Achewood
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EXTREME WARNING, WILL BORE YOU: MY TEA ROUTINE.
🕑 Added 2024-01-20 18:41:54 +0000 UTCWhat could be cosier than spelling it with an "s"? Why, typing away about my deeply idiosyncratic tea routine on a chilly winter's day, of course, as the ice-slicked sidewalk glowers gray and menacing out the window, and the jaw-droppingly expensive new heat pump at the Fixer-Upper noisily shoots somewhat-warm air out of the living room floor grate.*
As I have written under separate cover, I once started an all-natural soda company. Sodas start life as teas, and these teas get their flavor from herbs and spices. (Most flavor comes from a large windowless factory in New Jersey, but not my flavor.) So, I have plenty of experience** developing blends with ingredients that most people encounter only in nightmares: Devil's Claw, Butcher's Wrath, and the blood-chilling Dong Quai.
The brew I enjoy in these colder months is a caffeine-free analog to coffee; too much coffee caffeine makes me feel like a raging a$$-ho$e (this is just one example of why profanity is always a blend of symbols) and I use it sparingly. Here we see a 1:1:1:3 blend of roasted dandelion root, licorice root, ginger root, and roasted chicory. Chicory is often used to extend coffee, being of a somewhat similar bitter and oily profile, and serves here as the chassis. The rest of this dirt salad is generally antioxidative, detoxifying, and tonifying. Licorice gives it a nonspecific perceived sweetness—the good Guru (see footnote two) sprinkled it everywhere, to make the medicine go down.
I brew about a tablespoon and a half of this in the Aeropress with eight ounces of boiling water, for between three and two hundred and eighty minutes, depending on household distraction. I like it black, and find that it tastes like a coffee you'd get in a weird dream where a shard of kindling representing autumn in the Sierra Nevadas was discovered in the bottom of the mug. I call it Prayer Molasses. I just made that up.
* Apparently these climate-friendly machines make the climate nicer everywhere but inside the house.
** I was fortunate enough to study under Guru Hari, who lives in nearby Eugene, and is the Chinese Tonic and Ayurvedic herbal expert who developed the line of Yogi teas. One of my prouder moments was the time over a test-brew when he leaned back, closed his eyes, and declared that he liked the way I managed chamomile.
Comments
Jay Williams
Agree on the sugar, with one important caveat- resident of the Garden State I may presently be, but I was born and remain a Southerner, and I will yield to no one in my defense of the use of sugar in iced tea- not too much sugar, mind you, but a big ol’ glass of “sweet tea” is damn near essential on a hot day or with certain meals.
Michael Akey
Aero press for tea… i think I can get behind that. Found my tea shop on Grant St in SF 20 years ago and haven’t even wanted to go anywhere else. But now Im in the UK and while one may think tea would be easy to come by, most here drink the worst stuff imaginable or freeze dried coffee or bad espresso. Coffee and tea culture here can be depressing.
Chris Onstad
In some way, it symbolizes New Orleans, where we recently were.
Chris Onstad
I just finished it, and it was a good, tea-length article to ponder. I'm with him on sugar. Would you wear a tarpaulin over an expensive suit? Or purchase a fine dog, only to never meet it?
Chris Onstad
🎶🎷🎶
Chris Onstad
That accidentally posted early, due to fingers. Coming tomorrow!
Jacquelyn R Walters
I am a lover of coffee and tea, so this post is not boring to me at all. Bonus: adorable mug is adorable
Julie (HiDeeHoGal)
You've got some diuretic and stomach soothing action in that cup of hot brown. No asshose to be found.
Omurice
What happened to the Good Photos I’ve Taken, with its promise of 13 images? You can’t distract me with tea talk, where’d they go?
Matt Mitchell
I try to avoid being an asshose too. (Cue “jazz hose” by Ray)
Jay Williams
I’ve never been a coffee drinker- always tea. I brew mine in a Cona vacuum brewer, which is often a pain in the a$$, but does produce a good cup of tea (and coffee too, I’m told). I don’t have the exotic variety of ingredients (mostly because I don’t know much about any of them and wouldn’t know where to source them in - gasp! - New Jersey). But I do agree with you about taking it black, a lesson learned from Orwell in is essay “A Nice Cup of Tea”, which I heartily commend to you and the rest of the folks…
