Saturday Morning Tea

Feb2

Good morning, dear tea friends! As I gaze out my window at the puffs of clouds floating across the cold, blue sky, I’m enjoying a very special tea called Sunrise.

From the 1,662 acre Steinthal Estate, located in the Darjeeling district in northeast India, the leaves were plucked at sunrise during the second flush season. I have been told that the dew that collects on the leaves overnight delays the photosynthesis process. This delay causes maximum flavor retention in the leaves so plucking in the early morning hours is desirable for optimum flavor.

Sunrise is such a hushed, magical time when the world still sleeps and beautiful colors bloom across the sky. During the week, I rise at 5:30am so I’m able to see the sunrise most mornings. The beauty of nature is truly awe-inspiring.

I steeped the leaves for 3 minutes in boiling point (212F) water. The aroma was quite fruity as I lifted the infuser from my glass teapot.

I have read that the Steinthal Estate is actually called the Singtom-Steinthal Estate. The word Steinthal comes from the German Jesuit missionaries that developed different areas of the tea garden.

This special Sunrise tea was handcrafted in honor of the 160th Jubilee celebration of the tea estate.

The color of the tea liquor reminds me of the blazing dark-orange that lights up the sky at sunrise. If there are clouds in the eastern sky right before the sun peeks over the horizon, it looks like their undersides have been stroked with a paintbrush.

The flavor is quite fruity, with a dominant note of fresh apricots. The rich body is silky smooth. If you prefer your Darjeeling to be on the astringent side, I recommend pushing the steeping time a little.

I had some fun taking photos as I poured the tea! Now the tea is all gone and I’m craving another cup…

On the studio side of things, I’ve created some polymer clay sheets with the technique I spoke about previously and now it’s time to play around with cutting some shapes for my beadwork. While I love my job, sometimes it’s frustrating having to wait for an afternoon of free time to play in my studio. Does anyone else have that experience?

As always, thanks for stopping by and sharing my tea time!

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”

~Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

Saturday Morning Tea

Jan26

Good morning, dear tea friends! I hope that you had a great week and stayed warm if you’re experiencing a bitterly cold winter as we are here in New England. Oh my. Each day has started with these numbers – 3, 8, 10…brrrr! I need some serious warmup here! So, with that in mind, I chose a dark, rich China black tea to grace my teabowl this morning. Meet Organic Black Monkey, with its fuzzy golden tips threading through long, twisted, dark leaves.

I steeped the leaves for 5 minutes in boiling point (212F) water. As I lifted the infuser from my glass teapot, a strong aroma of sweet pipe tobacco greeted my senses. With the name “Monkey”, I thought this tea might be more like a Golden Monkey, with those rich, cocoa notes, however, I found this tea to be more like a Bohea in aroma and flavor.

The long, twisted leaf reminds me of a dark Oolong tea, one that has been oxidized at 40-50%, in fact, there are some of those toasty, woody nuances in the flavor as well.

The dark-russet tea liquor is thick and bittersweet, like a very dark chocolate, leaving the suggestion of cocoa in my mouth. The tobacco notes that I found so pronounced at first mellowed out as the tea cooled. Aside from that cocoa bitterness, the tea is quite smooth, leading me to think that this tea would be fun to “monkey” around with the steeping times.

This tea did a great job of warming my bones, a perfect cuppa for a frigid, mid-winter’s day.

I started playing around with my polymer clay stash last weekend and want to continue that this weekend. I had purchased a DVD from polymer clay artist, Barbara McGuire, on her version of mokume gane, involving gold leaf, alcohol inks and poking the clay with geometric shapes. I’ve been imagining ways to combine the beautiful, watercolor effect of this technique with either free-form beading or bead embroidery. Stay tuned to see what manifests!

As always, I so enjoy our time together, sharing a cup of tea. Thanks for stopping by!

“I dream a lot. I do more painting when I’m not painting. It’s in the subconscious.” ~Andrew Wyeth

Saturday Morning Tea

Jan5

Happy New Year, dear tea friends! I hope that everyone had a great time over the holidays and now here we are in a brand new year with many wonderful tea moments to look forward to. Shall we get started?

I have some exciting news to share with you! One of my dreams came true when I received the most amazing gift on Christmas – a micro lens for my Nikon camera. I’ve enjoyed photography for many years, starting out by taking loads of pictures of my kids as they were growing up. Over the years, I found myself drawn more and more to the closeup shots, especially when I started taking tea pictures almost 6 years ago. This morning I share with you my first shots with my brand new lens – a China black called Yunnan Black Snail.

From Yunnan province in China, this tea is produced from a large leaf varietal. The leaves are rolled into spiral shapes, reminiscent of snails. After a 5 minute steeping in boiling point (212F) water, take a look at this gorgeous unfurled leaf.

You can see how it was twisted as it was rolled and curled.

The deep dark amber-colored tea liquor has a spicy aroma with hints of cocoa. The flavor is smooth and rich with a sweet caramel-y nuance along with notes of spice and cocoa. For its beautiful leaf and depth of flavor, this tea is an amazing value. I’m already on my second cup!

Speaking of cups, I received this beautiful, handmade teamug as a gift. The blue glaze drips down a brown background in a lovely pattern, which I’m so enjoying looking at as I sip my tea and contemplate the new year.

I’ve already set some goals for myself this year, one of them being to move on beyond the portfolio website I created in my online class and create a new website where I can sell my jewelry. Another goal is to share my art much more often here on my blog. What goals have you set for 2013?

As always, thanks for stopping by and joining me in a cup of tea!

“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” ~Henry David Thoreau

Saturday Morning Tea

Dec8

Good morning, dear tea friends! In honor of the beauty of this Yunnan Rare Grade leaf, I open with a quote from one of the oldest books on tea, the Ch’a-Ching (The Classic of Tea) by Lu Yu.

“There are a thousand different appearances of tea leaves. Some have creases like the leathern boot of a Tartar horseman, curl like the dewlap of a mighty bullock, unfold like the mist rising out a ravine, gleam like a lake touched by a zephyr, and be wet and soft like fine earth newly swept by rain.”

Isn’t that so true? This beautiful golden-tip black tea is from Yunnan province in China.

Because the leaves are big, I used twice as much leaf as I normally do in my little glass teapot and steeped for a full five minutes. If you’re adding milk to your tea, you might want to consider a longer steep time.

Just look at that amazing intact leaf, evidence that a lot of care went into its processing. Many folks were joyful when this tea returned to our stock and I can certainly understand why.

The deep-amber tea liquor has an enticing, earthy sweet aroma with nuances of autumn leaf, making me eager for my first sip. The flavor is silky smooth yet very full-bodied and rich with notes of dark molasses and spice. Yum…

Samples of this tea are definitely making their way into some tea lovers’ stockings!

I hope that you’re finding some calm, quiet time to yourself during this magical yet hectic time of year to enjoy sipping something delicious and hot.

Until next week, dear friends…

Saturday Morning Tea

Nov24

Good morning, dear tea friends! For my US friends, I hope that your Thanksgiving was warm and wonderful. What is your favorite tea for the Thanksgiving table? I was avoiding caffeine and drinking Rooibos that day, Earl Grey with dinner and Lemon with dessert.

With my morning tea today, we travel to the country of Nepal, where I’ve read they started growing tea from seeds gifted to the Prime Minister from the Chinese Emperor. At an altitude of 5,000 feet above sea level, the first tea plantation was set up in the 1860s, called the Ilam Tea Estate, after the district where it was located. Unfortunately, due to political turmoil and economic struggle under an autocratic dynasty, the tea industry failed to grow there at that time.

My tea this morning is from the Sakhira Estate, which is located in a remote area of Nepal, not far from Ilam Bazar.

I steeped the leaves for 3 minutes in boiling point (212F) water. As the tea steeped in my glass teapot, I found the large, tippy leaf to be very Darjeeling-like in aroma.

In the 1950s, a new democratic constitution was written in Nepal causing a shift in the political system there and opening up the country to the rest of the world. The tea industry started to grow with help from private and public investment and has been growing ever since.

My teapot appears to contain a world frozen in its glowing amber liquid.

A pronounced fruity aroma portends the rich muscatel flavor, very smooth and sweet. This tea goes down so easily with its silky smoothness, without any astringent bite. In comparison, I find that a Darjeeling tea with this much body usually has some astringency.

Well, I’ve just taken my last sip and it’s time to get on with my day. I just might put up my Christmas tree today. How are you spending your weekend?

My grandchildren will be with me all next weekend so I’ll be back with Saturday Morning Tea in two weeks. Until then, dear friends, enjoy this magical holiday time of year with many cups of tea!

“Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.” ~Laura Ingalls Wilder