Monday, July 12, 2010

Up A Tree With Darjeeling

That's Vesuvius in the distance, dribbling a bit of smoke and haze.


We had our share of excitement this morning. A very nice beagle came visiting. Sadly, he thought our 2 youngest kitties were game and proceeded to tree them. As you can imagine, this was not appreciated by us and we chased him away. The kits didn't much like it either. However, they quickly came down and inside, please, please!

Yesterday I had a hard time picking an ice tea, but I read on another tea blog that Darjeeling is good iced. So I picked Arya Estate Second Flush Darjeeling from Thunderbolt, which I had purchased earlier this year. I reviewed this Mar. 28 and when I brewed it carefully, it was a delightful tea. I used about 9 teaspoons in about 1 1/2 quarts of water. I was going to brew it for about 5 hours, but it stretched into 7.

When I filtered out the leaves and tried it, I was quite pleased. It was a touch floral, with some astringency, and I could swear there was a tiny bit of smokiness, with some citrus notes. There was no bitterness nor too much tannin, just an all around good tea. My husband would consider it weak, but I, who like my tea strong, did not find that to be true.

I tried it with a bit of lemon juice and later, with a bit of orange and I must say, it was very tasty all three ways. You're on your own with sugar, I just can't stand sugar in my tea.

We are all waiting on tippy-toes for rain. The weatherman keeps promising, but there hasn't been more than a little action. I am hoping we'll get one of those really active thundershowers. I love to watch the lightening.

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