Across the Sea to Japan

Back to the Swiss mountains today.

It's another beautiful day in the neighborhood.  I am going out later to finish some garden cleanup - the chrysanthemums are finally done.  The Sunday after Thanksgiving, I will put up some Christmas decorations on the lamp post and door.  It may not be much.  5 weeks of doing very little has let my house get overrun with stuff and an urgent need to be dusted.

Are you ready for Thanksgiving?  I have my menu set, except for how many desserts I want to do.  We are having 5-6 friends come and they all have their orders on what to bring and how much work they have to do - at least the overnighters.  I still have this bubble in my eye and sometimes it just seems like an overwhelming interference, although my vision improves almost daily.  Sadly, there will be no tea at the meal, as they are all a bunch of super dedicated coffee people who refuse to drink tea.  Bunch of weenies.  However, I do have some very nice coffee from Gimmee Coffee and we'll have that.

At the moment I am kind of bored with black and Oolong teas, so I am having some green tea.  I got it at Wegman's and it is from Japan, Ureshino Tama Ryokucha Tea.  The instructions are to brew 1 teaspoon per cup for 1-1.5 minutes in waterat 175-190.  I follow these directions, as I am not a regular Japanese tea drinker.  However, the first cup brewed for 5 minutes because I forgot to turn on the timer.  It looked and smelled awful, so I threw it out.

The next cup I did properly.  The dry leaves looked like very fine grass clippings, only a much darker green.  They smelled like a cross between hay and dry seaweed.  The brewed liquor was a pretty yellow green, smelling very vegetal with a whiff of seaweed.  It has a full mouth feel, with a small hit of astringency.  To me, it has something of a muddled taste.  I don't want to say it tastes like seaweed, but it reminds me of it.  There is something in it that reminds me of kale or other strong green leafy veggies.  That's as good as I can do.  It is not a delicate tea.

The only references I can find to this tea are on a Czech site and it says it is made in the style of Chinese tea, but the picture looks nothing like the tea I bought as theirs is slightly snail shaped.  Urishino is a town in Japan.

Tea With Tiny Tyrants

This is a scene from the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas last spring that we will see repeated in just a few weeks in Philadelphia at the World Tea East.  MarketSpice is one of the many vendors who will be there showing off their wares.  Can you tell I am excited to be going?  I am like one of those wind-up dolls you can't turn off. The photo is by Albert Chau.

Even so, this is a big deal.  So many of the larger tea events have taken place out West, especially in areas like Seattle, Portland and San Francisco that it is exciting to have this be in the East again.  It is an affordable journey for many of us and an affordable business expense for the small business owner.

It was incredibly beautiful out back last night.  The sky was a luminous silver tinged with gold and there was a mist behind the green/black of the trees, all seen through a silver sheen of rain.  A moment in time, gone in less than a minute, when it all became just regular.

All you fans of Laura Childs’ teashop mystery series now have a tea to go with at least one of her books (Blood Orange Brewing). Today I am brewing Wegmans’ Blood Orange Black tea. It’s been going for 4 minutes at just under a boil and smells wonderful. Makes me wish I had made scones.

The dry leaves are small and dark brown, enlivened by bright orange peel and what looks like some of the inner orange as well. Perhaps it will whisper secrets to the inner me. I guess I am being made silly by all the noisy machines we have around here, now including driveway pavers. Always something new in the neighborhood.

Back to the tea, which smells as luscious in my cup as it did in the pot. It is a very attractive golden amber. Oh my, it is good. None of the harshness or odd tingliness that can come from some flavorings. Just an honest to goodness orange. A wee bit bitter, which to me is blood orange. Perfect with some dark chocolate or a blueberry muffin or some pecan sticky buns. Maybe a great way to wake up as well. Very well done flavoring.

Having said that I must say that it was not until I added cream that I could taste the tea base. So there I was with a liquid tea flavored Creamsicle. Pretty good actually. They should market these for adults. I also discovered the orange flavor lasted a little too long after I was done with it. I just wish the tea base were a little more forward. Otherwise, as good as this is, it is a waste of tea when all you can taste is the flavor.



Gosh, nothing like making myself hungry. A walk will help.



The blue chicory is making clouds along the roadsides, punctuated by the tall brown of some unknown weed, and the little yellow flowers of butter-and-eggs, which we loved as children. The daisies are gone, but the brown eyed susans are flourishing. There are still a few white clusters of wild roses in the woods and the reeds have nice fat brown seed heads.


This morning I was thinking about filling the suet feeders when along came a tiny downy woodpecker. They are usually quiet souls, giving a sharp chirp now and then, but this little girl - no red on her head - let loose a long loud tirade about how I’d best get right out there and feed her. Such a lot of noise from such a tiny being, who only weighs about 2 ounces. Once the suet was out, peace was restored until the ever-noisy jays arrived. They, however, are a bit shy of the red-bellied woodpeckers, who are bigger and have a really, really BIG bill.

The Good Life at the Grocery Store

Mountains, lakes, life is good.

The gang is out so I am sneaking some time to write. We went to Wegman's today - think super grocery store - and I checked out the tea aisles (yes, aisles as in three). Be still my heart. They had about 50 loose teas in big steel canisters, very nice sealable bags to put them in and a weight/sticker machine that not only gave the price, but brewing instructions as well. So, of course, I got several samples to try and bought some tea from the Eastern Shore Tea Co., as well. About 1/3 of the teas were Japanese and there were several organic teas, along with a fairly wide selection of storage canisters and many tea gizmos and pots.


One of the samples I purchased was Nilgiri Select Black Tea from southwestern India. The leaves were a long dark brown, very twisted. The scent was unremarkable - just tea. I brewed it for 4 minutes with 212 degree water and many of the leaves were not yet unfurled. I think I should have brewed it closer to the upper limit of six minutes, as the tea was pleasant, but bland. I was smart enough to make my samples large enough to do several pots, so I will try more another day.



I was pleased to see the tea in stainless steel containers, protected from the light and each had its own scooping spoon to avoid cross-contamination. Someone at Wegman's has paid attention to the basics of tea. From what I could see in a very quick perusal, the other teas were all tea bags, but I was in a hurry and will need to go back to check them out some more.