Germany

I survived my first week in my new job. The weather welcomed me back to commuting by snowing twice. In fact, our second snow for the season triggered a winter weather advisory. What have I done?! In reality, all I have to do is think about my old job, and suddenly commuting doesn't seem all that bad.

Speaking of difficult things, I decided to visit Germany today. While I'm not trying to say that Germans are difficult, finding out about what tea they drink is. I live in an area colonized by a group of Germans, and some of them still keep in contact with relatives in Germany through the internet, and visits. Thees people are dedicated to genealogy, and keeping ties with family considering this group of Germans have been in this country for close to 200 years. I don't recall exactly when this group came to the states (and I'm too tired/lazy to look it up), but I know that they moved to their current location in 1855 after spending a period of time living in New York state. 

I know that German chamomile is a popular tea. Don't ask me why it's popular, but people seem to like it (NOT me!). According to friends who routinely go to Germany to visit people, tea is not commonly drunk there. Sigh. Apparently they don't like chamomile tea either. Thanks to the internet, I found mention of a few other types of tea that people in Germany drink. Black tea with cream or lemon, mint, and rose hips. Today I chose to brew some rose hip tea. 

While everyone is obsessed with squeezing the life out of oranges and drinking the resulting sugar water in the name of vitamin C, there is also rose water, and rose hip tea. 

I've had these rose hips for a while. I guess it's time to use them again. 

I gave a generous teaspoon full of them a 5 minute steep in a cup of water. while the internet shows a delicate pink drink, mine has a certain orange tint in the picture. I'll admit that I had a feeling that there was some food coloring at play with the rose waters and teas pictured online. 

Honestly, I didn't think the color was this vivid when I was drinking the tea. I had intentionally made it stronger than I had before, because I remembered that the previous attempts had yielded a pale brew with mild flavor. I found this strength to be pleasantly flavored. To me, it had a hint of cinnamon flavor. I really liked this better than I remembered. Who needs orange juice with all its sugar to get going in the morning when you have this as an option?

Okay, this may not be as iconic as German beer, but at least you can drive and go to work after drinking it.

The main thing I remember about Germany when I was a kid was that it was divided by a wall. A big wall, with guards, and it divided capitalism from the evil communism. Living in what was once a communal colony, I find that there are good and bad things about both systems. Not a big surprise.

There is a long list of places where the group of people who built the community I live in lived in Germany. They lived there during a different time of religious persecution. I know that there was a convent that the group rented for a year, and that the Ronneburg castle was a refuge for many groups who were being persecuted for their religion. They are the sister city of the villages where I live, and I hear that the castle is now a museum with rooms dedicated to different groups who lived there. Maybe someday I will get to go see it, but until then, I have met people visiting from there in my community. 

Hopefully I will have a post a little sooner in the day next week, but I wouldn't count on it.