Thursday 7 July 2011

Day 75: Tea At The Empress

My friend Heather kindly sent me a tea-care-package to help me along the final stages of my journey.  Her friend had recently gone to a Victorian hotel in Vancouver called The Empress, and had kindly brought Heather some of its afternoon tea.  Heather included me in the virtual tea-party, and sent a few of the teabags along with the description so that I can try it, too.

It's funny, sitting in a hoodie and jeans in my living room at 9 in the morning, drinking this tea and trying to imagine sitting at a white linen covered table, with sparkling glasses and shining porcelain cups and gently steaming silver teapots.  But as Anne of Green Gables would say, "I have an imagination", and that serves me in pretty good stead.

My little teabox summary says, "Top seasonal quality tea from Kenya, Tanzania, South India, Assam, Sri Lanka, and China".  Wow! That's the best of the best when it comes to tea.  It's interesting that Britain (especially England) are known so much for their tea, when really they just borrow the best from these countries.

I'm trying it with no milk (or sugar), and it's got really good flavour. I admit that since I've begun my foray into loose leaf green teas and herbals, 'regular tea' doesn't have as much of a draw for me.  The royal wedding commemorative blend is so far my favourite, I think because it conjures up so well the beauty and magic of that fairytale day.  And also because I like to be able to taste certain flavours in a tea.  Perhaps one day I'll get to Kenya, and India, and China, and then I will know what the tea is like direct from the source...and then I'll be sitting in my flat drinking a cup of tea and it will remind me of all of these exotic places.  For now, I'll imagine the silver teapots and white-coated waiters and balloon-backed chairs and sparkling chandeliers...and drink my tea.  Thanks Heather!

I went for my walk early this morning, around 7. It started raining (not solid hard rain, just a pitter patter) halfway through, so I had a lot of people looking at me oddly as I marched along in a short sleeved shirt spattered with rain, walking as fast as I could to keep from getting too cold!  By the time I came home I was well glad for my little cup of tea.

Walk length: 35 minutes

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