Journaling January: Tea

[krait]

A prompt from flowersforgraves: How did you get into tea?

I have talked a bit about this in a post last year, but essentially: I've always drunk tea in some form or another, but it became a staple of my life when I was in college the first time. Tea was caffeinated, inexpensive, easily made in a dorm room with just a hot pot to heat water (I used a Pyrex 2-cup measuring cup as a teapot!) and as a bonus had a range of strengths and flavours to prevent boredom.


I've lived in all kinds of climates, and drank tea in all of them. :D (One of my RL friends has expressed disbelief at my willingness to drink hot tea when it's 95 degrees out and we're watching shows with the fan on high.)

The first time I mixed my own tea was during my second college experience. The co-op in that town sold a very nice prebagged black tea with rose petals... right up until it didn't. I don't know if the brand itself stopped producing that flavour, or if the co-op just stopped carrying it, but either way I decided I wasn't going to give up one of my favourite teas so easily. My habit of reading product packaging came in handy, as it meant I knew what was in the tea. That same co-op carried bulk rose petals, and the international market a block away carried rose flavour; into an old tea tin they went with some looseleaf English Breakfast (I think - it might have been Assam). Vigourous shaking and some patience later, I had a beautiful replacement for my rose tea!

After that it was just a matter of time before I began trying other combinations. I think my second project was recreating a lavender-rosemary Earl Grey that I'd tried early on in my tea-drinking days and loved a lot. I branched out from there! Useful herbs and florals are generally easy to acquire if one has a co-op or international market; a few things, like violet flavour, I've ordered from online sources, but most of my supplies are acquired locally.

This year I'm thinking about teaching myself how to make my own extracts and flavours, to expand my options. I've got an enormous honeysuckle vine in my backyard, for instance, and I have elderflower and elderberry all round me. (I make elderberry jam nearly every year.) It opens up more exotic options, too, if I plan far enough ahead to choosing herbs to plant in spring!

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

Ooh, what does elderberry jam taste like? I love the flavor in drinks and such, but have never had it in jam.

(I *have* had it in tea, and it was GREAT! The ones I've tasted were herbal infusions paired with, like, strawberry in one case and cherry in another. I think I've kept one of the boxes, if you'd be interested in a list of ingredients.)

Really neat to read about your tea journey!

[krait]

Honestly? It mostly tastes 'sweet' to me, with a sort of vague handwave toward 'berries of some kind, I guess, maybe?' :D It's a hard flavour to pin down!

It is also an incredible, unbelievably bright fuchsia colour, which might be what I love best about it. (Aside from the excuse to take an elderberry-picking walk.)

I'm drinking tea with (dried) elderberries in right now, actually! They're another thing that's easy to find at health markets and co-ops, so I have some in my tea supplies and thought, "why not?" this morning. The perfect accompaniment for biscuits and elderberry jam, which was brunch. :)

[hamsterwoman]

It is also an incredible, unbelievably bright fuchsia colour

OOOH! That sounds amazing, and now I want to experience it even more!

(Also, clearly time to make myself another cup of tea.)

[sylvaine]

... for some reason it has never occured to me that I could make my own tea mixes! xD

[krait]

Your eyes have been opened! Prepare for a world of delicious drinks, mixed with the occasional cry of, "But WHY don't they sell [pecan extract/lilac flavour/dried mulberries/other thing]!?" when a Great Tea Blend Idea comes to you but stores aren't cooperating. :D

I've always been one of those people who looks at something and thinks, "Bet I could make that." I don't know if it's my crafting hobbies, or just a brain thing, but there's a part of me that assesses everything interesting on the basis of whether I could work out how to do it, and it's stood me in good stead for the most part.

Along with tea, my other hobby is making ice cream, because when the grocery store stopped carrying my favourite Ben & Jerry's flavour I decided that I didn't need them, anyway; I'd just make my own. At this point I haven't bought Dublin Mudslide ice cream in eight years or so, because making it is easier than tracking it down! I've also recreated Baskin Robbins Jamoca Almond Fudge pretty well, which is another favourite. As with tea, I also like coming up with new flavours. This summer I'm definitely going to make pandan ice cream, and I keep tinkering with the idea of a baklava-inspired flavour though I haven't quite worked out how to do it yet.

[luthien]

Ooh, nice that you make your own! Lavender-rosemary Earl Grey sounds intriguing.

My favourite tea is a Taiwan high mountain oolong. It's a beautiful yellow shade when brewed, with fantastic body. I think if I had to choose a single beverage to drink for the rest of my life, that one would be it.

[krait]

That oolong sounds lovely! Where do you get it from?

I mostly prefer black teas, but I do like a good oolong now and then, and genmaicha on the green-tea side of things.

[flowersforgraves]

oh wow! this is really cool to hear, I'm always really interested to get a peek into a hobby I know nothing about.

[krait]

Glad it's not boring. :D

I need a sticker that says, "Camellia sinensis is my OTHER fandom".

[type_wild]

I'm not sure why I started drinking tea, but I very vividly remember the first up of tea I ever enjoyed - it was in the communal kitchen on a campsite in Sweden, I was fifteen and some horridly cold Scandinavian summer and I think I was mostly there to escape my younger siblings. To this day, I have a love of the Lipton Blue Fruit tea that is 95% nostalgia. The only scented tea I ever drink these days is - funnily - rose.