Tavalon Tea

While preparing this morning's fresh brew, a clumsy moment occurred. In the midst of my tea-making, a few tea leaves decided to take a detour, escaping the cozy confines of the infuser and boldly splattering onto the counter. But guess what? Spilled tea leaves bring good luck! Talk about a fortunate accident!

That got me thinking about all the intriguing superstitions surrounding tea. One of my favorites goes like this: "Putting tea leaves into a coffin gives the departed enough refreshment for their onward journey." Well, if that's the case, when I depart this world, bury me in a mountain of tea leaves!✨

The composition of Genmaicha involves three Kanji characters: 玄米茶. The term 玄米 or "Genmai" represents brown rice, which is rice that remains unpolished or with the hull intact. Digging deeper, 玄 or "gen" can be interpreted as "enigmatic," although historically it denoted the color black in Chinese. 米 or "mai" is one of the numerous Japanese words for "rice." In essence, Genmaicha can be understood as "tea with brown rice," highlighting the infusion of toasted rice alongside tea leaves✨

Tea Tidbits Series: Unveiling George Orwell's final golden tea Rule✨

🫖Skip the sugar

"Lastly, tea — unless one is drinking it in the Russian style — should be drunk without sugar. I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tea-lover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water.

Some people would answer that they don’t like tea in itself, that they only drink it in order to be warmed and stimulated, and they need sugar to take the taste away. To those misguided people I would say: Try drinking tea without sugar for, say, a fortnight and it is very unlikely that you will ever want to ruin your tea by sweetening it again."

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Tea Tidbits Series: Unveiling George Orwell's golden tea Rule #4

🫖Tea strong enough to put hair on your chest

"Fourthly, the tea should be strong. For a pot holding a quart, if you are going to fill it nearly to the brim, six heaped teaspoons would be about right. In a time of rationing, this is not an idea that can be realized on every day of the week, but I maintain that one strong cup of tea is better than twenty weak ones. All true tea lovers not only like their tea strong, but like it a little stronger with each year that passes — a fact which is recognized in the extra ration issued to old-age pensioners."