Saturday Morning Tea

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My morning tea tastes especially delicious and warming today after Dave and I just shoveled 10 inches of snow out of our driveway. The snow started mid-afternoon yesterday and continued on through the dark winter night. Businesses and schools shut down early so everyone could get home safely before the storm’s arrival.

I am sipping and savoring a second flush Darjeeling from the Namring estate. The Darjeeling district is located in the Himalayan foothills of northeastern India.

namringdarjwet122008 I steeped the dark leaf for 3 minutes in 212 degree F (boiling) water, resulting in a glowing amber liquid. The thing that I like best about Darjeelings from the Namring estate is that they always have that classic, rich Darjeeling aroma and flavor. Sometimes I am in the mood for an astringent tea that echos in my mouth for awhile after I’ve taken my first sip. This is perfect, with nutty almond, fruity richness. Second flush Darjeelings are harvested in the summertime and are usually fuller with the more mature taste of the summer leaf, as opposed to first flushes, harvested in the springtime.

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It’s hard to imagine the lush greenery that graced our backyard deck a short 2-3 months ago. It is now a white drifting world.

namringdarjteacup1220081 As I was pouring my cup of tea, Dave offered me a piece of pumpernickel toast. It went perfectly with the rich flavor of this tea. The bare tree branches of our backyard trees look like they’d like to warm themselves in my steaming cup. This is the time of year when I never feel quite warm enough. My favorite spot is next to the fireplace with my hands perpetually wrapped around a hot mug and a good book opened in my lap.

You can never get a cup of tea large enough

or a book long enough to suit me.

~C.S. Lewis

Saturday Morning Tea

Dec13

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As I write this, I consider myself very blessed. The night before last brought a dangerous ice storm north and west of here and there were many power lines and trees brought down causing a lot of damage. Many folks are without power and will be for several more days, I’ve heard. My thoughts and prayers go out to those people. I hope that power will be restored for them very soon.

This morning I am sipping a very unique black tea from Taiwan called “Sun Moon Lake tea”. The enormous twisted leaves have a very wiry appearance, reminiscent of a Keemun Mao Feng tea. This tea is grown and all hand processed in the Sun Moon lake area of Taiwan. Sun Moon lake is the largest lake on the island of Taiwan and is named so because the eastern side is round and the western side is crescent shaped. It sounds like a very beautiful area surrounded by mountains.

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I steeped the leaves for 4 1/2 minutes in 212 degree F water. This produced a very dark tea liquor with a toasty aroma.

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Here is the tea steeping right after I poured the water in the teapot.

The tea is silky smooth without a trace of astringency. The taste is full and somewhat malty, reminiscent of a very smooth Assam tea. Notes of nutmeg and cinnamon are present with a whisper of mint in the finish. Mmmmm, I am enjoying this unique tea very much!

Each cup of tea represents an imaginary voyage.

~Catherine Douzel

Saturday Morning Tea

Dec6

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We’ve been enjoying milder weather here in central MA this first week in December, with temps reaching a balmy 50 degrees on some days. But yesterday a sharp, cold wind blew in from up north and swept all of the mild away. We may even get some snow flurries tonight. I’ve been cozying up to a blazing fire in the fireplace with a steaming cuppa.

This morning I’m sipping a Milky Oolong from Taiwan. Grown in the Dong Ding (Tung Ting) mountain area in Nantou county, the tea is harvested from March through December. Dong Ding mountain, perpetually shrouded in mist and fog, has an elevation of over 2400 feet and means “frozen summit” or “ice peak”. It’s one of the best known tea producing areas on the island.

First, the leaves are plucked from a special varietal of tea plant with large leaves. Then they are withered and allowed to oxidize in carefully controlled air conditioned rooms. Oolong teas are not as oxidized (fermented) as black teas so after a shorter time, they are steamed with high heat to stop that oxidation process. This Oolong is more on the greener side so its oxidation time is less than other darker Oolongs. The leaves have been tossed during processing so they are all curled up.

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I enjoyed watching the leaves unfurl during the 3 minute steep in 180 degree F water.

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Milky Oolong has such a unique taste that many stories have evolved to explain its unusual flavor. My favorite story is that the tea’s flavor came about as the result of a sudden shift in temperature during harvest that is an extremely rare occurrence. The first time this shift occurred was centuries ago when the moon fell in love with a comet passing through the night sky. The comet, passed by, burned out and vanished. The moon, in her great sorrow, caused a great wind to blow through the hills and valleys bringing about a quick drop in temperature. The next morning, local tea pluckers went out to collect their fresh leaves. To their surprise, when the tea was processed it had developed an amazing milky character, which was attributed to the motherly character of the old moon. I love that story and it reminds me of what we’ve been experiencing here recently with the change in the weather.

The aroma of this tea is floral with a rich hint of cream. Its flavor, also quite floral, reminds me very much of a Spring Dragon or Jade Oolong. It conjures up images of a blooming spring garden, ripe with its heady fragrance. There is also a buttery creaminess to the taste as well which gives a soft, silky feeling in my mouth.

This truly is a very special tea.

This weekend is a good one for knitting and crocheting holiday gifts by the fire, a hot cup of tea by my side.

Saturday Morning Tea

Nov29

I’m up early on this cool late November morning, contemplating all of the abundance and treasure that fills my life. The hamster wheel of thoughts in my mind can often bring me back to what is lacking or missing in my life, all that I have lost. We all do that from time to time, right? If only I…I should have…why didn’t I? I try so hard not to get caught up in this negative spiral of thoughts. I have found that the best solution in the face of that downturn is to stop myself, take a deep breath and focus on what is actually here, what I do have. So, in the spirit of all that is present in my life, I am sipping a China white tea called Fuding White Treasure. This tea is grown in the Fuding hills of Fujian province.

White teas are harvested from a Camellia sinensis var. sinensis (tea plant) varietal that will grow bigger leaves with more downy white hairs on the new growth. It is these fine hairs that give the leaves its whitish look and its name. The silvery white down is accentuated on the dry leaf which then turns a beautiful light green during a 3 minute steeping in 180 degree F water.

The green look of the wet leaf foreshadows its vegetal aroma and taste, much like that of a very fine green tea. To me, the difference lies in the soft delicacy of this tea, a gentle treasure. I find this tea much lighter in taste than a green tea. It also has a whisper of sweetness that lingers in the smooth finish.

White tea is hand picked in the springtime, most ideally in cool, dry weather. After picking, the leaves are withered (dried out) in the sun. During adverse weather conditions, the leaves are brought inside to be withered under carefully controlled conditions. The temperature and humidity will contribute greatly to the final taste of the tea so the tea master monitors all of these conditions very closely. After withering, the leaves are roasted or baked to further remove moisture from the leaves and halt oxidation (turning dark). White tea is the least processed of all of the tea categories so the leaf is the closest to its original state which gives it its delicate flavor.

I wrap my hands around my warm teabowl and give thanks for this treasure that is now warming my hands. I love doing that in cold weather, a lovely little ritual that helps me stop what I’m doing and be present in the moment. I focus on the delicious warmth of my teabowl and how wonderful it feels on my cold hands.

What do you do that helps you become present in the moment?

Saturday Morning Tea on Sunday

Nov23

This week we’ve experienced January weather with temps down into the high teens at night and a slight rise to the 20s during the day. Brrrrrr. A cold wind has swept all of the remaining leaves from the trees so I gaze out upon a stark, winter-like landscape as I sip my morning tea, a dark, rich Assam from the Banaspaty estate.

The tea leaves are fully oxidized, giving the wet leaf a deep mahogany color. When I first opened my tea packet, I was treated to a darkly sweet, malty aroma with hints of fruit. This tea has been cultivated organically at the Banaspaty tea estate, located in the heart of the Assam Valley in northeastern India. Fair Trade certification has given estate workers the opportunity to establish a wide range of social initiatives such as a scholarship fund so their children may attend school and a local pharmacy that helps raise the standard of their healthcare.

Here is an interesting 1850 engraving showing the stages of Assam tea production.

The russet tea liquor glows like a rich jewel in my glass teapot. A strong malty aroma wafts up as I remove the lid to pour my first cup of the day. This tea is very full-bodied with a malty flavor and characteristic Assam astringency. To smooth out the astringency, I add a dollop of milk to my cup after a few sips. Even though I will add a little milk to most full-bodied black teas such as Assams, Ceylons and China blacks, I like to taste the tea plain first so I can detect some of the subtle flavor notes. This tea has a hint of fruitiness which I had originally detected in the dry leaf aroma.

I have a confession to make. I have developed quite a fondness for Social tea biscuits lately, especially for dunking in my milk laced black teas. I am discovering that there is an art to how long to leave the biscuit in the tea. Too short and the biscuit is still hard, too long and it falls in your teacup (oh my!). So, I have been working on my timing to achieve the right melt in your mouth softness to my biscuit.

My jewelry show yesterday went very well and I had a lot of fun. I caught up with old friends, made some new ones and sold a bunch of jewelry. My primary observation is that these challenging economic times have caused shoppers to be more discerning with their choices, with most looking in the lower end of the price range spectrum. I sold mostly earrings in the $5-$30 range and a few bracelets in the $40-$50 range. I didn’t sell any necklaces, including the faux jade chokers I created a couple of weeks ago. I have been considering opening an Etsy shop for awhile now and this just might be the right time to do it.

What is your Etsy experience?