I never start my day without the ritual of greeting the day with an extraordinary cup of tea, so that means I never travel without my loose leaf tea… but this week I did. I remained hopeful, however. Alas, here in my College Park, MD, hotel and government lab research facility, nothing but LIPTON. Nothing against Lipton, the company that’s probably done more to promote tea in the US in the 20th c than any other – it’s just not what I drink any more. And I’d forgotten how different it was, from my daily loose leaf tea ritual. Lipton two mornings in a row, in fact! Humpf.
So when I came home, I thought I’d try the closest tea I thought we had to a Lipton tea bag here at The Tea Spot: Blue Mountain Nilgiri. Our bread and butter plain organic black tea. It was heavenly… and I kept on drinking it – hot, chilled, you name it. BMN, as we call it, tastes like it’s from another planet – but why? The difference is in the leaf. Leaf vs.dust. I wouldn’t be so surprised if I were to compare lettuce dust to the leaf, spinach dust vs a leaf, or basil dust vs. basil leaf… and tea’s no different :)
Chilling Blue Mountain Nilgiri