I got to visit the "American Classic" Tea Plantation today! It's the only tea farm in North America! It was incredibly informative, I learned a ton about tea and tea-making and the factory smelled incredible. Fresh tea leaves smell faintly of "tea" but mostly they smell like "clean" and "healthy plants". I also... er... borrowed a big handful of tea plant seeds. It'll take them forever to grow, all the plants on the plantation are clones grown from cuttings and those take at least 5yrs to mature. I don't really plan to grow my own tea but I loved the smell of fresh chopped leaves so much I had to have some plants.
oh my god oh my god can i have some of those seeds pretty please D: i was planning to just buy a camellia sinensis plant or two for my greenhouse, maybe i should do that instead rather than asking you to mail me stuff. and yeah, 5 years. uh. you know what, i take it back, i'm gonna buy live plants. still, you CAN grow it from seed, and i think they are fine as houseplants as long as the humidity's not too dry. http://www.burpee.com/perennials/sh...rEJ4vJl8z1G2izg9npoi8tZvKFO6jpIFjUaAq-S8P8HAQ
A seedling would probably be better. I seem to have poor odds with seed starting, (25 hibiscus seeds got me two plants) but ganking a couple of the started plants from the greenhouse would proooobably be illegal so seeds it is. Not worried about humidity though. Once they get going they're going in outdoor pots and given it's a local species, they'll do great here :D You'll want to crank the humidity in your greenhouse with cuttings though, apparently they want 90% humidity while maturing!
the greenhouse is where my therapy pool is, so it's very damp. like, i lost a green onion seedling down the back of the seedling rack once upon a time, and i found it months later and it was thriving, even though i hadn't watered it. :P i looked up starting camellias from seed, and apparently you have to put it in damp coir or peat and leave it in a cool dark place for 3 months or sth. nnnnope, i'll have a live plant please. :P
I considered growing my own camellia sinensis, but they're juuuust out of hardiness range for my area and I haven't got any where to put a green house atm. Will have to settle for buying tea from other people.
Actually, there's another tea estate in North America, though it is a bit of a new one, up in Vancouver. Sorry if this is a minor derail, it's just a personal pet peeve. Edit: Plus there are a bunch of smaller estates in the US as well.
Apparently they're the only fully mechanized commercial tea estate in the US: apparently small farms and artisan crap is a burgeoning industry.
Yeah I think that's the difference. Like, they don't just grow it, they harvest, process and package it all too.
Okay, so, finally made the chicken that had been marinating in tea for way too long. It was okay? Nothing particularly special. Not unpleasant, not 'omgteaeverything.' I might try it again with a different tea that's bolder and less mellow, and leave out most of the other flavors, see if that does anything.
i have created a most wonderful blend! for a two-quart pitcher: 2 tea bags apple spice, 1 chai, 1 good earth green (or some other green/citrus); cold-brew overnight, or warm-brew (bathwater temp) for 1 hour, then chill. it tastes like september in a glass. it's all i can do not to drink the entire pitcher in one sitting.
I have... a lot of tea. A small shelf full of tea, actually (it sort of amassed around significant other's mother's coffee stuff until she got annoyed and put a separate shelf on the wall to keep it away). I really like Kusmi Tea's Imperial Label blend. It has a distinctive taste, mostly liquorice and sea buckthorn, I think? The significant other despises it, so definitely not for everyone. I do drink coffee, but mostly because it wakes me up in the mornings. I am not very good at distinguishing bad coffee from good and will deluge it with milk and sugar anyway.
I tried cascara (the fruit part of a coffee berry) tea for the first time tonight! I really, really liked it. Sweet and fruity, but with some notes in common with coffee that made for a really unusual end product. I hope it becomes more common as a drink, I don't want to have to drive an hour to Davis to try it again.
well i mean I am not at death levels of caffeine consumption rn (did go completely without for like 5 days during LARP because it was too hot to light a fire and i DIDN'T YET KNOW ABOUT COLD BREW HAH) so it might actually do well for my afternoon pick-me-up-drink? idk gotta see where I can find it :3
Left my cup of David's RedBerry Tonic out all day because I got called into work at the last minute. Just discovered it, and also discovered that it's FUCKING INCREDIBLE cold
HoneyCrisp Apple tea is fantastic when I can be arsed to watch my kettle and pay attention to water temperature.
My mom bought a bunch of David's tea and I absolutely love their cold 911 tea. I drink it all the time. Even when I don't actually have a cold. I fully plan to kidnap some to bring with me when I go back to college next week.
