Global Tea Time

Eritrea Today we visit the small country that was once part of Ethiopia. They gained their independence in 1993.  Eritrea has a long coast on the Red Sea, and its name is an Italianized version of Mare Erythraeum - the Latin name for the Red Sea.  Like I said in my Ethiopia post, the tea of these 2 countries is similar, but they used slightly different spices (in the resources I reviewed). For today's tea I used a generous cup (250 mL) water, 1 teaspoon of black tea, a green cardamom pod, a whole clove, and some pieces of cinnamon.  I put the water on to boil while I cracked the cardamom pod and ground up the clove. When the water was just about boiling, I added everything, and let it simmer for 5 minutes.  Here it is. Nice and hot (check out that steam rising off the cup). This tea has a pleasing level of spice. Black tea is not boring here. I like how the addition of different spices can make the same black t...

Ethiopia Today we again travel to the horn of Africa. Actually just a bit inland from the horn to Ethiopia . I didn't realize that Eritrea was once part of Ethiopia. Without it, Ethiopia is now landlocked. I also didn't know that Addis Ababa (the name of the capital city) means "new flower". These days, it seems that Ethiopia is known for growing teff, one of those "super foods" people go nuts over. While I would be intrigued to try it since it is part of east African cuisine, I won't buy it because western demand is taking it away from the people who really need it for daily food. Like Kenya, Ethiopia is a destination for fossil hunters and researchers who study early human ancestors. This is the home of "Lucy", a 3.2 million year old human ancestor. I saw a reproduction of Lucy's skeleton at the Museum of Nairobi. They also had a diorama set up of how they thought the landscape looked with models of how Lucy and her relatives were th...

Rwanda Today we travel to Rwanda . Rwanda is a small, landlocked country south of the equator. It is just north of another small country in the region, Burundi . I wasn't able to find any information about Tea in Burundi. Apparently they have an extensive coffee industry. Among interesting things I have learned about Rwanda, they have a national ballet and orchestra. The ballet borrows from traditional dances for their choreography. I think that would be really interesting to see. The orchestra is described as more modern in their musical style. Burundi sounds very similar in description. I know a couple who runs a music studio locally, and they record for a group that is originally from Burundi. They gave me a CD, and while I don't normally listen to religious music, most of it is not in English, so it sounds like traditional African music to me. It is a very bright, joyful sounding collection.  Now, on to the tea! I was intrigued by the method I found for making tea in...

Madagascar What do I know about Madagascar? It's a large island off of the east coast of the African continent. When my sister was a kid, she had a teacher who had some hissing cockroaches from Madagascar, and she used them as a visual aid for a report she did on Madagascar. As part of her report, she had to make a food from her chosen country, so she made some sort of fried bread. I really don't remember it all that well (hey it wasn't my project). I do remember that there was some kid who said that she was serving up fried cockroaches (gotta love kids, and the things they say). Just in case you are wondering, no cockroaches were involved in the making of this tea (or my sister's project years ago). Here is some more information about Madagascar . It's the 4th largest island in the world. While it is in close proximity to the African continent, the people are more closely related to those in Indonesia. French colonial rule actually brought them closer to the...