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Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Green and Creamy

These days, the green beverage I look forward to most is an avocado smoothie. I prefer to blend my own with almond milk and acacia honey.  I've been pathologically drinking this concoction almost daily.

Tea keeps irritating my throat even though I try to work up my tolerance levels and the creaminess of the beverage soothes many things.  I contemplate my life time stash of tea while I down the smoothie wondering what if any action I should take in disposing of the amassed tea which may never get drunk.


Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Tea for a California Roadtrip

 I'm making my way down the California coast, most of it in a Fiat and a little if it on foot as the terrain permits. I haven't fussed too much in the way of tea. It's all indiscriminate grandpa style brewing in a thermos- roasted oolongs, da hong pao, lapsong souchong, and a surprisingly robust bai mu dan.

Even in the height of summer, the Central California beaches are no place for your thong bikini. You can see below the locals here leave little space for out-of-towners to set down their beach towels.  


These snoozing beach goers  are male elephant seals who are mostly quiet during the molting season.  They occasionally trumpet out of their nose but this is nothing of the violent mayhem during the winter rutting season when bloody battles determine who gets to mate an entire harem.

With the blustery wind, I have quadruple layered with a duck down vest and tea is just the beverage to recover your bearings even with suboptimal brewing.

Monday, July 08, 2013

Cake Party

I held not a beeng party as the theme of this blog would suggest but a pastry cake party for friends going through various life changes.  I briefly contemplate if I even know enough people to consume a regulation beeng in a single party.

  357g beeng/ 3g tea per person =  119 friends willing to drink puerh at the same time (I think not...)

I'd have to rent out a banquet hall. I guess you could try to serve an entire beeng at a friend's wedding.

While puerh drinking friends are a slim minority,  I have no shortage of friends who want to eat my cake.   These gluten free cakes are from Crixa run by a lovely Hungarian baker in Berkeley and I make up occasions just to share them.  I had a completely inflated idea of how much cake friends can pound down.  

(Don't make fun of my teapot. It's the kind of thing you can use when brewing Darjeeling for such a party.  I was going to use my black widow Wedgwood but you can't see how dark the brew is.  I'm finally going to get rid of both on ebay.)

Last week, because my favorite baker had been on vacation I was forced to resort to my second choice of bakeries for an impromptu Scrabble party. Masse's in Berkely has stiffer and more sugary cakes which often have boob and nipple look.  When enjoying such cakes with friends,  it seems impossible that there could be serious woes in one's life that needs attention.