At last, my 500th post - a score the English Cricket team can only dream of.
Clipper Ayrurvedic Rejuvenate tea is one of the strangest blends I've ever drunk.
As you can tell from its rather unpoetic moniker, it's a designer blend rather than a proper single estate tea. On the box it's described as:
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An uplifting infusion of lemon, cardamom, fenugreek and gotu kola believed to rejuvenate in Ayurveda.
It smells strongly of curry spices and lemon and that's what it tastes of too. Curried tea!? It sounds vile but I think it's one of the nicest teas I've sampled so far.
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as a bw7 recommendation, i actually tried jackson's of piccadilly green tea with lemon. was at some fancy place, recognized the name (cuz its much more odd than, say, "tea") and gave it a shot.
... hm. it was tea.
mebbe i'm doin somethin wrong.
I really do think tea is an acquired taste. Going back to the beginning of this year, unadulterated green tea made me feel physically ill whenever I drank it. I only perservered with it because I've been trying to reduce the amount of carbonated drinks I tip down my throat. Living in England, Tea is something you just learn to drink. Although it's not ceremonialized like it is in China, it's still a big part of the culture.
A few months ago in an English magazine called WORD there was an interview with Paul Heaton, who fronts a band called The Beautiful South. It was one of those interviews where a celebrity is supposed to impart their life philosophy. One of Paul Heaton's pearls of wisdom was: "Tea is Hateful."
He made a good point, which is that, in England, people are always offering you tea and it becomes like a constant sales pitch. It's offered up as a remedy for anything from cancer to divorce - "What you need is a good hot cup of tea."
There was an Irish sit-com called Father Ted about three priests who live on the remote backwater of craggy island. Their housekeeper, Mrs Doyle is always offering tea and won't take no for an answer. I remember one episode where Father Ted came downstairs in the middle of the night and Mrs Doyle was standing in the dark with a pot of tea just in case one of the priests wanted a cup.
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I was in Beijing for a weekend 3 weeks ago. I participated in a Chinese tea ceremony with two local girls I met in Tiannamen Square (long story). I am now a big fan of Ginseng Oolong tea.
I'd be quite interested to hear about this. A couple of years ago, while I was in Eritrea, the girls in my hotel asked me if I wanted to drink coffee with them. I turned them down because I was in a hurry.
Later on I discovered what an important social ceremony coffee drinking is in the country. If someone asks you to drink coffee with them you really need to set aside the whole afternoon. It's tremendously involved; You drink about four pots of coffee made with the same grounds and, in between, incense is poured onto the hot coals and chocolate gets passed around. I turned these girls down because I was ignorant of the culture and it must have looked incredibly rude.
There's a sacred Baobab tree called Marim Derit (I know I have spelt this wrong) a few kms outside of Keren. A local legend is that if you are having difficulty in having a child you should go to the the tree and drink coffee with the first stranger you meet. After that you will be able to conceive.
