Global Tea Time

Cinnamon tea - Sudan In wrapping up our tour of the Middle East and North Africa, we come to Sudan. Sudan is south of Egypt, but was still included in the list of countries considered North Africa (according to the Encyclopedia Britannica). The northern part of the country is in the Sahara desert, with a tropical climate in the south. It has a small coast on the Red Sea, and is reported as mostly flat with mountains in the east and the west. Most people think of the African continent as being all the same (or even one country in extreme cases). It is actually a very diverse continent. I had some trouble figuring out how to divide it up at first. I didn't want to define the continent by the colonial rulers, so I decided to break it up by ordinal directions. North Africa considers itself to be more part of Europe or the Middle East. The Sahara desert is a natural barrier that divides the north from the south. I remember flying over the Sahara. I'm not sure which countri...

I'm giving you 2 posts this week. I have several posts built up, so I'm giving you a post about specific countries, and a generic post about the region. I hope you enjoy them. Today we dive back into more variations on black tea. The only loose leaf black tea I have left is Assam which has a very strong flavor. I recently decided to buy some Lipton brand tea bags because I really don't remember using them, and Lipton is a popular brand in the region. I thought about cutting a tea bag open for my loose leaf, or just brewing it in the bag. I've also thought about going to the Indian grocery for the last few weeks, and I know that they have tea. Lots of tea. So yesterday I went, and realized that I know a lot more about tea now when I was looking at the boxes and bags. There was Lipton. Yellow Label Lipton, which I've seen a lot of reference to. I don't know what the difference between this and regular Lipton is. It's kind of like when I went to Kenya and a...

Turkish Tea When I think of Turkey, I think of bath towels. Strange, I know, but hear me out. When my mom was in high school, she made friends with a girl from a big city when they were participating in one of those boring extra curricular things that adults love to encourage kids to do to make them look better on college applications. Her friend came from a poor family, and joined the Air Force after she graduated high school- so she could get enough to eat, and medical care. Yeah, that's the reality of several of the people I know who joined the military or National Guard. Anyway, mom's friend spent some time stationed in Turkey, and sent a bath towel to mom as a gift. The towel has never been used, but it is big and thick. It is brightly colored with a bold design. It's probably been well over 22 years since I've seen it, so I don't remember it exactly. I think there was a blue border, and the main part of the towel was orange with I think kind of a leafy, vine...