Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Yerba Maté (36/366)







I like the way different tea leaves look.  I was in high school when I realised I wanted to know what was inside a tea bag, and my mom let me cut one open over the kitchen sink.  I thought it was so neat to see all of those little green bits of leaf and tiny specks of spice and orange peel tangled together in a smoosh.  (My mom and my brother, observors of the experiment, were less impressed.)  Since high school, I've discovered the wonder of high-quality looseleaf teas, which provide not only superior taste but also much more interesting opportunities for tea-leaf gazing.  Today I tried a new kind, yerba maté, a South American herbal that boldly promised health benefits and invigoration!  Its leaves were unlike any other I'd seen before:  thick and flat, torn into small pieces, and laying stacked against each other like tiny sweet lentils.  

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