Celebrations

I couldn't find my poppy pictures, so I am just showing this Italian church's roof brace.

I've been reading about various Halloween and Day of the Dead celebrations on various tea blogs and thought I would add something about our family's cemetery visits.  We lived in NYS so there was no Spanish or Mexican influences, but as children we cheerfully visited cemeteries for Memorial Day or funerals.   We always visited every single relative or old friend and my great-grandmother or grandmother would tell us kids how they were related, who they were named for, stories of their lives and times so we would remember them.  Many years later, I notice that we, in our turn, are telling our children and grands about Gramma and Grandpa Geores, Aunt Ettie, Gram Turnbull, Uncle Art and all the rest of the clan.  I think this is part of the reason I have never been afraid of death - there are all those loved ones and characters there, waiting for me, with stories to tell.

Now that the downed trees are gone and the tree men with them, the deer are back, all set to once again eat up the birdseed.  They look so sweet and innocent with their big ears and dainty feet, but there is evil in their hearts when it comes to black oil sunflower seed.

I've been back to the eye doctor and have only 1 more week of looking at my toes half the day!  Hooray and hooray!  He is very pleased with its healing and I am pleased to be able to see around the bubble that is holding up my retina.  I had best have a celebratory cup of tea, don't you think?  Being in a remembering mood, I am going to use the poppy china, which I got to remind me of the poppies along the railroads in Italy, as well as their enormous fields of bright red, wild poppies.

I am having the puriTea's Oriental Beauty or Bai Hao Oolong.  My  introduction to this tea, several years ago was so spectacularly good that it has been a favorite ever since.  The dry tea is quite pretty, with leaves touched with silver and gold along the edges and a scattering of gold buds.  It has a slightly sweet, somewhat woodsy scent.  As it brews for 3 minutes with water about 190, it gives off a lemony aroma, almost a tea rose, with the woodsiness.  The brew is a fairly dark yellow brown.  I've not been doing multiple infusions with any teas lately - when you only have a half-hour of upright time, it is too time consuming.  But I will get back to it.

Oh yes, this is a nice tea.  It tastes like lemon-kissed roses with perhaps some rose stem thrown in to ground it,  something in the woodsy end at any rate.  I can imagine this with some Indian dishes, especially their rice pudding or some of the milder curries.  I think it would go well with most tea sandwiches or desserts and probably with Mediterranean dishes as well.  Hmm, I would imagine it would compliment white chocolate, too.  We can't leave out chocolate, can we.

Oriental Beauty is a case for environmentally sound tea culture.  It is a lowly bug which gives it its characteristic taste.  The bugs (a form of leaf hopper) bites the leaves, the leaves produce an enzyme to thwart the bugs and we all benefit from the tea.  Pretty cool, huh?

Beauty in the Snow

Sleigh bells ring, are you listenin'? In the lane snow is glistenin'.


Just getting ready, it is supposed to snow, anywhere from flurries to dustings
to actual snow for the next 5 days.

My local chain - Weis Markets, has Christmas teas from Bigelow, Stash and Celestial Seasonings. Maybe yours does too. They are also carrying a line from Bigelow that is probiotic, anti-inflammatory and something else - three separate one. I got a couple Christmas teas for guests, but didn't feel like trying anything too new today.


Except, of course, some tea. Today's' cup is Teas Etc. "Oriental Beauty" Oriental Beauty was my introduction to Oolongs and I fell in love with it. I have never had any as good as that first batch, but I've had some good ones. This one smells like baking bread, in the dry leaf. The leaves are quite mixed, with some beige and silver, some long slender pieces and a few shaped like clover leaves. I just did this a little below boiling, for about 2 minutes. It came out a medium old gold in color and as soon as I sipped it I was struck by its full, round mouth feel. It smelled slightly spicey, and a little like corn silk. The main flavor was that of honey and clover, sweet but not at all sugary, with a touch of astringency at the end. The aftertaste was of sweet bland crackers, like perhaps Marie Bisquits. A very nice tea for a quiet afternoon and a rather different Oriental Beauty.

A Teacup Full

Monday, August 31, 2010

These cute little Italian trucks only have 3 wheels and are only

about 4'8" tall. Perfect for city driving in very narrow streets.

Autumn is surely coming. The champagne grapes - those tiny, tiny ones are in the stores, the Italian blue plums are in the farmers markets and the trees on the hills are shading from the deep pure green of summer into the yellow tinged colors of fall. However, summer is having one last hurrah this week with temperatures in the upper 80's and high 90's. A good time for indoor chores and iced tea. I have some waiting in the fridge - The Tea Table's It's Afternoon Somewhere, which I have reviewed before. First, the last of the hot tea for a bit.


I am a big fan of Oriental Beauty Tea. My problem is I haven't found any as good as the first one I tried and that company no longer caries it. I bought some from Life in Teacup - Oriental Beauty Superior Grade. The dry tea scent is nutty and floral, but sharp, too. The green and white leaves are large, with lots of buds. I brewed it just under boiling for about 1 minute for the first infusion and about 1.5 minutes for the second.

The first infusion was such a pretty color - a soft pale gold, like the dandelion jelly I just got at the farmers market. The tea seemed to be nutty and greenish tasting, thick feeling and somehow filling, if that makes any sense. There were hints of floral, but not enough to my taste. The second cup smelled like freshly ironed clothes and was more green tasting and somewhat astringent. Even though the slight floral note had disappeared, I liked it even better. This is a very nice tea. However, I am still searching for that early perfection.

A Very Good Day

Another Swiss view!

What a super-duper day! Not one but 5 really good things – perfect weather, warm and sunny but NOT hot and muggy; honoring a beloved friend; fresh local peas!; fresh local strawberries!! and someone else to cook supper. Oops, no 6 things. I got some samples from Aura Teas yesterday and one is on tap for today [as soon as I convert ccs to ounces and centigrade to Fahrenheit].


The second is really the best. Our friend Richard is a poet and a good one. He has been trying to get published, with no success. Another friend arranged for Richard's wife to spirit out her favorite poems and had them edited into a book, complete with preface, bio and ISBN number. Our group read his poems aloud and wished him very well on his birthday. He was speechless and very nearly in tears with JOY.

There are roadside markers, monuments and parks dedicated to war, but now there is a whole book born out of love. Truly a cause for celebration.


I am a big fan of buying as much stuff as locally as possible, so I frequent the local farmer's market. It is such a real treat to have good veggies and fruit. It tastes better, too. Today I taste tested 2 strawberries – one from California and one locally. The local one was softer, sweeter, richer. California wasn't bad, but it was nowhere near as good. An added bonus was the berries came from a farm that was wiped out in the big flood 4 years ago. I am glad they are back in business.


On to the tea, the reason for all this! I really earned it as I made muffins and bread and shelled a “mess of peas” for supper. This lovely Aura Tea is Formosa, Hsinchu, Baihao Oolong, Choice. I used 2 teaspoons to ¼ cup water – 120 cc, as the leaves were quite big, at 185 degrees for about 2 minutes. The loose leaves are quite dark and long, thin from being rolled, with a few more almost ball shaped. The first cup had a floral scent, with a very noticeable sharpness and almost a black currant smell. It brewed up a pleasant yellow tan. The taste was floral, but also nutty. It was very rounded but with some piquancy. The aftertaste was fruity. It was a real treat.


The second cup was about the same color, but the scent was much softer with almost a hazelnut edge, without the black currant. Unusually for an oolong, the second cup didn't strike me as being better than the first. It was much plainer, without many nuances. However, the aftertaste seemed to linger more and was, if anything, more pleasant. Aura Tea does it again! I really am a big fan of them, as I have not yet had any poor tea. Some I didn't care for, but that is just taste, not quality.