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!