Hanseatic Fine Food

Haven’t had a cup of this in ages. Enjoying one now while working on a final paper. The cup reads “Where there is tea there is hope”. Taking strength from that today.

Had this last night before having to go to work in the evening. A great caffeine kick that also comforts. Like a grandma sternly telling you to take a coat and a scarf when you go outside.

Have a wonderful cup of this with milk. I have no explanation why this tea tastes to so good to me. It really has no business being this good – it’s a CTC tea, from a no-name no-flush combination of Assams. But I like it, with milk and sugar, and that’s that.

Having this now with crystallised brown sugar and milk. Almost as traditionally taken (I used milk and not cream, and I stirred the tea). Very, very good. This tea somehow makes the milk more creamy. Symbioses indeed.

This is getting to be one of my regular teas, and I really can’t explain it. I have higher quality teas at hand, but when I want a warm tea-with-milk or evening pick me up, I keep on reaching for this fellow.
The leaves of this tea are very fine cut, so it does make for a not so fun post-tea cleanup.

Life is better when you have heating on, and the sun starts to shine between the clouds. I’m having this plain, with some Moroccan mint that I grow in pots outside my apartment. This tea grows bitter very quickly, so if you don’t enjoy the bitterness of tea, add sugar, honey, stivia or any other kind of sweetener that takes your fancy.
I’m hoping that the bitterness and the mint will clear away some of the fogginess left by the cold (which, alas, has yet to pack its bags and leave me be).

Drinking vast quantities of this tea. It’s not very interesting without milk, but with milk, it is really good.

It’s raining cats and dogs, and cold outside, so a large mug of this wonderful tea, with milk and sugar, is keeping me warm right now. Brr….

This is an East Frisian tea that I bought in KaDeVe in Berlin (one of several, since I wanted to try East Frisian tea, and maybe even recreate the East Frisian tea ceremony). It’s a blend of CTC Assams, which means a lot of dust in the bag, but also a lot of kick in your tea. It is a surprisingly good blend, of surprisingly good quality, and I have been thoroughly enjoying it these past few days. The tea brews a dark red, and takes milk and sugar beautifully. I did not have sugar crystals or cream for the East Frisian tea ceremony, so I didn’t have a chance to taste it in the traditional way that it is consumed, but this tea takes to milk like no other tea that I have tried. No English Breakfast, Irish Breakfast or Assam that I have tasted has its tastes enhanced so much by milk – the maltiness of the tea seems to bloom under its influence, and all bitterness and astringency disappears with it. For the pittance that it cost, this tea is surprisingly one of the tastiest teas that I currently own.