Monday, 22 June 2009

Arctic Blasts

What I meant to talk about on Saturday was tea.

My coffee consumption has dwindled to a few lonely, slightly soggy grounds (I think I last had a cup on Thursday), and my tea ball is working over-time.  ngaio was kind enough to buy me a ‘sampler’ of lose-leaf teas which Evis and I have been testing over the past few weeks.  I have a table on my computer at work, wherein I have commented on the teas, and given them marks out of ten.  The marks range from eight to two (it tasted like broad beans...)  When it’s complete, I shall of course be posting it up here.

The fantastic news is that I’ve found a tea which scores an amazing, big, fat ten out of ten.  It’s called Arctic Fire, and I picked it up in London.  It’s almost sweet and floral, like Turkish Delight, but then it weighs in with a heavy kick of mint.

There’s only two problems:
I need an air-tight jar to keep it in, as it’s very quickly losing it’s bite;
I can’t find anywhere in the UK to buy it on-line!  The shop sealed the packets with stickers giving their street address and telephone number, so when I come back from Scotland I’m going to give them a call and ask if they can post me some.

I’ve got another two teas from the London shop as well:  One is a violet tea which Allegra brought and doesn’t really like; and the other is one called Chinese Hookah.  I’ve not tried the Hookah yet--I’m using up the Arctic Fire before it becomes tasteless, and have kept the Hookah sealed against degeneration.  The violet tea tastes like Palmer Violets, which can’t be a bad thing.  It’s a sweet tea that’s like eating a Mars Bar--a bit fun and indulgent.

Peppermint tea is quickly replacing coffee as my writing drink.  This is very significant.  It’s like changing operating systems.  I replaced smoking with coffee, and now I’m replacing coffee with peppermint tea.  I love mint teas.  I’ve even brought my own mint plant--called Bertie--so I can make fresh mint tea.  Only problem is that the slugs seem to quite like mint, too.


2 comments:

Jo Thomas said...

Slugs also like beer in buried jam jars. I'm sure you can work it out for yourself - assuming Bertie is in the garden and not a pot plant.

Foxie said...

We were trying to be kind to them, and picking them off the veg by hand. They've crossed a line now. We're going to set beer traps for them tonight--the gloves are coming off.