No Earl for Tea

A gold crucifixion scene from the Vienna State Museum




Ho boy, when it rains, it pours [and pours and pours]. The cats gave up on the outdoors and have decided this is a good day for a nap. I decided to make soup and maybe bake something - it is definitely a kitchen day.



And a good day for a cup of tea. I'm having Lavender Earl Grey from Teas Etc. It smells of very smooth lavender, with a piquant edge - I assume from the bergamot. I cannot smell either the tea base or the bergamot. The tea is almost gray with lavender buds. I brewed the usual 3.5 minutes with boiling water, It continued with the floral aroma, but I could catch some tea. Taste wise, this was a very pleasant lavender tea. Quite straightforward. However, the Earl did not come to tea with me and I was sorely disappointed in him.



Simpson and Vail still wins in the lavender Earl Grey department, with its Victorian EG.

Favorite Autumn Things

According to the State Museum in Vienna, this nail [in the gold fame at top middle] is the one used in the left foot of Jesus during his Crucifixion. I sometimes wonder what he would think of all our gold surrounded relics.

It smells like Autumn! There are enough turned leaves, rain, fallen leaves, etc. for that lovely smell to be wafting through the air. If I walk far enough on the edge of the road I can scuff through the leaves and add sound to my list of good autumn things. And in the early morning I can see the deer herd asleep in the meadow. And, I can really enjoy my hot tea!

I ordered a big lot of samples from Culinary Teas and their Imperial Keemun Mao Feng Sacred Garden is on tap for today. Imperial is a quality grade the Chinese use and it is top quality. Since this is not listed as a Keemun Mao Feng "A" it is not the best of the best, according to some. It is considered the best quality of the second grade. I know, all very complicated. I am not sure what makes the difference, perhaps the time of the pluck. For my money, however, I have always preferred the "B" grade, so this is quite fine with me.

This stuff smells terrific! A combination of wine, old wood, and a little smoke, very Keemun. The dry leaves are long and thin, although some are in figure 8s. I brewed this with boiling water and a heaping teaspoon for about 4 minutes. The smokiness disappears in the brewing and the tea now smells of toasted wheat, wood and wine. And very very fresh. It is a very smooth tea, no astringency, but the hints present in the aroma are coming through. The barest hint of smokiness is present, but mostly a deep barrel-aged wineyness. It is a little on the weak side, so next time I am going to throw in an extra spoonful for the pot. It takes a bit of cream very well, but I think I really prefer it plain.

What are your favorite Autumn things?

The Sweet Scents of Autumn

Hapsburg priests dressed well - all that glitters is gold!

Ummmm, apples, that wonderful fall gift. Apples scenting the car, round fat red apples on the counter, apples making sauce. The scent fills the house and I am happy. The deer are happy too, as they scoop up the neighbors' crabapples, leaving none for me. They are amazing creatures - all the fawns are now about 1/2 the size of their mothers and all their coats are that funny gray brown for fall and winter. They were standing next to our fence, which is about 4 feet tall, and just hopped over - no running start, just up and down!

Speaking of wonderful aromas - I bought some Mariage Freres Tea - Wedding Imperial. Oh my goodness, to open the can is to go to tea heaven. The combines smell of chocolate, caramel, tea and I swear, hazelnuts is just wonderful. Believe me, it carries through the brewing and on into the taste of the tea. It is just absolutely delicious. It is lovely with milk and I broke my own rule and added sugar, which only made it better! This would be a great wedding present. Actually, there are several companies which make some sort of wedding blend and you could make up quite a nice present with several blends, a teapot and infuser. Just think of the trend you could start!

Mariage Freres, which means Mariage Brothers in English is one of the triumvirate of French tea companies that are available in the states. The other two are Dammann Freres and Hediard. In my opinion, Mariage and Dammann are neck and neck in the wonderfulness sweeps. Hediard is pleasant but doesn't make me crazy with delight.

A Wow Ceylon!

Just a simple jeweled solid gold Bible cover.

We went out to brunch today and I thought about having tea, but said, "Nah, it'll just be teabags and luke warm water" About 3/4 of the way through our meal, someone ordered tea and it was a real pot with real tea and boiling water. That'll teach me, maybe. Next time I'll ask about it.

One of my many tea orders was from Teas Etc, another company that allows you to buy samples before you invest in larger lots. Today I am having their Ceylon OP1, which means Orange Pekoe, a large leaf and the one is either the first pluck of this group or 1st quality or refers to a specific varietal. Ceylon is the largish island off the south tip of India.

What a treat! The scent of the dry tea will knock your socks off. It smells of a field after the rain or good red wine or chocolate covered lemon drops, or some combination of them all. The leaves were small to medium, black and somewhat twisted in appearance. As it was brewing for 3.5 minutes there was a combination of fresh wash on the line and good wine barrels, and still that chocolate lemon ending.

The infused tea didn't disappoint either. It was a nice dark brown with a winey, lemony, oaken taste, with hints of chocolate in the aftertaste. Wow, what a super treat this is from first to last. It really coats your mouth with lovely flavors. I've never been one to rave about Ceylon teas, but this is really an exception.

A Lovely Oolong

A fountain in the church garden that has the diptych.

I decided I really needed to stretch myself more in the tea making department. I am often too lazy to get the most from my Oolongs and green teas, infusing them only once. Today, however, I decided to closely follow instructions from Gingko Seto, who owns Life in Teacup, and whom I really respect as knowledgeable, and do it her way. I selected her Dong Ding Oolong, Competition Grade III. This is sometimes known elsewhere as Tong Ting. It means it is a high grown Oolong, from Taiwan, grown above 3000 feet. There is a large temperature difference up there between day and night and it is often misty, meaning there is high humidity and filtered sunlight, without a lot of rain. This makes the tea grow slowly, producing more of the stuff that makes it a quality tea. The dry tea is tightly rolled, dark green balls with just hints of a floral, nutty scent. Grade III means it came in 4th in competition.

Gingko believes all tea, green, Oolong, or black can be infused with water just below the boil. So I did. I rinsed the little tea balls - about 3 grams of them -which I always do with Oolongs. This begins the process of relaxing the leaves so they can unfurl. I rinsed and drained and then waited a minute. I don't usually and I think this made a difference in the quality of the first infusion. Altogether I did 3, 20 second and 1, 30 second infusions.

1. It smells of green straw and tasted like fresh dried hay. You must remember I am a farm girl and these are my reference points. I liked it. I always liked to chew on long stalks of hay.

2. A lovely floral scent has come out, with still some straw, but some hazelnut is there as well. The taste incorporates all three, with the floral definitely in the lead.

3. A heavier, fuller, floral smell and taste and the tea seems to be more of a broth than just water. The taste lingers and gains a bit of vegetable greenness.

4. A very light scent of biscuits, that toasted flour/butter aroma. Yum. This is a pretty thin infusion, with just a touch of the biscuit, a little floral, a little vegetable. The taste mostly comes after you swallow and then lingers.

5. I mixed them all, as you might if you had a number of people tasting, and I must say, the combination is quite nice, combining all the scents and flavors of the four infusions.

I have to say that although this was time consuming, it was a lot of fun and I think I gained more of an appreciation for what I was drinking. If you would like to read some of Gingko's writings, just click on the Life in Teacup name to the right and there you'll be!

Wonderful, Wonderful

This is a diptych, meaning two panels, hung over the choir stalls in a church in Germany. I had such a good time in the European churches. They just made me happy and mostly, awe-struck with their beauty.



After having so much real fall weather - cool but often sunny, today is scalding hot - over 90. Not a true Indian Summer because we haven't had frost yet. The sunrise was beautiful this am, turning the trees pink. Moonrise last night was especially lovely as well, as the clouds played hide and seek with the moon. I really appreciate living where I can see these events.

I have new teas, so I just can't wait for it to be cool again.

As I mentioned earlier, one of my favorite tea merchants is Dream About Tea, a wonderful tea shop in Evanston, Illinois, that specializes in Chinese, Taiwanese and Japanese teas. I have always gotten top-notch tea from them and this is no exception. Today's selection is Golden Silk, from the Yunnan Province of China. I reviewed last year's in January, but this is the 2010 crop. It is grown in the high mountains, which are ideal for tea cultivation and it is only the fine buds and first leaves from the first Spring plucking. It is an attractive tea, with large, almost black leaves and golden buds. I could not identify the smell of the dry leaves, but let me assure you, it is wonderful, like some exquisite food you can't wait to eat. Maybe a touch of very special well-aged wood.

I brewed it for 3 minutes with boiling water, using about 1.5 teaspoons per cup. I really should have weighed it, but I've gotten pretty good at guessing with big leaves. The scent of the brewing tea was very much Yunnan, but with a very smooooooth edge that carries a touch of floral. The brewed tea was a real shock. Usually you can describe Chinese teas as a "red" tea, as they do, because they are some sort of reddish brown, but this was such a dark brown I would have to call it black. Oh my, what a wonderful taste! Very Yunnan, but not the spicey sort. It is more woodsy with some honey around the edges and then has a touch of astringency to ground it. But it is the smoothest Yunnan I think I've ever had. Wonderful, wonderful. What's even more wonderful is it is only $7.00 for 2 ounces, which is quite inexpensive in this year's tea market.

Oh Canada!

This is Hilgenroth, Germany which I mentioned on Tuesday.

I have given up trying to match my tea to the weather. One day it is hot, the next, cold and mornings are definitely toe tinglers. Our trees are fast approaching peak coloration in some spots, with others kind of la-de-dahing around. It is my favorite time of the year. But so is spring and winter. Summer is tolerated as a necessity.

I put in a large order of one ounce samples to Culinary Teas and they came today, along with some nice samples of other things. So, of course, I have to dive right in. I chose Canadian Breakfast, as I had not heard of that blend before. We'll get to it soon, but first I wanted to tell you a bit about Culinary Teas. They have an amazing selection of what I might call British teas, some of which I think are the best of their type, like Lady Londonderry or today's trial. They sell one ounce sample of all their teas, so for not a huge outlay, you can try scads of teas. I love companies that sell in small lots, because if you get 4oz of something you hate, that is very expensive mulch.

On to Canada. I have done some traveling around in Canada and I highly recommend it. It is beautiful and the people are very nice. Which can also be said about this tea. The small dry leaves are chopped and give off an intriguing scent of wheat, asparagus and a touch of woodsiness. This aroma continues as it brews for about 3.5 minutes with 212 degrees water. It brews up to a really dark reddish mahogany, which is quite beautiful. In the cup, more of the woodsy smell comes out, which spills over into the taste. This is a smooth tea, with a good hit of malt, that woodsiness with some floral overtones and maybe a hint of roasted corn. It is delicious., a tea I'd really reach for in the morning or anytime on a cold raw day. It would definitely hold its own with a hearty breakfast or with some scones or desserts. I wouldn't brew it for more than 3.5-4 minutes, as I think it would get tannic.

I just finished a fun, small book - Steeped in the World of Tea. There is no editor listed nor any one author, as it was written by many people. It includes poetry, short reminiscences about tea, a few more factual essays and some bits about brewing tea. It is short and quite interesting, as the authors come from all over the world. It is the sort of book you can read an essay at a time, put it down and take it up again, without losing track of the flow of things.