More Wineing

I love ice wine.  One of our local vineyards does a lovely one that is even affordable if you buy it at the vineyard.  I got a number of wine infused teas from SBS Tea and today I am having Ice Wine sachets.  This is a black tea blended with some white with added Ontario (Canada) Ice Wine, and freeze dried grapes.  The dry scent is faint.  The leaves are large and I can discern some grapes in the mix.  The sachet is one of those big pyramid ones and it fills right up as the tea brews for 3 minutes with water just off the boil.

The liquor is a very dark brown with a warm sweet aroma that reminds me of good grape candy.  The taste seems to be more grapey than winey and comes with a bit of an earth tone at the end.  I liked it, but it would not be a favorite.  I like more wine and less grape. 

Ice wine is very sweet and generally expensive, as it not only requires extra work, but is a real gamble.  You have to leave the grapes on the vine until they begin to wither, which pushes up the sugar content and then they have to freeze on the vine.  Iffy, at best and not something that occurs every year.  All farming, whether it is wine or tea, is a huge gamble and subject to Mother Nature.

The goldfinches are beginning to turn yellow again,  which makes for a cheerful sight.  They also sing very sweetly.  I think I heard a meadowlark yesterday, so the birds are thinking it is Spring.  I hope we don't get one of those really awful March blizzards.

A closeup of the tower in yesterday's blog.

Plummy Tea

I know I put this up before, but this is a tea wheel, I wish I knew which teas were in it.

Tea made it into the New York Times again. Twinings is changing its Earl Gray Blend!  It’s never been my all time favorite, but they changed my favorite Prince of Wales which I don’t even buy any more. Dasterdly behavior. They should be horse whipped! But maybe I’ll get some when it reaches the US and see how it is. My preference is Upton’s - my blend of their Devonshire and Blue Flower. Then comes Simpson and Vail’s Victorian Earl Gray.




I wish the Times would publish some real tea news, like the World Tea East. I am so psyched about going. I have a notebook with the things I particularly want to catch. When I return, I shall blather on and on , stopping only for tea - hopefully, I will be able to get some new things there.



Non-tea news : Our local grocery store is now in the big time - refrigerated cat and dog food, just like they show on TV. I am afraid our poor kitties will have to make do. At about $2.50 for a meal, “let them eat cake” as Marie Antoinette supposedly said.



It is a dreary day, but good for new plantings as the cold rain slides down over my windows. Today is a flavored tea day and one I thought I would like more than I did. Isn’t that a downer of an introduction? Any way, the tea is Ice Wine from Blue Raven Teas, a black one. The leaves are large and darkly twisted, giving off a winey, fruity aroma. I brewed it for 3.5 minutes at boiling. The resulting brew was a very dark red, with a somewhat odd smell, kind of a mix of almond paste, grapes and raisins.  Next time, I think 3 minutes would suffice.



I was expecting a light sweet ice wine taste. I have only had this lovely wine three times and it is absolutely wonderful stuff, a real dessert wine. What I got in my cup was not it, so I was hesitant to praise it. I finally realized it tasted just like Chinese plum wine, which is also sweet, but not delicate. If it had been billed as that, I would’ve been perfectly happy and said the blender did a good job. An ice wine, it wasn’t.

Icy Day, Warm Ice Wine

It's really Tuesday.



I am feeling very spiffy today. My narcissi are in bloom! They are filling the house with their lovely heady scent. I always feel so darn smart when something I do for the first time works. Even if it is a no brainer like sticking some bulbs in dirt and watering them once in a while, or making a recipe that really works. I am doing an amaryllis this year, too, so I will really be hot stuff, don't you think?





I found the neatest idea on the chat group Afternoon Tea Across America. It is a tea Advent calendar. Go here - http://amzn.to/hcoRmG to see it and maybe adapt the idea for yourself. Wouldn't it be a really neat gift for next year for a tea-loving friend? Especially one who has everything. One you could make yourself. I certainly have enough kinds of tea to do it. Now if I can just remember to do it!!!!





Oh snow! Beautiful snow! We have snow! About 3-4 inches. People are driving stupidly and there are smash-ups. Snow driving really is differerent and there's always someone who either doesn't realize it or thinks they are somehow different. After the first snow fall I always find a safe place to throw my car into a skid, so I can remembe how to recover from one safely, as it is counter intuitive. Our new to us car is all wheel drive, so I better read up on it first. I love snow. I love the silence it first creates, the patterns on the porch screens, the scent, the taste, I don't even mind shoveling the first few times. That last pleasure does dim, however, when there is just too much and then I am in favor of just stomping out a path.





I think today would be a perfect day to try some Ice Wine Tea I received from Stepanie over at Steph's Cup of Tea.

Okay, I never did get to that tea, so I am trying again today. Sometimes life interferes with tea drinking, much to my annoyance. On the plus side, I got all the specialty items for holiday entertainment and a bunch of Christmas presents, so I don't need to go near the malls again until after Christmas. I don't mind shopping, but I hate the crowds and the noise and the traffic and the people who are so harassed and unpleasant. A lot of my presents this year are going to be specialty breads, cakes and cookies. If you're not a baker or you're overwhelmed at Christmas, what could be better? I'd like that as a present, myself.

Ice Wine Tea. Neat Concept. Ice Wine is made from grapes that have frozen on the vine, which concentrates the sugars, producing a sweet, but acidic dessert wine. It is a very chancey operation as the grapes have to be perfect, almost over ripe and ice wine is a rare treat.

This dry tea smells intensely of rich deep berries or grape mash, waiting to ferment. I brewed it as I usually do for a black tea - 3,5 minutes with boiling water. If anything, the aroma intensifies as it brews. The tea is a pretty pale amber. What a great taste - like ice wine, sweet and full and deep! It reminds me of some of the better Keemuns, mixed with one of the muscatel Darjeelings. Very very tasty. It also reminds of the autumns in college when I picked grapes for Great Western and Taylor Wine Companies, on the shores of Keuka Lake in the FingerLakes of New York. Thank you, Steph!