The Tea Party

 

(Interesting title? Probably not what you were thinking, if you had politics on your mind. lol!)

Yesterday, my daughter’s Girl Scout Troop had a Mother’s Day Luncheon and Tea Party.

(Jen wasn’t all that thrilled about wearing her pretty paper tea time hat, but I was happy to have a photo of my daughter and I together)

First we enjoyed a tasty lunch at a local Mexican Restaurant and then met up at the location of our usual Girl Scout Meetings to have a fun tea party.

Everything was very festive, pretty and appetizing.

And there were several crafts for the girls to do, including making a hair scrunchie,

a jelly bean necklace,

(Doesn’t that little girl in the background remind you a little bit of Nelly from Little House on the Prairie?)

and a lovely floral paper teatime hat.

There was also a Badge Award Ceremony, too.

And all the girls posed for a pretty picture, which our Girl Scout Leader will be sending in to Family Fun Magazine because the floral paper hat idea came from their craft section.

    

And of course there was plenty of tea.

And this tea review is for Ed of Sunday Stills who hosts a weekly post on his blog called Teatime Tuesday.

One of the teas I chose to try was called:

Lapsang Souchong

Lapsang is grown in China and Taiwan and is distinct from all other types of tea because Lapsang leaves are traditionally smoke-dried over pinewood fires, taking on a distinctive smoky flavor. The story goes that the tea was created during the Qing era when the passage of armies delayed the annual drying of the tea leaves. Eager to satisfy demand, the tea producers sped up the drying process by having their workers dry the tea leaves over fires made from local pines.

Lapsang Souchong's flavor is strong and smoky, similar to the smell of a campfire or of Latakia pipe tobacco. The flavor of the pine smoke is meant to complement the natural taste of the black tea, but should not overwhelm it. Tea merchants marketing to westerners note that this variety of tea generally produces a strong reaction—with most reviews being extremely positive or strongly negative.

Personally, I rather liked this unusual tea although it did remind me of a campfire, but in a good way. I drank it with only a little sugar, but I think a splash of milk would have given it a smoother, “tamer” flavor.

Happy Mother’s Day wishes to all of you this week, who are blessed to be Mothers.