Saturday, June 02, 2007
Art you can drink
Gift giving is part of many cultures and when you visit someone's home, many people bring tokens of their appreciation and friendship. This is true for most of my students. P1's mom packed a bunch of presents for us and one of the gifts from Korea was a pouch filled with these amazing little fragrant balls of dried flowers. You're supposed to boil some water and fill a tall, clear glass or teapot and put the dried up ball in it water. Then, you watch it steep for 3-5 minutes and you'll be dazzled my the most amazing sight.We (P1, P2, their mom, my mother-in-law, my two nieces, my husband and myself) all sat around the dining room table and marveled at the sight! Slowly, the ball opened up and "blossomed"!
Amazed, I "Googled" the special green tea and discovered that the ball is actually carefully woven groupings of jasmine, lily and osmanthus flowers. How on earth does one weave dried flowers and make it in a way that they open up like that in hot water?? Is that pure genius or what?
Not only is it beautiful to watch the flowers as they unfold, but the tea is delicious too. It's a really smooth, gentle, fragrant and flavourful tea.
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City girl moves to the country, falls in love, and marries a farmer. She tries to incorporate her city ways with her new country lifestyle and blogs to keep in touch with friends, family & students who live far, far away :) Can this city girl go country? Watch as she learns all sorts of exciting things about life on the farm and in a small rural community. *UPDATE* We are now parents! Our baby girl was born on Nov. 11, 2008 (at 28 weeks gestation- 12 weeks premature, but she's quite the trooper)!!!
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10 comments:
That is really cool! I've never heard of anything like that before. I'd love to see the flowers open and perfect since I love tea! It would be neat to show the kids that too.
That is so pretty - I'd read about those before but never seen them in action. It looks too nice to drink LOL! How long does it stay like that?
Whoa, those are cool! I've never even heard of those before!
that;s cool!
That is really really REALLY cool! Where can I get some?
I'll drink to that!
Will they open up in vodka?
I want some.
Hot Mommy:
It is totally cool :) I think your kiddies will love it! My nieces and students were blown away by how neat it was to see the flowers unfold. The tea is very delicate and delicious too!
Karen:
My mother-in-law did a little workshop for her church group and brought the dried ball to church and demonstrated how by adding water and nurturing something, life comes out of it. She talked about how sometimes when things appear to be dead, they can come back to life with love, care, and belief/faith. It was pretty neat. I wasn't there, but it sounded neat!
The flowers don't stay like that long though. You can keep adding water to get more tea, but eventually, the flowers go all mushy after a while. LOL! It does look too pretty to drink, doesn't it!?
Udderly:
Yeah! It's pretty neat, eh? I was amazed by it. I still don't know how on earth people managed to weave the flowers together so that they could unravel and unfold like that in hot water. It just amazes me! Oh, and I googled it and still noooooooo idea how they work that magic! LOL!
t:
Very! You should try it! I know you can get it in places where you live! While you're at it, get me some too! ;) I saw an article on these green tea flowering balls in the Toronto Star. They did a write up on it a while ago.
Pavel:
I'm sure you can get it at any Asian food store or place where they sell Asian things. There are also a few websites where you can purchase them from. Luckily for you, a lot of the sites are American!!! This is when it sucks being in Canada.....the States has so many cool things for sale! I know I can still buy stuff online, but I'm too cheap to want to pay the exchange rate and shipping and taxes! LOL!
I think your little ones would love to see this! Get some and let me know what they think! They'll think you're even more of a Super Dad by working your magic and making the ball turn into flowers!
Uncivil:
I'll pour you a cuppa tea ;)
Mist:
Hmmmmmmm...I never even thought of that! I wonder if we warmed up the vodka and did that...Would it have the same effect? LOL! We should conduct an experiment! I've drank hot toddies and hot sake before....Why not some hot vodka/green tea? LOL!