See this plant? This is German Chamomile growing in the tea garden at Hana Farms, the organic farm I worked at in Hawai’i. This sad scraggly thing is also German Chamomile: This particular specimen is looking pathetic because I transplanted it to the garden bed in front of my cabin, and, at the time this photo was taken, it was still adjusting to its new home. The farm manager told me that when you transplant something, it helps to pick off any flowers so that the plant will focus on growing stronger roots instead of wasting energy on keeping its flowers from wilting. So, when I saw my German Chamomile…
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Tea Tuesday: Does tea get better with age?
Does tea, like a fine wine, or a delicious cheese get better with age? This Tea Tuesday, E found a plastic bag full of well-aged tea bags in his parent’s kitchen cabinet, and we decided to find out. So, how did my 23-year-old cup of tea taste? Like a piece of history! (Actually, it started out sort of artificial, but, after steeping a while longer, had a strong sweet flavor with a hint of sour blackberry. I guess it takes longer for old herbs to steep?)
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Fleeting Encounters Over Tea
There was an old woman listening in on our conversation. Or, maybe she wasn’t listening to us so much as simply noticing us. We were an odd-looking group, I suppose: two white women, barely older than teenagers, speaking jovial English with a Lebanese man in his early 30’s. We were in Perpignan at the time — a small city in Southern France. Noticeable, if not notable. I don’t remember what we were talking about, but we were in the courtyard of the Palais des Rois de Majorque (Palace of the Kings of Majorca). We smiled at the old woman when we noticed her noticing us, and she felt emboldened to…
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Tea Tuesday: Homemade Biscotti
This Tuesday, I’m enjoying a cup of herbal tea with 2 pieces of homemade biscotti. I put the biscotti on a plate rather than sitting down with the whole bag so that I wouldn’t eat 8 pieces with my tea like I did last night. You may remember that I don’t cook much, so while this pistachio and cranberry biscotti (also known as heaven) is homemade, it was not made in my home. It was a belated birthday present from my friend Katie, whom I’ve mentioned before on the blog (here, here, and here). Personally, I can think of no better accompaniment to biscotti than tea; it makes the hard…
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25 things to do before I turn 25
Today is my 23rd birthday (don’t worry, I wrote this post ahead of time, and I’m off doing something fun with my day) and this seemed like as good a time as any to announce my latest project, which is: 25 things to do before I turn 25 (I know, I’m a baby, and you can’t believe you’ve been taking my travel advice.) I’m a list-maker by nature, and I always enjoy reading other people’s lists of things to do before [insert upcoming birthday here] so I decided to make my own. I’m not a big fan of “bucket lists” because, as I’ve mentioned before, I think people should take…
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Tea Tuesday: Home From Hawai’i
You may have noticed on the sidebar that my current location has changed. This time last week, E and I said our goodbyes to Maui, and returned to New England. It was an interesting first week back: Monday night we slept on a beach in Hawai’i, Tuesday night we slept on a bench in the San Diego airport, and Wednesday night, after more than 24 hours of traveling, we slept in a bed at E’s parents’ house in New Hampshire. It was our first time sleeping in a real bed in two months! After just one day of recovering from our jet lag, we were off again! Luckily, we were…
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Tea Tuesday: All the Mint
All mint tea is not created equal. Probably because there are so many different kinds of mint to choose from. For the most part, if you purchase bagged mint tea in the grocery store, it will either be labeled “peppermint” or simply “mint,” in which case it is likely to have more of a spearmint flavor. At Hana Farms, however, we have at least seven different kinds of mint growing, each of which has a unique flavor and could be made into a distinct tea. Almost all of them grow in our official Tea Garden, but some of them also grow as weeds around the entire property. The most prevalent…
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Tea Tuesday: Mamaki Tea
Remember this plant? The one that’s growing in the tea garden, and I took a nice photo of, but didn’t know its name, but I liked the photo, so I still put it on the internet in a previous blog post? It turns out this is Mamaki, a plant that is only native to Hawai’i and is known for its medicinal qualities. Mamaki is commonly made into a cleansing herbal tea, which is good for digestion and general relaxation. (That sounds like code for “a laxative that will get you high,” but it’s not.) I was told by some of the other farmies (folks who work here) that just a…
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Tea Tuesday: My Flight is Tomorrow!
As evidenced by the title of this post, I’m leaving for Hawaii tomorrow! So instead of devising a complex blog post for you, I’ve spent the evening furiously packing, and wondering what I’m forgetting. Therefore, this Tea Tuesday is going to be a bit brief… Have some tea porn everybody! My friend, Katie, moved into a new apartment last week, and inherited this coffee table, which she proceeded to turn into a shrine to her tea. I can only hope that when I finally get a big kid apartment, I will have as much beautiful loose leaf tea as her.
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Weekly Travel Inspiration: The World’s Best High Teas
This morning Lonely Planet tweeted the article: The World’s Best High Teas and it seemed like an appropriate weekly travel inspiration given how tea- and Britain-focused An Opportune Moment has been these last couple of weeks. Only one of the high teas mentioned in their post is in London–Claridge’s–but many of the others are in countries that were once British colonies. Half of them are in Southeast Asia, which I’m tempted to take as a sign that that region of the world should be my next destination after Europe… But I’ll probably settle for taking a daytrip to New York City once I’m back in the states, to visit Tea…
