Saturday Morning Tea

Oct27

Good morning, dear tea friends! I had a wonderful trip to NJ and NYC last weekend, visiting my elderly relatives and then taking in the sights of the city.

The 9-11 Memorial was a very sobering place. The day we went there it poured rain and it felt like the sky was weeping for all those souls who lost their lives on that tragic day. It was very sad but I’m really glad I went there. Ok, on to tea…

This morning’s tea is a special treat from the Arya Estate in the Darjeeling district of northeastern India. Called Arya Estate Ruby 2nd Flush, it truly is a “gem” of a tea!

As you can see, the leaves of this tea are much larger than an average Darjeeling. They are plucked from specially grown clonal tea bushes and carefully processed by hand to ensure their leaf remains intact and the flavor is developed. As I’ve mentioned before, the term “clonal” means that this tea came from tea plants grown from the cuttings from other tea plants of superior stock.

I used twice the amount of tea I usually spoon into my glass teapot and steeped the leaves for a little over 3 minutes in boiling point water (212F).

It is said that the Arya Estate was started by a group of Buddhist monks who carefully developed their tea plants from some seeds brought over from China. I love the stories and history about tea, don’t you? It gives more depth to my tea experience.

The beautiful, amber-colored tea liquor glows like a jewel in my glass teapot. As I gently lift the lid, a strong fruity, pineapple aroma delights my senses.

This pineapple quality follows through into the flavor, along with notes of muscatel and other tropical fruit. It is very smooth with the characteristic second flush rich body and a sweetness that lingers in the finish. Yum! This tea would stand up well to milk but I recommend drinking it straight to enjoy the fruity ambrosia.

Today is my grandkids’ birthday party. They are two years apart but their birthdates are 2 days apart so it’s a party for the both of them – a “Princess and Pirate” party. What fun!

Thanks for joining me for a cup of tea and I’ll see you next week!

“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year.”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Saturday Morning Tea

Oct21

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Good morning, dear tea friends! I’m in New Jersey right now visiting relatives so I share a post from 3 years ago. It was Halloween and I was enjoying a cup of a very floral Oolong tea. Enjoy and I’ll see you next week!

The bronzed leaves are rattling across my backyard deck like dried bones as they welcome this last day of October, All Hallowed Eve. Pouring rain and wind this past week have swept clean most of the leaves from their trees to create an autumn carpet laid across the lawns and streets. As I drove home last night, glowing jack-o-lanterns brought memories of carving pumpkins, and I inhaled the woodsy smell of fallen leaves as I got out of my car and made my way up the path home. I love this autumn time of year, perfect for cozying up with a hot cup of tea.

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As promised last week, this morning’s tea is very special. Called Zhang Ping Shui Hsian (or Xian), its leaves are finely plucked, hand processed and compressed into small bricks. Each “brick” is then exquisitely packaged into a shiny red, black and gold vacuum sealed packet for freshness.

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This Chinese Oolong is grown in Fujian province and lightly oxidized to create a greener Oolong tea, similar to a Jade or Tung Ting. I gently broke some leaves off of the brick for steeping.

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Because the leaves are not as oxidized as a darker Oolong or a black tea, I decided to steep at a green tea temperature and time, 180 degrees F for 3 minutes.

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As the leaves steeped in my glass teapot, they swirled and floated downward, reminding me of the dance of the leaves outside.

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It might be fall outside but it was like a springtime garden in my kitchen. A sweet lilac fragrance drifted up from my teapot as I removed the infuser basket. Mmmmm…

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The tea liquor is a pale gold brown with very distinctive floral aroma and flavor notes. A sweetness fills my mouth and gently lingers after each sip.

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I am sipping my tea from a gorgeous coppery red teabowl, generously lent to me by a colleague/friend at work. Thanks Rebecca. She purchased it at Target. I’ll have to go check out the teaware at Tar-zjay.

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The bronze leaves compliment the darker glazing on the bowl. After the Color Workshop I attended last weekend, I notice color everywhere! And, after looking through my tea leaf pictures, I’m not surprised that I chose green and orange as the color palette for my collage in the workshop. My life is steeped in tea leaves…

Happy Halloween, everyone!

“Never jump into a pile of leaves with a wet sucker.”

~Linus from It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Saturday Morning Tea

Oct13

Good morning, dear tea friends! After a week of rain and fog, this morning dawned clear and bright but quite cold for this time of year. The forecast last night called for a freeze, which means a temp of below freezing for several hours or more. Brrr! The temperature decline is always inevitable at this time of year but is still a shock after being warm for so long. On to tea…

I chose a strong, bracing Indian black tea this morning to chase away the chill, a broken-leaf Assam tea from the Doomni estate.

The Doomni tea estate is one of 3 tea gardens located in the Nalbari district of western Assam in northeast India. The leaf has been plucked and processed with a bounty of golden tips which I find lends a complexity and depth to the flavor of the tea.

I steeped the leaves for only 3 minutes in boiling point water (212F). Even at this lower steeping time, this tea has an astringent kick that I can feel in my teeth.

The aroma is strong and malty with a whisper of walnut and blackberries.

The beautiful, deep-amber tea liquor is hearty and thick with strong notes of malt and a light sweetness. I experienced a burst of flavor in my mouth, which lingered for quite some time.

This is one of those Assams that is perfect for adding milk to smooth out the astringency and bring the flavor forward even more. For those of you who don’t put milk in your Assam, perhaps try a shorter steep if you want to smooth out that astringent bite.

What’s up for your weekend? Well, my spring bulbs have arrived, a whole box of them, and they’re calling to me to plant them in the ground today. So, on go the overalls and garden gloves and it’s out into the sunshine-y fall day to plant for the afternoon. I am looking forward to the burst of color in my garden come next spring!

As always, thanks for visiting and sharing a cup of tea with me.

“Boldness has genius, power, and magic. Engage, and the mind grows heated. Begin, and the work will be completed.”

~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Saturday Morning Tea

Oct6

Good morning, dear tea friends! I’m running off to take my granddaughter, Ella, to her dance class so today I leave you with a re-post from the very beginning of this year, when the icy winds were blowing outside and I was cozy inside enjoying a cup of white tea.

See you next week!

Happy New Year, dear friends! A brand new year always fills me up with feelings of hope and excitement for new adventures. So, let us sit down together and continue our adventures in tea, shall we?

This morning I’m enjoying a delicate white tea in my cup, from the Adam’s Peak estate in the Dimbula district on the island of Sri Lanka (Ceylon). A rare tea composed of the new tips of the tea bush. To preserve their unique style, this tea is entirely hand processed and dried in sunlight. I wrote about a previous lot of this tea here.

I steeped the tea in 160 degree F water for 4 minutes. Guidelines suggest 170 degree F water but I wanted to see what flavor would be revealed in the slightly cooler water.

As I lifted the infuser from my glass teapot, I caught the faint whiff of flowers from the wet leaf.

The wet leaf reminds me of small swords, probably the influence of my rapt immersion in the world of the Seven Kingdoms lately. If you haven’t read George R.R. Martin’s tale of the Game of Thrones, I highly recommend it.

More swords…but I digress from our talk of tea…

The pale straw-colored tea liquor is delicate yet quite flavorful with pronounced notes of sweet, ripe melon and the faint whisper of floral hints.

This is a simply exquisite white tea which shows us tea in its most natural and least processed state, so incredibly different from the dark tones of a more familiar Ceylon black tea.

Refreshing and soothing to the spirit while the cold winter winds blow outside.

“And now let us welcome the New Year

Full of things that have never been.” ~Rainer Maria Rilke

Saturday Morning Tea

Sep29

Good morning, dear tea friends! This morning’s tea is a special, hand-crafted tea from an area nestled in the mountains of the Nilgiri district at the southern tip of India. Called Avataa Twirl tea, the name of this green tea means “fresh” in Sanskrit.

Grown at the Billimalai estate at an elevation of 6,400 feet, this tea is “specially crafted to form distinctive twirls, these vibrant golden green leaves brew to form a mildly astringent cup with a mellow and earthy aftertaste.”

The leaves are enormous and just stunningly full and intact. I steeped them for 3 minutes in 180F water.

Look at that beautiful leaf set!

As I poured my first cup, a fresh, clean vegetal aroma wafted up from my glass teapot. The greenish, straw-colored liquor has a strong vegetal flavor with a light undertone of fruit.