Drink - Prachett - Tea - Gaming - Art
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Tea
When I get my time machine I am going to go back to
the
Boston Tea Party, save some of the tea, then sell it on e-bay.
Will tea stay fresh over time travel?
The one constant comfort I've known, since my great grandmother fixed me a nice cuppa and poured it from her copper I think pot, was tea. I remember orange spice tea on cold dark January days, and a strange confusion late when I bought some orange pekoe tea later and it didn't taste like orange at all.
Hot summer days made bearable by cold tea with bright lemon flavors. When in Virginia I discovered Trade Winds Copper Kettle Brewed Sweet Tea with Lemon and Lime, and added it to my list of beverage favorites - which I often emulated with home brewings. Also teas made with fresh mint - yum!
Trips to visit my father's clan down in Blanchard Oklahoma were always filled with pitchers of sweet tea at every house. The 2005 - 2006 holiday break, when I attended wake and funeral for an uncle, showed the tradition was alive and well. Every house we visited was well stocked with sweet tea, and I drank it greedily down. Nothing goes as well with spicy BBQ, or fried chicken, as sweet tea.
I've had several tea sources that I've purchased from over the years, from the Puddin' Lane IGA to the Orleans Coffee Exchange. I've had my affairs with the tea rounds sold through Barnes & Nobles, and Starbuck's Cafes. The Pearl Tea Pagoda in California was a regular stop. Asian Markets have some amazing green teas and years ago I purchased pounds of tea form the Orleans Coffee Exchange. For a while I'd try every new bottle of tea or bag of tea that hit the shelves. Then it became popular and so many companies sold crap.
The Tea Revolution
Before I left Oklahoma a dear friend gave me several packages of tea. They had been purchased from Gordman's, so I really didn't hold out any hope they'd be very good. But she was very cool, so I tried them. The tins of tea went first, and were OK, but it took me a while to get to the Royal Plum Tea sold by Revolution Tea. Honestly, I didn't even drink it until I needed a warm beverage one night in the fall of 2005.
Wow, it was great! In short order the box was emptied and pretty much forgot about it because I'd never seen it in grocery stores. Then, when on a rogue adventure to see the largest Wegmans (an uber-cool grocery store) in the area I spied that same brand and flavor of tea on sale. I scored a box of that, and a couple boxes of their Chai (also on sale). The Chai was amazingly tasty and the Royal Plum still impresses.
So on my last trip out I scored their sampler packs and the English Breakfast tea is some of the best English Breakfast tea I've had since I last ate breakfast in England. The Tropical Green tea was pretty darned good, but you can usually find better green teas in Asian markets. The show stealer was Earl Grey with Lavender... mmm, heaven in a cup. I didn't even know lavender was edible.
Jasmine Tea
Some of the best tea I have ever enjoyed is jasmine pearl tea. Pearl tea is tea leaves rolled up in little balls like gunpowder tea, but larger. It shouldn't be confused with black pearl/boba/bubble tea, a cold drink that is made with tapioca pearls, even though I think boba tea drinks are very tasty as well.
Not only is it very tasty but it is the coolest looking tea I've ever seen. Dry it looks like little pellets, but in water the pellets unroll and expand like those brightly colored capsules that leave you with a sink full of sponge dinosaurs or sea critters. Except instead of having a colorful dinosaur or animal it looks like the teapot is filled with tentacles. If Ken Hite were here I’d share a cup of this cthonic brew with him. He’d like the way it looks, and who could resist the taste?
Tea is my daily drink. The problem is, on an empty stomach to much tea can make me nauseous. My preferred tea is a jasmine green tea, though when I'm feeling decadent or need of some kind of self-affirming beverage-consumption a luscious Chai hits the spot.
I used to really like oolong teas, and I was given a box of decent oolong for Hogswatch 2005, and it was a shock; I don't remember oolong teas having and almost sour taste. Then again, last time I had any decent oolong I was drinking primarily American red/black teas. I'm finding my tast for oolong again.
I've really come to dislike the tea powder that passes for tea in most American tea bags, but a truly well concocted southern sweet tea bucks that elitist trend. Yes it would probably be better with a better tea, but for something created from a bag of what would be floor sweepings in other countries, it still has a lot of soul.
It's now time for me to go and get rid of the crap that's piled up in
my tea cabinet.
