I said in my last blog that I always like a nice cup of tea. Which is true. The operative term is 'nice'.
One of my friends has given me some China tea for Christmas, and I have absolutely no idea whether it is nice or not. It comes in a solid block about 7 to 8 inches in diameter - in size and shape very similar to a small deep pan pizza as sold by Pizza Hut before they became too clever for their own good and spoiled a perfectly adequate product with one silly gimmick after another. My father took one look at it and said that if I had come up beofre him when he was Chairman of the Bench he'd have taken one look at this and found me guilty of trafficking illegal substances. Anyway here it is wrapped and unwrapped.
Leaving aside the fact that our plumbing can't cope with leaf tea and on wet winter evenings I feel no desire to go out and empty the teapot on the rose bed, and that I like brown Indian tea with milk and sugar, how do I make this tea? Do I break/cut lumps off? How big should those lumps be? How long do I leave it to mash? (Those solid lumps will take a while to hydrate, won't they?) Do I serve it with lemon? On its own? With milk? With sugar?
The instructions are in Chinese, so I may never know. The little bit in English tells me that it is a limited edition, and a google for the name of the company tells me that . . .
"The East Indiaman Götheborg arrived at its destination, Guangzhou, China yesterday. Pomp and circumstance ensued of course, but above all else it highlights an important part of the history of both China and Sweden. It also shows how ordinary people can band together to substantiate dreams in an extraordinary way.
The replica of the 18th century ship spent nearly ten months sailing along the ancient maritime Silk Road. And it has finally arrived in Guangzhou, capital of South China’s Guangdong Province, and its destination centuries ago.
Amidst cheers from tens of thousands of spectators, the biggest antique wooden sailboat [of its kind /note] in the world sailed into Guangzhou Nansha Passenger Dock.
Nearly 300 years ago, the original Gotheborg pioneered trade between Sweden and China. It traveled between Sweden and China three times in six years and brought Sweden massive amounts of Chinese tea and porcelain. But it sank only 900 meters away from her final destination.
4000 workers were involved in building the 30 million US dollars replica. Gotheborg carries 80 crew members and some of the silk, porcelain, tea leaves and spices that went down with the original ship."
Assuming the tea is not part of the original cargo (see paragraph immediately above) what is the connection?
I've got a feeling that Liz's dad is a bit of a tea buff: maybe he'll be able to tell me all about it when they all come to lunch on Thursday, especially as he's also quite an expert of matters maritime. But I'm not holding my breath, and would be grateful if anyone out there in blogland can help.
(My other Christmas tea, by contrast, comes with very detailed instructions not only about how to make it, but also about where, when, how and with whom to drink it.)
While I am on about odd presents, I might mention that I shower rather than bath and I don't wear a nighty or pyjamas. I admit that this was not always the case, but the hot summer of 2003 changed my bathing and sleeping habits for ever, facts I am sure that I have mentioned in passing to most of my closer friends. I've been given a bath pillow and a nighty for Christmas - both very pretty and good quality. Odder still is the fact that when they put in their new bathroom the friends who gave me the bath pillow opted for a mega-shower rather than trying to squash a bath into a smallish room. Could this therefore be a recycled present?
By the way, the friends who gave me these presents are computer illiterate/phobic so they will never read this.
