Chyranthumum Blossoms

[liralen]

Bought: From Imperial Tea Court, given to me as a present and, when asked "which one do you want?" I'd said, "The cheaper one." They don't sell the golden one anymore (which cost nearly 3x the price), and I'm not too sorry. You can also find it by the huge plastic bag in your local Asian grocery store in the tea aisle, for even less than this, but this was a fine, online example, and happened to be the one I have in my cupboard.

Brewed: 2 Tbls, level, in my Chatsford pot, about 16 ounces of 203 degree water, poured over about an equal amount of room temp water, then poured over ice. No sugar.

Liquor color: Clear, pale yellow
Leaf Scent: buttery flowers, sweet tones

Sweet and cooling, chrysanthumum is one of those Chinese herbs that practitioners of various arts recommend to help stop hot flashes. It's supposed to lower the fire in you. I wouldn't argue with them as it was 90+ degrees out and I had my metal flask of iced tea in the rose garden when I was planting alone. It was very worthwhile. The tea itself is sweet, often surprisngly so, even when iced. It has a buttery rich sweetness that is very comforting even when it's cold out, and with no caffeine it's nearly my first choice (with colds I'll take hibiscus any day and/or various echinacea blends). Sweet and delicate it's probably past time I replaced these, but I just up the volume in the pot and it still works every time. I keep it in a glass container with a rubber seal, and the flowers have kept their power even over the years.

I'll give them an 8 of 10.

Comments

yay!

[writeanya.livejournal.com]

i have a huge bag of these flowers at home and love love them...also, they are nice combined with the pu-er. picked all up at the aforementioned asian market down in la-la land... 99 ranch market, so very close to delicious dim sum places.

i had forgotten i had them around, thanks for the reminder.....YUM.

hey, blackwingedboy mentioned you grew up in socal. where?

Re: yay!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Rancho Palos Verdes, out by Marineland. :-)

Re: yay!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

envy envy envy that you have a Ranch 99. :-)

Especially all the restaurants around most Ranch 99's. Yeesh. And, yes, pu-erh is great with chrysanthumum, and there's even a pu-erh cake with the blossoms embedded right in 'em. Our local tea shop carries 'em, and I love the stuff iced and hot, too.

Re: yay!

[writeanya.livejournal.com]

i know, the 99 is fabulous. it's about an hour away, but a good field trip for a sunday dim sum.....hm, i think i am going to do me up a pu-erh and crysanthemum pot right now! some savory brekkie and bob's yer uncle! :D

those cakes sound amazing. i'll have to search for those. hmmmmmmm.