Goddess of the Hearth.

The Hearth. The heart of a home. The bringer of warmth, food, creation, light and tea. The hearth, you probably didn't know, is celebrated in mythologies all over the world! So let us too give praise for with out these deities I would not be about to put the kettle on.

In Japan the goddess of the hearth is Huchi-Fuchi. She was first honored among the hunting gathering tribe, the Ainu, and it is said that perhaps Mount Fuji is named after this goddess because of the volcanic hearth in her belly. In traditional Japanese tea ceremonies there is a portion of the dance that is a tribute to Huchi-Fuchi in thanks for her warmth.

The greeks have Hestia.

The Germans have Hertha.

And henceforth my tea muse will be guided by these goddesses of warmth on my search for tea shop inspiration.

Lu Yu. The Sage of Tea

Lu Yu was a man that became a god over time because of his awesomeness. He wrote the first ever book about tea, The Classic of Tea, in 780 CE!!! The script had 10 chapters and covered everything from the production of tea, to how to brew it, to tea annecdotes of the past. Lu Yu started life as an orphan, was taken in by a buddhist monk, ran away to join the circus as a clown and ended up in the good humor of a govenor who educated him and put him in the company of the literati. Not long after, he wrote his infamous book and became the Sage of Tea. Cheers Lu Yu.

The Best Cup of Tea.

Well said Erik. I am in complete accord. I think your best advice is simply to get to know your favorite teas, do you like them strong? Weak? A little over or under brewed? How do you like to brew it? Do you like the cleanliness of a disposable tea bag? The economy of a cotton infuser that can be rinsed easily in the sink and reused? The beauty of watching your leaves unfurl unfettered in the saucepan? Or the convenience of the infuser that simply came with the teapot you bought? All of these ways make the best cup of tea because the best cup of tea is your favorite cup of tea.

To talk on teabags for a moment.

I became uppity with my tea for a time.

When I was surrounded by some of the best teas in the world for any and all of my brewing needs and at no expense to me, I simply drank at my pleasure. Sure, I'll have a cup of Bai Hao Champagne White Tip Oolong this morning. Maybe I'll throw in a little peppermint. Feeling under the weather? How about some Silver Needle Jasmine with Organic Rooibos Lauren, don't mind if I do. And then, I thought I had to grow up, left tea shop life and joined the corporate world.

I found myself in an office amidst consumers who have to pay royally for their premium loose leaf teas. I brought in my own homemade loose leaf tea bags for a long time until I noticed my Keemun tea was dwindling fast and I didn't want to pay the $20 to buy it loose. The only other option was staring me in the face: tea bags. Tea in bags is typically made of tea "fannings," the lowest quality tea. Basically the little bits and pieces that fall to the floor while estates filter out the higher grade leaves. Fannings brew quick and strong which is why they are suited to the paper bags, they brew right through it. (You can however get premium loose fannings, but that's another story.)

Finally with a heavy heart I brought in my box of fancy Whittard of Chelsea Earl Grey to work. To my surprise it was splendid!!! Granted the bergamot covers up any potent over brewing or poor tea quality that I may have noticed, but who cares?! It was strong and fragrant and kept me happy for an hour at my desk. And once that ran out, I faced another inevitable hurtle: Twinings. I had to do it. It was free in the office kitchen and my office pay was starting to really hurt. My pride was feeling more and more defeated. I saw myself as less of a tea connoisseur while I steeped my regular old English Breakfast.

And then one day, my friend Ana, who often changes my outlook on my own self, said "you know Lauren I think it makes you even more of a tea connoisseur to be able to drink both Twinings AND the finest teas in the world. If you can sit here in this hole and drink the dregs and then sit on a mountain in Darjeeling and drink it's local delicate leaves right off the bush then you are by definition a connoisseur. You can be both. And better for it." Needless to say I carried this bit of advice into other facets of my life as well as tea drinking. And then, pun intended, I turned over a new leaf, I was able to drink free office tea with an air of privilege at last.

Ever since then I no longer look down on tea bags. (Except of course Lipton. The only thing you can do with Lipton in a pinch is brew it strong and add milk and sugar. Like ginger ale: the only time I drink it is on an airplane.)

Erik once told me that Celestial Seasonings changed the face of tea bag packaging by ceasing to wrap the bags individually and instead keep them in box lined with wax paper. This innovation was hugely environmentally savvy and raised the standards for economy in the tea world. They have been using natural quality ingredients since 1969 and they act enthusiastically in the global community. I drink Celestial Seasonings with pride and joy. (P.S. Nothing in the world beats Celestial Seasonings Sleepy Time tea, everyone knows that, right?!)

So whether is Tzao tea at Starbucks, Two Leaves and a Bud, Mighty Leaf, Teavana, Yogi Tea, in London over a Tetley's, Tender Leaf, Tata, Good Earth, Tea Forte, Numi Tea, The Republic of Tea, Twinings, Stash, Bigelow or even Lipton if you must, the truth remains, the best cup of tea is your favorite cup of tea, even if it comes in a bag.

Brewing tea.

Ah the brewing process! This is really part of the whole tea drinking experience and shouldn't be over looked. China and Japan have intricate brewing ceremonies, with strict methods that must be adhered to, but even if you just want to make a cup of tea in your kitchen; "One should conduct oneself with the utmost dignity". Well said, I should say.

So first off, there's the tea bag method. Boring. Unless you're using one of those new fangled pyramid shaped bags (they allow for unbroken tea to be packaged in a tea bag due to their rigid shape), you're going to get a sub standard cup of tea. Besides, everyone knows how to drop a tea bag in hot water so there's no need to cover that.

Infusers-

Whether you are using a t-sac (basically a large tea bag that you fill yourself), a glass infuser (glass cylinder with many small holes), or a metal infuser (mesh cylinder, or sphere), the method is pretty much the same. You heat your water in a kettle, pour the water into a tea pot and you sink the tea laden infuser into the pot with the hot water. Allow the tea to steep for the desired amount of time (notes on that below), remove the infuser, and enjoy your tea. Pretty simple (tea is not terribly complicated really).

So of all these methods, I prefer the glass infuser. The holes in a glass infuser are usually a little bigger, so more sediment ends up in your tea, but you avoid any chance of getting a metallic taste in your tea. Metal taste is not really a big issue, but for some reason it concerns me. The t-sac style infusers work fine, but I feel that they compress the tea too much for it to brew completely in the water. Tea really needs room to breath if you want it to steep properly. Oh, and there's on other method; a tea sock. It's basically a cloth infuser, which is fit around a plastic ring. the ring sits on the rim of your tea pot during steeping, and the tea filled cloth sock, soaks in the hot water. Again, it works fine, but it's not ideal. If given the choice I will choose the glass infuser over all these other methods.

But! The best method doesn't use an infuser at all! I picked this up in India, and now it's the only way I brew tea. Just heat your water in a sauce pan, drop in the tea, when the water reaches the desired temperature, let steep for appropriate time (you can kind of smell when the tea is ready, look for a full bodied character to the aroma), and then pour the tea through a common metal sieve, or strainer, into your pot. The tea brews completely this way. It brews faster, and you can actually use less tea. Also, the tea drops to the bottom when it's done brewing. This is a good way to determine proper brew times if you don't know how long it should steep for. Over brewed, bitter tea is not awesome.

Always use clean, cold water. Spring water if possible. I read somewhere that our DNA actually won't accept substandard water, and it can get thirsty if it doesn't get good water. Never use municipal tap water. Try to use spring water, it's the best. and make sure it starts out cold, and don't over boil it-over boiling will rob it of oxygen. Cold water has more oxygen in it, and that will make your tea taste better. That's a note on water.

Each tea requires a different steeping time, and temperature. If you drop the ball on the temp. it's not going to be a big deal, but getting it right can definitely help you out. The brewing time is kind of important, pay attention to that. You want your tea to have brewed just the right amount so that the flavor is optimized. Not over brewed, and not weak. This table is useful guide, but it's better to get to know your teas. A fine Darjeeling will require a much shorter brewing time than a dark African tea, even though they're both black teas. Just pay attention to your favorite teas, and you will learn the secrets to each of their steeping times. Check out the table below.

Green Tea	160 degrees F	1 - 3 minutes
White Tea	180 degrees F	4 - 8 minutes
Oolong Tea	190 degrees F	1 - 8 minutes
Black Tea	Rolling Boil	3 - 5 minutes
Herbal (tisanes)	Rolling Boil	5 - 8 minutes

Remember also, that if you want stronger tea, just start with more tea. don't brew it longer, or it will get bitter. And if you don't have a thermometer; don't sweat it. For the lower temp. teas, take the water off the heat just before it boils. that will work fine.

So I think that's it. Seriously, try the sauce pan/strainer method. You don't get to use any specialized accoutrements, or fancy tea devices, but you will get the best cup of tea. That's the point right? Unless of course you're all about the gadgetry, and looking cool. I'm judging you, by the way.

Tea House Muse from the North Shore

I brewed myself a cup of the Castleton Moonlight this fine (hot) morning for inspiration as I searched for the muse today. My favorite thing about this tea is it's unique leaves. It's no wonder it's flavor is complex and hard to pin down. The leaves are long and wiry like oolong but thin and twisted like most black teas. And the colors of the leaves range all over the tea color map. I can't really taste it though, I think I under-brewed it or my taste buds are longing for something a little less refined. But I'm keeping away from those heavy monsters, as much as they call my name, until my stomach qi is balanced.

As I drank this fine elixir this morning I thought about the tea shop in my mind that I've been imagining ever since I went to Hawaii in 2006?! 2007?

It's a tea shop beach shack on the North Shore. Tiny, cozy and full of home. Geraniums in pots along the front porch. Maybe white linen curtains in the windows.

It's a tea shop that's busiest in the early early morning hours.

The time when surfers get up to catch those peaceful and unspoiled waves. I like the idea of bathing suits and beach sweaters, because it's cold at dawn by the sea. And this is the sea that's the middle of the sea. Not the coast of a continent. A tiny island coast. A coast that these deep sea waves are not expecting to find on their long rolling path to any shore. Their crashing is surprised and crisp and wild like the roar of a young lion.

This is the sound that will be the constant soundtrack to my selling chinese oolongs and japanese green teas. Sweet Matcha with milk and honey. Iron Goddess of Mercy oolong from the Fujian Province (check it out, it's a beautiful fable). And Castleton Moonlight from Darjeeling of course.

The shop is wood like a boat house with one long large window facing out toward the sea a small distance away and a patio garden with benches and flowers. Inside it's warm and quiet and the roaring waves are soothing in the slightly muffled acoustics. Their are lots of rocking chairs to sit in. The floor is covered in sand no matter how much you sweep it.

You can get bowls of fresh figs and cream, big chunks of hearty toast with butter and jam, oatmeal piled high with things to make it taste better like sugar and peaches. If you don't surf, you can sit barefoot and read the paper and drink the pot of your choice before the heat of the day and we can solve the world's problems (or more to the point the problems we have with each other because there's nothing wrong with the world).

During the day, ice teas rule the court. With all kinds of beachy additions, apple slices, mint flavored star shaped ice cubes. Iced Mate with pommegranite juice. And maybe we're still open for dusk. You know I love tea lights and you can't really light candles until it's dark enough to have them so I guess we'll be open long enough to light tea lights. And by then it's the calming herbal blends: lavender, lemongrass, vervain, camomile, peppermint, cardamom.

It's a beach tea house.

And if I never live in Hawaii (which I never want to do) this is how I want my tea shop, wherever it is, to feel when your inside, like you can come prop your board up by the front door and drink in a peaceful dawn with me and Erik.

Same same, nothing new.

I have all kinds of other stuff to do today so no real post. Just going to reiterate that the Castleton Moonlight is very good. Remember that.

Castleton Moonlight

Whoa! I just received a shipment of tea from Darjeeling, and there was a bag of Castleton Moonlight in there. As soon as I got home, I brewed myself a cup, and it's damn good. It's sort of an odd tea when you first taste it because it somehow manages to taste full bodied, and rather light at the same time. Towards the end of the cup, the lightness disappeared a little but it still remained smooth, and easy to drink. There's a pronounced fruity, or earthy liquor (listen to me. Liquor? Did I really use that term?), that maintains some of that characteristic Darjeeling muscatel. This is a very unique tea in the sense that it tastes very much like a Darjeeling, but it wanders off in a few areas. It tastes less astringent than other Darjeelings, and "wetter". Also a bit sweeter. Funny thing is that it's still a bit dry and the sweetness doesn't have an overpowering presence, even though it's very noticeable. This is a very well crafted tea in my opinion.

It brews into a nice amber color, and the dry tea is a satisfying mix of long wiry, multicolored leaves.

As far as I know, this came from a limited picking of a small little corner of the Castelton estates. The garden is one of the highest in elevation around Darjeeling, and a lot of care went into the production. It was not fermented for very long, but it tastes nothing like an oolong. The leaves are well withered, and left untouched, so they're large, and shiny. I think the term shiny describes the flavor well also. Yes, it actually tastes shiny.

This is a rather mysterious tea, and I feel as if things are going to take a turn for the better now that I have had a cup. What do you think of that? I think the movements of the planets may even be read within it's flavor and aroma. At least you may get a sense of it.

I would drink this tea during transitions or when running rivers. It feels just right for when you take a break from paddling a cool brisk creek, on a cool sunny day, and you have a nice shady spot with lots of undergrowth around, and a high canopy of trees to shade you. Look for fish, or turn over a few rocks while waiting for your water to boil. This tea worked well for me in the afternoon, but I think I would recommend it for the morning as well.

It's after acupuncture and I'm drinking a cup of Ginger tea a la Yogi Tea. Yogi Tea is pretty good, it's based on Ayurveda so it's completely herbal concoctions designed for balance and well being. On their web-site they have a ingredients dictionary that explains all their herbs. I've been drinking ginger because it's good for digestion and Angie and Dr. Tsao say that my stomach qi needs a little love. But I didn't realize: Ginger root is known as the universal medicine in Ayurveda. It aids digestion and is one of the best herbs for nausea. It relieves spasms and menstrual cramps, and promotes menstruation. Ginger helps to regulate blood sugar both by stimulating pancreas cells by lowering lipids (cholesterol, triglycerides) in the blood. Historically, it was one of the most respected herbs for joint health, especially for aging joints. It has relatively high calcium and iron content. Ginger increases peripheral circulation, so is used clinically for cold hands and feet. Being diaphoretic, it treats some symptoms by promoting seating. So thank you Yogi Tea for all your wisdom and herbal blends. All that sounds really great.

I don't know where the rage began but tea bags often come with little inspirational quotes on their tags these days. I love it. Celestial Seasonings does the best quotes. I always treat these little messages like angel cards. When I'm picking a tea bag I get ready to trust the oracle and believe that whatever message I chose is the exact right one I needed at that exact right moment. When it doesn't work out, who cares. I definitely intend to have some kind of this at my tea shop. I have a couple of good ideas that I can't disclose yet.

Yogi Tea bags come with a little inspirational quote by some mystery yogi. Today my tea bag said: "Be proud of who you are." I really need that lately. Some things are going on that are making it a little hard to be proud of who I am, which I hate because usually I have no problem thinking I'm pretty darn great. But even my horoscope by Rob Brenzy's Free Will Astrology in the Village Voice this week said that I need to be kind and loving and say nice things to myself this week. And I think I he's right (he usually is, check him out every Wednesday, he's the best).

Between Yogi Tea, Rob Brenzy and me, I should have my self confidence in check, at least for now as I aid in digestion and relax before a very, very busy week.

Tea House Muse of Hills and Gunpowder

Today my tea shop is on a misty hilltop looking out over the ocean. There are big wicker armchairs with white cushions and small round tables with tea lights. It is always either dawn or dusk. It's warm enough to wear a summer dress and cool enough to wear a big thick sweater over it. Your tea comes in a glass teapot with glass mugs. The wood is worn and gray and soft like it is in Nantucket so you can be barefoot and not get splinters. The whole place opens out onto the deck so even on the inside all the chairs face the sea and the breeze reaches all the way to the back. There's a sandy path that leads down to the beach. I'm always wearing a white dress that goes down to the floor with an open back and a plunging neck line. Perfect for serving tea in. This is a tea lounge for sexy people who have good conversations and good views.

That's where I'm drinking my Gunpowder today, in my open tea house lounge of wood and glass in the hills above the sea.

Gunpowder is definitely my favorite of the steamed leaves. I have to say I agree this is a good tea for mountains and brisk air, but I could definitely curl up with Gunpowder. It's the only green tea I curl up with and that is a major requirement to all my favorites. If you can't sit with it under a blanket and have a conversation for two hours over it than it's no favorite of mine. Is it peppery, minty, and grassy? Grassy maybe. But to me it's incredibly gentle and tastes like tea would if it was grown in a bayou. Rich and wet but smooth with no astringency in sight (that's what turns me off about most green tea, it's so brassy). Gunpowder would be a great tea to drink in a glass tea pot at my tea lounge overlooking the sea in a white dress and soft sweater pouring over the answers of the universe.

Gunpowder Green Tea, LIFE!!!!!!!?

Today is about gunpowder green tea. But you will have to wait. Lauren and I have apparently turned this blog into our own little life journal, so I'm going to continue that for the moment, and VENT! My last post was about; despite how crappy some things are at the moment, it's ok, and I'm ok, and blah, blah, blah. Not today. Things have become worse. That horrible job that I talked about last time; worse than I thought. I got into an argument with the owner, and walked off the site, and didn't get paid for a days worth of work. Then I discovered that because I wasn't paying close enough attention to my bank account, and because someone waited for a month to cash one of my checks, and because I'm tight already, I am somewhat screwed. My scanner broke, so I can't finish up that illustration project that has to be done by the 19th (no money for a new scanner either). We still have to move, and all that other stuff is still looming, or in the picture. You should thank me for not getting into the details of this stuff because we would be here for hours.

Anyway, I've drinking gunpowder green tea a lot during all this crap, so that's what we're going to write about today. To start with, here's some info from Wikipedia:

Gunpowder tea (珠茶; pinyin: zhū chá) is a form of green Chinese tea produced in Zhejiang Province of China in which each leaf has been rolled into a small round pellet. It is believed to take its English name from the fact that the tea resembles gunpowder pellets used for cannon. This rolling method of shaping tea is most often applied either to dried green tea (the most commonly encountered variety outside China) or Oolong tea.

Gunpowder tea production dates back to the Tang Dynasty (618–907) but it was first introduced to Taiwan in the 1800s. Gunpowder tea leaves are withered, steamed, rolled, and then dried. Although the individual leaves were formerly rolled by hand, today most gunpowder tea is rolled by machines (though the highest grades are still rolled by hand). Rolling renders the leaves less susceptible to physical damage and breakage and allows them to retain more of their flavor and aroma. In addition, it allows certain types of oolong teas to be aged for decades if they are cared for by being occasionally roasted.

When buying gunpowder tea it is important to look for shiny pellets, which indicate that the tea is relatively fresh. Pellet size is also associated with quality, larger pellets being considered a mark of lower quality tea. High quality gunpowder tea will have small, tightly rolled pellets.

While brewing methods vary widely by tea and individual preferences, 1 teaspoon of looseleaf tea is recommended for every 150ml (5.07 oz) of water. Ideal water temperature for this type of tea is between 70°c (158°F) to 80°c (176°F) ^[2]. For the first and second brewing, leaves should be steeped for around one minute. It is also recommended that the tea cup or tea pot used should be rinsed with hot water prior to brewing the tea to warm the vessels. When brewed, gunpowder tea is a yellow color.

The flavor of brewed gunpowder tea is often described as thick and strong like a soft honey, but with a smokey flavor and an aftertaste that is slightly coppery. This type of tea is often seen as having a flavor that is somewhat grassy, minty, or peppery.

That pretty much says it all, but I'll add my own opinion. I find it to be a nice, robust, green tea. The astringency is low, so it's gentle even though there's some tangible body to it. To me it doesn't seem like a tea to curl up with (although nothing is stopping you from doing so), but a tea to put in your thermos and drink on the top of a mountain on a brisk day. Actually, brewing this on a peak would be even better. It's starting to become my green tea of choice, largely because it's simple, and it feels like you'll get something done when you drink it. I recommend this tea with wood chopping, mountain climbing, and cabin building. It is called "Gunpowder" so I guess it has to be burly.

You can see from the picture above that it brews into a husky yellow color. and don't put too much of the dry tea into the pot for brewing. It's all rolled up, so a little goes a long way. I've put too much in and you get what looks like a pot of boiled spinach. It still made great tea, but I had to strain it quickly, and it was a waste of tea.

Tea House Muse

Erik is right. I'm surprised I had to be reminded of this but I guess hucking lobster with low brow broads for days on end will suck some of the good sense out of you. So thanks to Erik, I'm tapping back into the muse. Writing about tea and picturing my shop will keep my heart uplifted through aforementioned messy roomate, noisy room, social obligations, hot weather, waitressing, and general discouragement.

I looked and looked for some inspiring tea shop photos this morning. Erik, I really love the picture you found. Those tea house patrons are pointing at some birds flying while they sip their cuppa. I love it. I love you over the moon.

This photo of an old stone barn in Kansas from 1850 really loved me this morning. It's cozy, hearty, functional, solitary, peaceful and just the sort of place I would love to have 25 people to serve tea to in big comfortable chairs with all the windows open and a fire burning and not in Kansas. The mugs would be made of glass, the kettle of stainless steel (right mom?) and Bela Fleck's classical banjo album would be playing in the background. On a big wooden low table in front of the fire there would be a bowl of lemons, a jar of honey, a jug of milk, a jug of cream and a bowl of sugar for anyone to help themselves to. Wild flowers in little vases on the tables. Conversations billowing in and out of corners. And me in a flowered apron and a brown betty tea pot in hand.

Today, that's my inspiration. My vision.

I think that's pretty good. That feels pretty damn good.

I walked by a space on 5th Avenue in Brooklyn the other day and imagined throwing something together in there. I pictured one hundred glass jars full of loose tea of all kinds on one wall. Everything from Green and black and read and white to rose petals and kukicha and ginger and raspberry leaf and cinnamon sticks even. And all along the opposite wall just a low bar with chairs. And you know, if I really wanted that RIGHT NOW, I know I would do it. I would write a business plan tonight and have it ready to be taken to the bank by next month, I would get the loan, I would sign the lease, and I would be in business in time for the fucking holidays. So what's stopping me? What in the world is stopping me from trying to get that space today?!?! I guess we don't want to be in New York. I guess we want to be in New Zealand. Or San Francisco. I wish something more tangible would be appealing. It's hard to have things feel so far away, literally and figuratively.

But for today, this barn is doing me a lot of good. And the imagining part is really important in the Universe too. I will look forward to tomorrows inspiration.

Thanks Erik. Thank you for thinking of me and loving me the way you do.

I'm going to go brew a pot of 5 Seconds Tea from Kusum's little cottage on the Happy Valley Tea Estate in our messy kitchen swarming with flies to the constant sound of moving traffic and be happy thinking of you and tea and barns and dreams.

Sometimes you just have to inspire yourself.

This post is only surreptitiously about tea. It's about tea in the sense that somewhere in the long run, all the dull work that I'm doing now will pay off, and Lauren and I will be making a living with tea being a central part of our success. Considering that probably no one besides Lauren's mom reads this blog at this point (Hi Julie!), I feel less inhibited in my expression. Therefore, I will now document the general state of things without reservation.

("Proceed Sir")
("Thank you, I shall")

Having just finished a dull dinner of plain rice cooked in water with chicken boullion, after a rather tiring day of installing used sheetrock for an eco-friendly contractor, with inadequate tools, for a sad wage, with co-workers who almost hindered more than helped, after weeks of not making much money at all because the economy's in the shitter, living in a crappy, noisy room, with a really messy room mate who pretty much finds an area you just cleaned, and takes a crap on it, and after having a crazy reaction to an acupuncture treatment that gave me a huge headache for three days so I couldn't sleep, and in that three days I discovered that the web host that I had been researching for two weeks and then paid for (for the Darjeeling tea website I'm working on) requires that I know (or learn) how to write code....................after this stretch of complete and utter non-sense, I'm actually feeling alright about things.

Since I've been more or less unemplyed for over a month, I decided that this was the time to start a website that sold tea. It would get Lauren and I "into the business" of tea, and having just come back from India where we met a guy who is all over the tea world of Darjeeling, who could sell us the high end tea's that we prefer; I decided that it made sense to get started. (excuse me, I'm ignoring proper sentence structure) As it stands right now, I have about $600.00 of extremely good Darjeeling teas on it's way from India. I have a few other little accoutrements, and I've got my toes wet with the website. The hard part is just beginning, because it involves some marketing stuff that I'm just learning about, website building issues (new to me), and I have limited funds. In some respects it would be great if I could avoid working for a little while longer, but I can't live on dew and Universe juice, so I have to de-prioritize the website, and go out and labor.

I also have an illustration project I'm working on for my mom, which I'm happy to do, but the deadline's coming up, and I have to make a bit more progress. We're also moving in less than two weeks, and we have some social obligations. To top it all off, the summer finally got truly hot and muggy, so I'm a sweaty mess all the time.

The saving grace in all this is Lauren, and the clarity of purpose that I more or less feel. Sometimes I get bogged down, and don't keep totally focused, but having a clear sense of what you are doing changes everything. I don't think anyone ever accomplished anything without being very clear about what it was that they were doing. "How" is sometimes a mystery, but "What" has to be well understood.

Lauren has been a trooper though all this, and she may not realize it, but she's made some things possible that I couldn't have done on my own. Namely; skate by on only a day of work here and there. It's making a larger, more important goals possible. Thank the stars that I was smart enough to do something with this time. I could have just spent my days trolling Craigslist for jobs, and sinking into depression. Well I did that for a minute, but then I got clear on some stuff.

So to Lauren; Thanks, I love you very much.

and to me; Good job.

There you have. That is the state of things. Not exactly what this blog is all about, but I found that somewhat cathartic.

Thurbo, Oriental Delight

So this morning it was the Thurbo, Oriental Delight from the Thurbo Estate, in Darjeeling. This particular tea is an oolong which is slightly unusual for Darjeeling, although there are more and more estates producing greens, and oolongs. The funny thing is that the greens and oolongs tend to taste a bit like the black teas. They're good offerings, but they usualy maintain that Darjeeeling "muscatel" flavor. Don't let this turn you off though, they still taste great, I just prefer to go with greens and oolongs from the folks that have been producing them forever (the Chinese, and Japanese). That's a little snobby, isn't it?

Well anyway, the Thurbo Oriental Delight is exactly what an oolong from Darjeeling ought to taste like. It's light and gentle, and it's one of my favorite teas for when I just want some tea, but I don't want to make much of a commitment. Due to it's lightness, it tends to be downright refreshing, and it leaves you feeling quite alright. It's so light that describing it's flavor is a little difficult. Lauren and I spent a few minutes this morning trying to describe it, and we sort of came up blank, except to say that it was perfect for today.

I doubt that this tea is still avilable anywhere, but it's worth looking around if this sounds good to you. It was produced in a limited batch, and we just happen to be in Darjeeling when some of it was available last winter.

The leaves are large and unbroken, and it looks great when you brew it. There are all kinds of nice greens and browns in the tea before it's steeped. Take a look at the pictures above, and you'll see what I mean. It's a really attractive, light bodied tea. I highly recommend it.