Time for a Real Tea Party

Saturday, Aug 28, 2010

Is that a great tree or what? This is in Sorrento, Italy, in front of a
very posh residence.

This is National Cream Tea Week in Great Britain. Seems to me that is a perfect excuse for a tea party. So, let's break out the cups and saucers, cream and sugar and party!

I always want to like tea scented with Osmanthus, but it seems I never do. However, Life in Teacup has changed that. I ordered some of Gingko's Golden Osmanthus Oolong [Huang Jin Gui] and was very happily surprised. The dry tea comes in factory sealed small metallic packets - about enough for 3 mugs. It is very loosely rolled greenish balls. I used enough to cover the bottom of a small mug, rinsed them with boiling water and then let them brew for about 2 minutes. I know, I know, I should've done them for less time and multiple infusions, but I just didn't want to today One should be allowed to drink tea whatever way suits them.


The tea was a pretty pale gold, with a lovely flowery scent. The taste just followed right along, being soft, flowery, delicate, just skimming over your tongue and leaving you refreshed. There don't seem to be a lot of nuances to this tea, but I don't think it needs them. It would be just perfect for when something delicate is just what you want. And I am happy to find an osmanthus I like.

I never seem to know about how much Oolong to use, but on line someone said that enough to cover the bottom of your brewing vessel was about right. I have been doing that and it seems to work very well. However, I have had some quite large balls of Oolong and others and for them I find that 7-9 balls for a mug works. It can be really amazing how much tea will expand in hot water.

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.

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.

This Lapsang Hits a Sour Note

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Part of a monastery courtyard. It's hard to tell, but that is a 5 ft
tall rosemary bush. I about died of jealousy.

The next several posts will all have the same dates, as I can't copy things to here from my document store. Sometimes computers are very annoying.

I love good Lapsang Souchong tea. However, the sample I tried from Golden Moon doesn't fall into that category. As soon as I opened the packet I thought, uh-oh. The tea absolutely reeked of heavy smoke. I followed the directions to brew it for 5-6 minutes with boiling water and as it brewed the kitchen filled with that heavy scent. But, sometimes, aroma can be deceiving. Well, folks, this time it wasn't. The tea was awful! awful! awful! Probably the second worst one I ever had. Upton's won top honors for that, but they no longer carry the ghastly stuff, so you're safe if you order theirs - try the samples first.

Golden Moon teas are generally quite good, but everyone has flops or things not to our taste. I am glad I got that basket of sample that Golden Moon offers - it is a great way to see what I like or don't like. More and more companies are offering samples and I would much rather pay a dollar to try something I don't like than spend $20 and hate it. That would be very expensive compost!

I got a new shipment of Yunnans from Upton's! Oh yum, yum, yum. I bought 4 different ones. I also got some Keemuns and some other samples.

A Necessary Virtue

The carved central doors of a confessional.



Another grayish day, but I don't mind, as it is not hot. I would love
summer if it never got above 75. Please, don't stone me for that.



Today I am having a really fun green Tea. It is from the Tea Spot and I think I ordered this sample a while ago. It is Genmaicha, a Japanese green tea with roasted rice in it. The story behind this tea is that tea in Japan was once very very expensive and primarily saved for the upper classes. The poorer folk had to make do with twigs and leftovers and not too many of them, either. So, they started adding roasted rice, of which there was a great deal, to eke out the tea. Today, young Japanese have made a
virtue of this necessity and Genmaicha is very popular.



I can certainly see why. As soon as you open the packet, there is this pretty bright green tea set off by small brown rice kernels, with a few that have popped white to add interest. It smells nice - the fresh green scent of the tea and the roasty toasty smell of the rice. I followed directions and brewed it up with a heaping teaspoon at about 170degrees for a squeak over 2 mins. It smells wonderful - again, the green and the roasty scents. And the taste follows right along. A somewhat astringent green with the toasty rice overlaying it. It is really good, but I think there is a bit too much rice in it and not enough of the green can make it through. I could, of course, take out some of the kernels, which I think I will do next time.



I don't know if you read e-zines, magazines on the web, but there is a very good one that just published issue #7 - The Leaf. If you are interested in Chinese and Japanese tea and culture, you should check it out. You can access all the issues if you want to follow it in order. It is well written, accessible and interesting. You can find it at http://the-leaf.org

I Found It!

I found yesterday's super tea from Aura Teas! It is Formosa Pinglin Wenshan Baochong[medium roasted]. I am so glad I could tell you the name.

Champagne for Elevenses

This, my friends, is a cactus, growing 2 stories high in the Town of Forio,
Ischia Island, Italy. I was impressed. My grand-father-in-law was a
goatherd in the country near here.



Today has been a special day. We went to our Bible study, with some of
the best people in the world and decided to celebrate the sale of our house with some champagne and blueberry buckle. Communion comes in many forms and we all had much to thank God for - house closings, new homes, recovery from strokes, outstanding music, laughter, shared joys and pains, a place where you can share doubts and fears and be loved not just for your good points, but your bad ones as well and find healing and company for the journey. We all need these places of love and shelter and I hope each of you has one.



We then went to the farmers market and found some beautiful fruits and veggies. Then I made tea - the last of the samples I have from Aura Teas. I would love to tell you the exact name, but I set the small packet down and now I can't find it. It is a Formosa Oolong and it is medium roasted. The leaves are quite large and dark. Dry, they don't smell like a lot, but once the water hit them - heaven in a cup, what a sweet, sweet scent, underscored by a roasted note. I used just enough to cover the bottom of a smallish mug and used water at about 195 degrees for about 45 seconds. The taste is wonderful; to me, that is, as I especially like the floral end of the Oolongs. It just fills my mouth up and lingers on my tongue. The second wash was greener looking than the pale gold of the first. It still smelled wonderful and was still sweet, but it was beginning to go towards a more green taste that was still superb.

Believe me, as soon as I find the packet, I'll tell you the name - it is too good to miss. Be careful if you look for this company on the web - there is another new company with nearly the same name. The correct address is http://www.aurateas.com/ Make sure you get that "s" in at the end of tea.

I decided to share the good day with the fur people and gave each of them their own pile of catnip. Oh purrrrrblissssss!