Have I Mentioned I Like Tea?

This is almost a month late, but I thought I should post about the assortment of teas that I picked up at the Tea Source in St. Paul during the Christmas weekend. What has become basically a required stop when in the Twin Cities, my wife and I didn’t know if we would have time. Although we both drink tea, I was really pushing the fact that we had to go. After getting a Tea Source gift card from my brother-in-law as a present, the decision was final. We snuck in a last minute tea buying excursion before leaving town.

Since we only get to the Tea Source when in the Twin Cities, I always stock up on tea. My first priority is tea for my morning pot at work. I always like a strong bracing brew during the morning to keep me alert and going. For this, I bought 4 ounces of each of the following (with hyperlinks to the individual Tea Source product page):

Grand Keemun – This is probably my favorite tea. I really enjoy the sweet toasty flavor it brings to a strong black tea.

Strong Assam – This tea is strong. A coworker had just a cup of this and was surprised by how strong it was – and how chipper it made him! It was the typical strong malty, almost dry strength of an Assam but I swear that it is so strong that it almost has sweetness in the aftertaste.

China Black Special – Tea Source had been out of this tea for a while so I had to purchase it since it was back. This is again another strong tea, but has a sweeter aspect than any of the others. It isn’t a caramel taste but the sweetness leads me down that path. It’s also one of the neatest looking loose leaf teas as the dried leaves are small gold and black curls.

(Ceylon) Ratnapura Estate BOP – I felt like trying something different than I normally do, and thought a Ceylon variety would be a good change of pace. It definitely fills that role as it is not as “in your face” as the aforementioned teas and because of that has a cleaner light taste. I find it refreshing when I don’t need as much of a wake-up from my cup of tea.

I should mention that maybe a month before the Tea Source visit we received a catalog from them in the mail. That catalog was studied from cover to cover, not only was it a nice list and description of every tea they carried, but it also contained pictures of the loose tea leaves and of the brewed tea as well. It was pleasurably informative. However, it is safe to say that because of the catalog I deliberated that whole month as to what teas would be purchased on the next visit to the store.

With that said, I decided I should also expand my tea horizons past strong black teas (and the few herbals/tisanes I drink) and try some other tea varieties. I whittled my tea interests down to the following two purchases:

Mugi Cha – This is a tea that is simply roasted barley. It’s very nice to sip on a cold winter’s evening or weekend afternoon. The taste somehow reminds me of the light broth in a typical Chinese soup. The Mugi Cha has a simple taste that is very rounded and satisfying.

Yunnan Puerh – With this my first foray into Puerh teas, I thought I better take the Tea Source’s recommendation of this variety as a good introduction to Puerhs. (You can read more about Puerh from the Tea Source here or from Wikipedia here). This tea definitely has a different taste than a normal black tea because of its aging and fermenting. Tea Source often describes Puerhs to have an earthy, sometimes even musty taste. Somewhere I also saw the term “peaty” used, which I think is spot on. It makes sense that I enjoy a peaty tea as I do enjoy a good peaty Scotch.

Besides just the gift card from my brother-in-law, my wife and I also received two sample sized teas as stocking stuffers. They were:

Puerh Tuo Cha – A puerh variety “shaped in small bowls or bird’s nests” as Tea Source says. I like this as I do the Yunnan Puerh. However this Tuo Cha is much more is much mustier than the Yunnan.

Dark Rose Tea – According to Tea Source, dark teas are similar to puerhs but instead of the musty earthiness of puerhs, dark teas have a more smooth sometimes even having sweetness about them. This Dark Rose Tea also contains rose petals to round out what earthiness still could be lingering. Not that it does anything for the taste, but this tea is shaped into small heart shapes.

That concludes everything from our visit to the St. Paul Tea Source, but I wanted to add one other tea related mention that’s many months past due. This last August for our one year anniversary, my wife commissioned for me a teapot and set of cups from our good friend, fellow blogger, and potter Luke Langholz. You can check out his fine work over on his blog, as well as see the fine tea set here –

I really enjoy the shape of the teapot as well as the contrast between the blue and sandstone colors on the pot. I also thoroughly appreciate the spout as well. I know it may sound odd to enjoy such a small part, but this spout is perfect. I don’t know if Luke purposely intended this or not, but the spout doesn’t drip. I can pour a cup of tea in confidence knowing that tea won’t dribble on our easily stained white countertops. Unlike our other teapots a spout drip catcher doesn’t have to be used either! Anyway, I digress and will end by saying a simple yet emphatic, THANKS LUKE!

Casserole Theory

I’ve been mulling casseroles over a lot recently. Most of the trouble probably can be boiled down to the fact that I have yet in my adult life been invited to a potluck dinner. Sure I’ve of course gone to parties and brought a dip or an appetizer, but there’s never been that type of event that I can bring a filling casserole as my contribution. Anyway I digress…

My wife and I have still (since my post in September) been doing a great deal of casseroles lately. We mostly do a rotation of tuna noodle casserole, tator tot casserole, and (my wife’s favorite) taco casserole. Other classics like macaroni & cheese, lasagna, and shepherd’s pie sporadically make it into the rotation as well. Because we have this rotation, I know that we’re barely scraping the surface of the multitudes of various casseroles out there.

That last statement though got me thinking. There indeed are multitudes of various casseroles in America. What then is the common link between all these casseroles? Casseroles vary widely by ingredients, but is there some quality that every casserole must have to be…well a casserole?

That question led me to come up with what I deem my “Casserole Theory.” My little theory is that every casserole will fall under one (or more) of these classes: it contains cream of mushroom soup, it is cheesy, and/or it is layered. Here is my little Venn diagram to show this, with some examples:

As you can imagine, many casseroles fall into the into the “contains cream of mushroom soup” circle. For the just purely “cheesy” and “layered” classes, it’s much harder thinking of sole examples. However, many casseroles fall under two classes. With the double-class casseroles as well, most will fall into certain areas more than others. There are many casseroles that fall under the dual-classes of “mushroom soup / layered” and “cheesy / layered.” Myself personally, I really only ever have had the Cheesy Hash Brown Casserole (or a deviant thereof) as a casserole that would fit into the “cheesy / mushroom soup” area.

As disclaimers, I should mention a few things. First off, I am applying this only to American casseroles, or dishes that have been adapted to American casseroles (in some extent lasagna would be this way). I’m sure other countries and cultures have casserole type dishes (I’m assuming they wouldn’t call them casseroles though). Secondly, I have yet to find an exception to this theory (that’s why I’m posting this) but if someone out there CAN think of a casserole that does not fall into these three classes let me know. With that said, I should lastly also mention that I have yet to come up with a casserole that falls under all three classes (the vacant middle brown area of the diagram). I’m sure there is one out there, but again if you do indeed have one, let me know.

Well there you go readers, my casserole theory. I’m sure no one saw a theory on such a humble topic as casseroles coming. Many minds have probably been blown, many faces melted. I best bid you farewell and let you digest it for awhile.