christmas morning and a discussion on tea

Christmastime!! It's certainly much less festive this year while my mom and sister are away on a cruise, but I'm excited to spend the day reading and cooking. I submitted my year-off grants yesterday and thankfully can truly spend a day doing nothing before I head back to Cleveland tomorrow.

I woke up in the mood for an elegant but full-bodied drink, and thought a tea latte would do quite nicely. I made this earl grey latte once before for Juewon, but he was very mean to me and claimed to be "lactose intolerant." How ridiculous. I made this version this morning and liked it a lot. I boiled the water in a stainless steel pot, added the tea bag, then added the milk right into the same pot. Since my parents don't own a whisk, I took wood chopsticks to whisk the milk in the pot. The result is very clean and delicious! I also wonder if heating the milk in the tea prevented it from forming the skin it usually does.

Black tea is always comforting, even for those who did not grow up drinking it. The first time I had Lipton even was at the college cafeteria, and instantly found that with a splash of milk I felt comforted and loved. Since then I've grown tired of the tannin-y aftertaste Lipton leaves and explored some different tea bags. My first try was Twinings, and it is probably still the front-runner for me. It's less powerful than some other teas, but it is smooth and has no offensive notes to it. I've also found that Tazo Awake is extremely aromatic. I would probably have switched to it had I not preferred the more subtle tones of Twinings to Tazo's light and fanciful flavors.

When I set out to try PG Tips, the lady at a small tea shop in Pittsburgh led me instead to Yorkshire. She insisted that customers were upset only when Yorkshire was out of stock, and not PG Tips. Intrigued, I purchased her over-priced tea but was sorely disappointed. It tasted not like a traditional black tea and instead like a foul, self-insistent cousin. Not wanting to waste it, I found that steeping it for only 10 seconds or so prevented the stronger, offensive notes from soaking, and that is how I have made it through. Fortunately, my adventures in tea were salvaged through the discovery of Bigelow. It's a very affordable brand of whose I've purchased a wonderful Chai and a perfect Mint. At a hotel recently I sampled their Earl Grey, which was incredibly flavorful and soothing. To complete my journey, I'll have to sample their classic English breakfast and finally get around to trying PG Tips. Yay black tea!

- Jane