drinking while unwell

What do you drink when you absolutely can't taste anything?



That's a bit of an exaggeration, because although I have a bit of a cold, I'm still able to taste. It's just that I'm sniffling and wheezing and all I want is something that soothes my throat. Last year when I was in Greece, I introduced Greek Mountain Tea when I wrote:

You needn't Climb a mountain

I remember when I wrote that I thought, 'I'm so rarely ill. It might be years before I actually get to find out if this helps when I'm under the weather.' So back to my question. If your sense of taste is muted or even deadened, what tea do you drink?



Was in my local Asian Supermarket this weekend, and look what I found. If you've been reading lately, you know I'm slowly getting deeper into Pu-erh tea. Whenever I wander into such a shop, my fantasies take me to a place where I make some fantastic find. Some tea that has nondescript packaging, but is excellent tea. I had to find out if this was any good.







I'd had enough Greek Mountain Tea loaded with honey. It had soothed my throat, but I needed tea. Real tea. Just so happened that my friend Jeffrey the Contrarian was visiting, and I cajoled him into trying this stuff. But not before he indulged himself in plenty of jokes about the name Pu-erh and how the un-steeped tea smelled of 'poo air'.

Jeffrey the Contrarian had had the fannings that I wrote about last week, and was less than impressed. He said the taste was noticeably fermented, and it was clear this wasn't a complement. So I wanted to see what he thought of this simple Yunnan Pu-erh.

He said it was less pungent. It was definitely drinkable. I thought it had almost no taste, but my above-mentioned muted sense of taste might have something to do with that. My suspicion is that I'll use this nondescript tea in some blends, but that it won't easily become a regular tea in my rotation.

What about you? Do you even forego tea entirely when you're ill? Do you drink infusions?

fannings aren't always teadust

I'm not a Pu-erh drinker. Not that I have anything against Pu-erh. I'd like to be one. I've certainly drunk it, and I'm always looking for more, but it's one of those few sorts of tea that I've read a lot about and I just don't have enough direct experience with it.

When I first discovered this stuff, I'd read about decades-old cakes that were worth thousands of dollars/euros. So for a while I thought this tea was just out of my price range. There's reasonably priced Pu-erh out there. You needn't start with the most expensive stuff. Actually, I've read that not knowing more about this tea can actually make an amateur more easily duped to believe a highly-priced cake is more rare or more valuable than it really is.

I researched buying this tea with trepidation. Seemed like the whole ordeal was going to be a bit of a minefield. Where to start?

Well, when I was going through the Upton Tea website I came upon this.

It's almost as this blurb was written for me and those of my ilk. And I quote directly: A flavorful Pu-Erh offering suited for those who want a quality, flavorful infusion at a modest price. That's me-that's me.

So the only thing that's worse than ordering tea that you really don't like is getting a tea like this that you like so much. What? Are you really complaining about liking a tea too much? Well yes, actually I am.

The idea of fannings made me nervous. When people complain about teabags, they often say that the teabags were filled with teadust or fannings. I thought these were synonyms.

In the case of this tea, this is definitely not teadust. There's a fermented taste to the cup, and the colour is as dark brown as a cup of coffee. And strong, too. There's no doubt that this tea packs a punch.

Like I say, as good as this experience is, it makes me a bit nervous that I'm getting to the end of my supply. I guess this is a problem I'm grateful to have.

all those pretty cans of tea

Whenever I find something in the paper about tea, I feel like the stars are shining down on me. Has absolutely nothing to do with me, but I still feel like I'm being somehow rewarded. It also makes me wonder if there are more tea articles, or if I'm just more aware of them. And finally, I'm curious if it's a German thing or if tea is more in fashion than it was even a short time before. That's where my thoughts are today.

So if I read an interesting article in the German press, I try to mention it here. Sometimes the article is boring. No new ground is covered. In those situations, I don't bother saying anything. There's plenty going on in the world of tea, otherwise.

But today was one of those fortunate days. And the article in Die Welt am Sonntag (The World on Sunday) was in the finance section. It was about investing in tea and, on a related note, how expensive some specialty teas can be.

Investing in tea? Gold certainly. Even some collectibles might be more advisable.

To be fair, neither the journalist nor the people interviewed actually suggested substituting tea for your investment portfolio. The thrust of the article was that Pu-erh tea improves in taste and value as it ages. The very crucial point was also made that there's often no way to verify the origin or the age of the tea that you've bought.

The other thing that was reported earlier in the article was that Germans are drinking more and more tea. Here's how it was phrased, 'The German coffee-drinking nation is discovering more and more the health benefits of this beverage made from dried leaves.'

Granted, some are simply buying the decorative tea cannisters from Mariage Freres at Galeries Lafayette. Simply displaying the tea indicates that you have a cosmopolitan kitchen. I like to think if you were such a person, that eventually you might actually make a cup of tea from the leaves in those pretty cans.