I always get excited around March and April as the Spring harvest season for tea is not too far away for some of our neighbours. My fresh tea supplies from 2018 are almost exhausted (a bit like the crude tea in this warehouse) and I long to enjoy sips of the really fresh greens (in particular).
On the upside I enjoy hearing from my network of producers about what might be and how the weather leading up to and the actual day of picking will impact the aroma and flavour of the tea.
I have been taking a bit of a break from tea evaluation for reasons I will get to share very soon but I am also looking forward to pulling out the cupping sets when some samples start arriving.
While we wait, we are fortunate to enjoy Australia's spring teas from Arakai Estate that were produced in September 2018. This is one of the multitude of upsides of supporting locally produced tea as the seasons are all aligned. And they were really good teas this year from our friends at Arakai Estate collection, take a look at the goodies here.
Now the more really hot humid days have returned to Brisbane in Autumn I think it is playing havoc with my abilities as a tea practitioner. Honestly, some really silly things have happened on my tea table this week...
- making tea with water from a kettle I neglected to boil
- forgetting to tip out my hot cleaning water from my teacups and trying to fill them with tea = a very unsatisfactory watery tea
- gaiwan being poured out and not actually meeting the empty void of the fair cup = crying over spilt tea
- being impatient and burning my tongue (whose kidding themselves I do this a few times a week)!
Make me feel better and share some of your own brewing mishaps. In the meantime I will go back to daydreaming about Spring tea!
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