Hello Friends

I won't be writing anything again until Monday - We have company coming andthere won't be time.

See you all then,
Marlena

Invite a Baroness to Tea

More flowers - the hope of things to come!

Yesterday was a nice "lamby" day, but today is one of the "lion" days of March. So do we say March came in like a lamb or a lion? Or just confused, as all the weather this season has been? Soon we can start some seeds inside. Mostly what we know as "Peter's tomatoes", from the boss of a friend years ago. I guess we have saved them for 20 years. I think they are a Polish Paste type, very large, long and sort of slender, with heavy flesh and not many seeds. Very sweet and tomatoey, though and that is how we have saved the seeds - from the sweetest. Now we have to work on up the yield per plant.

I have gone back to the blacks because of the wind and today I am having Culinery Teas Baroness Grey. This is a pretty tea, with seems like a mix of green, brown and black leaves, which then has a blend of rose petals, blue and yellow flowers and dried orange and maybe lemon peel. It smells very much like those Russian-style teas, with the bergamot as a top note and the heaviness of the citron as the bottom.

I brewed it up the standard 3.33 miutes with water just off the boil and the heavy scent filled the room. The liquor is a lightish amber and smells heavily of dried citrus peel. The bergamot seems lost as the citrus takes over and there is some bitterness from too much pith on the peel - the white stuff right under the colored peel. This is interesting if you like Russian type teas. I found that there was alas, not enough bergamot to stand up to the citrus and it was more bitter than I find tasty. It is difficult to get flavors blended well, especially when you are dealing with heavy hitters, like dried fruit peel. I would not put milk in this.

Whoopie, WuYi

A first glimpse of Amalfi, my husband's ancestral town. Amalfitano basically means "from Amalfi"

Oh, my friends, Spring is coming! The creeks have started to run, my neighbors snowdrops are about to bloom, and I heard some birds calling this morning I haven't heard all winter! The average daily temperature is rising, the days are longer and I am a happy camper because of it.

We do have to keep a weather eye, however, as some of our very, very worst storms have been in the middle of March. One I remember, it was illegal to be on the roads for several days. Couldn't get there anyway, so it didn't matter to me.

I am a genealogist and was reading the latest issue of Family Tree Magazine, which this month is concentrating on the Civil War era. Before the war, tea was 75 cents to $2 a pound. Right after the war, when the economy was out of control, it was $20-$40 a pound. This was when people were making tops, about $2,000 a year. You can get very good teas for that price today and there aren't any of us making such little money.

This week I have gotten two of my tea magazines, both announcing the World Tea Expo. This is again in Las Vegas, June 24-26. You can find out all about it at http://www.worldteaexpo.com/ . Sadly, the 40% off on educational seminars ended Feb. 11. A bit of a disjunction in timing. I wish there was something comparable in the East.

If you like Laura Childs' books, she has a new one that has just come out, Scones and Bones. For those of you not familiar, these are cosy mysteries whose heroine owns a tea shop in Charleston, SC. The tea info is pretty good, as are the recipes in the back of the book.


On to today's brew! Again, I am fortunate in having a very good tea to sample. Hand Processed Wuyi Shui Xian from Life in Teacup hails from the Wuyi Mountains in China. It is a Heavy Roast, Grade 1, which means it is of good quality. The dry leaves have a roasty/toast smell, I brewed them for about 11/2 minutes with boiling water. The aroma came out even more. I need to say up front that generally I am not a great fan of heavy roasted Oolongs. However, I was very pleasantly surprised by this one. The roasted scent moved right on into the tea, along with some pine. There was also, some smokiness and a bit of tarriness. None of it was unpleasant or at all strong, in fact, I quite liked it. The second infusion, for about 2 minutes did away with some of the smoke and replaced it with a slight fruity aroma and taste. By the third infusion, there was more fruit and perhaps still the barest hint of pine. I wish I had had time for more, as it was so interesting to taste the development of flavors

A Fine Formosan

A peek at the Mediterranean.


Alex Zorach kindly told me that Tea Forte does sell loose leaf tea, so I trotted right on over and got some black current. Thanks Alex. Much better than all that extra packaging. It is amazing how much less garbage you have if you recycle and compost. One puny bag. A lot better than 3 or 4. And it's really a no-brainer. It's like contributing to the food bank. If you buy one or two extras every week, it is painless to give to those less fortunate. Having worked in several, I can say that the vast majority of folk who come truly need. There are always scammers, but you get to know them.





I have been having such a good run with tea, so many of the ones I am trying are just plain good. Today's is another one from Aura Teas http://www.aurateas.com/ - make sure you get that "s" in there. It is Formosa Alishan Oolong, obviously a cousin of the one I had a few days ago from them. It smells like good green earth in the packet and is very dark for an Oolong, looking as though it were heavily compressed. At 170 degrees for about 2 minutes, it brewed up into a light amber, with a distinct green taste, softened by what seemed to me to be pineapple. Very tasty. The second wash, again for 2 minutes, shifted away from such heavy green to an orchid scent and flavor. Just as good as the first cup, but different. It's always so interesting to see these changes from one lot of tea.





I have been seeing more and more ads in mainline magazines for tea and articles about how good for you it is. I hope it encourages more people to drink tea, just for the taste and experience of it. I also hope it encourages people to try loose leaf tea and not just tea bags.

Currants and Tea

Flowers in Italy. Wish we had some now. Although the grocery
store just got in hyacinths and I had a good sniff fest yesterday.

Hot diggity dog! Or something like that. I found a black currant tea I can drink! It doesn't smell like cat spray! Woo Hoo! I am a happy camper, as I did like this stuff long ago and any I have had since has just been awful, awful, awful. The only problem is it is Tea Forte. Now Tea Forte makes some very tasty teas. The packaging is visually appealing, it would make lovely gifts. BUT (there's always one, isn't there?) that packaging is decidedly not earth friendly. There is so much of it and some is just not going to waste away in compost. Also, they are very expensive. But I may have to bite the bullet. Oh dear.





However, I am going to review it, because I am so pleased to taste it. I got mine as a gift, by the way. First of all, it smells wonderful, a gentle fruity aroma that smells like fresh black currants.
Then, after 3.5 minutes of brewing in it's cute little pyramid bag, it tastes wonderful, like the aforementioned black currants. Imagine that. Plus, there is a gentle hint of mint on the side. It really reminds me of being out in the garden, picking berries and gathering herbs. I wonder if they have any loose leaf. I'll find out and get back to you.

PS It snowed again last night - gorgeous morning when the sun came up and sparkled everything. It is so nice to have the sun up early and still be able to see at 6 pm. I love winter, but hate the gray, although this year has had a lot more sun.

Don't Call Me a Pinhead

Overlooking the Mediterranean, on the Amalfi Way.


It is incredibly beautiful here, as the snow has stuck to the trees, in spite of the wind last night. I think there is an ice coating holding at least some of it on. And it is snowing again.





Today's tea is from The puriTea, and it is Pinhead Gunpowder. I expected the little balls to be quite tiny, but they weren't. When I compared it to some regular gunpowder, these were larger. The dry scent was floral and vegetal, with something like sesame teasing around the edges. I steeped it the first time for about a minute and it gave off a lovely floral aroma. It was a lovely pale green. The taste was pleasant, but not exciting.





The second steeping was a bit over 1.5 minutes and again, there was the floral aroma, with a sharp edge to it. Again, the flavor was pleasant, but not exciting, a mix of floral and vegetal, but without that awful fishy or seaweedy flavor. Both infusions were done at about 170 degrees.

A Tribute Tea

The old organ in the Vienna Cathedral, one of the truly beautiful churches of the world.


My Faith is restored! Well, sort of. In weathermen, that is. For today. They said we'd get 8" of snow. Well, we've rounded that turn and are headed for 10. Let's see, that's 15" of new snow this week. After a teaser of Spring. Good thing I am not a tea farmer.





Speaking of which, I know many people are buying tea plants or seeds. This is a fun thing to do and perhaps to harvest enough for at least a cup or maybe even a pot. You need to know what varietal it is though, because the ones that are Camellia sinensis assamica were developed for the hot humid areas of Assam. Those tender darlings need to come when the temperature goes below 50 degrees! Not for me, I would never remember and I would have to make tea popsicles. If you're a northerner, try to get Camellia sinensis sinensis.





I had some really nice tea today. I got it from Life in Teacup and it is called JiangXi Tribute Tea. This comes from the Jian Xi area of Wuyan province. It is different from any green tea I've seen in that it is the softest grey green, gently twisted. It has been lightly stir-fried to kill enzymes as part of the drying process. This is called Chao Qing. The dry tea has very little aroma, as does the brewing tea. What there is is fresh, green, maybe the barest hint of sweet.





The taste is equally as delicate, especially in the initial brewing, with 170 degrees water for just a minute. The second, still at a minute, was stronger but still delicate. The third was about 1.5 minutes and was yet stronger. All tasted to me of perhaps what new Spring greenery would taste like - fresh, young, full of promise. I can easily see why this would be a tribute tea. If I were giving it to a friend, I would feel I had certainly given my best.