Silver Needles

An Italian farmstead.


The BBC has a website and on that site is a list of good tea houses to visit if you are in China. Their site is www.bbc.co.uk/news/ The tea house article is at the bottom, past the fat belly.

Not only was there sun yesterday, but I got a bunch of samples from Life in Teacup, a generous gift to bloggers from Gingko Seto. I just had to try one. I am edging my way into white teas, so I am trying Silver Needle, Bai Hao Yin Zhen. And silver needles it is. The buds and leaves are about 1 - 1.5 inches long, covered with beautiful silver down. In the packet there is a faint aroma of white wine. I brewed the whole packet in my new little glass pot for 1.5 minutes and was rewarded with a delightful mild coconut taste. Really delicious. The liquor was a soft pale old gold color and smelled faintly of grass, with a hint of the coconut taste to come.

The second cup I brewed for 2 minutes and it was a tiny bit paler. By now, the leaves were fully expanded, a nice pale green. There was a clear, mild fresh springy green scent. The tea tasted of fresh green life with a hint of bubblegum or cotton candy - I couldn't make up my mind.

The third cup I brewed for 2.5 minutes and found it to be a darker gold than the others, which was a surprise. There was still a nice fresh green scent to it. It tasted of fresh baked greens, not at all a heavy taste, but very light.

By the fourth infusion, I was getting pretty full of tea. This was the darkest one yet - the color of straw. And that is what it tasted like - the very freshest of straw, clean and new. As a farm kid, I was always chewing on the end of a piece of straw or timothy, so I know whereof I speak.

All in all, this was a delightful trial and I am happy to add it to my list of three white teas I have liked. I told you I was new to this branch of tea.

Those darn deer have done it again - I put out peanuts for the squirrels, so the little buggers will leave the bird seed alone and the deer ate them - every one!





For those of you who like to play in the dirt and raise herbs for your tea the following article will give another reason for doing it. www.hortmag.com/blogs/gardening-blog/dirt-can-make-you-happy . So dig away and let your kids be dirty.

Coffee and Tea Festival

The Coffee and Tea Festival of New York City is being held Saturday and Sunday February 19 and 20 from 11 am to 5pm at 7 West 34th Street. This is between 6th and 5th Avenue. The website is http://www.coffeeandteafestival.com/ . If you are in the area, I would urge you to go. There are many special tea tastings and other events schedualed around these times, so check it out!
You will find more information and some bargain tickets to a super event over on
http://theteagallery.blogspot.com

Here Come the Keemuns

Aaah, mountains!


Sunshine again! If this keeps up, we from the Great Northeast won't be able to complain nearly as much. Ah, but we are saved - snow tonight and tomorrow. I may complain, but I love the swing of the seasons. I love the rain, the snow, the colors of spring and fall, even the gray and white or sepia of winter. I just like it enlivened with sun.





In keeping with the Lunar New Year, I have 2 Chinese teas to compare today. They are both from Life in Teacup. The first is Superior Grade Keemun. The leaves are small, almost broken and pretty much brown. They smell very fresh, without much in the way of nuance. The brewing tea releases more of a winey scent. In the cup there is a very pleasant earthy wineyness, but it is somewhat subdued.





The second tea is Keemun Mao Feng and its superiority was evident as soon as the packet was opened. The leaves were mostly black, long and twisted. There was a deep scent of red wine barrel and a rich oaky undertone. The tea brewed up to a surprisingly light color, but not the taste, which was rich and full, deep and earthy, with the wine right along in there. Wonderful.





I have to say if I had only had the Superior, I would have thought I had a very nice cup of Keemun. However, tasting the second made me realize what I was missing. I do love Keemun. And to think I used to think it was awful stuff. But then, there were many teas I didn't like and have since grown to at least appreciate, if not downright love, while others have fallen by the way.

More on Today's Tea

I decided to try the Organic Golden Monkey Black Tea with some cream and it's a whole new world. Even rounder than it was, with a subtle dark cherry flavor to it. It is somehow sweeter and more spice comes through. What a great trip!

HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! to all who are celebrating the Asian Lunar New Year. May you have joy, peace, prosperity and every other good thing!

May the doors you open lead to wonderful things for you.

We are celebrating here because the sun is shining and the sky is blue. The pines are brilliant etched against the azure sky and it's not even too cold.

Any day is a good day when you get new teas to try from a new-to-you company. I had heard so may good things about The PuriTea Company I had to order. They were having a sale on make your own tea samplers, so I did. My order came very quickly and they even sent 3 free samples. Wow.

I was going to discuss a couple of different Keemuns I have been drinking, but decided to go with another Chinese tea to celebrate the New Year. This one is from Aura Teas and is Organic Golden Monkey Black Tea. It is one of Wuyi Yen tea, [grown in spaces between mountain rocks], from the Wuyi area of Fujian Province, and is considered one of China's finest. It is a mix of black and brown leaves, heavily curled. It is processed by hand in the spring. It will yield up to 3 infusions. In the container the aroma is a fine mix of floral, sweet and a deep deep spice and wine bottom note. I did the first infusion for 2 .5 minutes and the second for 3.

The tea in the cup has a smooth, sweet, deep woodsy, spicey scent and the liquor is very, very dark. I can hardly wait to drink this! Usually I like cream in my black tea, but this is so fine, I can't do it. The tea almost feels creamy, it has such a rich body. There are so many taste sensations it is hard to sort them. It is sweet, with an almost honey flavor, then a bit earthy, then there's an elusive woodsiness, a little touch of acid to make your mouth feel juicy, along with oak. It is a wonderful tea. It is such a kick when there is so much going on in a tea.

Aura teas can be seen at http://www.aurateas.com/ They have always been very nice to deal with.

The Rabbit is Coming

In spite of the ground hog's prediction, I don't think this is for us
just yet. That's Punxsatawny Phil, who supposedly predicted an
early Spring.


Once again the weather mavens have gotten it wrong. No big deal, maybe 3 " with some ice on top - just enough to support the ravening squirrels, but not enough to support me. The cats are quite funny on it, as they have gotten used to having to hop over or plow through the snow and they look so confused walking on top. It was up to 48 about 2 hours ago and now it is 32 with a lot of wind and snow/ice/rain. The trees in the spinney are blowing every which way and look like they are doing some sort of mad dance.





Chinese, really Asian, New Year begins tomorrow. This is the year of the rabbit. I shall make some Shanghai soup and have spring rolls and perhaps a stir fry or maybe pot stickers to celebrate. And, Chinese tea, of course. Keemun, because that is my favorite. However, to get in the mood, I am having another green tea today.





Harney and Sons has always had quality tea and their Chinese Flower is no exception. I have one of their tag-a-long tins someone gave me, with 5 pyramidal sachets in it. Each is enough for a 12 ounce mug. The dry tea is a mix of Chinese green teas, accompanied by three flowers and some citrus. Citrus what is not clear. The dry scent is quite lemony. I brewed it for about 3.5 minutes and found it to be very tasty, almost exclusively citrus. This would be a good tea for those wanting to gently edge their way into green tea. Having said that, I have to wonder how it would help, as there is no taste of the tea, so you wouldn't really be experiencing it.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

Austria

I was reflecting a bit on yesterday's movie and I realized how lonely it must be to be king or queen - who could you trust as a friend? There would be so much you couldn't say and there would always be the worry that someone would want to use you for power, personal glory, etc. However, in the movie, the king and his speech therapist did become friends. The power of love and caring!





Carrying on with my green teas I am having Golden Moon's Organic Green. When I opened the packet, my first thought was "spicey sausage". Okay, one of us is a tad strange here. The leaves were kind of mixed, whether intentionally or from transit, I don't know. They brewed up into a pale brownish green, more attractive than it sounds, with a clean fresh vegetal scent, still with a bit of spice, but no sausage. This was an extremely mild tea, with a fresh grass flavor and the barest hint of spice. For me, it doesn't have enough flavor or interest to buy again, but it's certainly in the okay category.





As has been expected, we have gotten about 4 inches of snow, perhaps more. You can't see out of two sides of the porch, as the screens are clogged with it. It stops and starts and we all are watching the weather radar to see when the next lot , along with freezing rain, will arrive. Friends have wondered what we would do in bad weather, since we live out of town. Me, if the driving is bad, I stay home, unless it is a genuine emergency. We just make sure we have water and we're set. If you have grown up in the country, you are always prepared in terms of food and water. Sometimes I think we are a bit over-prepared in the food department, but we won't examine that too closely.





A lot of tea companies are having sales. You might want to cruise the web and see who has a good deal on something you like. Valentine's Day is coming and I am sure there are all sorts of romantic things available. We are having a really nice dinner at home, with some wonderful tea from Mariage Freres - Wedding Imperial, which I reviewed a while ago.