Tea with Julia

This photo is of the Swiss mountains, near Darstetten in the Kanton of Bern, the hometown of my family. What you can't hear are the ringing of all the bells, large and small on all the animals - their sound fills the air with a constant lovely background.

I am a new blogger and this blog really is about tea. I've been reading a lot of blogs on the subject and thought I would add my 2 cups worth.

I was introduced to tea by my grandmothers, kind of gave it up in order to switch to the more "sophisticated" coffee in college. About 15 years ago I got serious about it and have had a great time ever since.

The blogger from Teavana reminded me that Julia Child would've been 97 today so naturally I had to raise a cup to her! After all, through her books and tv shows, she taught me to cook and perhaps more importently, to make light of mistakes - remember the dropped chicken? Julia was a spy during WWII, stationed on what is now the island of Sri Lanka, then known as Ceylon and the origin of Ceylon tea.

The only Ceylon I happened to have was Teas Etc. Ceylon OPI, which I had ordered as a sample. I wish I had some Kenilworth Estate, as that is where Julia was stationed. However, I made do. This is a pleasant tea - very dark dry leaves with an unremarkable but pleasant aroma. It brews up to a dark liquid, again nothing remarkable. The taste is the same, good but not great - the kind of tea to have for those folk who really are not adventurous. I will probably get some more to have on hand for days when I don't feel adventurous either.