Global Tea Time

Okay, this post has absolutely nothing to do with tea (other than I'm sipping my ginger pu-erh while posting this), but I had an orchid that finally decided to bloom. It sent out the stalk for the flowers in January, and today is the day! Given the strange times right now, I thought I would throw in a little joy from the natural world that lives in my window. 

Today's post is a bit late. I went to the grocery store this morning (first time in 3 weeks). The good news is that there was food. There was also a little TP left, along with paper towels, and several bottles of dish soap. Liquid hand soap, rubbing alcohol, regular hand sanitizer, hydrogen peroxide, and sanitizing wipes/sprays were still nowhere to be seen. There were little bottles of 80% alcohol from a local distillery that were being hawked as hand sanitizer. It was just plain alcohol being sold at double the price... The pictures on my stored post were also gone, so like last week, I had to go in and add them back, so the formatting is a bit wonky again. I got this recipe for tea in the British Virgin Island s from an advertisement. It wasn't an advertisement for tea, rather an advertisement for soy sauce. Yes, you read that right. I was a little skeptical myself, but decided to give it a try. Here are the ingredients. Earl grey tea, ginger, lemon peel (and lemon j...

The North American continent has held some surprises. So did this website when I opened my post and found that all my pictures were gone! I had a grey oval with a minus sign in the middle of them in their place. Sigh. Good thing I don't delete my pictures right away. Now I have to go find them again. Also, adding the pictures back in is totally messing up the formatting, so sorry if the post looks a little weird. I have found a couple of "different" tea recipes. They start out pretty standard, then add an unexpected twist. Guatemala was one such place. It is also referred to being in Central America, so it depends on how you want to split things up. It shares a border with Mexico and Belize to the north, and Honduras and El Salvador to the south. Sadly, one of the things I remember about Guatemala was a show I heard on NPR in college talking about how the CIA really got started by starting the guerrilla war in Guatemala. Peace came in 1996, and elections have been held...

Since everyone is cooped up and bored, and restaurants and drinking establishments are closed, I had to mail order some tea. Since they offer free shipping on orders of $75 and over, I was forced to buy several bags (okay, I spent something close to that whenever I go to the store, too). So, I'm interrupting my regularly scheduled blog to review some of the new teas I have gotten. We are supposed to avoid travel after all... Today's tea is a black tea flavored with brandied apricots. I know that many people are stockpiling alcohol for being stuck at home. Why not have an alcoholic sounding tea? I will say that a tea stockpile takes up way less room than cases of beer or bottles of wine. Yes, you can see a little chunk of apricot in the tea leaves. I can't say that I really notice the taste of brandy (okay, I've never tried brandy), but it does taste like apricots. Some apricot teas I have tried are better than others. This is a good ...

If you have been a regular reader of this blog, you will know that I have talked about Moroccan mint tea several times. Admittedly, the repeat posts have usually been about acquiring Moroccan tea cups, but this time I actually got a Moroccan mint tea blend to try. Yes, I have 4 Moroccan tea cups now. I can't help myself, they are pretty. When I opened the bag of tea, I was greeted by the strong, fresh scent of mint. It smells so good, and has nice big leaves to brew. Since we are social distancing, I'm drinking alone (as usual). I don't use all of the Moroccan tea cups at the same time. I still have to wash them you know. I liked this cup for its bluegreen color in the sun. I also really like the tea. The mint flavor is perfect, and it is quite refreshing.