Today was a beautiful day, warm weather (meaning no cold side of the head and ears, mohawk woes) and clear skies…combine that with getting a good night’s sleep (and being woken up by the smell of blooming flowers) for the first time in over a week made for a having a lovely day. I had an adventure to a part of town I don’t normally venture to procure some fried chicken and okra, because nothing says comfort food on a warm day like fried yummies. I am Southern after all, it is what my people feast on, well that and collards but that is sadly harder to find this time of year outside of a can. Now I sit and blog between waiting for coats of paint to try on my miniatures, fun times for me!
Today concludes my week of Teavivre teas with one that is very appropriate to the weather, Zheng Wei Tie Guan Yin Oolong Tea, a Fujian Oolong from the An Shan Tea Garden. This Oolong is an autumn harvest and is said to be different from their other Tie Guan Yin by being less green and more floral, and considering their other TGY is pretty floral that is an impressive boast. From the moment I cut open the package I realized this boast was true, this TGY is hands down the most floral smelling one (possibly the most floral tea) I have ever sniffed. It was potent, heady, and intoxicating, notes of hyacinth, orchid, lilac, and daffodils. The last one made me immensely happy because that is not a note I get very often in teas, and I absolutely love daffodil, alongside all these flowers is a touch of green vegetation, the accompanying leaves to all the blossoms in a bouquet.
Once the leaves have steeped (and thoroughly poofed up in my xishi) the aroma takes on a delightful sweetness, one that reminds me of caramel, which I admit surprised me though not in a bad way. Alongside this sweetness was the heady elixir of hyacinth, daffodil, and orchid blossoms and the green notes of bamboo leaves and vegetation. The liquid has a buttery sweet quality, reminding me of buttery cookies and flowers, it is heady and sweet, no greenness to be detected in the steeped liquid.
Holy cow that is one buttery mouthfeel, it took me a moment to focus on what I was tasting because I was too distracted by the buttery goodness, so smooth! The taste, when I finally focused, was light, typical for a first steep, gentle notes of hyacinth and orchid with a daffodil note as well. This moves to a celery leaf almost savory quality at the finish with a lingering flowery note in the aftertaste.
I feel like I am sniffing pure undiluted liquid spring-time, it is intensely floral with green notes as well, really it is spring in a cup. The mouthfeel is still intensely buttery but with a slight slickness at the finish. The taste is light, though not as light as the first, it is intensely floral, so many flowers, like walking in a spring garden when everything is blooming. The midtaste brings in more green, notes of bamboo leaves and a touch of celery leaves, for the finish it is all sweetness, like flower nectar and honey with a very strong orchid aftertaste.
For the third steep I still feel like I am in a garden, like I am slowly sinking into a flowery field, being lulled into a heady slumber in a flower patch, it borders on being narcotic like some flowers can be. This steep is just as floral, but it takes on a real nectar quality, I feel like a hummingbird supping from various flowers in a garden. There is very little green to this steep, just a hint of bamboo. The real shine from this steep is the aftertaste, where the earlier sipping has a nectar quality, the end has a heady orchid note that stays around forever, seriously the aftertaste on this steep just would not stop, it was epic! This might be my new favorite green Tie Guan Yin, it gives many steeps and is like drinking spring.
For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/04/teavivre-zheng-wei-tie-guan-yin-oolong.html
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Southern fried chicken, fried okra or okra in gumbo (with tomatoes and corn), cornbread, iced tea, and yes, collards, but don’t forget the mashed potatoes and gravy. This was my childhood. Funerals always had fried chicken, so when I dug up my brother’s ashes on my mom’s land (long story) and had him properly buried in the cemetery near our parents YEARS after he died, I insisted on picking up a fried chicken family-size dinner at Popeyes. That’s real Southern comfort! I didn’t know you were from the South!
Ohhh yes, loads of mashed potatoes and enough gravy to cover it thoroughly! Popeye’s is great, they had one in PA when I lived there for a while and it was like a little slice of home when I couldn’t convince my mom to cook me some comfort food (which splits in half of either being all Southern or all English!)
I am from Augusta but spent the first half of my life around Atlanta and a little bit of South Carolina, I miss it, the food, culture, pretty nature…but I absolutely do not miss the heat and allergies. Though I have learned Kansas City is like a flat, dryer less forested South but with not as good BBQ.
I knew I was going to love my daughter’s fiancé (now husband) as I was bringing a pot of gravy to the table and he said, “Ah, yes! The elixir of life!” I love gravy. Make a gravy lake, eat carefully around the edges until the dam bursts, rebuild a smaller lake and refill with gravy and start again…
Southern fried chicken, fried okra or okra in gumbo (with tomatoes and corn), cornbread, iced tea, and yes, collards, but don’t forget the mashed potatoes and gravy. This was my childhood. Funerals always had fried chicken, so when I dug up my brother’s ashes on my mom’s land (long story) and had him properly buried in the cemetery near our parents YEARS after he died, I insisted on picking up a fried chicken family-size dinner at Popeyes. That’s real Southern comfort! I didn’t know you were from the South!
Ohhh yes, loads of mashed potatoes and enough gravy to cover it thoroughly! Popeye’s is great, they had one in PA when I lived there for a while and it was like a little slice of home when I couldn’t convince my mom to cook me some comfort food (which splits in half of either being all Southern or all English!)
I am from Augusta but spent the first half of my life around Atlanta and a little bit of South Carolina, I miss it, the food, culture, pretty nature…but I absolutely do not miss the heat and allergies. Though I have learned Kansas City is like a flat, dryer less forested South but with not as good BBQ.
I knew I was going to love my daughter’s fiancé (now husband) as I was bringing a pot of gravy to the table and he said, “Ah, yes! The elixir of life!” I love gravy. Make a gravy lake, eat carefully around the edges until the dam bursts, rebuild a smaller lake and refill with gravy and start again…