1/16/08

Went by the Milk and Honey tearoom yesterday, at about 2:15, and guess what? They were closed. They closed at 2. I was looking in the window when the proprietor came up and said they were closed, as if the sign on the door and locked door didn't indicate that. I realized, though, that tearooms seem to be all about frou-frou, and not about tea. They have very flowery teaware: teapots, teacups, and so on. Not at all masculine. There should be ducks and rifles on the wall. Foxes and horses, like the English countryside. Hmmm...but then again, what about the people in China and India? It's not so gender specific there, I don't think...

Also, had a great tisane: Peppermint tea. It was surprisingly satisfying. It ended up just like tea in terms of the liquor and the taste, but with the peppermint cooling...that would be a great addition to a milder black tea...not sure which, though. Not well enough developed to make a suggestion.

1/15/08

I think I'm going break down and buy some more tea from Adagio. Although, since I'm off today maybe I'll go into Teavana, just to check it out, since it's a "random Tuesday" and it is unlikely to be very crowded. Their little shops are small. Or maybe I could go to a tearoom/teashop, like Kalesia...or somewhere else. I'll have to look at the teamap website, to see what I can find.

Meanwhile, I'm home today, drinking more Irish Breakfast. It does come on strong! Even though I used far less than the last time, I understand why people talk about it being strong. Whew! It's also more astringent that I expect, too. In fact, it's strong like coffee is strong. It of course has a different flavor than coffee, but it has the taste kick that coffee does, yet isn't as bitter as coffee. It would make sense to drink coffee with milk and sugar, and I can see why you'd do the same thing to tea, yet, this tea doesn't need the milk or sugar as much. I have the impression (inaccurately, I'm sure) that the poor would have preferred tea to coffee because it's easier to drink without milk and sugar. When I think about this, though, I realize that the French didn't go this route. Just the English. Of course, tea would have been cheaper than coffee because of the trade monopolies that the English had with India and China, in a way that the French did not. Or the Italians, etc. Interesting...

1/13/08

I bought the Irish Breakfast tea from Twinings at the grocery store. Yesterday I made some, and it was nice, mild, and decent tasting stuff. Today I made it and it was too strong.
It comes in a tin, and the tea itself is granules, rather than loose leaves...they are loose, though, but it's more like very loose sand than anything. I can dip my teaspoon into the tea without fear of breaking any of the tea leaves up. I just have to watch the portion.

I like the label. When you open up the tin, it has a foil wrapper, with instructions on making the tea. A teaspoon per person/per cup, plus "one for the pot." Nice. I like that. I'd heard of the 'one for the pot' before, but it was nice to see it somewhere in writing. The issue with the tea's being in granular form is that it goes through the little strainer in the spout of teapot, so you end up with tea granules in your teacup. Not optimal. It is a step up from the tea bags, though. I'll have to work on that. Maybe put a mesh over the holes to prevent that. Also not optimal. I'll figure something out. There's still some rough edges with the whole tea thing that I haven't figured out, and that I haven't seen solved anywhere.

One last thing. The tin for the Irish Breakfast is green. Naturally. The problem, of course, is that this is the same color for DECAF everything. Of course, this isn't decaf tea, but I think they got it wrong by choosing the Irish color for their tea tin for this variety of tea. People might stay away from it because they would automatically think it's decaf, when it isn't.