Tea vs Tea

So I'm thinking about the difference between Mighty Leaf tea and Adagio tea. The Mighty Leaf teas, I'm realizing, are cut/curled differently than the Adagio, and I haven't made the transition very well from one to the other. The Adagio teas are more tightly packed, smaller leaves, yet still full sized, darker...whereas the Mighty Leaf teas are not as black, the leaves are bigger, not as tightly rolled, and they don't expand as much in the water after they are brewed. I feel like I don't know how to handle the Mighty Leaf leaves in their teas. So I'm feeling that I've been unfair in all the things I've said. I guess maybe it just goes back to figuring out how much, how it brews...this really is an art.

Fujian Baroque

So I got a gift certificate from a friend of mine for my birthday to Adagio. And I bought four different types of tea. When I get the tea, though, it's got a 5th! So I get 5 ounces of tea for the price of 4. Nice. :-)

The teas I got are Fujiuan Baroque, Yunnan Noir, Golden Spring, Keemun Rhapsody, and the St Patrick's Day tea...

I like how the leaves are actually black, and more compact. Makes measuring the tea easier. And dealing with it in general.

The Fujian Baroque had a great scent to it, almost peppery. I can't wait to try the others.

Just the right amount

What is the right amount? Normally I'm pretty good at eyeballing the correct amount of tea to make, but lately I've been having some pretty serious issues with putting in the correct amount. At first, it wasn't enough, and now, it's too much!

The other day I put in the perfect amount of Golden Monkey, and it was a rich, delicious brew. I was all about it. The other days after that, though, too strong! I have no idea what I did right, or what the right amount was, but it was just perfect. Rich is how I think of it. I cycle back and forth through the Yunnan, Golden Monkey, and the Black Gold. I did the Black Gold right the other day, too. But oddly it tasted like very weak coffee. Acidic maybe? It was really good, yet it had that flavor.

Today I made the Golden Monkey, and it was all right, but there was a powder residue in the shape of the infuser on my desk after I poured the leaves out of the bag...Maybe I should use the tiny tins I have, to keep the tea in the back from all being opened at once, and keep it from powdering so much. There's an idea...

Tea Rooms

I went to 2 different tea rooms over the last two weeks.

The first was "Angel Tea Room & Heavenly Treasures Gift Shop." I discovered in downtown Dade City one night a couple of weeks before Christmas. The downtown area was doing "A Christmas Stroll", and all the different antique shops were open, and music, and all sorts of activities were going on. Well, the tearoom was open, so I had to go in. There's lots of breakables in there, and I had my 3 year old son in there with me, so it was a brief visit, with me looking after him more than me checking the place out. So I vowed to go back.

I went back about 10 days later, with a friend of mine, and took some pictures. They said they have an assortment of teas, which I'm sure they do, but the lady that waited on us clearly had a strong idea of which teas we should have, and that interfered with the experience, I think, because I was very strongly steered in a direction I wasn't prepared to go. So I ended up w/ a green tea infusion, mixed with what I thought was peach, though my companion said it tasted like something else, but the flavor was so subtle I could hardly tell. I wanted to try a black tea, but that didn't happen, obviously.

We also got a scones, with the "Berkshire Cream" and Strawberry Jelly. The cream and jelly were in separate little sections on the plate. The presentation was beautiful! The scones were great, very flaky and flavorful, if a bit dry. The Berkshire Cream almost has the consistency of sweet whipped butter. But butter is churned cream, after all. The price was reasonable, and I wish I hadn't had such a big lunch before I got there! I took the scone home with me, and I ate it later.

The shop itself is quite beautiful, full of dainty things, and some teaware. I mentioned before that I purchased a teapot from this place when I was at the "Christmas Stroll" thing. They had some other "gadgety" type things, like a metal insert you put into the teapot spout to prevent dripping, or a few strainers for tea leaves. I also purchased a "tea measuring" thing...I'm sure it has a better name than that, though I haven't used it yet.

They have books on a carousel. The books are mostly about women, and sharing tea, and all the finery that goes with it. My standard joke has become "I'll open a tea room of my own with ducks, and guns, and bird-dogs" because this tea room is so girly and frilly, and beautiful. I had spoken with the owner about people coming in, and single men do apparently go there. This is quite unlike the experience I had at the other tea room I went to.

So 3.5 stars out of 4, with points docked because of the high pressure sales "suggestions" I got from the waitress. Also, too bad they don't have a website!

-------

"The Tea Cup Tea Room, Gifts & Events, Inc." is the other tea room I went to. This is a converted house situated off a busy roadway, yet is still hidden. My friend that I met there said she drives by there all the time and has never seen it! I can see why, since when I drove up to it for the first time, I had trouble finding it myself.

I drive up and the front entrance has a sign telling customers to go around to the back, and the front area didn't have any more parking anyway, so that was easy. Friend, who showed up a few minutes later, had to walk around the place to come in the back entrance. Now, the back entrance is the preferred side anyway, since it has a nice patio with a few tables for the outside taking of tea. It might have been more Victorian, though, if there'd been croquet out there, too. Ok, I'm kidding about that last part. It was really nice, though.

Because I went the day after Christmas, it was really busy! There were people waiting for a table in the main entrance/shop area, sitting on red velvet couches (which were comfortable), which was set up like a small living room. They really had the place decked out for Christmas, though, with all kinds of decorations, tea related things, and all kinds of curios and such. There was a table with everything 50% off, and they had some teapots for sale, that were only for looking, and not actually for making tea! I, of course, think this is a travesty, since teapots are typically beautiful with their designs and such...and they're functional, not just decorative.

I also came at the end of the rush, so I waited almost 20 minutes for a table, which allowed me some time to really browse the place. I'm always fascinated with the fact that different tea rooms have different kinds of hardware to make tea with. This place had some nice silver tea strainers that fit on the top of your cup, though I wonder how functional that is. And they had the traditional variety of screen-type strainers, but they were shallow like the silver ones. Maybe it's just for catching the leaves that the teapot strainers don't catch.

So we finally get seated, and the owner (I guess?) tells us that the waiter will be there to help us in a minute. So we wait and wait, and I'm glad I had good company, because we waited a while. And I'm looking around realizing that I'm the only male in the place, save the single waiter. I had noticed this before, but wow. I really am! There were other wait staff, too, of course. Meanwhile, I finally go ask the guy if he can wait on us, and he's like, "OH! My mom didn't tell me..." But it still takes forever for him to get to our table, and get our order, and then bring it to us.

We both ordered an artichoke chicken cream soup, and it was HOT! I almost burned my tongue! It was getting toward the end of the lunch rush, and the soup had begun to separate, but wasn't quite there yet. In spite of this, the soup was great! They served it in fine tea cups, which is a bit of a puzzle, but it worked well enough. I also ordered a turkey-bacon club, which was really good, too. I was very hungry, and that's the heartiest thing they had on the menu. My companion didn't have anything more than the soup.

The tea I had was a black tea, with cranberry in it. My friend had a much lighter tea, that the owner specifically said she didn't like, that it could steep all day, and that it would never get any stronger. And almost to the point of "Don't order it." Of course, she did, and it was pretty good. I don't know what was wrong with it. I should have noted which tea it was, just like the one that I had. They do have a website, but it doesn't have a menu on it. The teas were good; the service, on the day after Christmas, was poor, but understandable; the food was great, the atmosphere was elegant; overall it was enjoyable. I will definitely go back there. 3.5 stars out of 4.

Too Strong!

I think I've figured out my tea problem: I'm making all the teas too strong. So now I'll have to scale back, and hope for a better flavor when I have them.

That's teapot that I bought? I'm having mixed feelings about it. It holds two cups, and I'm surprised that the infuser that comes with the pot doesn't let all the tea leaves out. A major problem is that you don't know how much water is in the pot because the infuser is in the way, with the tea leaves in it. But then you will overfill the pot, because by the time you can tell how much water you have, it's overfull. And then, if you want to fill it up first, then settle the infuser in the water, some of the leaves are going to float on top. And you're going to have the issue of having the infuser push out some of the water. Can't win with this stuff! I do like the way that the lid fits into the infuser, though, and then that little assembly fits into the tea pot.

And the tea that I had was the Keemun Superior. I made it too strong, but not too too strong, but enough that I lost some of the flavor, and it just tasted like tea, bland and plain.

I was at the airport yesterday, and there was a young woman who was talking to someone on a cell phone, mentioned a tea room that just got started in Georgia somewhere. I asked her about it, and she was clueless, beyond just knowing that it was opening up. I told her about my blog, and she's like, "what is there to talk about with tea?" So I began a small lecture on different teas, why they're different, and so on. And other tea related topics. There's a lot to discuss when it comes to tea, actually. A whole culture. I'm sure I'm just scratching the surface.

What I'd like to get is a tea brick, which is compressed tea leaves, with a design on it, usually as part of a much larger set. Settlers used to take the bricks with them, and scrape off enough to make tea on their trips.