Flowering Tea

How on earth did it get to be Thursday??  Gosh, summer is flying by.  July is already here, depending on where you're reading my blog from.  {According to my stats, it seems I have a small audience in the middle east, and someone in Germany.}  Well, wherever you are reading from, I am very sorry that I've ignored you lovely readers this past week.  It's not intentional... it's just a survival thing.  I need to recoup, and locate important things in my house (like laundry, the dining room table, and a futon) that have been burried under mountains of centerpieces, teacups, tablecloths, and other event-planning stuff.

Well, last night, I did think about all of you.  <3 I actually made this tea just to show you, since I wasn't really in the mood for tea, and had other important things to do that I chose to put off. 

Have you ever heard of flowering teas?  They seem to be perceived as something from Sci Fi where I live... no one sells them, no one has heard of them.  Well, *I* know what they are (thanks to Marie Antoinette), so I searched high and low until I found a couple of boxes.  I had a mind to use them as centerpieces for my ladies' tea this past weekend, and what a centerpiece they turned out to be!  (Unfortunately, no one knew what they were, so no one realized how awesome they were.)

I found them at a flea market, of sorts, at a booth run by a woman who has eclectic taste, like me.  She sold lovely coffees, delightful mixes, and... yes... these flowering teas.  She saved me from ordering them online, which I was about to do in despair.  Here they are:

Now, there's not much to a flowering tea - hot water, and a glass cup.  The timer isn't even necessary, as the tea is considered ready when the flower's open.  I used one to show you how amazingly fast they open.  Have a look:

 

After our tea was over last weekend, my wonderful associate and I took turns trying them... yes, we sampled the teas right from the glass vases, singing the whole time: "Take one down, pass it around."  I'm rather disappointed to discover that I'm not a fan of Jasmine.  I wish I was!  It sounds so exotic and lovely, but it seems that it's just not my cup of tea {pun absolutely intended.}

Since it was nearly impossible for me to find these teas, I thought I'd give you some links to find them online.  Teavana, The Tea Smith, Google.  Please let me know what teas you have tried, and which ones you like the most.  It seems that I like teas with more of a tang, but I'm always willing to try something new. 

~ Sarah