Boston

So Boston Blend, which is one of my favorites, was my pot of tea this morning. However, I come not to wax rhapsodic over this brew, but instead tell of my weekend! It involves tea!
Sunday I went to a Japanese Tea School, to take part in a demonstration of the traditional tea ceremony for Boys Day.
It was fascinating. There is a ton of ritual and symbolism, and the actual preparation of the tea was done with great slowness and care and each guest is given the bowl of matcha one at a time, to drink. Then we pass the bowls around to study them, and the students told us about the instruments they used in the ceremony, where they were from, or any linage they had. A tea scoop with lineage! Thats fantastic.
I’m a novice in all things matcha, and to be honest I liked the ceremony more than the actual tea, but it was a wonderful experience! I’d love to go again.
And maybe I’ll be a little more mindful with my own morning beverage, from here on out.

This is a good news/bad news sorta thing: my Harney&Sons order arrived today! Holy moley you guys. Everything smells so amazing! I guess the bad news is that I am UP to 145 teas, and some of these are bigger quantities that I don’t want to sipdown. And I’m still expecting tea from TerriHarpLady, Kittenna, JustJames and one or two others.

Either way – Sil – I hope you like H&S, because if I’m as happy with these teas as I expect to be, I’m going to want a group order. :O

Now, onto THIS TEA.
Even though I wasn’t feeling so great I had to try SOMETHING, so here I am. Why not Boston? And it’s as good as I’d hoped for. It’s a strong black, without being bitter, and I can totally taste the fruit underlying it. I think I’m getting the almond too!

I’ll rate this another day as I have 4oz to drink up, and I don’t trust my taste buds completely yet.

ETA: Gaaaah. This is so good. Also, this office is freaking HOT. It’s 27C in here? I hope my tea will be ok in my metal cabinet…

Okay all, I am getting ready to preach!

Three years ago this week I went for a mammogram. I was about a year late because I was too busy to get one and since I was the poster child for low risk factor I really didn’t need to go, did I now? There was no lump, no changes. But it came back abnormal.

A second one was ordered, then a biopsy, and finally on December 21st I received the official diagnosis. I had cancer. The cancer it was impossible for me to have because I had four kids, I breastfed them, and there was no family history of it.

How does this apply to tea?

This is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and Panera Bread sells a special bagel in the shape of a ribbon. It is cherry vanilla flavored and I miss it when they quit making them.

Today I ground some wheat and made my usual buttermilk bread loaf, but this time I added some vanilla, Craisins, and chopped walnuts to try to recreate the taste of the bagel I love but can only buy one month out of the year. This loaf of bread is already history. Writer’s Group finished all that was left after tea time today! I also made a homemade version of Panera’s Cheesecake Spread, which is just cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, and a hint of cinnamon. (I left out the crushed graham crackers.)

What would be more perfect to pair with it than Mike Harney’s masterful Boston Blend? Everyone went so nuts over this tea that I made three large pots just for group, and one at tea time earlier. One group member who is crazy about green teas and jasmine teas said it was her most favorite tea of all the ones she has ever had at my house…and she isn’t even a huge black tea fan!

This is an intimate, cozy up tea. A quiet steady friend tea. A comfort tea.

Now, if you are female, make sure you have had your mammogram. If you are male, pester the women in your life to get one. My husband prodded me to go, “just to be sure.” I am thankful.

I was reading Rosehip’s review of this tea and decided it was exactly what I was in the mood for. Today the almond seems a bit stronger than usual, but I’m fine with that. It works well with the slight bready flavor of the tea. Add the tartness of the cranberry and I have the perfect cup to sip on while I put the fall decorations away and get ready to decorate for Christmas (Yay!).

I am running around like crazy lately, so I don’t have time to say much more about this one than: every time I have this I am reminded at how freaking delicious it is, and how much it is like a fruity Coquelicot Gourmand (Dammann Freres). The almond is just amazing in this blend, sweet and creamy and almondy and fantastic. Love love love it.

Had this as my afternoon cup to accompany an apple pastry. The slight tartness of the cranberry helped to cut the sweetness of the pastry, although oddly, despite the strong cranberry scent that this tea has, the taste is very much an even balance between a vanilla-almond and cranberry, and i’d even say the almond is at the front end of the sip. It’s been a while since i’ve had this in my cupboard, and I’m glad to welcome it back for a season again. I am wondering what would happen if I added some vanilla sugar to this next time, or if that’d just clash with the almond-vanilla in the tea.

Sipdown (206)!

Tre’s being such a sweetheart since I’ve had such a poor week (well, let’s be honest – month). He’s been cooking for me on a regular basis, and not being an ass about all the tea I have, washing the dishes when it’s not his turn, and today he even brought me a bag of my favourite baked Ketchup chips.

Honestly, it’s starting to get a little suspicious! Might have to milk it a little more to see what the limits here are, heh…

Anyway, I received a nice one cup sample size of this from Kittenna that I had totally forgotten about prior to updating my spreadsheet. Of course, I couldn’t resist getting in the sipdown and trying another Harney tea.

Parameters: 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf in 8 oz. boiling water steeped for five minutes.

The smell is a light (and creamy?) black tea, with sweet and distinct cranberry notes. That’s much more than I got from the dry leaf – to me that smelled like just a plain black.

Taste wise, I was instantly in love from the first sip. It has a very smooth, silky mouthfeel and taste that fits the black base which is present but not too commanding. The cranberry taste is very fresh and present, and mostly sweet with just a tiny touch of tartness. That’s all it really needs though – too much tartness would throw off the balance here. There’s also a very rich and creamy vanilla flavour which I wasn’t anticipating but just adore and I think that it’s part of what is keeping the cranberry from becoming too tart. This is just topped off with some subtle background almond notes. As it cooled off, it acquired just the slightest bit of astringency, but in a way which worked.

I’m just so, SO in love with this! Thank God that I have some more on the way from Keychange! This is the first Harney tea I’ve found where I would gladly and confidently buy the 4 oz. tin of it.

Have always wanted to try this one; Nicole gave me the opportunity. Without peeking at reviews, I remembered there was cranberry, but I couldn’t put my finger on the “other” I was tasting. Other is almond! And really, really tasty almond at that.

These are two flavors that can be used in interpreted really badly—way too tart on the cranberry, way too bitter on the almond, but this is a pretty perfect representation of both. I think I may need to try some on ice!

The July TeaLog Catchup !
(Formerly known as The Early July TeaLog Catchup !, but we have moved into teas I drank in mid to late July I think.)

So this was the last of my Boston Blend. I had a bit more than I needed to make the cup but I dumped it all in, and it was so good. I would definitely get more of this tea in the future as I like it very much.

2 steeps.

Another tea with just a single serving left now, yay! I quite enjoyed it this (second) last time. A black tea with all the right flavours to make it delicious. I can’t even really describe it, it’s just good.