Battle of the teas: chai, constant comment, green, orange blossom and plane jane

The kitchen wench's cornucopia of teas.

Jason gifted me a whole box (!) of Constant Comment tea tonight. I am like a big kid dancing around the room right now.

He introduced me to this tea when we were younger, I guess it's been 15 years or so. Wow, I feel old just now. At the time, we would drink it with milk and sugar. Then, for some reason I got away from drinking tea with milk. Now I'm back on the "milk kick" (but sans sugar - I seem to get enough from 2 X weekly doses of chamoyadas).

So I'm basking in the glow of a new box of tea!

I was thinking it would be cool to do a post about tea, since I drink at least a cup a day, and I enjoy different varieties. My favorites are Constant Comment (obviously), earl grey, and chai. In second place come jasmine and green tea, and then the plain black tea most of us grew up with (i.e. take the Nestea plunge).

I've gotten away from iced tea, although I drank a whole lot of it when I was a teenager. My theory is that my Mom wasn't so into the idea of us drinking too much Pepsi (although I think it was always in the fridge) and tea seemed healthier. Now the ice next to my teeth makes them sensitive so I mostly drink the plain stuff at room temp. Strange, I know. But I think in some countries it can be common to drink hot tea on a hot day (think New Zealand - a cuppa).

Did any of you see the movie The World's Fastest Indian? There's this scene when Anthony Hopkins character Burt Munro (from NZ) walks into a bar (I think it was in some desert town in California) and he orders "tea" - much to the chagrin of the waitress who says something to the effect like, "we've got beer, the hard stuff, soda and water." Somehow it sounded funnier when the bartender said it. Anyways, you've got to see this movie. The chemistry between Anthony Hopkins and the transvestite motel manager is very sappy.

I digress. As you can see, the kitchen wench enjoys the movies.

So you can see from the picture on this post, there is a variety of tea chez kitchen wench. In the picture you see the whole box (whoohoo!) that Jason gifted me tonight, alongside some tea bags which are chai, Constant Comment, green, orange blossom (not so great) and plane jane. Oh, and lemongrass tea, which is very nice if you have a cold or just need a warm up on a cold windy day (like today). The tin is a design of Orla Kiely, I am a big fan of this designer. She is super talented and makes cute prints for shirts, dresses, purses, luggage, etc. Just go to ebay and type in Orla Kiely and you will see examples of all of her stuff, it is quite fun and youthful. She uses natural fabrics like cotton, silk, wool and linen, which I admire.

I digressed again. So the tin is a special edition (I know that sounds snotty) Orla Kiely design for Bewley's tea in Ireland. Don't ask me how I decided that I needed this tin. I just knew it when I saw it. And every day when I go to make tea and open up my cupboard, it makes me smile. The colors and design are so cheerful. Enough said.

I've decided that I am a super taster which means I have tastebuds that need to be motivated by sweet, sour, spice, bitter and salty. That's why I like strong teas so much like the Constant Comment and chai. It also explains my love of chamoyadas, anisette, horchata, green olives with pimentos and sweet vermouth. There was an article about super tasters in the food section of Huffingtonpost.com, or maybe it was grist.org. Just google it and you can learn more.

In the meantime, get yourself a cuppa.

http://bewleys.com/

http://www.orlakiely.com/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0412080/