St Ives

A quick cuppa

Today we are mostly drinking 'Hong Cha' this is translated as 'red tea' and is as close to the familiar 'black tea' as you are going to find in a Chinese tea shop. In fact if you go in and ask for black tea, they will smile knowingly and say that you must mean 'hong cha'.

Since our recent supply of PG tips has run out on us, we are resigned to drinking Hong cha. I actually really like it, as it reminds me of Earl Grey, it has a properly flowery flavour, and we drink it with milk, although I'm sure this act would make any self respecting Chinaman shudder. Mr V is taking some time to acclimatise to the new tea, for precisely the same reason that I am so taken by it. it's not rough enough for him. what a philistine.

This tea we bought in Carrefour, from the tea seller. It was 4.50 RBM per 50g.

Jasmine Tea

I am a huge fan of tea. I can do English PG tips with a slosh of milk, naturally, but what I do really love is some Chinese tea. Many of my friends tell me that they don't like green tea - 'it's too Bitter' they claim, having sampled a cup of well stewed tea made with a 'green tea' bag. I find that sort of green tea bitter as well. In reality, green teas can be wonderfully smooth and sweet, the trick is - tea leaves. Even the poorest street sweeper in this land has a flask of tea made with leaves. The country simply would not function without thermos flasks of hot (and tepid) tea.

I have decided to log my tea experiences here, since i very often buy some tea, happily drink it and enjoy it very much, whilst forgetting completely what it is called, or where I bought it.

Jasmine tea is a very good place to start, the jasmine flowers mixed in the tea make it lovely and flowery. My most recent purchase of jasmine tea is all rolled into little balls, it looks really sweet as it unfurles in the hot water. I bought it from Carrefour, where there is a tea seller squeezed in between the dried beans and nuts and the flower stand.

no more tea

I'm running low on my favourite teabags! this is fairly serious, since I drink it all the time and I can only get the teabags in England. Twinings decaf Earl Grey. Some might not see the point in drinking tea without caffeine in, it's much like ordering a decaffeinated coffee in Starbucks, The staff generally look at you as if to say 'why are you bothering?' . I do go through phases of preferring decaf or caffeinated tea and coffee. The coffee here in sausageland is very strong, and affects me somewhat, so I try to avoid it, but it's hard, as I do love the taste. So I think I shall be sending out a plea to someone soon in England for some more teabags, as I am currently in a 'no caffeine' phase of my ever erratic life.