Monday, March 5, 2012

Vienna Summer Black Tea

I went tea-shopping with my mom a few days ago and going through the tea shop and smelling all the jars of tea was amazingly fun. Note: going to a tea shop that has jars you can open yourself is infinitely better than one with jars behind a counter that you need to get someone to open for you. I believe this is because your sense of how annoying you are being overrides the sense of fun derived from smelling tea leaves.

I'm a coffee kind of person born of a family of obsessive tea drinkers, but I also love tea and on (very) rare instances, will order it over coffee. Like when I want to be able to sleep. Once. And this behavior can be explained thus: the tea's name was Iron Goddess of Mercy. But when I'm at home, I almost always make tea for myself, due to the fact that I may have ruined my coffeemaker and anyway it was making somewhat weird coffee before that.

My parents are tea purists- especially my dad- but I like blending in a few things occasionally (like mint, rosehips, or chamomile) with your typical black, white, or green tea.

Vienna Summer Black Tea
My ingredients for this blend is approximately a ratio of the following:
4 tbsp black tea
1 tbsp rosehip
1 tbsp mint

Directions: Add an unknown amount to a teapot (I feel that I always disregard the package instructions that say to add 1 tsp or so for an 8 oz cup... I feel like I add 3-4 tsp, perhaps because I enjoy existin at the peripheries of life... joke). Boil water at an unknown temperature (although I do think I can admit I know black tea is supposed to be steeped at about 202-212 degrees-is this pretentious knowledge?).

Very simple and very delicious. I like the touch of mint, whereas I know my friend Ashley likes drinking mint tea straight up. That much mint flavor totally overwhelms me though. I think a bit of it is perfect. And no more. Unless you're trying to not only clear your sinuses but also your entire brain of every cobweb that has ever occupied it.
I'm not sure what effect the rosehips has in terms of taste, to be honest. But they photograph really beautifully.

1 comment:

Christielli said...

I love the last sentences of this post.