Stupid Stupid Boy
Who? Me, that's who. Well, first, I didn't have a very good night. At one point, I had a dream about swimming laps in a pool filled with people. They kept getting in my way. Plus, of course, I was naked. (Yes, I knew some of the people. No, I'm not telling you if you were one of them.)
Then I had this dream where I was talking to Woz and Steve Jobs. I grabbed a laptop and was trying to show them the Museum, but I couldn't type the URL correctly. (I'll have similar dreams where I really need to call someone, but I just can't dial the number correctly.)
Then, while I was sleeping on my back, I inhaled a huge amount of slobber. I woke up coughing. Took a good 20 minutes to clear things out.
So, finally, morning comes and I head downstairs to make some tea. We usually turn off the heat downstairs at night, so it was plenty cold. I started some water going in the kettle. Since the teapot was also cold, I ran the sink until the water there was hot, and filled the teapot to warm it up. I threw some leaves into my steeping vessel, which is this neat gravity-fed thing. It has a filter at the bottom and when you set it down on a mug, that activates little feet that raise a plunger that allows the tea to drain out the bottom. It's very cool and very handy. The only problem with it is that, due to the shape of my teapot, the feet don't engage, so I do have to reach under the lip and push them up with my fingers. Anyway, the water comes to a boil and I pour it into the steeping thingie and set the timer for three minutes. After three minutes, I put it on top the teapot and engage the little feet.
Now, if you're paying attention, you may be wondering "When did Tom empty the hot water out of the teapot that he was pre-warming?" The answer is, I didn't. So the teapot quickly overflows with scalding hot water, slightly burning my fingertips and spilling out onto the counter. I actually don't realize what's going on right away. I think it's just draining weird and I push up on the little feet a second time. This burns my fingertips once again and spills more water. I lift off the steeping thingie, which is still half full, and stare at this overflowing teapot, wondering how the hell it got so full. I probably stood there a full minute before the proverbial light-bulb went off.
Stupid stupid boy!
On the positive side, I make my tea on top of a lipped tray, which did handily limit the spread of spilled tea.
Out of Tea!
Actually, I've been out of my usual tea for a week now. I waited until I ran out before ordering more, as usual.
I've had to resort to tearing open sampler packs of flavored teas, something I don't normally drink.
Luckily, I did have some good tea show up over the weekend. It only cost me $500. (Okay, actually it was a thank-you for paying some annual professional membership dues.)
But, I'm running through that at a torrid pace.
Non-Intuitive Blend
Does mixing black and white teas sound like a good idea? It doesn't to me. It sounds like a stupid idea. The black tea is simply going to overwhelm the white, resulting in weak black tea. That seems obvious.
So, on a whim, I ordered an Indonique custom blend called Thomas' Black and White, a blend of "rich malty Assams and tender sweet Chinese white teas."
Turns out I was completely wrong. The white tea smoothes things out and rounds out the flavor. It's really good. The only problem is that the big hunks of leaf make for a scraggly mess and I routinely spill some whenever I make it. I think I can live with that.
Russian Caravan ala Indonique
I've been drinking some Russian Caravan from Indonique. This is a standard blend that many places have. One of its prime ingredients is smoky Lapsang Souchong.
Like their Lapsang, their Russian Caravan has a really smoky kick. It's a smokiness you can feel on the tongue. If really strong teas turn you off, then it isn't the one for you. But if you like them hella strong and smoky, this one really does it.
Chai Chai Rodregueeze
I made Chai for the first time yesterday. I had ordered some Spiced Chai from Indonique. (They also provided some of their prized Masala Chai, which I will try soon.)
Basically, you make chai by steeping black tea in a water/milk mixture, along with spices. I'm not a big milk drinker and had to specifically pick up some milk, just for the occasion.
So, is it any good? Damn, it is indeed very tasty. Very, very tasty.
I must admit that I haven't had warm milk since the last time I had hot cocoa, which would have been early 2000 at the latest, so the warm milkiness threw me a little. Mine cooled down too much during the steeping. (I didn't want to get milk in my favorite teapot, so it just steeped in a pan.) I think I'll like it even more if it's hot rather than just a little warm.
So, the bottom line? Chai is nummy.
In very tangentially related news, Carol Bruce, WKRP's Mama Carlson, has died at 87.
Lapsang Souchong
Okay, I've had a couple pots of Indonique's Lapsang Souchong. It's good, but ass-kicking strong.
(Lapsangs are smoked over pine, which gives them a strong kick. Some Lapsangs are smoked over oak, giving them a mellower smokiness. Or, at least, I remember reading that somewhere. Can't find much mention of it now. My preference is for pine.)
In this case, the smokiness is more than just in the taste. There's also a smoky feel to it. You actually feel it on your tongue. (How much of that is due to my cold, I can't say.)
Frankly, this isn't a tea for everyone. For lots of folks, it'll be too much. For some Lapsang drinkers, it'll still be too much. But, if you like your Lapsang ass-kicking strong, this is the stuff.
I'll hold off any more serious tasting until my cold abates. Right now, I'm so stuffed up that I can't properly taste anything, other than ultra-strong things like an ass-kicking Lapsang.
I am particularly looking forward to some of their interesting blends. One is a blend of black and white teas. It'll be interesting to see how that works out. Another is a chai with black pepper, cloves, and cardamom. Damn, that sounds good!
Indonique
Occasionally, I get tea-related email from folks. Last week, I received a message from the owner of Indonique. At one time, they were a brink-and-morter tea shop in New Orleans. But Katrina literally blew them away. Now they're an online store. And they wanted to know if I would like to try some of their teas.
Well, yes, I would! So, I headed on over, metaphorically, and picked up a variety. And they came in the mail today.
So, how do they compare to TeaSource, my usual online tea shop? Well, there are some big differences. Indonique is fancier by far, yet not the cloying fancy of places like the Republic of Tea. TeaSource's website is fairly utilitarian. Indonique's website has more graphics and is just plain prettier. TeaSource is better for getting to the tea you want, now. Indonique is better for browsing and seems to lack a search engine. Indonique also has an absolutely wonderful commercial online.
Shipping is fast either place. This order reached my hot little hands in less than a week, which is also typical for TeaSource.
There are also differences in the presentation of the tea. Whereas TeaSource sends their tea in shiny zipper-lock bags, Indonique sends nice looking boxes. The trade off here is that TeaSources bags are great storage containers for their tea. They're air-proof, opaque, and reclosable. (That said, I always put the tea into other containers anyway.) Indonique's boxes are much more suitable for gift giving. Inside the box, the tea is packed in a clear mylar-ish bag. You can't smell the tea through the bag, nor does the bag impart any odor to the tea, so it's a wise choice of material. It is not, however, recloseable, so you'll have to store the tea elsewhere after opening a bag. (Republic of Tea uses really nice metal cylinders, but rest assured the price of those is folded into the cost of the tea.)
Another difference is the use of samples. If you buy tea from TeaSource, they'll throw in a sample of some other tea. But, they'll choose the tea. And you'll get one sample, regardless of how much you spent on the tea. That's not a complaint at all. Free tea is free tea and I'm always grateful. But Indonique let's you specify samples and will include up to 5 free with an order. In either case, the samples are big enough for a couple pots of tea, but Indonique's are slightly larger.
Price-wise, Indonique costs just a little bit more than TeaSource. (Republic of Tea is stupid-expensive unless you're buying it by the pound.) However, until I've really tasted all the teas, direct price comparisons are almost meaningless. (Also, Indonique devotes 10% of their sales to charity. Gotta love that.)
In the end, Indonique and TeaSource complement each other more than they directly compete. And Indonique provides a really nice alternative to places like the Republic of Tea. (I don't actually have anything against RoT, but it's all just too precious for me.)
So, we come down to the real question: Is Indonique's tea any good? Well, I'll need some time to taste them all. So far, I've had some of their Lapsang Souchong, which I'll be reviewing in the next post.
Not So Horrible Tattoo
Despite finding this on Horrible Tattoos, I really like this Teapot Tattoo.
Not that I plan to get one, of course.
All Hail Catherine of Braganza
The things you learn at the grocery store. I was picking up some groceries at the local Ukrop's yesterday. (Actually, it was the newer store, which we call Gnukrop's. We call the older store Skanky Old Ukrop's. I need to add another entry to eWilliamsburg.org.) And I was wearing my Tea Snob T-shirt. The cashier, a friendly older gentleman, told me about Catherine of Braganza.
Who is Catherine of Braganza? Why, she was the wife of King Charles II of England.
So, why should anyone care? Because she brought the drinking of tea to England, and thus, by proxy, to America. That's why! Apparently, she spent part of her childhood in India. When she married and moved from Portugal to England, she brought her tea chest with her.
Good woman, that Catherine.
Here are two articles about it:
(I have no idea if there is any truth to the rumor that Colonial Americans, in their ignorance, would throw away the steeping water and serve the tea leaves.)
Green Tea with Lemon
For once in my miserable life, I've actually ordered a new supply of tea before I ran out. The only thing new in this batch is a Green Tea with Lemon. Here's the description:
Sencha flavored with pieces of sweet lemon and lemongrass. A refreshing aroma and flavor.
I'm drinking some right now. It has a nice lemony aroma, but the lemon taste is quite subtle.
I'm actually having some trouble giving it a proper tasting, as my tongue is all dried up and weird feeling. See, I had to drive back home from the DC area today, a three and a half hour drive. I hate stopping to pee. So I didn't keep myself properly hydrated this morning. And that's hampered my efforts to properly taste this tea.
Still had to stop to pee.
(Actually, I haven't had a miserable life at all. It's been quite nice.)
