You can tell a lot about a person by the way they react to a flowering tea. I recently picked up a Primula glass mug infuser, plus some of their tied tea blossoms. The compact eyeballs unfurl easily into a chrysanthemum-like flower in the bottom of your cup — tea leaves that do the work of infusing while they go about being beautiful. But beauty is in the eye of the tea lover. Walk around the office with a glass mug and a tea blossom, and the reaction varies from wide eyes and oohs to furrowed brows and icks, plus lots of sea urchin comparisons. I admit, some of them are a little "Star Trek," with undulating tentacles that look as if they're going to crawl out of the cup and suck your brain. But if I'm having a good day, they just look like the peonies and dahlias we just left behind in the good ol' summertime.
Primula makes several flavors of blossoms. Green Tea With Jasmine is one, with the jasmine blossoms in the center of the bloom. This week I tried the Green Tea With Pumpkin Aroma. I tried it simply because it sounded oh-so different, and I fully expected it to be loathsome — the astringency of the green tea at odds with the comfort-food spice of pumpkin pie. But it was surprisingly good. The pumpkin flavor is pretty subtle, and the tea rounder than expected. Two great tastes that, unbelievably, taste pretty good together.
I thought you were going to talk about how tea people online react to blooming teas--with love or hatred. They could be a real revealer of tea snobbery. Are you above teas made for aesthetics in appearance? Or is that still real tea?
ReplyDeleteHave you encountered people reacting negatively to blooming teas — just on some kind of principle? Seems a bit silly. I think anything is to be applauded that (a) offers a moment of unexpected beauty, however slight, and (b) attracts people to tea who might not otherwise pay it notice. And as long as the beauty of a blooming tea doesn't override the quality of the tea — the Primula teas look great but taste quite good too (though if left to sit they become understandably bitter at the end) — more power to it, eh?
ReplyDelete*giggles* I hope to avoid ever having my brain sucked out by a tea bloom... what an ironic fate that would be...
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