Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Blooming tea

As promised last week, I am now going to create a tea blossom. This tea was sent to me as a gift from Cath, my blog friend who lives in Cyprus. I actually created this blossom yesterday because I was not sure how it would turn out and wanted a spare day in case something went wrong.

Materials used (from left):
Potholder to absorb the heat on my kitchen table
Heat resistant glass
Filtered tap water
Tea blossoms
Potholder to remove boiling water from the microwave.


The water is poured and the blossom bud is ready. I don't own a tea kettle (sad to admit since I am a member of a tea group), so I usually prepare my tea water using my coffee maker. However, this called for boiling water, so I knew I had to use the microwave.

After 1 1/2 minutes in the microwave,


the water was sufficiently bubbly enough to accept the bud.


I know! This is a horrible photo, but I have no better picture, even though I took about 30 at this point. Blame it on me, or blame it on my camera, but I simply can't get close-ups with it.


Oh look. The background is in perfect focus. The blossom is not.


Within seconds, this bud had blossomed. Then I remembered the instructions said to steep for three minutes, so


I grabbed my hourglass 3 minute timer and


proceeded to watch the water begin to turn color and the bud expand even further.


At this point, the bud is constrained by the size of the glass.


I have now cleaned up most of my supplies and am ready to remove the bud from the glass. You can see the blossom is beginning to break up, and any further time in the water would only serve to break it down further. By this time, I was able to add some heated water to another cup and got two cups of tea from this blossom.

Ruminations:

Although the glass was heat resistant, it was hard to grip coming from the microwave. That means a mug with a handle, or stemware is a better choice for my hands.

The width of the glass constrained the bud, and although I was able to get an enjoyable blossom, it is my belief it would have bloomed even further had I used a wider vessel.

I have a horrible camera, which does not take good photos, especially close ups, and realize I need a better one before I try this again. At least I have five more buds to play with.


Speaking of blooming, here is a photo of the sunflowers from last week, which are now starting to bloom, too. It's been a blooming tea day, that's for sure.


And here is a sneak peek at a box of goodies I received from Pat at Artfully Ooglebloops, a fellow tea friend, which I will unveil tomorrow.

If you want to view other tea (or drink of the day) stories, please visit Kimmie for links to the rest of my tea drinking friends.

18 thoughtful remarks:

Ohhh Snap said...

The tea looks beautiful. And I lovvvve those sunflowers :D.

Caterina Giglio said...

happy tea day, E! love your tea blossom... I have seen these online but never on a blog... my grandmother used to drink coffee like this and she put a papertowel around the glass with a rubber band around it so she could handle the glass!! your flowers are beautiful... xx

Terri Kahrs said...

I just love those tea blossoms - they're magic!!! And there's nothing like a bright bouquet of sunflowers to bring a bit of sunshine into a corner! Happy Tuesday! Hugs, Terri xoxoxo

~*~Patty S said...

Happy T today...your bloomin tea is lovely...hope it tasted good too!
That Pat sent goodies far and wide didn't she...so generous and thoughtful she is!
Pretty sunflowers too!
oxo

Anonymous said...

Great blooming tea shots. Maybe you could recycle a coffee cuff or make one for your tea glass so it wouldn't be so hard to handle out of the microwave. Hope the tea was enjoyable. xox Corrine

Unknown said...

How cool! (hot!) Never have seen one of these (thank God for the internet for furthering my education!) You seriously NEED to get a water kettle-- a small one is just $8 at Walmart. Microwaved water tastes flat compared to water boiled on the stove and a coffee maker doesn't boil water-- which is what tea requires. (stepping down from my soap box now. ;)

I got one of Pat's boxes too!

Dianne said...

Aren't blooming teas wonderful??? The best way to steep them is to place the bud into the bottom of the brewing vessel and then pour boiling water onto them. Some of them have pretty jasmine flowers stitched into them too... Your sunflowers are lovely! I got a package from Pat too!

Yvonne said...

I love flowering tea buds. Each are so different and beautiful. Neat to watch them bloom. Enjoyed having tea with you today.
I just planted sunflower seeds here. They should bloom before it gets cold.

Craftymoose Crafts said...

Although I am a tea drinker, I have never seen blooming tea buds. Thanks for sharing it on your blog!

Margaret said...

now this is art in tea brewing,amazing the way it opened, beautiful!

Lynn Cohen said...

Bummer I only see empty white squares no photos at all. Bet it was good looking!!!

Gayle Price said...

Hi Elizabeth, thank you for showing us your 'budding tea blossom"....it's beautiful and I have never seen one before. I am assuming the tea has a floral, sweetness to it ? You can buy small glass ( as in clear) tea pots. May be one of these would be perfect for these buds....put a bud in the tea pot, pour in boiling water, pot is large enough for bud to expand fully, then pour tea into cup which is cool enough to hold and enjoy your tea. Love sun flowers...such happy plants. xx

Unknown said...

What a grand experiment! I did actually try that myself one time .... I used a glass mixing bowl and that worked pretty well ..... But ....

Someone ought to give you a tea kettle for Christmas! And maybe a clear glass teapot! and maybe a camera! Actually, if you have scene selection on your camera, you might want to try setting it to "flowers" for closeups .... You probably already know that though!

Happy Tuesday!

steph said...

It is an interesting tea! hope you enjoyed it...happy T

JoZart Designs said...

How lucky and well blessed you are with those gifts. It's such a joy to receive such wonderful snail mail friendship post in these days of technology! Really interested in your flour fabric technique of previous post. Sorry have been so busy of late... life intervenes at times!
Love joZarty x

Darla said...

We have flowering tea buds and a glass tea pot to use with them. I think they are beautiful but for me the tea doesn't taste like much. How did your tea taste?

Darla

Halle said...

The tea bloom is so cool. Glad you showed it time lapse style. I love sunflowers...lovely ones blooming in your garden.

Cath said...

Glad you enjoyed it, sorry I'm late internet problems!

Cathx

ps you do realise you are going to get a load of kettles for Christmas don't you? lol