I rarely digress into speaking of myself as the subject has no matter, in that I matter to God and that is all that matters on the subject. To note my bloodlines which are superior would be in bad manners or taste.The above in fact, the Enoch Wedgwood, Blue Onion pattern, is actually from my familiar line which supplied the finest of China to British Royals and move about the world from China to the United States dominating all. Those lovely Hanoverian Anglo Saxons coupled with so many other regal lines like my American Founding Fathers.
I have never been a cigar smoker......well when I was 11 the aroma of cigarettes, cigars and pipes had an allure for me and I sampled those forbidden tastes, but my fondness for smokey things soon dissipated, and the last time I tried a pipe, my thought was, "Hmmm tastes like smoked fish", and noting that I preferred smoked fish to just smoke, I have been dining upon that delicacy of Americana ever since.
As one of my lofty lineages were china makers to the royals holding all sorts of honors above the common herds, I developed an earlier taste at age 5 for tea.
For some reason that American blend of Lipton, the Orange Pekoe and Pekoe Black, has always had a place in my heart. It really is as Rush Limbaugh would say of cigars in a tea which is meant not for morning tea, but to be mixed with things to cut it's robust nature.
I love it in a big mug, with heavy whipping cream and a tablespoon of honey. It is my version of the heavy Italian coffees which mocha their way to delight Europeans in whipping sugar into a frothy delight.
The Lipton though is heavy in tannin and not for the young as it is like most things American, highly enriched, so one knows exactly what they are consuming.
I detest the green teas as they are weak, have an aroma of animal fodders like dried alfalfa and hold no interest for me. The same goes for the designer chamomiles in their narcotic effects to the raspberries. I did though have a nice black tea infused with strawberry and cream which was interesting enough to drink on a whim for a treat.
The secret to tea is the blackening of it in fermenting. That is where one gains the gunpowder look of the gunpowder teas coming from south Asia. Those are the only teas which are interesting to me, as Jasmine is green, and that simply is nothing, but a nice name for a weak tea.
I know of the blends from English, Irish, Welsh, but they are of little difference or allure. I realize the English consume the Earl Grey, but it is basically a weak Lipton blend, sort of like consuming a cheap American beer without hops compared to a Grain Belt local hopped up on that bitterness.
If that is what one wants, drink the American Lipton as that will suffice for Earl Grey.
The two teas this connoisseur prefers are the Indian Darjeeling and the Chinese Oolong which hints of green tea, but comes on as a black tea.
They are fun in being gunpowder types in looking like old gunpowder in blackness and that huge rough cut. As one perks them, the rough leaves become these wonderful large leaves....see that is how the English learned to steep teas as it was not that chaff Lipton produces, the real tea is a large leaf which does not leave chaff in one's cup as it is poured from a fine tea pot where it has steeped for the appropriate time.
Darjeeling is from British plantings in India and there are 3 pickings of this tea plant which runs from fruity to the common one which I prefer in the middle picking. It is the finest of tea in no tannin to coat the mouth and it gives the wonderful tea flavor with no aftertaste............and will compete well with heavy cream and sugars.
The Oolong is a lighter tea which is fine for tarts and such things. It actually mixes well with the German dark Kuchens (coffee cakes) with that other fine Orient spice of the Nutmeg........the delight to the English which could hide rancid meat and make it palatable enough for the stomach that one did not die of food poisoning.
There is nothing more lovely to me than to arise to a morning tea, with good company and some delightful light sweet for breakfast. The Darjeeling is a splendid guest and in warmth it enhances conversation and the coziness of intimate conversation.
I do consume some coffee in the Arabica, always in the French roast, which is the double baked burning of the green coffee bean, as I never have liked coffee and if I intend to drink that bitter drink, I intend it to be as it is, of course utilizing the heavy whipping cream........and as my Grandfather was a molasses connoisseur, I will at times add that sweetener for an almost meal experience.
It is amazing that teas are around 30 dollars a pound, but I can make a half of a pound last a year, as I do the horrid sin of perking my tea. I fully realize the ivory tower set with steeping, but it is a waste to my taste to dunk tea and leave it unfilled.
I place one teaspoon in a coffee filtered, 4 cup aluminum pot and let it perk away to a lovely color. I never mix my old Comet pots with coffee or tea, nor do I clean them as the character embeds in the aluminum pours and then one does not have that nasty froth from clean pans in your brewing.
So as I sit here finishing my velvety cooled Earl Grey, I honestly hope that people in these most profane of times would invest in something delightful they like. My tastes are for pure ingredients and allowing my body to savour that which is God given. I prefer baking my own delights as no one can perform the service better than my Angelic and Holy Spirit guided hands. To share then that moment with someone who actually appreciates and understands that "cakes in box" are horrid tasting things, while sipping tea with something that is created yummy to the eyes is a way at least to understanding the Peace which Christ gives to those who accept such gifts in their hearts.
........and for those who think snobby me, only drinks their tea from china...........I do not like things which break, so in my Billy Dixon delight, I drink my tea often in a quart tin cup I made from a government surplus beef can I found.
It says BEEF on the outside "with juices". It delights me to take something so base that people roll their eyes at, and have my tea in it like the people snobs look down their noses at.
I like Christ, delight in the masses of Ronald Reagan. I prefer them like Michael Landon the actor, who would leave the elite and go dine with some local family as there is comfort in the locals.
I once had dinner at a one room restaurant, whose floor sagged when you walked on it, and the kitchen bellowed plumes of blue smoke as the Lady made donuts. The hamburger and fries were base and nothing to entice one, but as she got a bottle of ketchup off the "grocery shelf" as the restaurant was a sort of grocery too and other things, I remember that day with extreme fondness for the meal she served was America and I delight in her.
French cuisine is only fine cuisine, until one finds out that every meal they prepare is from peasant food in peasants trying to eat the squeal from the hog and cover up that which went rotten with their sauces.
Enjoy that which you love and find someone to appreciate that with you. Then you are royalty and have more treasure than they as you invite Christ to bless your gathering with him attending.
May your tea always be steeping in God and brewed in friendship, in Christ's Name. Amen
agtG
