftover gunpowder. I hope you know that's a small bad joke. Supposedly the tea is called "gunpowder" because it is in such tiny balls, that is what it looks like. I would say more like fine guage shotgun pellets. Anyway, the tea itself is quite refreshing, tasting very green, with no seaweediness or fishiness, for which I am thankful. Amazingly enough, the hint of smoke has carried through to the taste. There's almost a hint of asparagus and there is definitely a full mouth feel to it. Nicely done.

This Lapsang Hits a Sour Note

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Part of a monastery courtyard. It's hard to tell, but that is a 5 ft
tall rosemary bush. I about died of jealousy.

The next several posts will all have the same dates, as I can't copy things to here from my document store. Sometimes computers are very annoying.

I love good Lapsang Souchong tea. However, the sample I tried from Golden Moon doesn't fall into that category. As soon as I opened the packet I thought, uh-oh. The tea absolutely reeked of heavy smoke. I followed the directions to brew it for 5-6 minutes with boiling water and as it brewed the kitchen filled with that heavy scent. But, sometimes, aroma can be deceiving. Well, folks, this time it wasn't. The tea was awful! awful! awful! Probably the second worst one I ever had. Upton's won top honors for that, but they no longer carry the ghastly stuff, so you're safe if you order theirs - try the samples first.

Golden Moon teas are generally quite good, but everyone has flops or things not to our taste. I am glad I got that basket of sample that Golden Moon offers - it is a great way to see what I like or don't like. More and more companies are offering samples and I would much rather pay a dollar to try something I don't like than spend $20 and hate it. That would be very expensive compost!

I got a new shipment of Yunnans from Upton's! Oh yum, yum, yum. I bought 4 different ones. I also got some Keemuns and some other samples.

That Darn Cat!

A trio of columns in the covered courtyard of an old, but still functioning, monastery. I like the idea of the quiet orderly passing of days that has existed for centuries. Perhaps because I am not either of those things.


That cat! Ernie, the skinny orange one with surely, porcine ancestors. Today I was cutting corn off the cob to make a black bean and corn salad and I had to fight him off! It seems that in addition to his love of all meats, Mexican and Italian food, salad and salad dressing, he loves corn! Since this is truly exquisite corn, he's not getting much.


I may give him some tea, though, as he likes that, too. I was at a friend's house recently who still has hundreds of rose blossoms, from his thousand or so roses. This inspired me to try Golden Moon's Rose Tea. It is a very pretty tea, black with rose petals and a gentle, exquisite scent. As it brews for 3.5 minutes, it gives off a wonderful, deep scent of rose - almost like the best Victorian potpourri. I can hardly wait to try it! Well phoo, it tastes like perfume! Not at all like tea. What a great disappointment! I tried some cream in it and that made it worse. Not even the Ernster liked it. Oh well, tomorrow has another tea waiting for me.

Ginger by the Light of the Moon

More Buttresses. I really liked the recurring pattern, different, yet the
same.

As we feared, no rain yet. Yesterday we visited frieds who have a bumper crop of elderberries. These were a great favorite of my family when I was growing up, so I have an equally great sentimental attachment to them. I am going to make a pie aand some eldererry sauce.

Another Golden Moon Tea for today. This one is White Ginger, with Yin Zhen buds and leaves and pieces of dried ginger. The tea smells nice and fresh, with just hints of ginger. The leaves are large and downy, with a good amount of buds and what seems like a lot of twigs. I brewed it for about 2 minutes with not quite boiling water. It came out a pretty tan. This is a delicate tea, as are all white teas. It is gently sweet, with what I would think of as the right amount of ginger - enough to compliment, but not over whelm the tea. High marks!

Oolong Oops!

Yet another view of the Ravenna Church. Notice the barred windows.
I wonder if this was used as a sanctuary in times of invasion?



The weather bureau has promised lots of rain this week. The road to Hades is paved with those promises. Today is smotheringly hot and humid.



I thought I would try a nice light Oolong. I still have a lot of samples from the Golden Moon Tea Sampler I bought a while ago and Orchid Temple Oolong from the Wuyi Mountains looked good. It is quite pretty tightly rolled balls, striped green and white. The directions said to brew it for 2-3 minutes at 212 degrees. So I did it for 2.5. I first rinsed it, which seems to be the thing to do with Oolongs. As it brewed it smelled very green and seaweedy, but with a nice overlay of orchid scent. The liquid was a pretty pale good.



I am afraid that is where praise ends, as it was just too seaweedy for me, with too little floral to redeem it. It was nasty and somewhat bitter, so I pitched it out. The second cup which I brewed less time was just as bad. Sad, as Golden Moon sells good teas.



Now I'll tell you what I think went wrong. My cup was too small for the amount of tea in the sample. The water could have been about 180-195 and the brewing time was too long. Partially the problem is theirs for giving probably incorrect instructions, part of the difficulty is mine for following them. By now I should be able to use more sense. But if I were new to tea and brewed it their way I would have a nasty cup of tea. The samples in this package are generally only enough for one mug, so I didn't think about it - I will be more careful with Oolong samples in the future.

The church in Germany where my 5 greats-grandfather was christened, in the baptismal font on the left. The cross was lost for many years, found in a barn and returned.


First of all, an announcement. The Chicago Tea Garden, co-owned by fellow blogger, Tony Gebley is now selling Zealong Tea, the only tea grown in New Zealand. It sounds like lovely stuff, but at $38 for a bit over 2 ounces, I really can't. If you would like to try this or any of his other offerings, go on over to http://www.chicagoteagarden.com/ I assure you, many are less costly, but very good.


Today is a really pleasant day, warm, but not hot, sunny with enough clouds to be pretty, and low humidity. Quite a contrast to the last few days when even the cats wouldn't go out, but slept the entire day. To celebrate, I am having one of the Golden Moon Tea samples I bought a while ago. It is Sinharaja, a Ceylon tea grown near the Sinharaja Rainforest. The dry leaves are fairly long and twisted, a dark rich brown, smelling somewhat of bubblegum, old wood and fine tobacco. I brewed it for 4 minutes and the resulting liquor is a lovely amber, with that great fresh wash on the line smell. There is also a hint of molasses or caramelized sugar. This continues in the taste, which is very fresh with a somewhat molasses, toasty taste, that finishes sweet. The addition of cream seems to bring out all the flavors and I imagine some sugar would also. I brewed it for 4 minutes, but I think it could easily go 5 and be quite good.


I have a recommendation for a spread for all you toast lovers. Nutella. This is a chocolate, hazelnut, milk spread dearly beloved by Europeans and my family. The first time my cousin had it, he ate the whole jar he thought it was so good. And it is. It might even go well on plain scones. It goes nicely with most black teas. It is not overly sweet, either. Most fairly large supermarkets carry it by the jellies and peanut butters.

Jasmine for Celebration

Spring, Spring, Spring. Crocuses are up! Trees along the river are budding! Hooray!




Jasmine tea has long been one of my favorites, in spite of there being so many that aren't particularly good and my taking so long to learn how to brew it without bitterness. So, I am having another one today, to celebrate Spring. I think I may have found one of the best – Golden Moon Tea's Jasmine Pearls. It smells divine, it tastes divine, and it is not overly expensive, what more can I ask for.


The dry tea is very tightly rolled balls of green and white, smelling of very fresh jasmine blossoms. I brewed it for about 2.5 minutes with water at about 175. I kept tasting it after a minute and a half to make sure I didn't brew it too long, as my sample was small. The leaves had not finished unfurling so I quickly got out another cup and added more water for a second steep. It was better than the first! With more floral coming out. This tea has a nice mouth feel, very light and delicate without being wimpy. It just is an all round great cup of jasmine tea.
I have to say that most of the teas I have had from this sample pack have been really top-notch. Good work, Golden Moon. This sampler pack is $19.95 and you get 31 samples in a handy lidded basket. The only drawback is it makes me want to buy more tea, which I really should not.

Some new teas have been added to the upper ranks of tea - Ceremonie Teas. They come in individual little black boxes with gorgeous colorful seals on them. They look very classy. The Teatropolitan blog has more info on them. http://teatropolitan.wordpress.com

Is Winter Really Over?

Still in Switzerland. If I were rich I would winter in Southern Italy and summer in the Alps. New York is pretty close, isn't it?


I could certainly tell Spring was in the air as the street cleaner blew dust all over everything, far too early this morning. We only have the cleaners when someone decides winter is indeed over and all that sand has to be scooped up. Once that is done, they go somewhere else. The rest of us aren't quite ready to trust the weather, remembering, as we do, the year we got a 3 foot snow storm on St. Patrick's day. That distrust doesn't stop us from hoping! It certainly didn't stop the two little girls down the street from blowing soap bubbles.


It hasn't stopped the tea pickers, either, as they go to work in Assam, some parts of Darjeeling and some of the more southern areas of China's tea-growing regions. Sadly, some of the northern areas got hit badly by the cold and some of the finest tea plants have been ruined, at least for this year. Weather is a hard master for farmers.


Earl Grey is one of my all time favorite teas. Hmm, I seem to say that a lot. I'm allowed. Today I tried Tippy Earl Grey from Golden Moon, which is a pretty tea, with long leaves and lots of golden buds for contrast – the tippy part. The dry scent of bergamot is almost overwhelming in such a small amount, almost raw smelling. As I brewed it the standard 3.5 minutes with boiling water, the aroma settled down somewhat and my first sips were pretty tasty. However, as we went along, it again seemed overwhelming, although some milk and sweetener tamed it. However again, I really don't like my tea sweet. This will not be my favorite Earl Grey by any means, but if you like strong bergamot, this may indeed be your cup of tea.

Jazzy Jasmine

That's kinda what it looks like here today, but Switzerland's moun-
tains are prettier.


Jasmine tea has long been one of my favorites, in spite of there being so many that aren't particularly good and my taking so long to learn how to brew it without bitterness. I think I may have found one of the best – Golden Moon Tea's Jasmine Pearls. It smells divine, it tastes divine, and it is not overly expensive, what more can I ask for.
The dry tea is very tightly rolled balls of green and white, smelling of very fresh jasmine blossoms. I brewed it for about 2.5 minutes with water at about 175. I kept tasting it after a minute and a half to make sure I didn't brew it too long, as my sample was small and green tea can get nasty if you over steep. The leaves had not finished unfurling so I quickly got out another cup and added more water for a second steep. It was better than the first! With more floral coming out. This tea has a nice mouth feel, very light and delicate without being wimpy. It just is an all round great cup of jasmine tea.

I have to say that most of the teas I have had from this sample pack have been really top-notch. Good work, Golden Moon. This sampler pack is $19.95 and you get 31 samples in a handy lidded basket. The only drawback is it makes me want to buy more tea, which I really should not.

Covering France, Ireland and Switzerland With Tea

Wish I could see the courtyard behind the big doors.




I'm back with the Golden Moon Tea sampler I ordered and today I am going to compare their French Breakfast with their Irish Breakfast Special Reserve. These are both excellent teas, worthy of a good morning, but they are quite different in character.


The French Breakfast is a high mountain Ceylon and dry it smells like very good tobacco with a very small whiff of perhaps cherry and a hint of cinnamon. I brewed it for about 3.5 minutes with boiling water. It has a nice smooth, almost light taste, with perhaps the barest hint of lemon. There is no bitterness to the tea. It is improved by some cream and a bit of sweet.


The Irish Breakfast was quite different, smelling like good quality hay or chestnuts when it was dry. I steeped this one the same as the French and added a bit of cream. It has a deep fruity taste, like plums or prunes or dark cherries. A bit of sweet brought out even more of the flavor. It is heartier than the French, but not too much.


Both of these teas were a surprise. Somehow, I expected the French to have a bit of cocoa in it and the Irish to be almost bitter and very very strong. Neither was true. I really liked both of them and felt they were excellent choices for mornings or, really, anytime of day. They are both strong enough, sturdy enough and that is their beauty – enough, not too much.


I just had to make a big pot of tea in addition to the 2 cups we tasted because I just received my BIG Swissgold teapot infuser! I think I am in love with it. It fits all my big teapots, it has a handy, dandy top that becomes its drip catcher and I can make 9 cups of tea at once in it with no loss of flavor, because it is so BIG and holds all those leaves with space to unfurl. Hooray!



It is indeed becoming Spring. The skunks have begun to come out of hibernation. Sadly it means a number of them are killed on the road. They may smell bad, but they do a good job keeping down mice and insects. We once lived in a small town with a huge population of them and we all learned to get along without incident. In the evenings, both people and skunks would stroll the sidewalks.

Rainforest Ceylon

How mighty are dead warriors, carved in bronze.


It is so beautiful outside. Both yesterday and today we had wet snow and every twig and branch is outlined in white. It makes even the most mundane or even downright ugly thing look good. On the other hand, it is still snowing and we may get out heaviest snow to date. But it won't last, the sap is rising and the trees know when Spring is coming, even when it doesn't look like it.

The cats and I agreed that we would stay in today and I made myself a cup of Golden Moon's Rasa Sanharaja – Ceylon tea to the rest of us. It comes from an tea estate on Sri Lanka next to a rain forest. This is no ordinary Ceylon. When I opened the sample, The smell was intriguing – deep and dark and mysterious, perhaps a combination of chocolate and dark molasses. The leaves were very dark and skinny. I brewed it with boiling water for 4 minutes and that deep smell continued. The brewed tea is wonderful, very deeply mellow with that same hint of dark chocolate and molasses, but with a bit of a citrus kick at the end to spark it up. I had it with a bit of milk, which only served to make it more mellow and delicious. As it cooled, it seemed to morph into different flavors, all interesting.

Let me be clear, this tea hints of scents and tastes, you're not going to have a cup of hot chocolate sweetened with Bre'r Rabbit dark molasses. That would taste disgusting! And this tea is so much not that. So drink up, it's good.

Sample I purchased

Golden Coconut, Sweet Coconut

That's the church yesterday's pulpit is in. And look - it's green there!


Hooray, another good day for tea! A while ago I bought the big sampler from Golden Moon Tea but I haven't tried many, as I got tea in 2 swaps and then I was ill. But today is a good day for a new tea and so I am trying their Coconut Pouchong.


Oh Wow! What a great smell – like the very best coconut macaroons. Yum. The dry tea is a mix of almost balls and crinkly leaves. It is a[unnamed] green tea with the essence of young coconut added. I am always leery of flavored teas, as they so often disappoint, but this just gets better. I brewed it per their instructions at about 175 for 1.5 minutes. While it was brewing, there was not only that luscious coconut smell, but there was also a floral scent, almost a jasmine. It was kind of a yellowy green in color.


Let us get to the taste. What a real pleasure it is to drink this tea – it tastes just like it smells, wonderfully coconut and sweet, but not sugary sweet, just a natural sweet. And yes, there is a definite touch of jasmine and you can indeed taste the fresh green tea under it. Well done. I do not have the palate to identify the green tea, perhaps one of you can. Golden Moon just identifies it as Imperial Green Pouchong. It won first prize at the World Tea Expo in 2007 for best flavored green tea. [Always nice to get your taste rubber stamped! LOL]

Up above the world so high

A mountainside on the Rhine. Not quite as high as the ones in Nepal, but a mountain. Mountains and hills make me happy.

Ah, Nepal. A country you don't think of often. Great high mountains, sherpas, snow and tea. What? Tea? Yup. In the foothills of those mountains, and Golden Moon has some in their sample pack I purchased earlier. It is very good. Very similar to a Darjeeling, which it is close to, but heavier somehow. This tea is called Nepalese Afternoon Tea. It is an organic black, which I appreciate. I brewed it for about 3 minutes just below boiling. It smells lovely, with a deep honey aroma, set off by sandalwood. I really liked this, it was so smooth. The tea tasted of honey and florals, with a heavy nectar like quality to it, although I wouldn't really call it sweet. It didn't feel like just water in your mouth. The pleasantness lasted quite a while, too. A definite keeper. On Dec. 13 I wrote about another Nepalese tea, which you may care to look up, just for comparison.

It is getting close to the end of one year and the beginning of another. No surprise there, it happens quite often. I always think the beginning of the year should be at a different time of seasons, like the beginning of school in September or the beginning of Spring. But here we are, anyway. I am looking forward to the real beginning of my year – when I plant the first seeds for the garden. This year we are using grow lights and I am excited to see how they will work for us. Our windows are too crowded with plants we brought in to use for seedlings. I am going to experiment with some herb seeds for the house first, before I do the veggies. A lot of catalogs have already arrived, so when our company leaves, I shall begin to dream in earnest. My only fear is certain four-footed ones of us either digging up or eating the seedlings.

Earlier I mentioned that I appreciate organic tea. I feel we should try to be as organic and fair trade as we can. It can be difficult. Organic is often more expensive and sometimes it doesn't look as pretty, but it is better for both land and people. My cousin, a dairy farmer near Utica, NY has recently gotten his organic certification and I know it is a long hard road, but he feels better about his care of his farm and his animals. I am not 100% organic, I confess. If there is a tea I really, really like, I will buy it. Certainly a lot I am sampling is not organic, but in my personal purchases, I try, just as I try to buy locally when it is possible.

We are having more company, so I won't be writing for a few days. Enjoy the New Year's festivities, stay as safe and as sane as you can be

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.

Christmas tree and Golden Moon tea

The Christmas tree on the village green is lit. This year it looks quite lovely. I guess there wasn't much money last year because it really looked like Charlie Brown had decorated it. When I was growing up, we always had “Charlie Brown” trees, as my father hated to get one until the last minute, so only the scraggy ones were left. When my parents decided to go artificial, wouldn't you know it, that's what he got, another pathetic tree.
This year we decided not to do a tree or much decorating as the kittens are still in that crazy destructive phase and we don't want to put temptation in their way. That happened another Christmas when our sons had come from Florida. We put a tree up and before we got anything on it, the kitten was up it and chewing on the light cords. So we put on a couple boxes of candy canes and one string of tiny white lights. It looked very peculiar, but it was a tree. The boys haven't been back for Christmas since. Maybe they should bring a tree.

I saw this great offer from Golden Moon teas, 31 samples for $19. Fits in my poor beleaguered budget, so I thought, why not. They came in a nice woven basket, even, so no one knows just how much tea this crazy woman has! The first one I tried was Moroccan mint. Green Gunpowder tea with mint oil and mint leaves. Ho boy, minty! The scent, everything is quite minty, but in a really pleasant way. Really delicious. Not much taste of green tea, but it is very tasty and warming.

My husband loves licorice and it just so happens that another of the samples included White Licorice. As soon as I opened the packet it smelled very much of licorice. The dry leaves and buds were huge and there were nice big chunks of star anise, which is licorice flavor. The scent lessened somewhat as it brewed for 4 minutes just below boiling, but was still very present. I am not a big licorice fan, but I tasted it and although it was delicate, it was not shy and it was quite good. My husband really liked it. Aha, Christmas present!

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

I still can't taste things too well, so I will share some tea news with you and maybe a tea review I have on file. The first piece of news is the good folks at Golden Moon Teas http://www.goldenmoontea.com/ have offered me some samples to review. I am thrilled, as I am beginning to really appreciate Oolongs, after some unpleasant experiences. Also, almost all of the reviews I have read about their teas have been positive. I think black tea will always have a special place in my heart, but the world of tea is so wide!

SerendipiTEA is re-publishing their book SerendipiTEA: the Varieties, Origins and Rituals of Tea , written by the company's co-founder Tomislav Podreka. I remember reading this when it was first published and it is a well-written, worthwhile book. It is being published by the Old English Tea House and will sell for $16. I couldn't find the company on line, but I did find the old edition at Amazon. So it is perhaps not out just yet.

If you are a big fan of teapots, you should check out the blog http://teapotsteapotsteapots.blogspot.com/ . Some of the most unusual ones I have ever seen can be found there. My two biggest questions are: Can they pour? And do they drip? I ask these from the perspective of much sad experience. I recently bought a very pretty teapot I hoped to be my new everyday large pot, but you could only fill it half-way or it would cascade all over everything! I have a number of pots that are lovely, pour well, but alas they drip all over! I do have some drip catchers, but after a while, they look rather disgusting. Why can't manufacturers make dripless pots? It is possible, I have the pots to prove it.

I am hoping for a teapot with violets on it for Christmas. I have managed to acquire 4 different violet cups and saucers and I would like a teapot to go with them. None of them match, so the pot doesn't need to either. My favorite is a handleless one, which in spite of not having a handle, doesn't seem to be that old. I was very fortunate that several years ago a friend was moving and gave me a large portion of her teacup collection. My favorites are ways the ones that feel so extra smooth. I am not sure why, but the china feels like satin against my skin. We are on a kick of “lightening our load” so some of the ones that are not particular favorites will probably go.