#bloomingtea

Orange, the Color of Fall

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The name of our blooming tea for October is called Orange. Maybe not the flavor of the month, but definitely the color. It coordinates beautifully with the pumpkins and fall foliage.

This is my bon-voyage tea for this morning as we are headed for Peru to visit our daughter, Katelynn. She is volunteering at Seeds of Hope-Peru as the coordinator of the other international and local volunteers who come to work with under privileged children in Huaraz.

Besides seeing the awesome landscape at 10,000 feet, I am hoping to find some Peruvian tea and local bee keepers on this trip as well.

Fall Bloom

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The homespun Sunflower is the flower that heralds summer’s tumble into fall and is a pleasing site in the landscape. The nectar of Sunflowers and Goldenrod are some of the last floral sources for the honey bee to collect before the onset of the barren winter months.

Black-eyed Susan and Goldenrod both in the Sunflower family of Asteraceae

Our Blooming tea for the month of September, bloomed with the yellow sunlight of sunflowers but this one also included tiny pink rosebuds. The flavor and scent was definitely a bold floral rose, encompassed in a green tea liquor.

“And the yellow sunflower by the brook, in autumn beauty stood.”
― William Cullen Bryant, American poet 1800’s

Farewell Tea

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My daughter Katelynn and I enjoyed a farewell tea to celebrate her trip to Peru. She has taken a 6 month volunteer position with a non-profit organization called Seeds of Hope -Peru. She will be the International Volunteer Coordinator for the organization.

For our tea, we enjoyed the Pineapple Blooming Tea from the set she presented to me on my birthday earlier this year. This snugly wrapped bulb bloomed into a cluster of three dainty, yellow chrysanthemums sitting atop a basket of green tea leaves. The citrus tone of pineapple did emerge in our cups to transport us to our own tropical retreat. Our Kansas humid weather helped to encourage this illusion!

While in Peru, Katelynn promised to look for local Peruvian tea for me. My research finds that Peru has had tea plantations in the past but these have mostly been abandoned. There are a few small tea farmers who are trying to rekindle the trade but there are many obstacles to this endeavor. I look forward to visiting my daughter in Peru and searching out a local tea grower and hopefully a few beekeepers too. Stay tuned for those adventures.