Tea nomihoudai!
茶飲み放題
茶喝到飽
Part of me enjoy being sick. Well, aside from sleeping too much, and brain acting slower. But it does let me go into my own little world for a while, since most responsibilities aren't as prevalent. So, I want to dive into my own little world. The world of tea! I will attempt to drink most of my teas today, and review them. # 1. Northern Lights This is a blend I got from a (based on location) most likely overpriced tea-store. But, due to the expensive location, they also require higher standards. And yes, it is a lovely blend. This blend in particular made me attempt to start a book about tea in scandinavia. Perhaps I will pick that project up when I don't feel like coding/hacking one day. Anyhow. The tea. Since it's a sweet blend, it kind of works with honey. It has a gentle taste of blueberry, and is quite non-astringent. It works as a very casual tea, I just brew it on 100 degrees. It can steep a bit "whatever", on average about 4 minutes. I've never really been bothered by it being too strong though. (I got served this in the morning without even asking. thank you!)
# 2. Hojo tea - Karigane I loooove this tea. It reminds me of Lung Ching (my favorite chinese tea), and the composition is similar. Karigane is made with stems which makes it stand out in looks. It is also gentle and sweet, which makes it forgiving in steeping-time. I can also have it a bit warmer at around 85-90 Celsius without it being an issue. This is good because I am often cold. The warmer, the better.
# 3. Saffron tea This is a tea I've had for a long time. It's been sitting for a year or more. It's not bad, not great. Might just be me being a little tired of the spice. Where I'm from, Saffron is a spice used a lot during christmas, and not very much in other seasons. This tea certainly delivers in the saffron-flavor department, so if that's what you're after, this suits well. There's hardly any undertone of anything else. According to the blends description, it should also have tastes of orange and chili. Perfect for feeling a bit warmer during our terribly cold winters. Due to age, it might be that those flavors have faded.
# 4. Genmaicha This is a japanese classic. It's a green tea with roasted rice. Sometimes, the rice even pops and looks like popcorn. My variant does not have popcorn, but I think that gives it a more compact flavor. I got this one from my visit in Japan. It definetly smells, and slightly tastes, like popcorn. If you want to pair it with something, I think fish, onigiri, or senbei would work well. Trivia, it was initially blended with roasted rice as filler - so people of the lower class could afford to drink it without paying as much for pure green tea. It's another nice and casual drink I like to drink mid-day. #5. ???? White tea This is, aside from tisanes, the last tea i'll drink today. Overconsumption is not good, I wouldn't appreciate the flavors. I thought this tea was my favorite tea shop's signature White Tea blend - White Temple, but I believe this is wrong. That blend has lots of fruit and green tea in it. I can tell it is Chinese. It has "Ya bao" buds. Tracing back this, I found that it's most likely "Yunnan White Wing" - consisting of both buds and leaves. It tastes just like how white tea is "supposed" to taste, in my opinion. If someone wanted to first-time white tea, I'd serve them this. It has hardly any tannins, so the after-feel from drinking is pleasantly smooth. Though, I do feel shame for not remembering what tea I got. That feels very greedy of me.
Conclusion:
I have a lot of tea.
It is nice to be able to appreciate it.
I miss going to the tea-store I love now. But I also realize I wouldn't need to buy teas. It's a shame my country don't really have locations dedicated to just drinking tea.
If/When I have the money for it, I'd open a tea store where you can just order a cup of tea.
Here, it's more overpriced coffee. The tea served is generally lame bag-tea for ten times the price.
But well, "we have tea at home". That thought should, rather than a meme, be a sentence of comfort.
