I actually like knowing the details of where my foods are raised.
Sometimes I read food labels just to find out where the food I am eating came from, and then I take a moment to bless the people and area that were involved. I think about what a vast team is needed for me to be munching: the person selling the seed or the animal, the person tending, harvesting, shipping, the trucker, the person who stocks the shelves and rings up the purchase.
I get a kick out of seeing the name of a town that I know printed on the product: a town in British Columbia cited for having raised the blueberries I sprinkle on my morning cereal, which in turn was from a company in my home town in La Jolla.
Aiming to be a locavor, or one who only eats locally grown products is a good thing; I believe in supporting my immediate neighbors as much as possible. But there still is some quite good about recognizing the global unity of food production.
Anyway, I decided to post about this topic as I was drinking some tea this morning. It was a nice green tea, with roses and hibiscus and cherry blossoms and such. The thing is that just recently I have discovered that my level of tea sophistication is a lot lower than I had imagined.
I was searching for a resource for a good oolong, when I came upon THIS site. (click on each picture to get more details about each tea. No really...take a moment and explore a bit...you will be amazed.)
The site's home page.HERE
Oh my goodness.
Suddenly I realized I was like the high school kid who has been swilling Boones Farm Strawberry Hill and thinks they are totally knowlegeable about wine.
I know nothing...nothing! about tea. I know even less about the geographic areas of tea production.
But soon, very soon, I hope to remedy that fact.
Do tell: I am the only one who was clueless about artisan teas? Have you ever steeped a cup of Monkey Picked or Dragon Ball tea? Or savored a cup of Hairy Crab Oolong with a friend?
Does the idea of paying $50 for a quarter pound of tea leave you shaking your head? (Even though a quarter pound of such tea will result in many more servings than a $50 bottle of fine wine.)
The antioxidant value of red wine has been praised as being good for one's health; the antioxidant value of tea is the same or better with a lot less calories.
Something to ponder. Maybe being a wine snob will eventually be inferior to being a tea snob.
And at least I can drink tea at work...which I am running late for as usual!
5 comments:
The world of tea is quite complicated isn't it. Lately I just learned about the difference between white and green tea. I have a lovely white mandarin ginger tea - smells as lovely as it tastes.
BTW - ever see PEI potatoes in your stores? We're famous for them :)
OK some of the names of those teas do nothing to entice me to drink them. I am very uneducated in the tea world. I was raised on lipton tea and a loose tea that always smelled like soap to me. I still have oolong tea on my shopping list.
I see you've been to Five Guys lately! :) Doc and I drove through Sugar City, ID, on our trip out your way last August.
I do love a good tea, but the extent of my tea-knowledge is sadly lacking. I favor black tea blends, such as Earl Grey, Lady Grey or Irish Breakfast, and if I'm making iced tea, it's usually Luzianne.
I don't think I'd care much for trying a tea named "Drunken Concubine!" LOL!
No worries, I am certainly a fellow tea illiterate. I must click that link and find out more.
I'm terribly tea illiterate and only now and then crave a cup.
Yesterday I enjoyed a pot of Tropical Green Tea at a tea house. .it was very nice.
OH ..but I do know about blueberries that come from Abbotsford. Would that not be crazy if they were from the same patch that I always pick?
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