Sweet Citrus

The scones are all gone and I still would like a sweet for tea.  I have 4 very ripe nectarines, so I decided to make what I think is called a gallette.  It's a kind of rough-hewn tart.  I made some pastry in the Cuisinart, stuck it in the fridge, and then sliced up the nectarines and mixed them with some sugar and cardamom.  That done, I rolled out the pastry, put it in a pan, poured in the fruit and then folded the edges of the pastry up around it and baked it.  It's all very casual and doesn't take long.  It's ideal when you really don't have enough fruit for a real pie or tart. If you want to fancy it up, you could add a layer of pudding under the fruit.

I am enjoying another tea I saved specifically for ice tea.  Rishi Tea's Organic Green Tea - Orange Blossom.  In the summer, as long as it is ice tea, I don't mind flavors as, on the whole, I regard ice tea as just a cold drink.  Sad, but true.  This has osthmanthus flowers, lemongrass, lemon myrtle, rose flavoring,  jasmine flowers and aromatic citrus, i.e. essential oils.  All of these are organic.  It smells mostly lemony, but there is a definite fruity undertone.

Rishi even tells you how to make this the cold brew method - 4 tablespoons tea to a quart of water, 4 hours in the fridge.  It comes out very nicely, a very pleasant straw color.  It is vaguely sweet, with a somehow minty citrus flavor.  It seems to go with most foods and is certainly fine on it's own.  I find it quite refreshing.  I appreciate the fact that it is all organic.

Ravenna, Italy mosiacs.  A mere 1,000 years old and still shining.

The Russians Have Arrived

One of the things I find most annoying about aging is getting tired a whole lot sooner than I want to.  Last week was really busy getting ready for the plant sale and both last week and this week I have been planting, planting, planting, but yesterday, alas, yesterday, I was tired!  Drained!  Pooped!  Not even a large glass of ice tea helped, so you know it was serious.  So I didn't do anything.  I even got an entree out of the freezer (emergency rations) and added some leftover salads and called it supper.  Himself is always glad to eat whatever he gets, he's really easy to live with.

Today, however, I am back to what passes for normal and it's back to planting.  My aim is to have the flower beds so full the weeds won't even think about sprouting.  One of them is there already, so do I stop?  No, I extended the bed.  It's like collecting teapots or finding another new tea to try.  A sad affliction that makes me happy.

Some friends gave me some Czar Nikolas II green tea.   I promptly made some in the fridge.since I really like green ice tea.  I only use a little more than  for hot tea because  I don't like it strong and I don't add ice.  I was surprised that it smelled minty and then maybe like bergamot and aha! there it was on the package - natural and artificial flavors.  It is quite nice, if you like the somewhat heaviness of Russian tea.  The smell and the taste are about the same, but and this is a big but, you can actually taste the green tea as well.  This is a definite keeper.  You can get some from www.russianteacompany.com

Nature is providing us with lots to see.  The wild phlox is blooming, as are the white dog roses.  The buttercups are all over the backyard.  We've had 2 fox kits stroll through the back yard.  They have less red than their father.  The orioles are back and one of my day lilies is getting ready to bloom.  It's a new one, so I am excited to see it.  I have the garden all planted, but I still have to put up tomato cages.  On the down side, this has been a terrible season for pollen. 

Wed. I was looking up our communal back yards and thought there was either rain or mist coming this way - nope, pine pollen, spruce pollen, evergreen of some sort pollen.  Our black car is mostly golden.  Thankfully it's been raining yesterday and today and that has washed a lot of it out of the air.

The beautiful Amalfi coast.  I wouldn't mind living in one of these houses.

When Life Gives You Lemons...Make Tea

Oh dear.  Our church has been trying pretty successfully to become more contemporary in it's worship.  This means an increasing use of electronics.  Wouldn't you know, today when much was planned, much went wrong, from the internet refusing to function, to sick performers to.... you name it, it went wrong.  But folks trooped on and we all could see the lesson about who's really in charge.  Sometimes you just need to grin and bear it and tell the troopers thanks for being so willing to step up and carry on.

Today's tea has little to do with that, but it is a nod towards spring.  The weatherman says it will be warmer this week, so I am drinking some green tea today in the hopes of encouraging it.  It is Lemon Myrtle Green Tea from Foxfire Teas.  It contains organic lemon grass, lemon myrtle, natural rose oil and green tea.  The packet smells heavenly, of roses and lemons.  I brewed it for 4 minutes with 180 degree water.  The aroma was almost identical to the packet, rosey lemons.  It brews up a bright, soft orange, and tastes wonderful, of a soft, soft, gentle lemon with just the right touch of rose to round it off.  Very well done.

Lest you think I have lost my curmudgeonly streak - although this has a lovely taste and I really like it - where's the tea?  No taste of tea.  Ah well, picky, picky.

If you wanted to make this yourself,  lemon myrtle can be purchased from herb sellers and rose essential oils can be as well.  You can easily grow lemon grass in your home (if your cat doesn't eat it all).  Being lazy, I'll just buy the tea.  Lemon grass can also be used in cooking, especially Asian dishes.  If you can find some with roots still attached in an Asian store, grab them and plant them in a biggish pot, keeping it well-watered and sunned.

This is a canyon in the middle of Sorrento, Italy.  Under all that greenery are ancient, abandoned houses. 

Splish, Splash, I Was Having A Slush

I am getting ready to leave for vacation tomorrow.  Of course, I had to have an emergency tooth extraction, which ate up 2 days and it has been hot enough to fry eggs on the grass.  Thank God for ice tea.  Mine has been from DeVos Tea, www.devostea.com  .  It is Floral Green.  I put some in a tea sock, poured cold water over it in a glass pitcher and stuck it in the fridge for about 5 hours and voila! ice tea.  It is light and full of delicate floral taste and aroma, with a hint of vegetal.  So refreshing!

I also made a green tea slushy with some green tea, semi-frozen honeydew and simple syrup, quickly swirled together with some ice and some mint.  Yum, yum.  I am going to try cantalope with one of the fruity Oolongs.  At the moment, strawberries with a Darjeeling sounds good, too.

This is an orange tree.  Not just any orange tree, mind you, but one growing up through the floor of a second story restaurant in Sorrento, Italy.  I loved this eatery.  It is where I first discovered the wonders of roasted or grilled veggies.  I could have eaten just them every night we were there.


The wild orange daylilies are blooming and there is a great wide swath of them out on the main road. I am very fond of them.  My first daylily has bloomed, a lovely pale apricot.  I sprayed all of them with anti-deer spray.  Actually, a lot of my perennials are beginning to bloom, so our door yard is looking quite nice.  I have mixed in a number of herbs, as they can be quite attractive and give me lots of material for making herbal vinegars and oils.  My best one to date has been orange mint in white balsamic.  Delicate, sweet and delish!

See you again around July 1st.  The time is going too fast!

Just Peachy

I must have been thirsty when I was at the store.  I saw some Tazo Giant Peach Green Tea in bottles by the register and I just had to try it.  Especially since it was on sale.  I didn't even read the label.  When I got it home, I discovered it had sugar, apple juice, peach juice, natural peach flavor, concentrated peach juice, ginger juice and citric acid.  Goodness.  Oh yes, water and green tea.  Can't forget the tea.

In spite of all that, I stuck it in the fridge and I am now drinking it.  It is very tasty and I like it a lot.  However, I don't know how they can call this green tea.  There simply isn't any tea flavor, except for the very barest whisker, maybe, far off in the distance.  However, if you like peach juice that isn't overly sweet, this is lovely.

I have 2 pitchers of tea in the fridge preparing themselves for the evening.  One is a green from DeVos Tea, Fresh Flower, and the other is a blend of Assams for Himself.

I saw a lovely weaving of wildflowers today, wild phlox, daisies and buttercups had entwined themselves under a wild rose.

I am quite annoyed with the blue jays, they really are doing their greedy best to keep all the goodies I put out for themselves.  A poor little downy was trying to hop on the suet when the jay flew down and landed exactly where he was perched.

We certainly do have a nesting pair of rose-breasted grosbeaks.  They've been here about 2 weeks and they take turns coming to the feeders.  They are quiet birds who just sit and eat for a while and then fly off.  We have lots of goldfinches - this year, the males are so bright, you almost need sun glasses to look at them.

Out Master Gardener plant sale was Saturday and we made over $3,100.  This was all from plants we had donated.  That is amazing!  Worth all the hard work.  The money is used to fund the programs we do for the community, like the community garden, container garden kits, books for kids and so on.  Lots of things.

If you were the Austrio-Hungarian Emperor, you, too, could have a life size memorial like this in your church, including lions.

Cucumbers In The Rain

Pouring rain.  Gray skies.  Wet cats.  Tea to the rescue!

Tea Forte is ever expanding its line and I was gifted with one of the newbies.  It is Cucumber Mint  "green tea for youth recovery".  Gosh, I don't know if I really should, as I am pretty content being older.  Oh well, it can't really hurt.  Besides, it also has blueberries in it and antioxidants and its supposed to do something for my skin. All  that in one tiny teabag!

I use water at a near boil and steep it for three minutes.  It has a rather odd aroma of guess what - mint and blueberry!  I can't decide if I like it.  The tea is a bit odd as well.  At first, I really couldn't say what it tasted like, but then different aspects will come forth to be recognized, clearly cucumber or mint or the sharp/sweet of the fruit.  It's intriguing and I am definitely going to keep drinking it.  I am going to cool some and see how it will be as ice tea.

Some of the rhododendrons across the street are blooming, but a lot got frozen out, as did our lilacs, which is a great grief to me.  Our neighbors early rhodys got frozen into an ugly brown mess and it looks like the plants aren't doing well.  I think our currents and gooseberries managed to hit it right, as they seem to be producing some fruit.  Hopefully more than the six currents we got last year.  Elderberries are finally growing, but the rose seem to be in sad shape.  Sigh, weather can't be controlled, but gardeners live into hope.

A cheeseman at the farmers market in Bern, Switzerland.  Good stuff!

Marshmallow Vodka Drives Me to Drink! Tea, That Is

I have a new tea to try.  Fittingly, it is a green one - Sweet Roast Green Tea (Dark) from Mauna Kea Tea.  This is a tea grown and processed in Hawaii.  It is organic and specially selected to be low in caffeine.  Above is a picture of it.  You can see the leaves are chopped, flat, and green, with a brownish tinge, the result of roasting.  The idea is to stop just as the tea sweetens, but before it is as roasted as an Oolong.

This tea has quite a unique aroma, a cross between roasted meat and Cracker Jack Peanuts.  Now, there's a combo for you!  The company recommends using boiling water, with a 2 minute brew.  The smell has shifted to that of roasted corn or nuts.  I had this tea pretty hot and then let it cool.  I have to say I did not catch much sweetness.  Instead, to me it tasted as though it was almost, but not quite, burnt.  That is, just before you browned your nuts too much but caught them just in time.  Which I always hope to do.

I will be the first to admit I have trouble with a lot of green teas and I am not a fan of heavily roasted Oolongs.  So this may just be a personal thing I can't get past to say whether or not it is good on it's own.  If you are at all intrigued, in spite of me, I would suggest you order a sample and try it for yourself.


It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.  All my little seedlings are up and doing well.  Soon I will have to transfer them to larger pots.  The plants I brought in from their summer stay are beginning to look longingly towards trims and being out in the fresh air again.  Sadly, that's about 6 weeks off.  Especially since this spot is up a mountain and still quite chilly.

Okay, not tea related.  I was in the liquor store yesterday and there was a new flavor of Vodka - you'll never guess - marshmallow.  Ye Gods and little fishes!  I had to come home and have a whole pot of tea!

Welcome, Sunshine

We have been having a whole string of beautiful days.  Some were only half days, but around here, you celebrate sun.  Perhaps you could even say we appreciate it more because it is somewhat rare in winter.  In the summer, we often welcome a cloudy day that is little cooler.

Some tea news first of all.  Choice Teas has just introduced an organic Korean Green Tea.  It only comes in teabags at the moment.  They also have some other new ones - decaf green, chai, and rooibos chai.  All their teas are organic.  Their website is http://www.choicesorganicteas.com/  At just 4.99 for 16 teabags, this is a good way to try out some Korean tea.  Generally, it is prohibitively expensive.

Numi Tea has just gotten some awards for their organic teas and for their efforts at sustainability.  http://www.numitea.com/ .  I am pleased to see organic companies rewarded for their work in helping the planet and its people.

The New York Coffee and Tea Festival is taking place February 25-26 and there are lots of tea courses available to choose from.

The World Tea Expo, held in June in Las Vegas is 10 years old this year!  Wow, I didn't know that, it's heartwarming that tea has been that important for that long.  I'll have more information about it later on. 

I am having Dragonwell Imperial Reserve from Teavana today.  It is part of a swap I got from participating in the Tea Review Blog swap.  I thought it suitable for the celebration of the Lunar Year of the Dragon.  These lovely green leaves are so much fun.  They are long, slender and absolutely flat as they are generally hand-fired in woks.  They feel like silk as they run through my fingers.  These seem to give off a sweet aroma.  I am brewing them at about 170 for 2 minutes.  Wow, does this smell wonderful.  A cross between spring green and a sweet orchid.  It is a very pale green.  It tastes as good as it smells, delicate, sweet, spring grassy, a great way to welcome the new year in.

I drove by my neighbor farmer this week and spotted a flock of about 50 wild turkeys gleaning in his corn field.  My little downy woodpeckers are back at the suet feeder and last night I heard the owls calling to each other in the woods - it is mating season and I suppose all the gents were telling the ladies how wonderful they are.  I have been saving my yarn ends from my projects for the birds and soon I will string them through the bushes for them to use in their nests.  I also put out dryer lint for the same purpose.

This is another German ancester's church.  I guess they liked blue.  At some point they had a flood, which rose above the pulpit and up over the balcony.  I now understand what that is like.

Yaup, That's Tea

I was reading a mystery by Susan Wittig Albert, Mourning Gloria, and came across yaupon holly tea, aka ilex vomitoria.   As we can see from the Latin name for it, as well as the common name, it is part of the holly family.  The second part of the name indicates it has been used in the past as a purgative.  Ms Albert says that the leaves and twigs can be dried and used as tea, since it has caffeine in it, as an eye wash, a laxative and a purgative, depending on how strong you make it, and how much you drink.  She said nothing about the taste.  Wikipedia seems to think that the vomiting that was associated with this drink, as part of indigenous people's rituals, was actually learned behavior or caused by another drink.

This shrub can be grown in the Southeastern US.  Perhaps some of you have it growing in your gardens, as it is quite attractive.  If so, and you feel adventerous, try drying and brewing some.  Let us know so we can find out what it tastes like.  From several sources, other than Wikipedia, there seems to be a general consensus that it will not make one vomit.

I was waiting for a mammogram today and came across this quote in an O Magazine:  "True happiness is sustainable delight in the beautiful moments of everyday life."  That delight is a bulwark against sorrow, depression and the host of other things that can make our lives miserable.  Flowers, sunset, sunrise, animals, friends, clouds, light in the dark, cool shadows on a hot day, there are so many.  One certainly is drinking tea.  There is so much there to appreciate.  Warmth for both hands and tummy, scent and sight, a whole host of different tastes.  It is a wonderful gift.

My gift today comes from The Jasmine Pearl Tea Merchants http://www.thejasminepearl.com/  and was a gift, as it is a sample they included in my order for their wonderful t-shirt, "Pothead" - go check it out.  The tea is Jasmine Peony Organic Green Tea with jasmine blossoms.  It smells divine - very floral with the tiniest citrus hint.  The leaves are quite long, with lots of jasmine.  Because they are so long, I used a large teaspoon per cup with water about 180 degrees.  The JPT folks say to brew 3-4 minutes.  I did 3.  The leaves are very slow to unfurl, and don't dance around much as they do.  The liquor is a pretty pale yellow, with a very mellow jasmine aroma.

The taste is lovely, definitely jasmine, but neither too floral or too sweet, just mellow, as I mentioned. It is one of the few green teas I've had that is soft and sweet right to the end of a large cup, instead of getting bitter.

I liked this tea company's web site.  There was a lot of information about each tea and a good bit of educational information as well.  Also, a lot of their teas are organic, which I think is a big plus.

Part of the large central fountain in Durlach.  I think I was going to translate this information on the sign, but I haven't yet!

Branching Out

Hooray for snow.  Beautiful sparkly white stuff.  Hooray for tea to drink when it is cold.  My next wish is for it to stay cold so we can keep the snow.  Well, two wishes, because I would like the sun to hang around also.

Today I am having the last of the flavored green teas I got from Blue Raven Teas.  It is called Caladosai and is made from sencha (Japanese) green tea, dried cherries, lime, lemongrass and Asian spices.  I brewed it with water about 180, for 3 minutes.  The resulting liquor was a pretty pale pink and smelled mostly of star anise and the green-ness of the sencha.  That is just what it tasted like, as well, with the barest hint of fruit.  I thought the dried fruits were strawberries but as I chewed them it was clear they were not.  But they tasted good.  I don't think this blend worked particularly well, as the star anise pretty well carried the day.  It's a strong spice, brought out by heat and moisture.  I like it, but only in moderate amounts.  I think if I had made this in a pot, instead of just one cup, I would have liked it more, as the ingredients would've been able to blend better.

Driving around, seeing the tree branches, I have been noticing how the different trees put out their limbs.  I have been marveling at the many genetic codes that make one tree short, one a giant, one send out branches in a cork-screw pattern, another vase-shaped, another very round, that one an arrow, etc.  The trees that have grown apart from others have the room to be fully themselves and some are breathtaking in the beauty of the arrangement of their limbs.  I still miss my favorite pine that went down in the tornado last spring, it had lovely branches.

I need to find beauty in the winter, it is not as apparent as it is in summer.  Well, perhaps, it is a different sort of beauty, quieter, waiting to be seen instead of showing off.  One very bright sight was spotting the brilliant red berries of some deciduous holly.  Did you know that there is such a thing?  I just found out myself.  Even against brown and gray it really reaches out and grabs your eye.

What has been beautiful for you this winter?

One of the many, many medieval fountains preserved in Durlach, Germany.  Note the frog climbing up the side of the bowl.

Orange Blossoms and Strawberries

It's a flower day!

Oh boy, did I have some really nice tea today, part of the Wegman's stash. It is from Rishi Teas, Organic Green Orange Blossom. It contains sweet osthmanthus flowers (aka orange flowers), lemongrass and a host of other things in very small amounts. All of it is wild harvested and the tea comes from Hubei Province, China. There is even a small map for those of us whose Chinese geography is weak.


The tin is double sealed, with an inside lid. The dry tea is dark from the green tea and has lots of lemon grass and gold and white bits that I assume are the flowers. It has a strong sweet citrus scent with a tart edge to liven it. The directions call for 1 tablespoon per 8 oz. of water, at about 180 degrees. The pale gold liquid has a very citrussy scent, but the orange flowers are definitely there, along with perhaps a bit of rose or jasmine to soften it.


The captivating aroma carries right on into the actual liquid, which is delicious, light, citrussy, flowery, but not like perfume. This would be an excellent tea with sweets or to lure tea newbies into green tea. I am going to make it my next ice tea, as I think all the flavors will come through. I may put a drop of orange flower water in if it needs livening from the cold.


Speaking of which, if you have some strawberries that aren't quite flavorful enough, add a few drops of orange flower water. It enhances their fragrance, which in turn, kicks up the taste. A bit of rose water can do wonders as well, but I would rather add that to my pound cake.


I went to the farmers' market Friday and the first tomatoes are in! Oh, the sublime taste of a fresh summer tomato. They are so early because the farmer grafts seedlings onto old roots and then performs magic. But there were nice green ones for fried green tomatoes and cherries for pie. I also got some beet greens, with tiny beets attached. I was thinking that tiny beets and mandarin oranges with tiny spring greens would make a stunning small composed salad for a tea party course, with a few toasted pine nuts and a crumble or two of a mild cheese.

Spring Has Sprung!

I must say, if I was using green tea to urge Spring into springing forth, I must have overdone it just a tad. Yesterday was cool, bordering on cold, gray, grim, rainy. Today it has just skipped right past warm and gone to hot - 72 and still climbing. In summer time, this would be pleasant, but my body isn't quite ready for it. I even made some ice tea from some rosy Earl Grey I had.


I am slowly working my way through the tea cupboard. I finally got smart and put them in order by company and got them out where I will see and try them again to see if they are compost, giveaways or keepers. A giveaway isn't bad, it's just not to my taste.


Today I am having a green tea again, because it is hot and this is a lighter tea. It is one of the samples I got from the puriTea - Emerald Needle Green. The dry leaves are indeed a fresh green and quite long. I expected them to be rolled into long thin needles, but they weren't. I brewed them for about 2minutes with 170 degree water. The resulting tea was very, very pale, with almost no discernible scent. I couldn't really detect any taste, so I tried 3 minutes - still not much I had to push the leaves to 5 minutes and still there was not much there. A hint of green, a bit of vegetal, just not much. I think I will mix it with something else and make ice tea with it. I really like green ice tea, much more than most black teas. I often find that where they fail hot, they really shine cold. I have often found the opposite to be true of black teas, they often are heavy and overbearing cold, whereas hot, they are sturdy and comforting.

How about you - what is you experience with ice tea versus hot? By the way, I almost always do mine as a cold brew where I put about 10 teaspoons of tea in my pitcher, add cold water and stick it in the fridge. It suits my exceedingly lazy nature.


The Japanese tea harvest is in full swing, but power outages and overly careful government bans may cause this tea to be late in arrival and very expensive.

Several companies, such as Harney and Sons, are putting out teas for the Royal Wedding - I hope you got yours if that is your interest. Once again, it was either more tea or keeping the husband and as usual, he won. LOL

How are you celebrating THE wedding? I think if I manage to be awake enough to watch, that will be a celebration for me. I know many of you are having tea parties that morning - have fun. I could never do that - it takes me 2 hours just to be awake. The thought of having to cook and play hostess in the early morning just wears me right out. Now if it were 11 pm, it would be fine, since I am a night owl.

St. Peter's church in Bacharach, Germany. I like how they are restoring it to its original colors. I also think the stairway is lovely.

Okay, even I will admit we really are in Spring. Kids are riding their bikes, I did some cleaning up in the garden and I went to Agway (farm and garden) and spent beaucoup bucks on seeds, bulbs, potting soil, the whole shebang. I planted my saved forever tomato seeds and I am good to go. We have saved these seeds, which we call Peter's tomatoes after a friend of a friend, for over 30 years. They are so good, a type of Polish Paste, big, long, meaty. We have only saved seeds from the sweetest and tastiest. Now we need to work on making them more prolific. I also have some cherry tomato seed that I really like.

I celebrated with some Oasis from Tea Forte. This is a mix of green tea, spring flowers and citrus. I brewed it for about 2.4 minutes with 180 degree water and it is citrussy, but very pleasantly so. The liquor is a pale gold and is slightly sweet, with a mild citrus flavor that is well-undergirded with the green tea. Altogether a very pleasant and successful blend. By which I mean you can taste the tea as well as the flavoring. I really don't like tea that only tastes like flavoring. I don't see the point of drinking it.

A Tribute Tea

The old organ in the Vienna Cathedral, one of the truly beautiful churches of the world.


My Faith is restored! Well, sort of. In weathermen, that is. For today. They said we'd get 8" of snow. Well, we've rounded that turn and are headed for 10. Let's see, that's 15" of new snow this week. After a teaser of Spring. Good thing I am not a tea farmer.





Speaking of which, I know many people are buying tea plants or seeds. This is a fun thing to do and perhaps to harvest enough for at least a cup or maybe even a pot. You need to know what varietal it is though, because the ones that are Camellia sinensis assamica were developed for the hot humid areas of Assam. Those tender darlings need to come when the temperature goes below 50 degrees! Not for me, I would never remember and I would have to make tea popsicles. If you're a northerner, try to get Camellia sinensis sinensis.





I had some really nice tea today. I got it from Life in Teacup and it is called JiangXi Tribute Tea. This comes from the Jian Xi area of Wuyan province. It is different from any green tea I've seen in that it is the softest grey green, gently twisted. It has been lightly stir-fried to kill enzymes as part of the drying process. This is called Chao Qing. The dry tea has very little aroma, as does the brewing tea. What there is is fresh, green, maybe the barest hint of sweet.





The taste is equally as delicate, especially in the initial brewing, with 170 degrees water for just a minute. The second, still at a minute, was stronger but still delicate. The third was about 1.5 minutes and was yet stronger. All tasted to me of perhaps what new Spring greenery would taste like - fresh, young, full of promise. I can easily see why this would be a tribute tea. If I were giving it to a friend, I would feel I had certainly given my best.

Pumpkins With Coyotes

Yesterday was Summer, today is definitely Autumn, wind, cold,but blue skies and sun.

Last night was sort of disturbing. I think I've mentioned we have coyotes around us. Well, last night they sounded like they were right in our yard, there was so much loud yipping, howling and growling. Of course, one of our cats was out and I was very concerned about him. Especially at 4 am when it sounded like something was being killed right under my bedroom window. So, I leapt up, turned on all the outside lights and saw nothing, but I could still hear one coyote howling and growling nearby. Scary. Mr Andy, the absent cat, strolled in this am, nonchalant as could be. I was glad to see him, but I warned him about night excursions.

Two short reviews today. One from Hankook Korean Tea - Green Tea with Persimmon. It smelled almost minty with woodsy overtones as it was brewing - too small a sample in the packet. When it finished the infusion looked like old gold and smelled of hot metal, with medicinal touches, which is just how it tasted, no matter what I did with it. I did not care for it. I think it must have been persimmon leaves, as I assume the fruit would be, well, fruity and sweet.

The second is from Bigelow's and is their Autumn offering - Pumpkin Spice. The name says it all. It smells nice and spicy and full of pumpkin. I let it brew for 4 minutes and it was lovely. I added cream, but no sugar, as I thought it was sweet enough. However, I thought it would be a bit fuller tasting with some sugar, so I added some and it was. The box says you can make this as an ice tea, but that just doesn't appeal to me. It's a nice treat and could serve as dessert if you want to be careful with calories.

Tea from Korea

I was fascinated by the many types of church steeples we saw.
This one was in Austria on the way to Zurich.


A new friend, who is Korean, stopped in yesterday and we shared a cup of tea from samples I was sent from the Hankook Korean Tea Company, www.GoodGreenTea.net . I received 4 samples, 2 green, a persimmon and an Oolong. We tried the green one labeled Teuk Seon. There was only enough for one cup, which I brewed at about 160 degrees for 2 minutes. Neither of us was really taken with the taste, although Mae liked it better than I. To me, it tasted and smelled sort of seaweedy. However, hours later I finished it and cold, it was very flavorful, a nice combination of earthy and floral. I doubt I will be purchasing any. At $90 for 2 ounces, it is way beyond my price range.

Mae told me this is typical of Korean tea, that only the first plucking is considered good enough for tea and much of it is exported to Japan. She had lived in Japan for quite a while and said that Korean tea there was even more expensive than what comes into the US. She said most Koreans drank barley tea or corn tea or teas they made themselves from things in the garden, like mint or chamomile. Unless one was very wealthy, green tea was just too expensive. Mae told me the persimmon tea was something easily made at home and generally used for medicine, as it was quite bitter.

It has been very lovely here in the early morning and early evening. Across the road, the sun shines on the field of goldenrod and it is just brilliant through the dark trees of the spinney. At night, the sun is gone from our yard, but still shines in the swale beyond our thin strip of trees and again, there is that bright gold through the dark tree trunks.

Skipping around a bit, we'll now go to the Assam region of India, where many small landholders are newly growing tea and forming associations to market and manufacture their tea. They currently receive little if any help from the government, but it is promised to them and they hope for it so they can be more organized and earn more from their mini- estates. About 25% of Assam tea comes from these small farms. [Excerpted from Darjeeling Tea News]

This is the heading over the oldest organ in Stephansdom, the Cathedral in
Vienna. The Cathedral is so large that it holds 7 thousand people for the
Christmas Eve mass!

I am getting to the end of my stash of Boston Tea Company Tea. Only a few more to go. One of them is a nice little package of Bentley's Oriental Treasure Green Tea and 6 clover honey "spoons". They look like spoons, but are more like honey lollipops. The tea was bagged and there were only six. I brewed them up at 180 degrees for 2.5 minutes. There wasn't a whole lot of smell and sadly, there wasn't a lot of taste. Using the honey spoon brought out a floral taste, but I'm not sure how much of that was the honey and not the tea.


A different sort of tea bag tea from Boston was their Earl Grey, which contained a blend of Chinese and Indian tea, along with the Bergamot that makes the Earl, the Earl. Right out of the packet, it smelled really nice - a delightful floral bergamot. I brewed it for about 3 minutes and was very pleased. I think it was an excellent balance of decent tea and flavoring.





I read a small book I bought a while ago and would like to recommend it. It is Tea Time Journeys by Gail Greco, part of the Little B&B Cookbook Series. It is a small book but it is filled with fairly easy to make treats from a number of Bed and Breakfast houses. From Rose Petal Scones to Sundried Tomato Pate the food looked like lovely stuff to try for your next tea party. A longer while ago a number of people I worked with went to B&B sites for recipes and I have to say that the food was really good, creative and quick. If people will only be with you for one meal, you definitely want to wow them. I found that number of these recipes in the book had a good wow factor. Happy cooking. By the way, if you are looking for the books or cook books, a good source is http://www.alibris.com/. Lots of them are pretty cheap, too.

Blackcaps and green tea

A tiny church in the German hinterlands - snazzy pulpit, though.

We were at our old house today and picked the black raspberries we planted last year - so tasty. I hated leaving them behind. We have started so many gardens over the year and seen few of them come to any sort of maturity. I don't know if I have the heart to do much here.


Aura Tea sent me some samples a bit ago and I am trying another one today. It is a green tea from Formosa – much more well known for its Oolongs. It is called Sanxia Biluchun, the last part of which I think means Green Snail Spring. The instructions say to use 2 teaspoons to ¼ cup water at 175degrees. I know that sounds odd – it did to me also, but the leaves are huge; long, twisted, dark green. I brewed it for about 2 minutes the first time. The dry tea has a slight vegetal scent. As the tea brews, the aroma is almost overpoweringly cooked beet greens mixed with asparagus, not pleasant and I wondered if I would have to hold my nose to drink it! However, the tea with the leaves removed was much more pleasant to the nose and the taste was ok, too. It really did not appeal to me, as there was too much of the cooked veggie taste, the first time around. The second time, it was somewhat bitter to add to the fun and I liked it even less.

I am not much of a green tea drinker and those I do like tend to be floral or only somewhat vegetal, so I cannot tell if this just wasn't a top-notch tea or if I brewed it incorrectly or just plain ole me.