Plain Tea and Sugar

The church in Durlach.

I received a list of tea reviews that really got to me. The teas had names like Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup, Lemon Chiffon Pie, Coconut Cream Pie and Root Beer Float. All I could think is – Have we gone nuts?! If tea is the flavor of everything else, aren't we losing the essence of tea? Tea on its own certainly has enough different flavors. Think of the differences in Gyokuro, Dragon Well, Darjeeling, Ceylon. Even if tea is scented, there should be the taste of the tea under girding it. I need time to recover. I shall go and have some Yunnan, which tastes exactly like what it is – Yunnan tea.

In the meantime, I want to call your attention to a seller of quality teas, herbs and other good stuff for cooking and food/tea storage. This is Frontier Co-Op, selling all-natural, organic, fair trade goods. I have dealt with them for years and have found them to be good reliable merchants. The only problem with the teas is that many of them can only be purchased by the pound, although they have more and more of which you can purchase a small amount. They have very nice metal tins for tea storage. Check them out at http://www.frontiercoop.com/ I am in no way connected to them except as a satisfied customer. If you do buy herbs from them in 1 lb. lots, beware – it can be a huge amount. For example, a pound of oregano is about the size of a stuffed pillowcase.

Another merchant who also sells teas as part of an overall line of organic, fair trade items is Mountain Rose Herbs. Some things are not organic, but they are labeled. They have a small selection of teas and tisanes that are worth looking into. One of the nice things they have are reusable muslin tea bags in both small and large sizes. I have used muslin tea sacks – complete with a metal ring and handle and they do a great job for infusing tea. They have a huge selection of other things and you may want to order a paper catalog. I always do because I prefer them. I order herbs and essential oils to add to my teas and for other things, like potpourri. If you have pets, they even have some goodies for them, including super catnip. They may be found at http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/

My friend, Mary does a huge amount of entertaining, mostly for folk in need of comfort. She likes to make things attractive for them and always uses her nicest china and silver. One idea I borrowed from her I will pass on to you for a tea party. She adds a few spoons of multi-color sugar to her sugar bowl and stirs it up. This is just the sugar you'd put on cookies. It's just a small touch, but it indicates thoughtfulness and care, and it adds a small bright note to the day.

January is Hot Tea Month, Hooray!

This is the main altar in the Hapsburg Chapel in the main palace in Central Vienna. The Hapsburg family was the last of the Austrian kings. We heard a sung Mozart Mass here one Sunday, after we heard the Vienna Boys' Choir in the main chapel and watched the Lipizzaner stallions across the courtyard. A true Gothic wonder!

January is Hot Tea Month. I am not sure who designates days or months as having a particular title or function, but here we are. It is an appropriate month for hot tea, at least for those of us who live in cold climates. Here, it is snowing again, for the 6th day in a row, a gentle, persistent snow, unending, building up bit by bit. The “plow guy” has been, leaving a small mound. I wonder if it will be as high as last year's – almost 8 feet tall and easily as wide. Good days for being inside. Good days for making pots of hot tea, to keep us warm in 10 degree weather. January is a time for rest, reflection, a re-gathering of forces for the year to come. Even the cats only poke out a nose, sneeze and give me one of “those” looks before turning around to their favorite nap spot.

This is a perfect time for chai. I have some new ones I got in a tea swap, so I tried the newest, Mountain Rose Herbs' Oregon Organic Chai. The instructions say it tastes best gently boiled, so I, of course, had to try it that way and a standard brew. Wonder of wonders, the gentle boil is best. The tea looks interesting with lots of cardamom pods and all sorts of bits and pieces of spices. The smell in the bag is big, full of spice and pepper. As it brews there is an ephemeral hint of greenery. The actual drink itself is on the mild side, but full of flavor, a worthy chai! http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/ I have bought many things from this company and I find them to be reliable and service oriented.

January is bearable, but we must look ahead to February, which is really a “crazy-making” month. For all its brevity, the reality of winter settles in unrelentingly and you begin to feel it will never end. Our New Year's guests and we decided we would give ourselves a break and visit our local butterfly conservatory in Oneonta, NY; wonderful, colorful, tropical, a perfect antidote for white, cold, and depressing. You can find out more about it here http://www.oneontabutterflies.com/ .