Two leaves and a bud (and then no more tea references)

Today was the tour of the tea factory with the master tea maker, Sanjay Prakash. It was an education in tea and has made me a bonafide tea snob. This is a bit unfortunate because I'm already a coffee snob, a wine snob, and a water snob. Basically, drinking anything now is just an expensive exercise in hydration or intoxication.

Tea it turns out is as hard to grow and as fickle about 'terroir' as any self respecting vine. I always thought that what really made tea different was how you treated it once it was picked. Obviously that's true, but the underlying taste of tea comes also from how it has been grown and were it was grown and when it was picked. Sound familiar?

Just a couple of pictures today. One of the garden, always full of butterflies.