Saturday Morning Tea

Apr4

Good morning, dear tea friends! As I took a step outside the other day, the air smelled fresh and clean with that earthy aroma of growing things. It smelled like spring at last!

This is always a lovely time of year, a time of rebirth and awakening and……..first flush Darjeeling! I’m excited to introduce you to my first cuppa of the 2015 season –Risheehat SFTGFOP Ch. First Flush Organic.

The Risheehat Tea Estate is located in a valley with the perfect temperature and rainfall for producing high quality Darjeelings. It’s close to the Darjeeling city area and Kanchanjangha peak to the north. Here’s some information from their website:

“Risheehat literally means “Home of Holy Saints”. The Garden was established by British planters in the mid 19th century and was known as Tsering Bagan because of local population of the Tsering tribe.

Acquired by Jayshree Tea management in 1955, the garden is divided into two major divisions – Rishihat main division and Liza Hill Division. The estate today produces more than 180 tons per year of certified bio-organic teas and healthy zero% vacancy on its estate. The estate has Fair Trade certification, ISO 1901:2008 awarded by TUV NORD and also HAACCP, not to mention organic certificates for NPOP, POP and JAS by IMO.”

Here’s a lovely plucking of new growth. I steeped the leaves for 3 minutes in just under boiling point (212F) water.

The tea liquor is the color of golden sunshine. The aroma of the wet leaf is of fresh steamed baby peas with fragrant floral hints. The aroma of the tea is fresh and flowery with notes of tropical fruit.

The flavor is light and fresh, awakening my mouth with its gentle astringency. Notes of flowers and tropical fruit intermingle and linger in a long finish. This tea has a decent caffeine hit, which makes it a great choice for the morning or when you need an extra lift during the day.

I have crocus lifting their yellow cups to the sky in my front yard. They seem to have multiplied since last year. I’m headed out into the garden this afternoon to clear away the winter mulch and debris. Even though it’s dirty work, I’m always rewarded with the sight of what’s starting to peek through the soil. Another garden year has begun!

I’ll be returning next week to share a cup of tea with you as I’m making my spring trek to Michigan the following week.

Have a wonderful week!

Saturday Morning Tea

Feb7

Good morning, dear tea friends! The last time we shared a cup of tea, I looked out my window and saw 4-5 inches of snow. Today, I’m gazing out at gently falling snowflakes that touch down on about 45 inches. Yes, you read that right. We’ve got almost 4 feet of the white stuff here. As most of us are saying, our luck ran out after a mild December and most of January. Oh well, so it goes, Mother Nature has a wicked sense of humah (as we say in New England). Ok, on to tea…

To keep winter’s frigid temps and mounds of snow at bay, I chose a hearty black tea for my cup this morning. This selection is from the Doomni Estate, located in the Assam district of northeastern India. The leaf is of the broken type with an abundance of downy golden tips threaded through the dark pieces.

I steeped the leaves for 4 minutes in boiling point (212F) water. You could probably push the steeping time to 5 minutes if you like it strong and astringent and/or are adding milk and sweetener.

The aroma is rich with a hint of malt.

The tea liquor is a lovely, deep shade of dark honey amber. The flavor is stout, rich, and hearty, all of the above. There’s an undertone of citrus brightness that contributes to its eye-opening appeal.

My first sips were of the tea plain but then I added a small dollop of honey and a splash of milk. My, oh my. Perfection. This is a great tea for adding milk and sweetener and/or spices to. It would be excellent as a base for your own Chai blend. Add cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, clove, and any other spices you like in a combination you enjoy.

Oh, it has quite the caffeine kick, too.

The snowflakes are multiplying and falling at a steady pace now. The weather reports are calling for another foot over the next several days. Not sure where we’re going to put another foot of snow but whatever comes, my tea will keep me warm and energized in between shoveling sessions!

Have a wonderful two weeks until we meet again, dear friends…

Saturday Morning Tea

Dec20

Good morning, dear tea friends! On this Winter Solstice Eve day, I’m celebrating the return of the light with a very special tea, called Mackeypore Golden Pekoe Tips. From the Assam tea growing region in northeastern India, this tea has been created from tender buds that were plucked at dawn. I envision a group of tea pickers starting their day, entering the field as the sun’s rays break over the horizon. They move through the tea bushes, carefully plucking only the choicest buds. After picking, the buds are laid out to wither and dry, turning a golden color in the warmth of the sun. Even though this tea is processed similarly to a white tea, its flavor is different, and I don’t think it’s classified as one. Each bud has a coating of fine white, downy hairs giving them a soft, fuzzy appearance.

I steeped the buds for 3 1/2 minutes in water just under boiling point.

In the Northern hemisphere where I live, the December Solstice, also known as the Winter Solstice, heralds the onset of winter. It also marks the shortest day of the year, a time when the North Pole is tilted away from the sun, causing it to appear further south and far away from us. In thinking about this, I picture the sky as an inverted bowl and the path of the sun at this time of year is closest to the rim, or the horizon.

As you can see, the buds don’t change much in appearance after steeping. Even the little hairs are still present.

I’ve read that the term solstice means “sun stands still”, referring to the appearance of the sun halting in its incremental journey across the sky and changing little in position during this time. Since ancient times, humans have observed this seasonal milestone and created spiritual and cultural traditions to celebrate the rebirth of sunlight after the darkest period of the year.

So, this is a good news/bad news type of day. The bad news is that the daylight hours are incredibly short – a scant 9 hours and 5 minutes of daylight. The good news, however, is that from now on the days will grow longer, a little bit at a time but steadily increasing in light. Personally, I’d like to focus on the good news part!

What I find most interesting about this tea is the tea liquor color. One would think it would be pale and delicate but it has the rich amber color of a black tea. The aroma is sweet with a toasty note. The flavor is more robust than I expected, with notes of dried apricot and, yes, there is some malt there. It’s light but it’s there. I wouldn’t recommend milk with this tea, however, I put a dab of local honey in my cup and it was marvelous.

I pulled out my glass mug so I could enjoy the color of the tea as I sipped.

A beautiful golden amber light.

As we enter Christmas week, I’d like to wish all of you Happy Holidays. Whatever and wherever your celebrations may be, I hope that they’re filled with love and light and joy! And, of course, many cups of delicious tea! I’ll be traveling to Michigan for the holidays so Saturday Morning Tea will return in the New Year on January 10th. See you next year!

Saturday Morning Tea

Oct11

Good morning, dear tea friends! A steady rain is falling from the leaden sky on this October morning. The fiery palette of autumn is muted as I look through the curtain of water sheeting down outside my kitchen window. I’m watching the rain and sipping a second flush Darjeeling, newly arrived from India. Let me introduce you to Puttabong Estate STGBOP1 (DJ-261) Organic. As you can see, the leaf is of the broken variety. I usually find broken leaf Darjeelings too astringent for my palate, however, this offering is silky smooth and oh so drinkable. I’ve already had two cups!

I steeped the leaf for 1 1/2 minutes in boiling point (212F) water. As with all broken leaf teas, especially Darjeelings, a quick steeping is all that’s needed to extract full flavor.

Also known as the Tukvar Estate, this tea garden was first planted in 1852 and is nestled in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains near Kanchendzonga peak. With altitudes ranging from 1,500 to 6,500 feet above sea level, it is one of the highest elevation tea gardens in Darjeeling district, in northeastern India. Its tea plants consist mainly of clonal bushes and China jat, meaning tea bushes with origins from China.

The aroma of the glowing amber-colored liquor is toasty with honey sweet hints. The first sip fills my mouth with rich flavor. Notes of fruit are highlighted by a citrus-like brightness. A lovely sweetness greets you throughout, lingering long into the finish and becoming more pronounced as the tea cools.

A truly satisfying cup of tea.

Today is the perfect day to stay inside and work on my watercolor pencil class. My next assignment – draw a ribbon and all its highlights and shadows. I’m looking forward to the challenge. What’s up for your weekend?

Have a great tea-filled day and I’ll see you in two weeks!

“The rain to the wind said,
You push and I’ll pelt.’
They so smote the garden bed
That the flowers actually knelt,
And lay lodged–though not dead.
I know how the flowers felt.”

~Robert Frost

Saturday Morning Tea

Mar29

Good morning, dear tea friends! I’m very excited to introduce to you the first 2014 tea in my cup this year. It’s not a Darjeeling but a first flush offering from the Marionbarie Estate, located in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains in a belt of land called Terai. I’ve read that Terai, which translates to foothills, is a place of forests, savannas and grasslands, which extends into both Nepal and India.

At an elevation of 900 feet above sea level, the Marionbarie Estate was first planted in 1901. From their website:

The Garden is situated very closed to Mahananda wild-life sanctuary and wild animals such as Elephant, Leopard, Dear, Peacock, Wild Boar, Pythons, etc. are frequently seen in and around the plantation area. The Workers are educated to respect the ecology and the wildlife by the Management by doing seminars.

As you can see, the leaf is quite green even though it was processed as a black tea. This is common in first flush teas from that area.

I steeped the leaf for 3 minutes in boiling point (212F) water.

The fragrant aroma smells like early spring vegetation, sweet and vegetal, with notes of delicate flowers.

The tea liquor is a golden apple juice color with a very fresh, light flavor. A whisper of sugar cookie sweetens the tangy floral notes, which linger into the finish.

I feel like I’ve been encased in a white, frigid world for so long. Sipping the fresh flavor of this first flush tea is melting the ice and bringing me back to life. It is the new growth of spring. It is rebirth. It is hope.

“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.”

~Emily Dickinson