Global Tea Time

Once again, Mei Leaf comes to the rescue for my tea exploration. Today we have supermarket teas from Croatia. The sample teas are gunpowder green, 1st flush Darjeeling, and a cooked pu erh that was made incorrectly with a lot of shortcuts. Keep in mind, this is the "high end" loose leaf from supermarkets. I guess their "high end" supermarket teas are rather equivalent to the ones we get around here. For a bit more about Croatia , they are located in the northwest part of the Balkan peninsula. The are next to Slovenia, Hungary, Slovenia, and Bosnia Herzegovina. They have a very long, narrow strip of  land along the Adriatic sea, and a tiny strip of their border touches Montenegro. The southern tip of croatia is separated from the rest of the country by a small bit of Bosnia Herzegovina that also touches the Adriatic sea. They were part of Yugoslavia for much of the 20th century, which broke up into separate countries in the 1990s. Hmm, this is a theme throughout...

The main thing that I remember about Luxembourg is that it is a country that borders France. I had to know that in my 8th grade French class, and it is one of the few things I haven't forgotten. The length of the country is sandwiched between Belgium and Germany, while the narrow side of the country shares a border with northern France. Most of their population lives in urban areas, and they have a high rate of inbound immigration (to make up for the low birth rate). They are a highly adaptable country. In the 1960's their prosperity came from steel exports. As times have changed, so have they, first transitioning to banking and now IT and economic commerce form the backbone of their economy. This flexibility has made Luxembourg one of the countries with the highest standard of living and per capita income. Give me a moment to fantasize about living somewhere so forward thinking. Luxembourg City is also one of the capitals of the EU, and they house the European Court of Justi...

Romania , the land of Transylvania, and stories of vampires (based on Romanian ballads and folklore). There is a lot more to Romania than these stories, of course. From 1948 to 1989 they were part of the U.S.S.R. Their first free elections were held in 1990, and in 2004 they joined NATO, and in 2007 they joined the EU. Here I am feeling old again because I remember when the U.S.S.R. was still a thing. They are a country in the southeast portion of Europe with a small border on the black sea. They have 4 distinct seasons, and the land is described as being 1/3 mountains, 1/3 forests, and 1/3 plains and hills. The people of Romania are said to have descended from the Romans, and they have been though many changes over time. I find interesting that they once used the Cyrillic alphabet, and switched to the Latin alphabet when academics started studying in other parts of Europe, especially France. My tea research on Romania started off pretty boring. I found ads for Lipton tea. I also fou...

Today we travel to Ireland . They are the most western of the British isles. Thanks to my lace making hobby, I know that one of the ways women survived the potato famine was by making lace to sell to the wealthy. In the show "Victoria" shown on PBS, one of the seasons talked about the potato famine. They also talked about the protestant church requiring the people of Ireland to tithe 10% of their income to the church even if they weren't members, saying that the poor protestant church needed funding so it wouldn't fail. This was said at the same time the show the vicar's wife wearing a small lace covering on her head, and a lace collar. Only a lacer would look at that and know immediately that their claims of poverty were a farce. I think most people in this country have heard of "Irish breakfast tea". It means black tea of some sort. When I was looking through the bulk spices recently (and buying more tea in an effort to bridge the gap between running...

Latvia and Lithuania   are neighbors in Northern Europe. Along with their neighbor to the north, Estonia, they were the Baltic states, an empire that dominated much of Europe in the 14th to 16th centuries. In the 1940s they became part of the USSR. In 1990, Lithuania declared their independence, and in 1991 Latvia declared their independence. In September of 1991 the Soviet parliament acknowledged both countries' independence. Before WW II, Latvia had a large Jewish population Now, they comprise the "other" segment of the 6 religions listed on the webpage. WW II also drove the rural population to urban areas, and independence in the 1990's prompted the country to launch efforts to increase the birth rate of the population as their population had been shrinking for years. Lithuania also had a large Jewish population that was also decimated by WW II. Lithuania has not had problems with an aging population that is not being replaced, and independence in the 1990s is wh...

Finland is described as one of the most northern and geographically remote countries in the world. It marks the border between northern Europe and Russia. It was part of Sweden for a long period of time, then belonged to Russia until 1917. The description of the country is an interesting dichotomy. On one hand they say that it is densely forested. On the other hand, they say about 1/3 of the country lies north of the Arctic Circle. From visiting Alaska, I know that there is a certain latitude above which trees don't grow any more, but looking back at my pictures, I didn't make it above the tree growing latitudes when I went to the Arctic Circle.  Most of what I found about Finland and tea, is that they like bagged tea with cute characters on it. I did eventually find an English language website for this brand, and apparently these characters show up on lots of things, like pillows, towels, duvet covers, and even toothbrushes. If you look far enough on the website, you will...

This weekend is "houby days" Czech village. You know how some cities have "China town", well, we have Czech Village. Houby means mushroom (specifically morel mushroom), so it is a street festival that celebrates the mushroom. I've seen a little bit of it over the years. My lace guild often has some people demonstrating bobbin lace somewhere in the festival. I've demonstrated there before. One of the big selling points to get volunteers is when we can find a place to demonstrate indoors. This weekend was a perfect example. The day starts off cold and rainy, then the clouds clear and it gets hot and humid, then thunder storms pop up in the afternoon/evening. I'll happily hide indoors on days like this. Thanks to the local Czech and Slovak museum and library (a Smithsonian affiliate per their website), I have seen examples traditional dress and culture. Unfortunately, a lot of the traditional outfits were destroyed by a massive flood 11 years ago. They di...