First Blush

So, with this new blog, I'm supposed to be sharing about my love of chai(Tea).  I've been thinking and thinking.  Lots of good ideas, but where to start?  Where is that in?  That first chapter?  The longer I delayed, the higher the stakes got(In my mind anyways).  

Then a week ago, as I was digging through my tea shelf, I saw these cards that were apart of a tea box that I had received a long time ago.  Actually, so long ago that was probably one of my first, favorite teas.  It had been given to me by my girlfriend, at the time.  She had received it from her friends in South Africa.  What a tea!  It was unlike anything tea I had had before, with this wonderfully distinct, spice flavor.  Exotic.  I burned through that box of tea bags pretty quick and wanted more.  But this was the 90's and I was new to the world of tea, so I had trouble finding it again.  

Honeybush says "Loved by Babes and Old"

By the time I found it again, I had moved beyond tea bags to the next level of tea appreciation and was steeping loose leaf teas with infusers.   While tea bags are convenient, in some situations, loose leaf teas are almost always going to taste better, usually because they are a higher grade of tea.  Plus the infuser allows the tea to expand as much is it needs to, allowing the water to flow between the leaves.  Thus, more flavor ends up in the water.  

So what is Honey Bush?  It is a plant that only grows in certain areas of South Africa and is very similar to Rooibos tea.  It tastes a lot like Rooibos, but with more of a honey/spice flavor.  It is also a tisane(Herbal tea), which are plants that don't come from the traditional tea plant.

Honeybush's Redish/Brown liquor.

A few days ago, I went and picked up some Honeybush at the Tea Source, to try and recreate the first blush of Tea-love, and over did it.  By that I mean, I always think that more is better.  If I put big teaspoon scoops in, it'll taste more.  But I came back to the realization that sometimes less, tastes so much better.  The flavor was too strong.  So tonight, I put in three small teaspoons into my three cup pot, and it tastes wonderful.  So wonderful that I made another pot, which is okay, because Honeybush doesn't have any caffeine.