Why, Oh Why

Tell me why:
It's your best sock the laundry loses,
It's your favorite shoe the dog chews,
You can't find your keys only when you're already late,
And the only teapot you chip, crack or smash is one you really like.

The cupboards are crammed with pots that are too big, too ugly, too drippy, too something awful and there they are, pristine, while the treasured ones look like a small version of Armageddon ran through.  Well, that last is an exaggeration, but you get the picture.  I know, I know, it's that disgusting law of averages again, but I still find it really annoying and sometimes, heart-breaking - like the two bunnies doing a tango - my Valentine pot, sadly smashed to smithereens.

We are awaiting "The Big Storm".  Come on, folks, it's winter.  Winter has storms.  I have my tea and toast all lined up and my boots are ready, so I can go out and appreciate it, both it's howling wind and the quiet of new snow.  If it's too bad, I'll even wear my pink ski hat and frighten all the neighbors.

However, at the moment, I am enjoying a pot of  Kenya Black Highland, from Royal Tea of Kenya www.royalteaofkenya.com.  I have reviewed this before, but since I discovered something new about it, I had to do it again.  It is a very finely cut CTC tea and normally, I brew these for about 2 minutes.  However, due to inattention, this went for 3 minutes and how fortuitous that was.  What emerged with the longer brew is a delightful flowery-ness, almost akin to one of the finer Oolongs.  It's wonderful!  Well worth pushing the tea.  It is, of course, underscored by a nice, sturdy blackness, but I love the high notes.

A Tea Lemon

The wind is screaming and roaring around the house, tearing at the pines, whose branches are bent as far as they can go to get away from the onslaught.  The dead leaves of even the oaks are running down the road, fighting with the dust and tiny hail to get as far as they can from this monster.  Bare branches are laughing as the torrent just sieves through them and they gracefully bend and point, bend and point.

Another good day for tea, the perfect accompaniment to storm watching.  I really love storms.  When I was a kid, I loved to be on our porch and watch the storms roar down the hillside across the lane from the house.  There would be curtains of rain and wild wind!

However, back to tea.  I got some Lemon Black Tea in a swap.  It is from Wegman's, the wonder store!  The first time I made it, I was a bit, well, a lot, disappointed, as it was such a strong lemon peel taste, I couldn't really drink it.  The second time, today, I got smart and diluted it with a scoop of English Breakfast to two scoops of the lemon.  Next time I think I will do half and half. As you can tell, I wasn't very taken with it originally.  I think the lemon peel had too much of the white pith left on it, which made it bitter, although there was  lemon flavoring that was trying very hard to overcome this.  The aroma was delightful, although there was that bitterness.  The second time I had it, there was more flavor and less bitterness, but I think the blenders need to reassess and try again.

Two Teas On The Menu

It was very, very cold (about 8degrees) last week and today it is 62.  Yesterday the weather man said we had drizzles and it was raining so hard, I couldn't see our road.  Crazy weather!  Perfect for tea. It is lovely to sit in my nice warm living room, with my Critters, Inc. to keep my toes comfy, drinking a nice pot of tea and watching the wind scour the woods.

I've had some wonderful combinations lately.  I made Julia Child's cream of mushroom soup with a mix of ordinary and woodland mushrooms - so very, very good - and had it with some of Mark T. Wendell's Hu Kwa Lapsang Souchong tea.  This, as far as I am concerned is the best of the best.  There is exactly the right balance of smoke, sweet, and woodsy and it went perfectly with my soup.

The other was an orange tart I made, with a pastry cream base and candied oranges on top, with a drizzle of the much reduced candying liquid.  It is the best dessert I've made in a while.  I know I am bragging, but I still get excited when my food turns out really well.  I had it with Culinary Teas Lady Londonderry, which is one of two fruit teas I like.  This has maybe a bit of strawberry, maybe a smidge of pineapple, a lot of flowery and it went beautifully with the tart.  If you're an Anglophile, it supposedly was Princess Diana's favorite.  It is a very feminine tea.

We went out to lunch to a new to us restaurant.  They buy as much of their ingredients as possible from local farms, breweries and wineries.  That I really like.  The food was excellent.  I ordered iced tea in honor of "hot" weather.  It was okay.  Standard ice tea.  Oh well.

Back To My Tea, Hooray!

It is so utterly beautiful.  Three days ago, after an extensive January thaw, so that we were all swilling around in mud again, the temperature dropped and it snowed!  Nice sticky snow that coated every branch and twig, every pine and fir needle; all covered in silvery white.  The amazing thing is that it is still on them.  We haven't had enough wind to send the snow swirling away into drifts and everyday it has snowed a little.  Today the sun is shining so it's just breath-taking.

 Since then it's melted and blown and now we are cold to the bone and out the other side.  Critters, Inc. stick their noses out, run around for 5 minutes and run in giving me "The Look" of "how could you be so mean as to put me out." Humph!

I am sorry to be such a poor blogger, but that flu really left me with a very sorry case of the blahs, temperamentally and worse, food and drink-wise,  However, I think I am once again human and back on the trail of teas.  Today we are drinking a sample from Teavivre.  It comes from Fengqing, Yunnan, China and is called Fengqing Dragon Pearl Black Tea.  It is composed of small balls, about 3/8ths of an inch across, tightly rolled of black and tan leaves - quite attractive and reminiscent of balls of material ready to make braided rugs that are sometimes found in antique shops.

The packet gives off something of a sharp winey aroma and after I brew it for 2 minutes, it is rather pale, but very, very fresh smelling, with some wine underneath and the very barest hint of smoke.  You really have to work to get the latter, so don't let it put you off.  The first sip is a bit woodsy, earthy tasting, with a hint of perhaps walnut.  That continues, but segues into a more roasted nut flavor, still with the wood and earth backing it up.  It is a really, really good tea and I will definitely be getting more of this.

Saw some cardinals today - they really make winter bearable, as do my little downy woodpeckers.

Leafing It Up With Tea

Hello again, everyone, I am finally back.  Himself and I both had the flu, fortunately at slightly different times, so one of us could get meals and hot drinks.  One of the prescriptions is to get lots of rest and drink plenty of liquids.  Such an oxymoron.  Think about it - the natural result of drinking a lot is many bathroom trips - that's not really restful.  Ah well.

I haven't been trying new teas - my palate has just barely recovered and I don't want to give an off-base report.  However, there are many tea festivals coming up and I can let you know about them.

As many of you know, the fall Tea and Coffee Festival was cancelled due to Sandy, but it is rescheduled for March 23-24 in NYC at the 69th Regiment Armory, 68 Lexington Ave.  If you go to their website before Jan 31, the tickets are half-price.  A good deal.  www.coffeeandteafestival.com/nyc

The second annual San Francisco International Tea Festival is March 10.

The World Tea Expo  is in June, in Las Vegas.  www.worldteaexpo.com  World Tea East will be in Atlanta in the fall.

There's one for the Northwest in Seattle in the fall.

Then there are the ones in Toronto,(February 2nd), Victoria, British Columbia, (February 9th) Ottowa in December and the First Flush Festival at the Charleston Tea Plantation in South Carolina, which is on May 19th.

Wouldn't it be fun to go to all of them?  If only there were "world enough and time."  Probably money, too.


I got out my old Fannie Farmer Cookbook to make something over the holidays. My grandmother gave it to me when I was about 13 - many years ago. It reminded me of our marriage. Stained, battered, underlined, given to falling open at certain passages, but still capable of producing wonderful things, a base for memorable times, sweetness in times of sorrow and difficulty, a steady diet of day-to-day goodness. Here’s to battered cookbooks and long marriages everywhere. In some countries, brides are given old spoons as a testament to the solidity of long marriages. I have two that have survived from our wedding, nearly 40 years ago. Maybe it is time to pass one on. 

There should be a tradition for passing on teapots.  What say, we start one.  Wouldn't that make a nice 13th birthday or graduation or wedding gift?  Although our children may be at ages to poo-poo tradition, passing it on is still a good thing.  Family traditions give us anchors in a crazy world.

Flu Fell

Dea Folks, I had hoped to be back long before this, but we have been felled by the flu.  Hopefully, return will be sooner rather than later.

Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

I am content - another new snow, new books, new teapot, new tea for Christmas - what more could I ask for?