Ah, Summer

Hmm, I see it has been quite a while since I wrote.  The last month has been so busy I have barely had time to drink tea, let alone write about it.  Planting, volunteering, having company, recovering from company, baby showers, busy, busy, busy.

However, I continue to make my ice tea in the fridge and I must tell you about one I really like.  It comes from Lupicia Teas.  it is their apricot flavored black tea.  It is just refreshing and the apricot blends very well with the black tea.  The fruitiness somehow says "Summer".  I guess that is because there are so many more fruits available now.  I would recommend this to you if you like flavored tea at all.  It is especially nice that you can let it brew overnight and it is just fine.  I don't make my extra strong, so you may need to take that into account.

Speaking of which, I am growing pineapple sage this summer.  Up here, it is an annual with pretty red flowers.  Supposedly, the leaves smell like pineapple and are often used for tea punches.  Personally, I think they smell like bubblegum.  But I am going to include it in today's ice tea and see how it is.  Hopefully, I will report tomorrow.

Another thing I have been doing with my ice tea is cutting up strawberries, which are local at the moment and muddling them a bit to add to the tea.  Or I just plop a few in the glass.  The latter is prettier.

More of the Amalfi road.

The Earl Goes Cherry Picking

I am realizing how much I enjoy early morning and late evening light.  In the morning, the woods in back are lit with gold backed by dark green and black.  Just before sundown it is the reverse, with the tracery of black trees against the gold and bright green behind them.  It is always interesting to watch the morning fog dissipate and that which seemed almost spectral become solid and spring into the day.

This has led me to think of other things I've grown to appreciate and one of these, which gives me great pleasure is our afternoon tea time.  It is so satisfying to my senses to take a quiet break in the day with my husband.  We have a small treat, share a pot of tea, and just relax.  Then there is the tea.  It is a never ending parade of aromas and tastes, much loved by one such as I who so enjoys the new and different.  I love to read about tea cultures in other countries.  Sometimes they seem quite alien to me, but we are all bound together by our love for tea.  But I regard alien as good, variety and difference is what makes the world interesting.  Can you imagine what it would be like to only have 1 tree, 1 flower, 1 animal, 1 style of person?  Booooring!

I am trying another Earl Grey today.  This one comes from the Japanese company, Lupicia.  The tea base is Keemun, which comes from China.  Bergamot is Italian, so I am getting quite the international tour today.  When I opened the packet, there was the lovely flower/citrus aroma, along with an unmistakable hint of cherry.  I thought I was imagining it, but it is still there through the brewing and on into the taste.  It's faint, but it does add a nice fillip to the bergamot, which is more on the flowery side this time.  I brewed this for only 3 minutes, per suggestions and the bergamot is pretty strong.  But it is all very tasty and I quite like it.

I noticed just yesterday that there are swathes of color through the trees on the hills behind us.  I want to call it gold, but it is closer to tan.  We've not seen many geese this summer, but now they are appearing, great flocks of them, heading south.  Usually there is enough water around here that they hang around, but this year our ponds are pretty dried up, enough so the water lilies never bloomed but only curled up their leaves and turned brown.  The barn swallows, which decorated the telephone wires have quietly left as well and I've not seen a hummingbird for a week.

Fall is a quiet time, sometimes a time for reflection, some sadness that summer is ending and soon we'll have to hunker down for winter.  I am so hoping for snow - we had so little last year, that I am ready for big snows.  My tomatoes all have late blight, but this year I don't mind, as I am sick of them.  I know, bad attitude, but there it is.  I am ready for apples and have apple sauce cooking, the wonderful aroma is filling the house.

Tea Magazine, Spring and, Of Course, Tea

Tea, a Magazine was recently sold by long-term owner, publisher, editor Pearl Dexter, although she remains as a writer/editor.  I have always really liked this magazine, as it dealt with more than just tea parties - I have another magazine for that.  The format is quite different, with lots more computer, iPod, app, etc. information.  It seems to have more down to earth tea info, which I like.  It really is quite a shift, but all of life must change.  To not change is to die.  Cups raised to Dan and his staff in their new endeavor.

It is so interesting to me to see Spring progressing at its own sloe rate.  The woods are so colorful.  A different and muted palette than Fall.  There is the base note of dark evergreens, the understories of almost full green, the weavings of yellow green, neon green, spring green, the silver green of white birch and cotton wood, the delicate tracings of pink, white, yellow and here and there a flash of orange, coupled with a trace of mahogany from the sumac candles.

On the home front, the violets are blooming and my irises are in bud!  Tomorrow I need to repot my basil, tomatoes and peppers into 4" pots, some to go to the Master Gardener Plant Sale and some to go right in my garden.

That doesn't really relate to tea, but it is part of what is filling my heart right now and it all calls for a celebration - blackberry scones and TEA.  Today's is from Lupicia and it is Hapjan Purbat, BOP (CTC) from Assam. The instructions say 1-2 minutes of steeping - short, even for me.  But, as this is a CTC, I will obey.  It certainly does brew quickly, by the end of a minute and a half, it is quite dark and has that classic malty Assam scent, coupled with some red wine barrel to make it interesting.  Even without milk, it seems rich and creamy.

Well, it is all there in the taste.  It is rich and creamy and malty and a tiny tad sweet.  All undergirded with a taste I can only describe as fresh.  Maybe that's clean and crisp, like wash dried in the sun.  Whatever it is,  it is quite good, with or without milk.

Italian flowers on a cliff in the merry month of May.

Another Good Reason to Drink Tea

The lichens on the trees along the dirt road are "blooming".  A beautiful golden apricot over the very ordinary gray green that these lichens usually are.  They are especially beautiful in the sun, but they certainly light up a dull day.  If only it were the beginning of April and not February.  This warmish weather, while welcome, has my system all out of sync.  It also means we will be inundated with bugs this summer unless we get some good long freezing weather to kill them.

However, in honor of the lichens' glorious color, I am having Apricot Black Tea from Lupicia Teas, a Japanese company.  The name always makes me think it should be Italian.  The neat black leaves and marigold petals smell pleasantly of apricot, with a touch of sharpness.  I brewed it longer than recommended - 4 minutes in stead of 3. Even so, the resulting brew smelled wonderfully of apricots, with a tiny, almost medicinal twist.  I don't know if that is the marigolds or a different variety of apricot from what we may be used to, or just a quirk.

Oh my, such a nice tea.  It tastes wonderfully apricot-y, sweet and rich.  For once, I will not complain about not being able to taste the tea itself, but just enjoy this lovely flavor.  For one thing, there is no discernible chemical taste, which really turns me off, big time.  For another, this is a very clearly defined one fruit - apricot.  I don't have to try and dissect what flavor it really is.  It is just itself and very good that is.

I also made some scones today from a recipe I really like, although I needed to make a correction.  It is from "Sacramental Magic in a Small Town Cafe" by Brother Peter Reinhart, copyright 1994.  The recipe calls for 3 cups of flour, which produces something like cake batter.  I use 3 and3/4 and it works just fine.  I would give you the recipe, but it is somewhat lengthy and I am lazy today.  It works very well, and produces 12 excellent scones, no matter what I've added to it.  Actually, while the list of ingredients is a bit lengthy, you just put all the dry together, add all the wet all at once, stir it around, and voila! scones ready to bake and eat, yum, yum.

This looks like a lovely long walk to me, on and on to the mountain tops.

A Snowy Day For Tea

Back in my heart's country, Switzerland.

We had snow again and this time it has lasted all day, all 1 inch of it.  It was very pretty this morning, with the tree branches and pine boughs all outlined and glittering in the sun.

I just got my order from Lupicia Teas and they sent me 4 samples to try.  It is so nice to get these little extras.  We had a really busy day today and I was very ready for some tea by the time we got home.  I decided I might as well try my new stash, so I am having Pettiagalla OP1, which is a Ceylon tea, from Ratnapura, Sri Lanka, the big island off the southwest coast of India.  I love the name Ratnapura, it is so exotic and takes me right across the seas to dream of someday visiting a tea plantation.

The largish black leaves give off an earthy, chocolate aroma which morphs into a floral, piquant citrus one by the time brewing is done - 3 minutes with boiling water.  The light amber liquor is very smooth, with a fairly light body.  The taste is smooth and light, also, with some floral/citrus notes.  A very nice afternoon tea.  I wouldn't put milk in it, as it really does quite nicely alone.

On line, this tea can be found at http://www.lupiciausa.com/  You might want to go check them out, as they have some really cute tins and other gifts that are inexpensive, just in time for holiday gifts.