Archive for October 16th, 2009
Gourmet Tea
I really don’t know when tea got introduced into my life. It just always seemed to be there.
My earliest recollection is of Granny Garside. I would spend summer days baking in the heat of the California central valley only to be called inside to the treat of a glass of iced tea. Most likely it was an orange pekoe tea, sweeted, not with table spoons but cups of sugar. Enough sweetness to bring on instant diabetes. I loved it.
My first encounter with gourmet tea was a tea shop in Solvang, California. No tea bags here, just loose leaf tea you had to measure out yourself. And hundreds of options! I was still in the black tea camp that day, green would come much later. It was the start of an interesting journey.
These days I’m more at home with a tea infuser. I find my tastes gravitating to a Russian Caravan blended tea or a good Japan Green Sencha tea. And the sugar, none or very little.
I miss Granny Garside but not the sugar.