May 1 Sipdown Challenge Prompt – May Day! Drink a floral tea!
My mother told of the May Day celebrations at the orphanage when she was growing up. Girls did Maypole Dances, winding the colorful ribbons around and around. The littlest boys had frog costumes and hopped over the valley to delight the townspeople who came for the festivities.
When my kids were little we made tussy-mussies, or colored pictures of flowers, or made little wild bouquets. The local botanical garden had a May Day party and you could make flower crowns (wreaths) to wear and – their favorite part – you could attend the reptile lecture and hold a snake!
Here in the South, the dogwoods and azaleas have finished blooming, violets and pansies are perishing in the heat already, but summer flowers are already everywhere.
This is my most floral tea. I could probably have used it as my tea with the most ingredients, but that prompt may have to be another tea now.
I had this first as a jelly. Superanna gave it to me some time ago, and it occurred to me that if Dammann Freres made a Jardin du Luxembourg jelly there must have been a tea first. Sure enough, there was, and onto my wishlist it went.
They use a nice strong oolong, not deeply roasty or nutty, but definitely not shy enough to be buried by the flowers. But this tea really is all about the flowers. It is delightful and pampering, and I reach for it on afternoons when I want to feel fancy. Lovely to pair with Fortnum cookies or lemon pie.
