Even Harry Potter drinks tea!

In the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, things aren't going too well for Harry, Hermione, and Ron - especially Ron who's been wounded. To ease the situation, Hermione decides on the remedy that everyone in Britain turns to in times of trouble, saying the magic words:

I’ll make some tea,” said Hermione breathlessly, pulling kettle and mugs from the depths of her bag and heading toward the kitchen. Harry found the hot drink ... seemed to burn away a little of the fear fluttering in his chest. 

The power of tea!

Here's an inspiring quote about tea:

It is very strange, this domination of our intellect by our digestive organs. We cannot work, we cannot think, unless our stomach wills so. It dictates to us our emotions, our passions ...
After a cup of tea (two spoonfuls for each cup, and don't let it stand for more than three minutes), it says to the brain, "Now rise, and show your strength. Be eloquent, and deep, and tender; see, with a clear eye, into Nature, and into life: spread your white wings of quivering thought, and soar, a god-like spirit, over the whirling world beneath you, up through long lanes of flaming stars to the gates of eternity!" Jerome K. Jerome Three Men in a Boat

So I'm off to have a cup of tea - hope it has such a wonderful effect on me!

A cute book on tea!

Time for Tea

I just came across this little book while visiting my family in Scotland. It has all the best sayings about tea in it!

I'll have to get it out and add some quotes, soon.

Anyway, this is the book.

Happy Day - My Mugicha Arrived!

Yes, I was so happy this morning when the doorbell rang and there was a box containing my mugicha!

Somehow I just couldn't buy any for a while. The local Asian store asked me to bring an old package so they could order it. Still waiting. The online stores seemed to be sold out. Amazon just said "sign up and we'll send you an email when it's in stock." Oh dear!

Now you may think cold barley tea isn't so exciting in the winter, and yes it's definitely still winter here! But we drink mugicha (cold) with our dinner every evening. I'm not much for drinking water, and sweet drinks are not really the thing. Hot tea is nice but not necessarily with the meal. Mugicha is just perfect!

And now that my package has arrived, I'll be drinking mugicha with dinner tonight. So happy!

If you want to know more about this drink, check it out on Squidoo here: Mugicha Barley Tea

Flavored teas - Mix them up!

Flavored teas come in a pretty diverse variety of choices already, so it might seem unnecessary to mix them up. But what I mean is that sometimes a flavored tea has too much flavor, or the flavor is just a bit too overpowering and needs a bit of balancing.

So the first option is just to add some more "unflavored" tea to tone it down. If you have a flavored black tea, maybe Lapsang Souchong, and the smoky flavor is a bit overpowering, just mix it with some regular black tea like a Orange Pekoe. In my college days we used to do that a lot. Going to college in Scotland we made our tea in a teapot, using loose leaf tea not with individual tea bags for each person, so it was important to get a mix that everyone liked! I guess some of our friends didn't like the Lapsang Souchong so much, so we made it less potent by mixing it with black tea. Lapsang Souchong is a bit of an acquired taste, kind of like drinking tea while being at a bonfire and inhaling the smoke! So most of the time we didn't make a pure Lapsang Souchong pot of tea. Of course, that might also have been a way to save money, Lapsang Souchong being more expensive than regular black tea and we were poor students on a limited budget! But, I like to think we were motivated by a desire to share something we really liked (the smoky flavor of Lapsang Souchong tea) with all our friends.

Another option is to mix two flavored teas together. Here my ideal is to mix Lapsang Souchong with Earl Grey tea. While I love them both, I have to admit that most Earl Grey tea is a little bit like drinking perfume! That bergamot oil that gives it the special flavor is actually used for perfume too so that's not surprising. So, rather than just tone it down by adding more black tea, a more exciting option (particularly if you're partial to the smokiness of Lapsang Souchong) is to add a portion of the Lapsang Souchong to the brew. Now that's a delicious pot of tea!