Tea Plantation and becoming certified tea specialist trip, part 6b

Part 6b  Great houses in old Charleston

Where they drink Mint Juleps I assume

Front of the house

Huge side porches are all the rage in historic Charleston

Tea Diver

 Creative tea infuser designed by Jung-Joo Kwon and Sung-Mun Yoon. Tea diver was inspired by the shape of a traditional Korean diving suit.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    I saw this interesting design on posterous.   From looking at the pictures, It looks like the leaves have some room to expand.  Does that mean you can have fun and enjoy tea?   Haven't tried it yet.  Darn clever and cute.  Reflections of Me  is where I saw this.                                                                                                                                     

Tea Plantation and becoming certified tea specialist trip, part 6a

Part 6a  A four part series within a series of my pictures of Charleston.

Old Historic Charleston near the campus of the College of Charleston

Near the College of Charleston

Thought the name of the street was funny (Coming Street) and close to the College of Charleston.

Marion Square near the college

Washington Park where I ate lunch the last day I was in Charleston.  A retired man told me what to see and the history of Charleston, while I ate lunch.

Washington Park from the bench I was eating lunch.

The corner of Meeting and Broad Street a block or two from Washington park

Gingerly eating ginger snaps, oh heck inhaling ginger snaps

I went to Molly's Gluten Free Bakery again and had a great experience or at least had some pretty good treats.  On this trip I tried the fudge brownie and the ginger snaps.  The fudge brownie was great though it was personally too cakey for me.  I like my brownies closer to the fudge then cake side, otherwise it was delicious and would rate it delicious even if it wasn't gluten-free.  It really was that good.  I also got lucky with the ginger snaps it tasted just like the ones my mother use to make and I liked that they were small.  The snaps were a little dry, but the taste was excellent and no off taste to it at all.  Went there about a week ago to try the hamburger buns and they were all right, but you cold tell they were gluten-free.  Maybe that is what surprised me on my last trip because the brownie and snaps were very good and did not taste like they were gluten-free.  Did have a sample of the lemon square and from the little taste they were good and would like to try the full square next time and maybe some of their muffins.  I am starting to feel real good about using them for my gluten-free choice though I haven't mentioned that to them yet (may when the time gets closer).

Hey, hey, good lookin

If you have noticed, there is a new look to my blog.  My website designer Kitty from Ink2Art wanted to make sure that my blog, twitter account and my website looked similar.  She also changed the font and other things to have a better overall visual to my blog.  I think she did a fabulous job.  They also go with the look of my place though there may be more color in my place, but the feel is still the same.

On other news, Monday I went to the place and took pictures of the build out and the progress of my place.  If you look really close at the first picture you will see my neck and body (head is optional).

storage area

The closet or aka my office

a front counter view inside towards office

front counter towards kitchen and storage area, oh yeah me on ladder

hopefully my tea wall

Tea Plantation and becoming certified tea specialist trip, part 5b

Part 5b.  How tea is made or CTC black tea is made in Charleston Tea Plantation.

Oxidizing

Off to the drying phase

Looks like the drying phase is finished or is finishing

Finished CTC black tea in the green metal bin.  It drops from the shoot on the side into the bin, but I could never get a picture that showed the tea dropping.  Boy did I try, oh well

Chicago bound, dishes to be found

Hopefully my great deals will continue.  On Thursday I called a company that advertised on Craigslist $10 file cabinets and went to pick them up Friday morning.  I took my mom along because I thought she might want one too.  The file cabinets did not have locks for them so instead of buying two I only got one and my mother got one too.  Thank goodness I took my mother along because she asked if they had anything else for sale.  The lady mentioned a few things and one of the things were tea mugs like the ones I will use for my place and some water glasses.  In total I got over 80 tea mugs and around 40 water glasses for $2.

I highly doubt I will get that great of a deal in Chicago, but hopefully a good deal anyways.  Tomorrow I will be heading to Chicago to look for soup cups and bowls, maybe silverware too.  I got a great deal on plates (dessert/salad plates and dinner plates) when I was in Chicago last time.  Been kicking myself for not getting the soup cups and bowls I saw then too and hope they are still there or something comparable.

Do you remember a great deal you have scored?  Did you ever score a deal in an unusual way?  Like most people it feels great to score a great deal and it is hard to not brag too much about the deal.  Hopefully I haven't bragged too much and thanks again mom!

Thunder and Lightning

It is thundering and lightning outside and I am hoping that it does not hail.  It was originally a warm and sunny day, but I knew it wouldn't last (saw the weather report).  It is now raining cold and dreary makes me want some hot tea to comfort me.  The brownies are out of the oven and cooling, so I am trying to decide what type of tea should I have with my warm brownie?  Since it is late at night I was actually thinking about a rooibos tea, caffeine does not work for me late at night and the chocolate was probably all the caffeine I could handle right now.  Debating on a West Cape Chai rooibos or a peppermint rooibos tea.  Hmmmmm, do I want the spiciness or something soothing?  Do you ever get that dilemma?

Well, after thinking about it for awhile I decided on the peppermint rooibos because I wanted something soothing and it was the right choice.

On a good note the rain should help the cool weather veggies I planted in the garden and hopefully I can plant the warm weather veggies soon.  It has been a cold spring (I use the term spring loosely) here and I was late in putting in the cool weather veggies.  If the weather seems warm I would have planted tomatoes in late April, but would not even consider that this year and am hoping I can get them in before June.

Tea Plantation and becoming certified tea specialist trip, part 5a

Part 5a How tea is made or CTC black tea is made in Charleston Tea Plantation.  This will be in 2 parts because I believe it is important to see the process.  Please excuse the fuzzy pictures, it is hard to take pictures with glass in the way, especially the first few pictures until I found a better way to take the pictures.

Processing fresh tea leaves. 

Withering

Only other places in the US that have tea plantations are Hawaii and starting some in Oregon, but they are very new.

About to be Crushing, Tearing & Curling (CTC)

Crushing, Tearing & Curling (CTC)

CTC to Oxidizing, see above picture for detail of the bottom right

Mother's Day

What should I write besides Happy Mother's Day?  It is hard to think of anything clever.  I did some research on Mother's Day that may have nothing to do with tea, cooking or gardening, but is interesting nonetheless.  

One of the oldest Mother deities worshiped was Isis from Egypt.  She was considered the Mother of the Pharaohs.  Later In Greek mythology there was Rhea the mother of Zeus and considered the Mother of the gods.  This evolved into celebrating the Mother Church and Mary by early Christians.  The English in the 1600s broadened it to include real mothers.  In the late 1800s the start of what we consider Mother's Day in the United States is forming.  After the bloody Civil War Julie Ward Howe wanted Mothers to protest the killing of their sons.  Soon afterward it evolved into honoring your mother and a national holiday in the United States in 1914 that spread to many countries across the world.

This is a very brief synopsis of an article I read on the internet http://www.mothersdaycentral.com/about-mothersday/history/.  It also tells briefly how other countries celebrate Mother's Day, including exchanging teas in Australia for Mother's Day.  Well I guess tea does get mentioned after all.

Herbed Carrot Soup

Made a great herbed carrot soup a day or two ago from carrots that over wintered in my garden. The carrots were super sweet and the herbs added a savory touch and a nice balance to the soup. I wish I used fresh herbs, but that will not be for a couple more weeks (the chives maybe). The next day it tasted even better.  Added some roasted, slivered almonds for some crunch and contrast to the pureed soup. I should have written down what I put in it, but was not thinking at the time and just added things that would go well together.  


When you make soup or other foods do you use a recipe, do you modify a recipe or do you just wing it?  Does it depend?  Like for baked goods, I am more likely to use a recipe, but sometimes add or subtract some ingredients.  Rarely will I use a recipe and follow it exactly, but know many people who follow a recipe exactly and fret when they do not have a ingredient that is in the recipe.

Tea Plantation and becoming certified tea specialist trip, part 4

Part 4 Where in the world is Jennifer Nowicki?

Can't get there from here....

Hopefully someday, sigh....

These are the places I want to go when I win the lottery.

Here's hoping next week....

Using the same basic equipment Japan does because human labor is too costly

My new ride....