It was the best of teas, it was the
worst of teas.
Okay, I suppose I should apologize to
Mr Dickens for stealing such a great line for such a trivial subject,
but I couldn't come up with anything more appropriate. Because of
the weather I've been drinking a lot of the tea I brought back from
Germany recently, and among the tea I've been drinking is one of the
best I've ever tasted and one of the worst I've ever tasted.
See why I butchered the opening line
from “A Tale of Two Cities”?
Some of you may remember that one of my
many strange habits while touring Europe is to grab various bags of
tea from hotel breakfast bars, bring them home, and then sample them
over the next few months, Mostly, the stash consists of various
kinds of green tea with mint, which I love but which Loraine forbids
me from drinking while at breakfast because the smell doesn't agree
with her that early in the morning. Aside from the mint teas I also
grab stuff that looks weird and/or interesting. Sometimes I strike
gold; other times, I wonder why a certain tea was ever produced.
And so it goes with this collection.
One of my favorite teas ever is this
South African Rooibos with Vanilla--
It's a mild red tea with a great
vanilla flavor. It's so good, in fact, that I bought a whole of box
of it while we were over there last year. Don't judge; some people
buy souvenir T-shirts, I buy souvenir boxes of tea.
I would not, however, ever buy a box of
this tea--
“Heisser Hugo” is a lime tea, which
I thought might be good. I love lime, after all. However, since my
German is almost non-existent I didn't realize that it's not just a
lime tea but, instead, an elderberry/lime tea. Germans seem to love
bitter flavors, and while I really try to fit in over there that's
one thing I can't seem to get into. In fact, the one chocolate bar
I've ever come across that I don't want to try again is a dark
chocolate-lingonberry bar I picked up in Berlin a few years ago.
I'm sorry. Bitter just doesn't do it
for me.
Now, having said that, here's the other
tea I can't get enough of--
What is it, you ask? Well, I answer,
it's a Fennel/Anise/Caraway herbal tea. Yeah, I know I just spent
the preceding paragraph saying about how I don't like really bitter
taste, and yet here I am, admitting I like a tea that tastes vaguely
of black licorice and a bitter version of lettuce.
Don't worry. Some days, I can't figure
myself out either.
So if you're ever in a store looking at
teas (or paying a visit to Spice Merchants, one of my favorite
places in downtown Marquette), look for a tea with vanilla in it. I
promise you won't go wrong. If you see one with elderberry, though,
feel free to take a pass. Of course, you can take all that with a
grain of salt.
After all, I'm also the person who
drinks a tea with fennel and caraway seed in it. I may not be the
best person to offer advice on the drink.
8-)
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