Saturday, February 18, 2006

Tea'd Off

Well, now that I got my Winter Olympics editorial off my chest, on to kinder, gentler things...namely, tea.

I've never been an enthusiastic tea drinker; I enjoy the very pale, flowery green tea served in Chinese restaurants, but I've never been able to replicate the flavor at home; and I can only drink black tea if it's been majorly amended with milk.

But one of my bosses introduced me to white tea at this year's office Christmas tea. White tea is made from the very youngest tea-leaf buds, when they're coated in white fuzz. It's wonderful; I love it. Since then I've tried the Stash white/green tea mix, and that was good, but my current favorite is Choice brand Organic White Peony tea from my food coop. I enjoy it plain, with some barely-sweet snack like shortbread on the side. (And, by the way, there are no peonies in white peony tea, because peonies are poisonous. So don't be picking flowers out of your perennial bed and trying to make peony tea out of them.)

If you don't think you like tea, try white tea -- tea for non-tea-drinkers. It's a nice warming treat on an extremely cold morning.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Green tea has supposedly been popular in the UK among the cognoscenti (?sp) and now white tea is the 'in' thing.

Not tried any of them - as far as I'm concerned you can't beat a good old British 'cuppa' good and strong, with milk!! :)

Anonymous said...

If you can find Jasmine tea- in leaf form-try health food stores it is essentially what we know as green tea in the west.
Being a Brit we are spoilt for choice of teas over here...
but had fun whilst living in Texas (Houston) in trying to bring some of our stranger Brit tea bags into the US. tHEY WERE IN A NEW PYRAMID STYLE AND CUSTOMS X-RAYED AND INVESTIGATED SEVERAL BAGS BEFORE LETTING US THROUGH!!!

Anonymous said...

ROFL!!!!!!

Ruth said...

Silly customs, clearly coffee drinkers.

I heart tea. LC, my thought on a black tea that might not offend your pallete: Lady Grey (Twinings). One may or many not take offense to its name...it is essientially a kinder gentler Earl Grey.

A great gift does some nice teas. They have a lemony one that I..hmm haven't tried yet and seem to have misplaced...darnit.

I also encorage all mint teas, and chamomile teas. The organics section in most supermarkets are a goldmine for kinder, gentler teas.

RevHRod said...

When I was in my late 20's and in my first parish, all of my best girlfriends were over 60 and members of the women's circle. I learned from these lovely women the joy of drinking hot water. No Sanka, no tea bag, just hot water. No lemon, no sugar, no honey- just water.

Every so often, that's what I want to have on a cold day. It always gets a raised eyebrow from someone, but sometimes it's exactly what I want.