A good cup of tea

It has been a blogging drought since the sad departure of Miko. Life still goes on as usual, but it saddened me whenever I think of her. I try to think more of the good memories about her but when the emotional gate opened, it hit me hard. Well, though am not an optimistic person, but I do strive to be one. I mean we can bitch about bad stuff in life occasionally, life is never bed of roses after all, but we shouldn't ignore that there are roses among the thorns as well. And I'm still learning to appreciate things I have in my life, everyday. Whether its a sweet kiss, a good movie, or a good book, or a cup of good tea. There is always something to be thankful for. 

Coming back to a cup of good tea. I bought a bunch of different type of Chinese tea with a nice teapot lately. It was an ad hoc decision and frankly I am not a big fan of Chinese tea at all. I had always prefer English's simply because Chinese tea is not sweet. In fact, I used to get scolding for putting sugar in Chinese tea like Hiong Pin (Fragrant tea leaves). Anyway, it all started with a random conversation when my colleague, whereby she told me that there are Chinese tea that are sweet, like hua cha or simply the flower tea or some may refer to as aromatic tea. I was tempted to try hence we went for a Chinese tea shop and she recommended me to buy a few types of it to tryout. 

The fun of hua cha is that you can just mix and try. I bought i think around 6 types of flower tea leaves and a pack of dried lemon slices for flavor enhancement. Then I painstakingly stored it in IKEA small glass jar and label it accordingly. Don't even ask me why I store it so neatly, I'm kinda anal when it comes to packing/ arranging /storing spices and condiments and baking stuff and coffee and tea etc. in the kitchen. 

Anyway, today I tried the combination of apple tea leaves (its the small bud of flower before its turns into apple), Stevia Rebaudiana Leaves and some dried lemon slices. Anyway I never knew what is Stevia Rebaudiana Leaves is all about until my friend introduced it to me. According to our friend google, 

"The species Stevia rebaudiana, commonly known as sweetleaf, sweet leaf, sugarleaf, or simply stevia, is widely grown for its sweet leaves. As a sweetener and sugar substitute, stevia's taste has a slower onset and longer duration than that of sugar, although some of its extracts may have a bitter or licorice-like aftertaste at high concentrations.With its steviol glycoside extracts having up to 300 times the sweetness of sugar, stevia has garnered attention with the rise in demand for low-carbohydrate, low-sugar food alternatives. Because stevia has a negligible effect on blood glucose, it is attractive as a natural sweetener to people on carbohydrate-controlled diets."

In short, its perfect for girls on diet. The Stevia blah blah blah leaves has this unique sweetness taste which makes the Chinese tea super nice to drink. It differs from sugary taste or honey taste, in Chinese we have a term to describe it, which is 甘甜. Anyway you get the point.

This is how the tea leaves looks like after draining with hot boiling water.

A good cup of Hua cha, such a simple yet satisfying cup of drink.