Autumnal Teas

Ah yes, summer is fading and fall is coming in.  The night insects are different, louder and more insistent.  Crickets  are making a lot of noise and soon, I expect one or two to come in.  The huge yellow striped garden spiders, the Black and Yellow Argiope, are weaving their nets over everything.  They are harmless unless seriously threatened and quite beautiful.  Ragweed and golden rod are more heavily blooming than I remember seeing.  Not good for those allergic to ragweed, like my poor husband.  Some poor unfortunates are also allergic to golden rod, which is very rare, so they are suffering a double whammy.

I guess it is time to think of fall teas.  I am not a fan of flavored teas, but I know many of you are.  Harney's has African Autumn, a blend of Rooibos, Cranberry and Orange.  They also have Cranberry Autumn and Boston Teas.  If you prefer spicier offerings, they have Cinnamon Spice and Indian Spice.  The only one I have had is Cranberry Autumn and I thought it was very good.

Simpson and Vail has a really nice one, Nutcracker, with chocolate, mint, cinnamon, cranberries and orange.  Good enough to eat?  Here's one that sounds like it - Pumpkin Pie Black Tea.  I really prefer my pie on the side, with some cheddar or ice cream.  If cranberries are your thing, you're in luck here, as they have 4 or 5 teas with cranberries in them.  To go with, there are a lot of scones, cookies and spreads with an autumn theme.

Celestial Seasonings has come out with Sweet Harvest Pumpkin, in addition to it's Christmas teas.  Gingerbread Spice is one that would be tasty now if  you prefer  no caffeine.  You can buy these on line if you are afraid of not catching them in the grocery stores,  I know their shelf life is really short as the holidays get closer.  Just go to their site - www.celestialseasonings.com and order.

Personally, what I am waiting for are the autumnal Darjeelings to arrive, as they are my favorites.  They are somewhat heartier than the earlier ones and I like them.   The autumnal Oolongs from Taiwan are teas I've not tried and I am intending to do that this year.

What are some of the autumnal teas you like?

Some more early masonry, these from a monastery garden and probably several hundred years older than the High Gothic of the last blog.  Simple is also beautiful.

Life Is Bursting Out All Over

Piers in Sorrento, Italy

Yesterday was just so perfect - warm, but not hot, sunny, a small breeze. We went on a boat trip to celebrate a friend's birthday. While it was infinitely pleasant on the river, the trip was just as much improved by the sighting of a Bald Eagle and its eaglet, which is about as big as the parents. We also saw a Great Blue Heron, winging its way back to the rookery west of us.

All of our woodpeckers - the Red-bellied, the Hairy and the Downy have brought their children to the suet feeders. The little Downy fledgling seems the quickest to catch on about feeding himself. I feel very priveleged to be close enough to witness all this.

In the flower department, the double peach hibiscus is blooming and in the grocery store I saw a new orchid. It is called Blue Diamond and the individual blooms are about 5" across, white, streaked with blue, as if it had sucked up colored water. The center, where the stamens and pistol are is very dark blue with touches of an orangey red. It was quite spectacular, but looked like a fake flower. At $40 a pot, I didn't buy one and, hence, have lived to tell about it.

We had a very nice ice tea with our birthday cake yesterday, an herbal raspberry from Celestial Seasonings. A pleasant, mild flavor, lightly sweetened with Stevia. I can't really say it was all that much of a raspberry flavor, although you could tell it was a berry. It seemed just perfect for the sort of day it was and much appreciated. Although I am enamored of what might be considered the heavier black teas, I find that in the summer I really like my ice tea made from green, oolong or herbals.

Back to the Blog!

Hello Tea Friends

I am back, but for a while it will be about 3 days a week. The anesthesia seems to have fried some of my brain circuits. Otherwise, I am doing well, almost no pain at all, just much too slow for someone used to zooming around, both mentally and physically.

One of the things I really like about tea is that it so many things all at once - comforting, warming, cooling, homey, exotic. Today I was storing my order from Thunderbolt Teas and I just felt exotic. All those strange little packages from half a world away, conjuring up elephants and tigers, oh my. And the neat rows of tea bushes, with women in beautiful, graceful saris, chattering away in an unknown dialect. It's warm there, too, as I look out on the falling snow and rather bleak landscape. I guess I had best have some tea. My brain is not yet up for too much thought on tea, so I won't have this lovely Darjeeling yet, but I will have something to conjure up those lovely gardens.

I don't usually buy decaf tea, but I got some in a tea swap and it sounded good, so I had some Celestial Seasonings Decaf Indian Spice Chai. It smelled lovely in the bag and certainly looked good. I have a new Panasonic hot pot, so I brewed it at 208 for about 5 minutes, I think. I got distracted, so who really knows. It has a very pleasant mild spice scent and I think the mix of spices is right on target, with nothing standing out, except for a bit more of a mildly heavy bottom note I wasn't sure of. There was a sense of chocolate, but no pepper. I found it to be nicely warming all the way down. I may actually have to buy some of this. I often mix my own spices and tea for chai, but this would be so convenient and I know I can get it right here in the village.

We have not one, but 3 little shops that carry teas. One has a small loose leaf and Celestial Seasonings selection, one has Republic of Tea and the other has PG Tips, so I am fixed for tea bags. The Library often has odd tea selections for our book group, so I can practically never leave home without some being handy.

Let's have a nice cuppa tea

How about a cuppa of celery? I'll bet the vast majority of us don't think about celery much. We all have it in the fridge and we use it to add crunch to things or as one of those veggies that add some flavor to a sauce or stuffing, along with many others. It's one of those standbys with dips or to make us feel full when we are on a diet. A few of us may braise it as a vegetable on its own, but that's about the extent of its use. Certainly no one drinks it!

Well, that has changed. A group of us from the Association of Tea Bloggers heard about a study of green tea flavors and with Jason Walker leading, we decided to try 10 of the flavors and blog about them. Last week, Katrina from Tea Pages blogged about asparagus. This week I did celery.

I used McCormack's Celery Flakes, 1.5 grams – about a teaspoon to 8 ounces of water at 212 degrees, brewed for three minutes, then strained into a cup. Just as I would do a cup of tea. Meanwhile, I set up 5 green teas I had on hand to compare with it. I brewed them all according to their particular needs – on average 1 teaspoon for about 2 minutes at 170 degrees. One, Celestial Seasonings Authentic Green tea, I brewed a little longer. The other 4 were: Twinings Gunpowder Green; Teavana's Dao Ren Mao Feng Green; Andrews and Dunham Dragonwell and Special Teas China Fine Lung Ching.

The way I tested them was to have a big sip of celery, wait a little bit and then have a sip of tea, to make sure I remembered the taste of celery. One thing I discovered is that celery flakes treated like tea are actually pretty good. By the time I finished the cup of celery I was surprised to find all sorts of nuances in it and really beginning to appreciate it! It was all very very interesting.

Of the five, only two teas had any celery taste. Andrews and Dunham had the merest hint and Teavana's Dao Ren Mao Feng had a definite hint. At the end, I decided to put all the teas together in one pot, minus the celery tea. It was a pleasant brew, but the biggest surprise was, it had a real hit of celery. Not overwhelmingly so and I may not have noticed it if I weren't doing this experiment, but definitely there.

Being pretty new to green teas, I am very glad to have done this – the whole experiment is opening up a new world to me.

http://teapages.blogspot.com/
http://www.walkerteareview.com/

Bali Calling

I have a bunch of teas I keep for my die-hard teabag friends and I thought I would try some over the next few weeks. I need to know if they’re swill and should go out with the compost or if I can keep serving them. I kind of like Roastaroma, it’s pleasant and nostalgic, as I said.

Today I tried another Celestial Seasoning offer, Bali Black Raspberry. Black raspberries are my favorite summer fruit, along with regular raspberries. I have always enjoyed Celestial's packaging and the sayings they include. They are very colorful and relate well to the tea inside. This tea has the ubiquitous hibiscus, blackberry leaves, black raspberries, natural flavorings and raspberries. I have never understood the inclusion of blackberry or raspberry leaves. I’ll ask Celestial and see what they say.

The dry leaves give off a definite black raspberry smell, which is pleasant and of course, fruity. Unfortunately, for my taste, the flavor was too much, coming across as soapy or perhaps what perfume might taste like. I am, as you know, not a fruit tea person, so that is a factor. Mulch pile. It is too bad, as I love the smell.

No, I’ll put it in the potpourri I am making.

As you know. or should, if you don't, tea absorbs scents and flavors easily, which is why we are aways encouraged to keep them in airtight, light restricting containers. The best are either the foil packets they sometimes come in, metal or pottery canisters. Please, please don't put them in plastic. Over time they will absorb any odor or flavor present and taste awful.

Nostalgia with Roastaroma

I have made an interesting discovery with regards to tea. I have been observing myself and my appreciation of teas and the nuances I sense in them. On the days that I really relax with my tea, when I give it my full attention, I appreciate it more, I seem to find more in it, the subtleties come out more, and the whole experience just takes on added depth. Now the trick will be to actually slow down and give myself over to taking tea.

Having said that, I have to admit Tuesdays are kind of a whirl and I usually just have coffee, my husband’s drink of choice, and what’s available at the all morning meeting we go to. The alternative there is some really old teabags. Morning is not a time for me to make tea, as it would likely end up on the floor, unless I have the time to really think about what I am doing.

When I came home today I wanted neither coffee nor tea, but I spied the box of Celestial Seasonings Roastaroma that I had bought in a fit of nostalgia. It seemed just the thing. For many of us on the edges of the Hippie movement of the late 60s and early 70s, brews like Roastaroma can call up the whole natural foods, natural way of life, free love, etc time. It was coffee for those who really wanted coffee but didn’t drink it because of the principles of the movement – coffee was way too establishment. It basically allowed us to pretend we were hipper than we were.

Today, the very scent of Roastaroma takes me back to the health food stores and restaurants of Ann Arbor, Michigan, where that phase of my life ended. Roastaroma is an herbal brew of roasted chicory, barley and carob, spiced with cinnamon, all spice and Chinese star anise. Roasted chicory and barley are often used as coffee substitutes or additions. The tisane is brewed one hefty [5gm] bag per cup for 4-6 minutes in boiling water. I did 5. As you might expect, it is a warm, spicy, roasty, toasty flavor. It is not subtle, it tastes just like its ingredients. A little harsh, a little strong, plenty sweet on its own and it is very agreeable over all.

Just a reminder, herb “teas” are not tea, as they do not come from the Camellia Sinensis bush. They are rightfully called “tisanes” to save on confusion. Most tea merchants who carry them do call them herbal teas because they have been known as that for a long time and who would want to be frou-frou enough to call them tisanes?

That lovely bush is a 5 foot tall rosemary bush in southern Italy. I am soooooooo jealous. If mine make it to 18 inches and live I think I am a master gardener.