Mrs. Teabody Keeps a Journal of the Plague Month (or more!)

We had no such thing as printed newspapers in those days to spread rumours and reports of things, and to improve them by the invention of men, as I have lived to see practised since. But such things as these were gathered from the letters of merchants and others who corresponded abroad, and from them was handed about by word of mouth only; so that things did not spread instantly over the whole nation, as they do now. -- Journal of the Plague Year

O, the glorious 1600s! Years full of beheadings, royal plots and also the cradling years of the BEST WIGS EVER. The mere mention of  King Charles II and that trend-setting wife of his, Catherine de Braganza, sends all real tea aficionados  into a little  tizzy of excitement. Pictured above is author Daniel Defoe--you know,  the creator of Robinson Crusoe and his man Friday? If his "do" is not the precursor of the popular spiral perm, then I'm, well, I'm not certain what that makes me but  that wig  IS AWESOME!

 

As fun as the 1660s were, they were not without their darker days including  aforementioned beheadings and in 1665, London's most famous plague. Daniel Defoe was only five at the time of the Great Plague but  he writes the novel as if he spent the duration of the plague in London and made the best of it whilst commenting on his day-to-day experiences. He was a master researcher and genius writer and his observations are keen and enlightening. - -unlike this bit which is merely diversion. Making the best of staying in place is where we live in this spring 2020, we with all our 21st century advantages. As there exists all sorts of modern media to keep you apprised of the SERIOUS and consequential aspects of the current pandemic, my little enterprise will attempt to lighten the mood by capturing moments of no consequence whatsoever. So wash your hands, sanitize your keyboard and keep the world at bay two meters away whilst I create bits of fluff to preserve  not for posterity but for the span of time it takes for you to read. Let's talk tea. In the 1660's the likes of you and me probably didn't have many opportunities to taste tea. It was rare. It was expensive. It was locked away in tea caddies.  Happy to say that all that has changed. Tickle Your Fancy has dozens of teas to offer and in the succeeding days I will be sampling each  (and every) tea and making comments on it.  Moderately Amusing through insufferably Pedantic is my guess. Each day I will try to select five different types of tea to try. Below you see pictured a  flavored black tea, a fruit blend, a rooibos, a green tea and an herbal blend.  By times we will be sampling honeybush as well as some very traditional. unflavored teas. It's going to be a veritable teacopia. I know you can't wait. I also know you have absolutely NOTHING to do. Let's soldier on, shall we?

First five teas

After we wash our hands thoroughly, belting out two choruses of  Springsteen's "Dancin' in the Dark", remember to use a clean towel to dry -- paper if you have 'em 'cause you don't want to build up a stack of yuck on a cloth towel, do you? Draw a full kettle of water and place it on the fire. Set out your cups and saucers and then fill TeaBrew steeping bags with a nice rounded spoonful of each tea and place each bag in the china cup. Grab your timer. Wipe it off if it looks grotty. It probably does. Now put the first five to steep. Don't get distracted. Set a couple timers if you're a flight risk. The black tea and the green each get three minutes but the green tea must be made with a lower temperature water so let that boiling kettle sit for a minute. Both the fruit blend and the rooibos come to best flavor with a five-minute steep while the  herbal really needs a minimum of eight minutes.

When each tea has reached its optimal steep, it's time to lift the tea from its cup leaving  a perfectly steeped cuppa.

"Across the Universe":  This is a Black Ceylon tea infused with Chai spices such as cloves, cardamom, and orange peels, but the key flavor element is a magical soupcon of cinnamon  which has the power to whisk you far away from any encroaching ill. The dominant cinnamon flavor benefits from a jot of sweet honey but even without it, this tea has a very smooth finish.  Add a bit of cream and it becomes silky. Ice and you're ready to magic carpet far above the pandemic-modium. The name? A lot of wonderful things happened in 1969 and the music of the Beatles was no small part of it all.

Across the Universe

"Anna": This gentle fruit blend combines lavender with lemon in a delectable, slightly tart, slightly assertive finish just like one of our favorite heroines from "Downton Abbey". The lavender is definitely playing second chair but without it the flavor might just be a little unspecial. Imagine beef without salt. Very nice tea after you've had to change the pump in the hand sanitizer.

Anna

 "Brown Sugar": rooibos with creamy caramel notes in tiny little cubes made from sweetened condensed milk. This is a lovely flavor that stays on the tongue and inner cheek like a taffy. As pleasant as a cuppa ice cream. Who doesn't like something a bit on the naturally sweet side? Life cannot be all hardcore granulated, can it now? This is a nice tea to have just before doing your chair yoga.

Brown Sugar

"Bamboozle": Green tea China sencha, ginger bits, roasted rice, candied mango bits, pineapple, coconut rasps,  papaya, cardamon and bamboo shoots. The fruity notes of this lovely blend are the perfect counterpoint to experiencing some unfeeling, inflammatory political meme posted by a person you once thought you liked. Probably my favorite green for bringing me back from the edge of being really pi$$ed off. I can't really taste the bamboo shoots but  perhaps that is why I call it by that name? Think about it.

Bamboozle

"A-choo": A veritable garden of botanicals including elder flowers, lime tree blossoms, thyme, rose hip peels, marigold blossoms, blackberry leaves, anise seed, fennel, licorice root, Achoo is the tea I brought home back in November when our own little diseasethatshallnotbenamed plagued just about everyone in our little county. Remember that? The cough that would not be put to bed? The sinuses that wanted you to know of their existence? I remember it. This lovely tea soothes the pipes  and like most herbals brings a bit of calmness to the scene. Not that anyone needs THAT, right?

Achoo

So what do you think of the first five? Please feel free to add your comments. I am pleasantly surprised by their uniform deliciousness and their abilities to deal with and even facilitate some aspects of this modern life of sequestering. They are also beautiful, and if you haven't discovered how much beauty there is in the physical world we call our own and how very important it is to embrace it and hold it in your heart of hearts, then maybe you're not drinking enough tea?  Stay well, Darlings. The world needs you.