Reunion

Réunion

Réunion is a small, volcanic island east of Madagascar. From its description, the population is comprised of a diverse mixture of races and cultures. I found a video about harvesting tea in Réunion. Apparently they make white tea. White tea is minimally oxidized, and is not terribly popular in the area where I live. If it is found in bagged tea, it is always combined with something else. As luck would have it, white peony tea is available in the bulk food section of one of my local grocery stores. Unfortunately the video doesn't show how white tea is served in Réunion, so I will be serving it in my favorite fashion. Plain. 

Just add hot water!

While it is true that if you can boil water, you can make tea, some teas are a bit fussy. According to the reference table in one of my books, white teas brew at about the same temperature as green teas (180 Fahrenheit), but they are steeped longer. The resource I'm using today says that 7 minutes is a good brewing time, so that's what I did.

I was feeling a bit lazy this morning and placed the leaves in my brewing basket rather than brewing in a different vessel and straining into my cup. 

This is the final product. It seems a bit more yellow in color than other teas I have had, but it still tastes good. I can't say that it matches the description of white tea linked above. However, I have seen other descriptions that say white peony tea is normally dark yellow in color. I imagine that honey or sugar would be a popular addition. While I'm only used to adding milk to black tea, or peppermint tea, I think some people would be fine with adding milk to this as well. After all, I have discovered that milk works with ginger and rooibos, so why not with white tea as well? Perhaps I will come across more information in the future about how the residents of Réunion take their tea.