A Pox On Flavored Tea Bags!

This is a picture of the church in Dickshied, Germany, where many of my

 ancestors were christened.  It is sided in part with small sheets of stone,

about half the size of my palm, that is about 2 inches by 4 inches. 

There are very few windows and they are very small. 

 I would love to know when it was built.  I can trace my ancestors there

back to about 1560.

I had a meeting today at a friend's house and had the opportunity to try 2 new teas.  She even had a kettle, so I could have cooler or hotter water.  Only teabags, but you take what you get when you forget to bring your own,

The first was Lipton's Island Mango and Peach White Tea.  The tea came in a nice large bag, big leaves and additions.  I brewed it around 150 degrees, for about 3 minutes.  It was a delicate pinkish yellow - peach or mango color, surprise, surprise.  It had a vaguely fruity taste, pleasant for what it was.  However, I considered it basically tasteless and surely a waste of money.  I am not a great fan of white tea, being more a black tea person, but I can easily appreciate their delicate flavors.  I really do not understand adding any flavoring to it - there is no possible way you could discern the gentle flavors and aromas of white tea.

The second was a tad more successful.  It was Stash Tea's Ginger Breakfast Black Tea.    I used boiling water, 3 minutes and was rewarded with a fairly decent cup.  The tea was strong enough to have some flavor and the ginger was not overwhelming.

Much as I appreciate my friend's efforts to have tea for her non-coffee friends, (and I really do) this was just another nail in the coffin of tea bag teas, as far as I am concerned.  Maybe I should say flavored tea bags, because I do find PG Tips and Typhoo to be pretty good.  In fact, I got some Typhoo Decaf from another friend and I must say, for having 2 strikes against it, it was quite decent.

Yippee! - Spring is really going to come - the sun is finally shining in my kitchen window.  As it makes it swing through the seasons, I hate to see it disappear from there and rejoice when it is once again dancing across my counters.

Some Tea News

This may look like a quilt, but it is actually the ceiling of a church, probably in Germany.

You have all been so patient, and I thank you.  I think we are serving between 75 and 100 families a day at the aid station with food, cleaning supplies,baby and personal needs and candy.  Candy is importent, it makes folks smile and brightens their day a bit.  And we are only one, the biggest, but there are 5-6 other small ones, plus the folks who carry stuff out to those who can't get in.  Today we got a big lot of stuff from the NY Mets baseball team - one of the wives is from Owego.  We even have a huge mound of dog and cat food and a big bag of stuffed animals for the little kids.  It is so nice to be able to give people not only necessities, but some treats, other than candy. 

I do have some tea  news for you.  In 2012 Stash tea will be 40 years old.  Amazing!  It opend in a Victorian house in Portland Oregon in 1972 and was one of the firs to go on line in 1995.  In 2005, they opened their first retail shop.  Pretty cool.

Kenya has joined thethe ranks of Darjeeling and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in having a mark of origin device for their teas.  The Kenyan one is the flag, fronted by a shiled with crossed spears and the words "Finest Premium Teas".

In Dooars, India, the workers are still on strike, albeit peacefully.  They have been on strike for 5 months and the government has brought in mediation teams.

Tomorrow I get to stay home, so perhaps I will do some tea tasting then.