Those Wild Orange Russians

This is a towered gate in the town of Bacharach, Germany. It was used both for fortification and the storage of wine before shipment on the Rhine River.

A sunny good morning to you all! The snow is melting, the trees have shaken off their white covering and we had a really fun tea tasting yesterday. The lilac and jasmine teas were well received, but I don't think the Pu-erh and Lapsang Souchong were a great hit, other than from interest's sake. I am not surprised. The latter two generally evoke strong feelings of like or dislike, with little middle ground. For myself, I am still edging myself into liking Pu-erh, certainly not enough to be able to tell one from another or the quality of each. I like the little tuochas I got from Life In Teacup, but I don't know that that means much.

All of the teas we had I have reported on previously, but one was a surprise. This was the Jasmine Golden Yunnan. It somehow wasn't quite as mind-bogglingly superb yesterday as it was when I tried it before. I don't know if that was because it was made in a larger pot or if it was somehow diluted as part of a group. It was still very good, but I am going to have to have some more and see what's what. Such a great hardship!


Yesterday I got some tea from the American Tea Room, about which I've heard good things. Plus, they also sent me a large free sample of their new Nirvana Tea and 10% of my purchase money will go to help Japan. I am going to try their Romanov Tea, a Russian blend, as you can imagine from the name, with a trace of smoke and blood orange. They call it "a true Russian delight". It certainly smells wonderful - very rich orange. I did not pick up any smoke aroma. The leaves are quite small and a mix of brown and black. We'll see once it is brewed. It is also organic and the base tea is a Chinese black, but they don't say which one. I am following instructions and brewing it at about 195 degrees for 4 minutes. It is a very deep amber and now that it has brewed more smoke and less orange is coming out in the scent.

As always, the proof is in the tasting. I do indeed like this tea. This just the barest trace of smoke, which I don't think most people would catch and there is a pronounced orange flavor. It is woven so well into the total blend, that it seems as though you could not seperate the tea from the orange and have two good independent tastes. That tiny bit of smoke, or earthiness really grounds the whole thing. It takes cream well, which is all I ever use.

First 2011 Oolongs Are Here

The first of the new teas has arrived! Hou De Asian Art and Fine Teas has gotten the first 2001 Early Spring Oolongs from Nantou, Taiwan and if you go to their website www.houdeasianart.com you will find it on their home page. This is indeed early. They are an excellent source of very good teas and work very hard to please their customers. They also carry an extensive line of Pu-erh teas and some beautiful artworks.

No More Snow, No More Snow, No More......

A side altar in the great cathedral of Vienna, Stephansdom.


Really, this is getting to be a bit much! We have 8! - 8! inches of snow and more coming. Guys, this is NOT flurries, this is just about a snowstorm! Our hope and consolation is the warming earth and air will melt it quickly. Meanwhile, I am going to the island nation of Sri Lanka and have some Ceylon tea, dreaming of sun and sand and blue oceans. (If it weren't so late in the year I'd say the white stuff was really beautiful, the way it has coated the trees.)


Specifically I am going to the Kenilworth Estate, for their Orange Pekoe (whole leaf) Ceylon, thanks to Upton Teas. The dry leaves are a pleasant mix of brown and black, kind of crinkles and twisted. I brewed it for 3.5 minutes with boiling water. As it brewed it smelled malty, with touches of grape and earth, may be a hint of pine,, maybe a little mustard,and fresh sun-dried wash. Really, the longer I sniff it, the more different scents seem to come out. The liquor is a medium amber and bubbles nicely around the edges of my cup. This is a good sturdy cup of tea, quite malty and nutty, hazelnut, perhaps. There is a touch of astringency, but that is ok, it offsets the other, to produce a more interesting flavor. There is a touch of grape, but no mustard. Probably just as well.

Tomorrow I am doing another tea tasting for friends, so I probably won't be blogging. We are doing a few flavored or scented teas - Lilac Bouquet, Snowflake on Green Lake, Jasmine Golden Yunnan, Mini Shu Puerh Tuocha and Hu-Kwa Lapsang Souchong. Quite a spread of tastes, eh?

Yes, Taiwan Does Make Black Tea

Nice rocks! And sunshine! Oh my!

Another cold, grim day, and tomorrow we're supposed to have 3-5 " of ... you guessed it - snow! Early Spring is often the triumph of hope over experience. But I saw more lambs today and each day seems to bring more birds. The mourning doves are courting. Rather, the male mourning doves are courting, but the ladies would rather eat.

I have my tea to keep me warm. Today I am trying a somewhat unusual one. It is from Life in Teacup. Taiwan is most known for its exquisite Oolongs, but this is Sun Moon Lake Black Tea from Nantou County. It is MOA certified organic. The dry tea is very large, twisted dead black leaves with a super scent - the aroma of good timothy hay in the hay mow, along with a strong overlay of honey. As it brews there is the smell of corn silage and roasted winter squash. This may not sound good to you, but it is music to my nose. I expected a very dark liquor and was totally surprised to find it very light. I brewed it for 3.5 minutes with boiling water and used the 2 pot method. This is where you brew the tea totally loose in one pot and decant it into another of the same size that you have warmed.

I don't think I used either enough tea or brewed it long enough as it was very light tasting as well. However, it does taste of roast winter squash and honey with some earthy notes. It is a very unusual and tasty tea and I am going to fool with it until I get it strong enough.

The World Tea Expo is coming to Las Vegas June 24-26 at the convention Center. If you register before April 22, you can get a 20% discount off educational seminars. There are over 200 new products showcased and many educational seminars, tea tastings and the opportunity to rub elbows with some of the "tea greats" Check it out at http://www.worldteaexpo.com/ . I sure do wish I could go.

An Austrian church and village. I like how their roof colors are all
coordinated,


More Spring signs! Farmers are getting out their planting machinery and a whole flock of robins arrived yesterday - kind of offsets the snow we has last night. But only kind of, as today is bone-chilling raw.



Howsomever - isn't that a great word?! Today I am having some Japanese Cherry Sencha Green Tea from the Bamboo Tea House http://www.bambooteahouse.com/ in California. My tea-swap friend, Rene kindly sent it to me. Right away I could tell this is a different flavored tea. It smelled like real cherries and not cherry candy. A tart sweetness is how I would describe it. I brewed it in my nice little green-tea-only Yixing pot for about 2 minutes at about 180 degrees.



The liquor is a very pretty pale golden green and gives off a muted scent of cherry and green tea. Oh, I like the flavor of this. The tea comes through as a nice springy greenness and the cherry does away with what I think of as the fishiness that some senchas have. The tea has a full mouth feel and the cherry lingers on your tongue. A very pleasant experience. I think this would probably make a lovely ice tea, with just a touch of lemon to cut the sweetness for me.



I know some of you are really into Royal memorabilia and if so, you can go to http://bit.ly/eF9sLq to see an article about an English woman who has a huge collection. In keeping with that, the official Will and Kate wedding site is http://www.officialroyalwedding2011.org/ Neither is really my thing, but we all have different interests. In spite of that I probably will watch at least some of it. A wedding is a wedding, right?



On a different note, The American Tea Room is donating 10% of its on-line sales until March 23 to Japanese relief. Also, if you order $25 worth of tea, they will send you a 2 ounce sampler of their Nirvana Tea, which looked pretty tasty. Their address is www.americantearoom.com

The Official Beginning of Spring-

Tomorrow is the official first day of Spring. Can't come soon enough as far as I am concerned. Here, however, it is really mud season. With our heavy clay soil that means you try very hard to keep to pavement or gravel if you can find any, lest you be up to you hips in mud. Our fur persons are coming in with very dirty paws and tummies, except for Sarah, La Principessa, who wouldn't dream of sullying those pristine white appendages.

Sunday, First Day of Spring! And very welcome it is, too. I am greeting it with an herbal tisane from Tea Forte - Raspberry Nectar. It definitely smells like fresh raspberries and as it brews, it is that beautiful red of crushed berries. It tastes like fresh berries, but also has that somewhat ubiquitous taste of hibiscus. There are also rosehips, apple, blackberry leaves, orange peel and flavors in addition to the raspberries. It is both sweet and tart and very tasty. However, I would have liked it better if it had had less hibiscus and some of the other stuff. As it is, it skirts on the edge of being like every other herbal in the berry/hibiscus/rosehip lineup. A bit of sweetener does wonders for it.

I am in the process of, once again, cleaning out the tea cupboard and trying to get rid of the ones I don't especially care for before I have to store them under my bed or something. Some are just old and will make nice mulch, some I will give away. The ones I like, I will keep. So you all may be offered some teas a bit down the road.

Tea Community Offers Aid to Japan

I feel so sad for the people of Japan, living through that earthquake and now having the chance of life-killing radiation hanging over them. So many countries around the Pacific rim have had awful earthquakes and tsunamis in the past few years, ever since the big tsunami, caused by a severe underground quake, back in December about 5 years ago. Such devastation.

I feel kind of small saying it, but it doesn't affect the Japanese tea fields, which are a long way south, unless the radiation cloud blows that way. That is very unlikely and indeed, a very small thing compared to the horror those folk are living through each day. If you would like to find out about relief efforts from the tea community, please go to www.operationsakura.org or www.obututea.com/donate . Sakura refers to the cherries, which are to bloom in about 2 weeks.

The Leaf at www.the-leaf.org is an online magazine - an ezine, if you're fussy. It has just published the 8th issue, with some interesting things about Chinese tea and tea life.


I just learned that a local B&B in Candor, NY has won awards for its afternoon tea.That is only about 30 minutes from here,so I had best take a little trek and see how it is!

I have no tea tastings to offer today, I've only had old favorites I've reviewed before. However, there are more signs of Spring! Almost all the snow is gone from our front yard and the Alps by the garage are reduced to mere foothills. The dawn chorus of bird song has returned - first time today! Flies and bugs are out. Also the mice, as Ernie was so generous to share with us by eating it in the middle of the living room. Some signs aren't so great.