Jasmine Green

This tea, of course, is for China. According Numi's description, this tea originated in the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and was reserved for the Imperial Court. Jasmine flowers are laid atop green tea leaves, and their scent is naturally embraced.

I couldn't resist scattering a few jasmine pearls around for this one. The instructions on the back of the bag say to steep for 2-3 minutes as the scent of spring fills the air. Considering we just got our fist big snow of the winter yesterday, I'm totally ready for spring! Today, when I post this, we've had several snows since then - in only a few short weeks, and survived actual temperatures of -24 F on Wednesday, to waking up to 42 F on Sunday morning.

I noticed the perfume of jasmine flowers as soon as I poured the water over the bag. I had my immediate fear of the feeling of drinking perfume. Either I'm getting used to jasmine tea, or high quality tea is way more palatable than the cheap stuff (yes!), but I liked this tea. It has a nice hint of spring without being perfumy, and has a nice green tea flavor base.


My view to the south looks a lot different now that the wagon shop has been torn down. We have had worse snows for sure, but this is enough for me! Here's hoping for little snow, and early spring.

Comments

  1. Poppy CrockerFebruary 3, 2019 at 7:20 AM

    Definitely hoping spring will come soon! (We might hit 50 tomorrow, so I'll get at least a taste.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lace makerFebruary 3, 2019 at 10:05 AM

    Tomorrow's high is listed as 47. Right now everything is icy/slushy slop and it's really foggy. The temperature may be springlike, but it certainly does not look warm or inviting outside.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Equatorial Guinea

Image
Equatorial Guinea Today we go to Equatorial Guinea , which consists of "Rio Muni" - Continental Equatorial Guinea, and 5 small islands known collectively as Insular Equatorial Guinea. When researching this country, I found "osang" tea. I found the name only, no instructions on how to make it. Mystery tea Upon doing some research, osang is a generic name for African milk tea. I couldn't pin down any specific flavors used for this region, just a general description of how people all over Africa make this tea. The base is black tea with milk. The suggested add ins are shown below. Tea Masala (thank you Indian food store), ginger, cardamom, or lemongrass. No, don't use them all together. Today I'm in the mood for cardamom, so that's what I used. The one blog I found about making this suggested a 1:1 ratio of milk and tea. I used 3/4 cup (about 200 ml) of each, with 3 cardamom pods. As usual, you can add sugar to taste. I decided to add the c
Read more

Afghani Pink Milk Tea (Qaimaq Chai)

Image
Afghani Pink Milk Tea ...and inadvertent lessons in chemistry. If you look up Afghani tea, you will find some really pretty pictures of a pink tea ranging from vaguely pink to really bright pink. How do you make it? Well, here are the ingredients for the tea portion: Ah yes, the usual. Some sort of tea (this time green tea), good old cardamom with the mortar and pestle waiting in the background, and baking soda. Wait a minute, WHAT?! Are we making tea or cookies today? Well, I'm just following directions. A little skeptically at this point, but here we go. I read some blogs about gross retro recipes , and I feel like I'm looking at a contender, but I will trust that the people in Afghanistan know what they are doing, and make it. After all, for the people who like to actually cook those recipes and taste them, some really do work quite well. I went with the instructions with the shorter video. The one that can be brewed in less than an hour. I started with 2-3 cups (5
Read more

Ataya/Waraga/Tuareg Tea

Image
"Berber Whiskey" What do you make on a Saturday afternoon when you're tired? I mean really tired. Like you just woke up from a 3 hour nap, and all you want to do is go back to sleep. I will admit I was a bit leery of this one when I found out how it was made, but this is wildly popular so I had to try it. This version of tea has many names, and some sources say that this is used like alcohol in cultures that forbid drinking and using drugs.  Ataya (or attaya - I've seen it spelled both ways), also known as Tuareg tea (so named for the Tuareg tribe), is a very social tea ceremony in West Africa. Most reviews say to expect to take at least 3 hours and have several rounds of tea. Over time, each round of tea is supposed to get milder and sweeter. Sometimes instructions say that mint is added. It is popular in many countries: The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau , Senegal (The Gambia is actually inside Senegal with a small border on the Atlantic), Sierra Leone , Mali , Mau
Read more