tea

OK, so seeing Georgia's new blog made me think maybe I need to update mine!

Firstly, a thought about tea.

A friend in Cheltenham gave me some nice tea for my birthday back in November. It was quite posh - from Harrods, and so we tried some. It tasted strangely familiar, but I couldn't place where from.

A day or so later, I remembered why. Back when I was in Japan, in March, when some teachers left to move onto other schools in the prefecture, one teacher gave a leaving gift of tea. (Mostly teachers gave individually wrapped sweets of biscuits.) But this lady had given loads of expensive, different kinds of tea - about 5 bags per packet, each pack a different variety. I think one of them must have been the same or similar Chinese blend to what Colette gave me.

Which reminded me that one day one of my JTEs in brought some tea along and offered me a cup. It was a blend from Muji, but had a very interesting, distinct taste. I can't remember the name of the flavour, but after letting me ponder for a bit, she said, "My husband says it tastes like toothpaste". She had hit the nail on the head and from then on it was a bit of a running joke, but not a tea I'd particularly recommend...

WHITE TEA

Later on in the week after my birthday, I went for dinner at a friend's house who works in a posh school. He offered me a cup of tea & after asking what types he had (if he had any decaf etc), he offered me 'white tea'. I had heard this was the latest trend in tea in the UK. We seem to go through phases of fashionable, health conscious tea. First there was green tea (full of anti-oxidants), and then rooibus / redbush tea from Africa, and white tea is the latest to hit the trend stakes. Working in the posh school, he'd picked up a couple of tea bags at a function. They too tasted a bit like these Chinese blends mentioned above. I wonder if the name comes from the colour of the flower, as the drink itself isn't white. Is it just Britain that has all these fads with tea drinking? Generally you can't beat a normal (builder's) tea with mik, but these trends are odd. In Japan, it seems to be green tea all the way [but then again you can also have oolong cha/ mugi cha/ as well as variations along the ocha theme].