Going Green

Kelsey (the unofficial star contributor to Dynastea!) sent me this interesting article a while back, but I sort of forgot about it, and I'm only returning to it now as I'm gearing every possible effort toward procrastinating studying for finals.

In case you haven't the energy to read it, here's the two-sentence version: an entrepreneur by the name of An Yanshi has devised an interesting and expensive green tea--one fertilized by panda poo. In a way, he describes, it's a way of returning to the original meaning behind the Chinese character for tea, which combines "man," "grass," and "woods." Of course, this is particularly relevant for those of us who love both pandas and tea, and besides its appeal as a fun novelty drink item, there is a cool component of sustainability; if this isn't going green, I don't know what is.

So, hefty price tag aside, would you drink it? I mean, Camellia sinensis has to be fertilized somehow, right? My normal answer to almost anything with a picture of a cute panda on it would be yes, but I'm not entirely convinced of the return-to-the-natural-way argument for this drink. It's supposed to be a tea for the refined palate of a tea connoisseur, but despite Mr. An's words against the tea's classification as a novelty item, it still seems to be one. Note the number of zeros in that price and the claim that it'd be the world's most expensive kind of tea. There is the tremendous amount of nutrients that are supposedly present in the fertilizer and the fact that pandas are pretty darn endangered, but if the pandas chosen are only too happy to put up their end of the bargain on the order of kilos daily, it's difficult to say what's really driving up the price.

Picture from here.

News from the Republic (of Tea)

So last week I signed up for an email newsletter from my new friends at the Republic of Tea, and it feels a bit like following a band you like to see when their upcoming concerts are. Anyway, the first few posts are background info on tea, so I thought I'd share. Here's the first: a decent primer on tea types and "flavor notes"!  Enjoy :)

[Interestingly, red tea isn't one of the "varietals."]

(Apologies for the odd picture quality; pixels have minds of their own.)

The Madhatter Manhattan

A few Wednesdays ago, I celebrated my twenty-first birthday. Now, I'm one of the last of my friends to turn twenty-one, and that hasn't bothered me much (why spend your time on other "dranks" when there's tea to be had?), but I was still a bit excited to try something new.

Homemade wine!

My first drinks were relatively ordinary--some very strong homemade wine that I'd made with my dad a few years ago, a fruity sangria, and a good red table wine at Thanksgiving dinner. When I was back at Hopkins a few days after, I had another birthday celebration at Golden West Cafe. There are so many reasons to love Golden West. First, it's easily the most hipster place I've ever seen in  Baltimore. If the giant moose head or the chandelier made of tree branches and twinkle lights don't do it for you, the plaid-clad wait staff surely will. The menus are repurposed covers of vinyl records, and behind the bar we found a pinball machine, a jukebox, and a game of Apples-to-Apples. Another somewhat related reason to love the place is that it's often a venue for concerts (the obscure kind of course). And oh yeah, the food is really, really good.

The Madhatter Manhattan. Totally sounds like a book.

Banana Nut Cupcakes.
Enough said.

I always get the same dish when I go there (apple-brie-pesto sandwich w/ sweet potato fries), but this time I had to consider an interesting drink to get with it. Naturally, I settled on the Madhatter Manhattan--a strong cocktail with Earl Grey-infused sweet vermouth, whiskey, bitters, and a cherry on top-- to see if I could taste the tea flavor in all that alcohol. (Full disclosure: I know so little about alcohol, I asked my friend Henry if vermouth was vodka. Apparently it's not.) This one's a sipping drink folks. Unfortunately, it was so strong I couldn't taste much of anything, including the Earl Grey, which I've always considered to be a pretty noticeable flavor. But the banana nut cupcakes made up for it.

Now I'm interested in seeing how other tea flavors can be incorporated into cocktails--or maybe into my own homemade wine! Must look into this.

 Another tea related occurrence was an awesome birthday gift from Kelsey and Henry, all done up in brown paper and string. From our China adventures, Kelsey's had inside knowledge of my intrigue with flower teas--the kind that actually open up into flowers in hot water--and so she presented me with a glass teapot and strainer with twelve flowering teas! This is a tea party waiting to happen. Thanks Kelsey and Henry!