Bloomin' Tea

I love tea. Especially hot tea in the winter. One of my wedding registry items was a shiny, red, electric tea kettle. It boils water crazy fast and among the pizza trays and Pyrex cookware, I use it often. In order to keep it clean, I use it only to boil, never to brew.

Sometimes I'll use a tea ball for my loose leaf tea. Over the summer I scored a really cute teapot with a mesh cup for brewing. The only drawback is it's big enough to only brew one cup at a time.

Mom got me a glass teapot for Christmas. It has a glass strainer for tea leaves. It also came with tea. Green, white, and black tea, as well as a handful of these strange balls of tea that "bloom" during the brewing process. These happen to be green tea with jasmine.

Daven and I watched the process and it was pretty neat. He was even brave enough to try some. We iced his, but he didn't like it. It had a very strong flavor, and could have used some honey! I added some sugar to the remaining tea before I put it in the fridge for later.

Who wants to come over for a tea party? We've got chocolate striped shortbread cookies...