Monday, November 9, 2009

Lavender Fields Forever

Today is a wonderfull gift. It is warm - up in the 60's, which is
certainly unusual for around here in November - and an almost
shirt-tail cousin dropped in and we had a good gab about our mutual Swiss ancestors. One of his friends over there said that the
difference between our two countries is their society is based on trust and ours is based on mistrust. Sadly, I can see his point. However, on to happier things, like tea.


I’ve said before that I really love lavender. It has a lovely scent, some of the plants are really beautiful and it has remarkable calming properties, often used to help people sleep. There are at least 2 major groupings of scent, one that is more along the camphorous line and one that is sweetly floral. The latter is used in perfumes, oils and in cooking.


All this is in preface to tasting Lavender Dreams from Teavana, part of my winnings in a drawing. It is a white tea blended with Lavender, candied violets and flavoring. The dry tea is quite pale, with a few brighter touches of the violets, making it a very girly tea. The scent is delicate, reminding me of old lavender sachets. I brewed it at about 170 for just a few minutes. As one might expect, it had a very delicate, but very pleasant lavender taste. I could discern no hint of the white tea base and I am not sure it mattered, as it was not the best of whites, which are made only from the unopened bud. It is a very nice gentle tea, to serve to your best friend on a cozy afternoon, perhaps with tiny scones and some Devonshire cream.

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