Global Tea Time

 This morning I realized that I was out of finished posts (I have several that are partially written), and right now I don't feel like hurriedly finishing any of the ones I started. Thanks to a cold front (sadly with no appreciable rain), it is actually comfortable outside. Since it has been dry, dry, dry around here, I can open my windows without my asthma going crazy (although I had to close my windows last night because surprise surprise someone decided to have a fire). Thankfully nothing in the neighborhood is burning right now, so I opened the windows and enjoyed some pu-ehr. 

 When I looked at Oceana countries, I found another tea that is illegal in parts of the world. One article says that it is illegal in Europe and Canada, while it is not illegal in the states. All of the "kava" I've seen are really just a blend of herbs, and I don't think any real kava root is involved. Why? From my research, kava root is described as being a mild narcotic, or having similar effects as alcohol. It has also been linked to liver damage and death. I'm so not pursuing this tea to try. There were 3 countries where I only found references to Kava tea.  Samoa  is in the central south Pacific on the western edge of Polynesia. It is sometimes referred to as the cradle of Polynesia, and is believed to be where Polynesian culture developed. They gained their independence from New Zealand in 1962, but is still part of the commonwealth. Samoa is classified as a micronation. Their land consists of 9 islands, 4 of which are inhabited, and 5 that are not. Their to...

Exploring South America has yielded a surprise. A type of tea that I will never try. Why won't I try it? Well, obtaining the ingredients to make it would be illegal, at least where I live. I found some countries that made tea from dried cocoa leaves. One of the videos did address that this tea does contain a very small amount of cocaine. They said it wasn't enough to get high off the tea, but it would trigger a positive drug test. The interesting thing is when I googled cacao leaves to find a picture (I don't even know what cocoa leaves or plants look like), I found advertisements to buy cacao leaves, even cacao leaf tea on Amazon. I was suspicious. After all, there is another type of tea called kava that is made from a root that makes a mildly narcotic brew. While there are many teas in the states that are labeled "kava" tea, they don't contain any of that root, and it is apparently a fashionable name applied to teas that are a jumble of herbs mixed togethe...

In my last tea order, I decided to get a bag of tea from Kenya's southern neighbor Tanzania. Long ago, I asked an employee of the tea shop what the difference was. I was told that they tasted about the same. I think maybe they said one was a little stronger than the other, but I've always stuck with the familiar Kenyan tea, until now. I still have some traditional cut tear curl Kenyan black tea, so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to compare the two.  As you can tea, the Kenyan tea leaves are bigger, the Tanzanian tea leaves are more like the style of leaves for Indian tea. I noticed right away that the Tanzanian tea smelled stronger than the Kenyan leaves. Here are their close ups: Each sample was one teaspoon of leaves, and I boiled 6 oz each of water in separate containers for a true side by side comparison.  The Tanzanian tea was darker, and as I found when I looked at the containers, and later decanted them, that there was more water ...

Thanks to a post card for a 10% discount on a purchase before 7/31/2020, I ordered another box of tea. Okay, okay, I haven't even come close to finishing the first box of tea that I ordered. On the positive side, I did persuade a couple of co-workers to order a bag of tea and pay me back for it when it came. I figure if they don't pay me, I get to drink it anyway. I also realized that there were still more teas that I wanted to try (or favorites I was running low on) that I didn't order in my last box. I have long thought about trying a chai blend rather than making one of my own every time. I settled on ordering 500 mile chai, described as a type of tea favored by late night truck drivers in India. They want a strong, sweet brew to keep them going through the night. I figure drinking this in the morning is a good way for a second shift worker to wake up. The tea is made with small leaf black tea, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon. I had also thought about getting rooibos c...