Mrs. Teabody Keeps a Journal Day 2

Today is Friday. Information is power.

"My little enterprise will attempt to lighten the mood by capturing moments of no consequence whatsoever." Mrs. Teabody

For all the youngsters out there, a little piece of advice. There will come a time in your life when you'll be sitting in your physician's examination room with a health care professional who, after weighing and measuring you and taking your blood pressure and pulse, will suddenly look you straight in the eye and ask, "Can you tell me what day it is?" followed quite quickly by, "And can you tell me what today's date is?" Mental scrambling begins as you search desperately for some reminder and suddenly your brain starts to fire. Associations begin. "Well, the garbage man came yesterday so I'm pretty sure it's . . . Thursday?"

 The health care professional smiles benignly. Your whole body momentarily relaxes before remembering there was a second question. This one is ever so much harder. "I know it's March," you begin, "because I saw shamrocks in a shop window so I'm going to guess March 23rd, 24th, something like that?" you finish hopefully. "Not too bad," says the health care professional."It's actually March 26" and your spirits fall.

In these pocky times when one day is so much like another the constant refrain from those I speak with across the telephone wires--yes, children, once upon a time people TALKED out loud to each other instead of TYPING. . . It was nice . . . oh, yes, no one seems to have a firm grasp of what day it is. And as annoying as a  fiddly and wayward cell phone can be, it does tell you both the day of the week and the date, and that, dear friends, is where we are this plague month 2020, scrambling to make sense of it all. But life goes on, Thank Heaven.

I'd had a few requests to ship tea and other messages began shortly after nine o'clock. By mid afternoon, I had five orders to fill. I'd made it clear to all inquirers that my little emporium was not open for business, its not being essential. Tea? Not essential? Mon Dieu!  Indeed, one wonders about the "essentialness" of gun stores which are (by Tuesday's official decree) permitted to conduct business as usual. If the governor could see my nails or hair, he might want to rethink his position.  (Yes, I am being glib. I know all about not touching. Geez, Louise)  Drink a calming tea.

Nonetheless, I happily filled the orders and headed to the post office where my favorite clerk and I did our  little dance of "your antiseptic wipes or mine" before getting down to business.  I noted that a distancing tape was now in place showing customers where to stand in relation to others. I'd sent care packages off during Week 1 to some much beloved but distant  relatives and had a disappointment when one of the packages filled with cinnamon rolls from Clugston's had burst open somewhere before reaching its Philly destination, rendering the contents inedible. There is no recourse for damaged perishables, sad to say. Tougher outer packaging next time?

Cinnamon rolls

Monetary transactions everywhere always get a little dramatic as I always like to polish the little credit card machine with a fresh antiseptic wipe and afterwards give my credit card a quick bath before dropping it into my purse. The clerk and I look at each other, rub our respective hands and nod a friendly good bye with the oft repeated "Stay well" phrase passing both ways and I use my elbow to push my way out of the post office into the vacant street. It's a pretty and warm day with daffodils showing off their sprightly heads. Sad as it makes me I could not help but  drive by 110 LWW and notice the riot of hyacinths blooming in the little front garden. Seeing this photo does make me miss being inside Tickle Your Fancy conducting business and passing delicious hours in friendly chat.

Back home I take a quick shower without bothering to "fix" my hair afterwards and engage in towel sorting and soap organization inside the laundry alcove.  Taking everything off the shelves I am temporarily and marginally horrified by the dust (I'm sure it was only lint!) accumulated over who knows how long. I do a quick inventory only to realize I have enough cans of spray starch to get us through the next decade of tea parties and/or Thanksgiving preparations  and enough cakes of hotel soap to construct a small doghouse. Toilet paper hoarders would be terrified to learn we have only 6 rolls. One last observation: we really need to rotate our towels more often. 

At last all my intended chores have been completed, and I can set about my evening's endeavour of the second day of tea tasting. I had such a good time tasting teas yesterday and really enjoyed the follow up iced tea trials this afternoon even if I was a little "buzzed" as a result.

Ice is nice

 

 Day 2, Next five teas
I filled the kettle to the top with fresh water and put it on the fire and scooped tea into little bags in preparation. Both the black teas would get a four-minute steep as otherwise the chocolate flavor in both would not be fully developed. Both fruit blends were quicker than most of the others on the shelves at TYF taking only about  five minutes while the herbal takes a full ten minutes. They all look and smell delicious.

All American Cupcake: This is a Black tea containing chocolate bits, sugar, powdered sugar, chocolate liquor, corn starch sprinkles and coconut . All these come together to give "red, white and blue"  a flavor all its own. This is a rich dessert tea hitting the sweet spot for those with a sweet tooth. After an unsettling day of too much negative news, reach for a cuppa this instead of a real cupcake. Your leggings and those who follow you when you wear leggings will thank you.

All American Cupcake

Chocolate Chai: Black Pu-Erh tea with dark chocolate bits, sugar, cocoa butter, lemon peel, soy lecithin and chai spices . I don't know how many times this delectable tea has served as my three o'clock pick-me-up. Many pu-erh blends go a little toward savory making this sweetness a bit less so. If you crave chocolate AND a nap, steep a perfect cuppa of this and then throw yourself on a divan under an afghan that flatters your skin tones. zzzzzzzzz

Chocolate Chai

Berry Blues:  Fruit Blend: Blueberries, rose hips, hibiscus, elderberries, raisins, black currants, and apple pieces,  combine to make a very berry cuppa that is rooty tooty fresh and fruity. Over ice with a shot of your favorite clear alcohol and you have a delectable cocktail. Good any way you serve it and a shop favorite. If you think I am going to tell you NOT to notch this up with a little booze, think again bright angel. Think again.

Berry Blues

Bold Bates: Fruit Blend containing cranberries, sugared hibiscus petals, apple bits. Just like Bold Mr. Bates of "Downton Abbey" fame, this is an assertive cranberry flavor made deeply complex with hibiscus petal. You simply cannot get this tea wrong. If you have dulled your palate with an overabundance of carbs, Bold Bates will cut right through.

Bold Bates

Come Sail Away : An herbal blend containing raspberry leaves, fennel, liquorice root, aniseed, bean peels, rose hip peels, peppermint leaves, St. John's wort, blackberry leaves, yarrow, nettle leaves, camomile blossoms, elberberries, wild tyme, horsetail, dandelion root. The name references the song that goes, "I'm sailing away, set an open course for the virgin sea, Cause I've got to be free, free to face the life that's ahead of me. On board, I'm the captain, so climb aboard. We'll search for tomorrow on every shore. And I'll try, oh Lord, I'll try to carry on." This is the perfect tea to enjoy when you just want to ignore all those statistics the world hurls at you hourly. Sorta like putting your hands over your ears and saying lalalalalalalalala until the offending noise goes away.

Come Sail Away

After taste testing ten teas steeped to perfection without any added sugar or honey, I can proudly say there are no dogs in the lot. Each tea has its own unique properties and each tea would please most palates. When all this hooha passes, I'm going to campaign for more tea drinking. Get ready.

There are lovely, generous efforts going on all around us: folks constructing masks, folks making food, folks showing up at jobs that feed, guard and protect us while the rest of us sit on our couches. These efforts are sometimes hard to see when our hearts and minds are constricted with uncertainty, but uncertainty should not diminish the fact that folks are looking out for each other and for us, and especially in times like these, we need to be grateful and we need to love each other without exception.  Drink more tea and wash your hands, and as they used to stay on Hill Street Blues, "Let's be careful out there."