Saturday 26 February 2011

The Mystery Brew

You may remember a few blogs ago in my review of last year that I bought a tablet of tea in Glastonbury that turned out to be quite ghastly ( in case you don't, it's about half way down this blog here ).  From the same basket of tea that was sitting on the shop counter, I bought the little sachet pictured below. One fine day a couple of weeks ago, I felt brave enough to open the sachet and brew up the mystery herb, which I'm assured was tea.


Well here's what was inside - dried green stuff


Into the pot with it and pour on some boiling water.


Wait a few minutes for it to brew . Tum te tum te tum.


And pour. It doesn't look to be the strongest cuppa in the world.


A moment of contemplation while I consider the potential effects of the unknown brew.


Actually it was quite nice. Light with just a hint of jasmine about it (jasmine tea itself I find just a bit overpowering on the jasmine front). No ill effects, curious visions and I can report that I am still alive several weeks later.


When I came to empty out the pot I found that it contained almost complete tea leaves, which made cleaning out the pot easier than expected.

13 comments:

Kim Ayres said...

Can you dry them out and use them again?

Sandy's witterings said...

Of course you can Kim - a little thrifty recycling is almost a requirement to get a Scottish passport.

Crafty Green Poet said...

that looks pretty much like the green tea that I drink all the time and yes it can definitely be recycled and used again

John @ Beans and I on the Loose said...

You truly are a brave soul with an adventurous spirit. To me those leaves looked to be something meant to be smoked. I stick to what I know when it comes to my tea.

Shundo said...

I think some green tea afficionados would maintain that it tastes better the second or third time through. I hear that it is best to use water that is a little off the boil though, unlike a proper black tea.

Sandy's witterings said...

Sinbad's company: There is some merit to buying what you know in tea, but I do like a little dabble in the unusual from time to time. Not being a smoking sort, you're not likely to get a smoking report on the mystery tea I'm afraid.

Juliet: Green tea's fairly easy to get, but can you find the stuff that comes out in whole leaves in Edinburgh? Clues welcome here.

Shundo: I wish I hadn't emptied out the pot now, I could have poured more water on and used them again. If I can find some more, I'll try recycling them.
I've been having a wee tea blog tour (Good grief! some people take it all a bit too seriously - not all though)in the last few days and have noticed about the different temperatures.

Baglady said...

I love that those little crinkly green bits were whole leaves.

You're a brave man to taste something unidentified without having St John's on standby!

The Glebe Blog said...

Robin,of Batman and Robin fame would have exclaimed....Holistic Hydration Batman ! Watch out Gotham City.

Shundo said...

About the tea blogs, I haven't scoured for those yet, but in any such endeavour, there is the fine line between wanting to do it right and being all OCD about it...

Janie said...

Tea has become popular in my community. I am discovering new teas. I loved your post and I see you have a "tea cozy" on your teapot. There is a joke about "Oleander Tea". Boy am I glad you did not drink that stuff. Yeah you are a brave soul. The smile on your face tells me it was certainly happy tea...

Michael (Light-In-A-Box) said...

Sandy, I am hopelessly addicted to coffee as I may have mentioned once before, but with all this tea talk maybe I'll have to give it a try! Coffee is starting to make me bounce off the walls lately!
Michael

Unknown said...

No, sure, it was "tea". ;o)

I love how you tried it just for fun. I do that with different foods when I travel and always love it!

Too bad the tea didn't show you the Northern Lights, though. ;o)

Sandy's witterings said...

Thank you all for your comments.

Krista, I'd love to see the Northern lights, as you've noticed from an earlier blog, but it's worrying if you see them because of something in the tea :)