Add A Little Chocolate to Your Life

Those wonderful stripes are early spring vineyards on the Rhine River.  These would have to be hand harvested grapes.  I did that a few autumns to make money when I was in college in the Finger Lakes of NYS.  It was hard work on such steep hills and we didn't get paid much.

I can't believe that here it is the last day of the year and I am just now trying my Christmas teas.  Oh well, a good way to see the year out.  Today's is Chocolate Chai, from the Briar Patch, one of our local stores, who thankfully, is coming back to town to reopen.  Her teas are available at http://www.owegobriarpatch.com/.  The smallish leaves are black and mixed with spices and the tiniest white and chocolate chips I've ever seen.  I brewed it up for 4 minutes, all the while sniffing the heady aroma of chai with the filip of chocolate.  The chocolate really seems to add something, although the proof is in the brew.

Ah, yes, it is indeed a good brew!  Not only does it smell good, but the spices are nicely balanced, along with the chocolate and they seem to chase each other around my mouth, first one is accented and then another.  The nutmeg and cardamom vie for the ending with the ginger sometimes taking over.  This is not so spicey as to put people off, but it is within range of those of us who prefer more in that department.  If anything, I think the chocolate rounds everything out nicely, without being overwhelming.

I have noticed that chocolate also goes very well with puerh tea and if you want to try puerh, but are a bit afraid of it, you might want to look for some blended that way.  I hesitated about puerh for a long time, but brewed right, it is a very pleasant woodland earthy tea.  If it is brewed too long, some of us find it begins to edge more towards barnyard earthy.

Tea for Cherry Blossom Time

What Ho, gang! It didn't snow! And the sun is shining! My faith in Spring is restored. It is a good thing I don't live in Alaska. There is still snow in the woods and along the edges where the plows piled it up, but there is hope that we really are moving into flower time. The birds certainly think so. The gold finches have morphed back into their bright gold coloring and the purple finches are looking much brighter. I have heard 4 distinctly different drummings of the woodpeckers in the woods - one is a pileated, our largest woodpecker. It makes me soooo jealous that others, including my husband, have seen it and I haven't.



Good news from Darjeeling. Some of the workers' associations broke off from the main group and settled for a considerable raise, all the way up to a little over $2.00 a day. I don't know how this fits in with average wages in India. This affects 42 gardens, but I do not know which ones. The larger group of associations is still on strike. I hope it can be settled amicably, and the workers receive what they need.



I know many tea enthusiasts are also gardeners and a rosarian friend of mine, Lee Ginenthal, has started a blog about roses, Thorny Issues, which can be found at http://derrosenmeister.blogspot.com/. I like to blend roses with my tea, as well as lavender. I will be planting some of Lee's roses this spring, as well as some lavender. I am intending to only plant things which smell good, if I can find enough of them the deer don't like.



For those of you who have ordered tea from the Imperial Tea Court, Stephanie, from Steph's Cup of Tea - see the list at right for her address - just visited and took some great pictures.



To celebrate the sun and spring hopes, I am going to try some Sencha Green Cherry Rose from the Briar Patch here in Owego. It's a pretty tea, with rose petals in the green leaves. It smells mostly of cherry and green tea, with just a touch of rose, and not cherry candy, either, hooray. This carries through in the brewing, with the same delicate scent. The brewed tea is a soft, greenish old gold color. Much as I am not a fan of fruity tea, I find this to be a very good blend, where both the tea and the flavoring meld into one lovely taste. This would be a perfect tea to have in among the cherry blossoms. There was no rose taste, but the petals made the tea pretty, and sometimes, pretty is enough.

A Bit of Wine, a Bit of Oolong

Speaking of vineyards, here are some German ones, much like the ones I once picked in to earn money for college - steep! Was it only Sunday we had a blizzard? Here it is Sunday again and we have had torrential rain and flooding. Of course, our front yard - where I want to plant!!!! still looks like Siberia, but I am encouraged by nesting sparrows, in spite of the fact that the ground in back is so soggy that the bird feeder fell over. My friend Lee is going to make me a bird feeder holder that is embedded in concrete encased in a tire and adjustable so I can get the seed above the deer's reach. And when the bears raid it in the early spring, it will just tip over instead of getting all bent. Bertie Baby, our orange Fluffernutter cat with the magnificent tail, is out in the ditch - which is running- bottoms up, tail waving in the breeze, mouth open, just in case there really is a frog there and I have been lying to him about when they'll appear. Oh well, keeps him out of trouble. Last weekend we all went for a short hop on the Cayuga Wine Trail, and tasted some truly lovely wines at the King Ferry Winery, two of which were some super Chardonnays. Today I thought I would compare The Briar Patch's Chardonnay Oolong and see if it smells and tastes anything like the wines I bought. I first rinsed the leaves with almost boiling water and then infused them for about 3 minutes. What do you know, it smells like Chardonnay and tastes like it, too. A lovely, fruity, grapey experience, but underneath is a very pleasant floral/fruity Oolong. A very nice blend. The Briar Patch is one of our local tea spots in Owego, NY, and can be reached online at http://www.owegobriarpatch.com/ Her prices are quite reasonable and you can buy in small quantities.

Cherries Wild!

St. Francis Monastary in Sorrento, Italy.


I am doing a tea tasting this afternoon with some friends. We are going to do three white teas and a yellow. Having nver had yellow tea, I really don't know what to expect. I'll tell you about it tomorrow.



This morning I had some tea which was quite different from yesterday's. I had bought it locally, in the Briar Patch in Owego, NY. The owner got this from a wholesaler, it's not one she made up. It is called Wild Cherry and it smells exactly like Smith Brother' or Luden's Wild Cherry Cough Drops. It's pretty strong, with an earthy not at the end. But I brewed it up as usual for black tea - 1 teaspoon, 212 degrees for 3.5 minutes. It still smells just as it did dry.


However, the proof is in the taste. Oh boy, tastes just like cough syrup. I tried it with milk. Oops, swampy cough syrup. No sugar with this one, it is very sweet. The best I can say is I hated it. Some of you may really like it, but it is not this lady's "cuppa"


A paraphrase of something my husband read to me - You don't see a cardinal in snow-covered winter, your gaze concentrates and distills and concentrates and distills to the one essence of the red bird.

Tea at the Briar Patch

Cow barn in the spring in the Simmenthal.

Rats, the terrible two have discovered the bird feeders and sit on the porch steps waiting for them. Hopefully they will get tired of this and go do something else. The blue jays act as sentinels and while they haven't attacked the cats, they let everyone know if it is safe to feed or not. I moved the feeders farther from the house, hoping this will help.

I had a delicious tea this morning and a very nice chat with Carrie Tompkins, the owner of the Briar Patch , in Owego, NY. This is a small but delightful shop choc-a-block with good things to eat, taste, decorate, smell and just enjoy. Carrie has been in Owego about 3 years. She only got into tea 31/2 years ago and has already begun to blend a few teas and write a monthly article for our local paper, The Moonlighter. If you remember, I reviewed one of her teas not too long ago - Honey Lemon.

Carrie's introduction to tea was a Formosa Oolong she had at a Japanese restaurant. She found it to be so good, she wanted to learn more. She was also quite taken by the whole relaxation angle of tea and the fact it has so much less caffeine than coffee. Carrie has been making and selling beautiful candles for over 12 years and loves to experiment with blending different scents. This love of the sensual was a natural segue into the beginnings of tea blending. So far she has blended rooibus with mate, and chamomile with peppermint on her own, using European Chamomile instead of Egyptian, as she feels it has a smoother, softer edge, with more of an apple overtone. Next up is lavender with Earl Gray. I will definitely be interested in comparing that with others.

At the moment, Briar Patch carries over 50 teas and Carrie ships them around the country. She always has a big pot on the counter so you can taste the tea of the day. Today's was wonderful!
I am not a big fan of spice teas as usually the clove in them is overwhelming. However, Carrie's Cinnamon Orange Spice was really super. Very cinnamon-y and spicey, but so well balanced! The orange lightened it some and there was a definite sweetness in the brew. Although it is not an herb tea, it made me feel warm and cosy. I bought some and decided it would make a very nice holiday treat.


You can check out the Briar Patch offerings at www.owegobriarpatch.com

I Like My Tea With Honey

One of the many artisans at Ballenberg museum. She is bringing
bread "to market"


Owego, NY is supposedly the"Coolest Small Town" in America. I'm not sure who says so, but it's fun to know, as this is now my hometown. We are fortunate in having several places in town where you can order well-made hot or iced tea and 2 merchants of loose leaf tea. One of the latter is the Briar Patch, where the tea is not only loose, but blended in Owego. I bought a few samples yesterday and today I am trying one. I have one complaint, however. The shop is quite small and filled with scented things and I noticed that when I got the tea home, the bags all smelled of the shop. It is probably impossible to do anything about it, given the size constraints. The teas themselves did not seem to be affected.


This delightful tea is Honey Lemon. When I opened the sample, I was really bowled over by the scent - wonderful wildflower honey with enough lemon to keep your feet on the ground. Just an amazing aroma! The leaves are mostly black, but some look green and there are chunks of lemon peel as well. I could hardly wait. I was rewarded for my patience, such as it was, with wonderful flavor of honey and lemon with some floral overtones. The tea was really smooth and very full feeling with a slight tang from the lemon, but no bitterness, which can be a problem with lemon peel. The taste lingers just long enough to be really appreciated, but not too long.

My only problem with this tea is that as it cooled it became far too sweet for me. You sweet tea folks would probably love it.

If you want to see some fancy tea pouring, go on over to http://tavalon.com/blog and scroll down to the second entry and click on the picture. If you want to learn to do this, I would suggest you do it outside. I know I am too much of a klutz to attempt it, but I will do what I do best - appreciate.