Steeping Out

I've been staying in Latvia for the past two weeks and I've had a healthy dose of tea while I've been here. Latvians seem to drink innumerable cups of tea. Most of it has been looseleaf tea, but there has been some tea bags here and there. I believe I've only seen ice cubes at the market once. So, thankfully, I haven't been given iced tea. Coffee seems to play a minor role over here, kind of like how tea is to coffee in the states, but the coffee is mostly of the instant variety, not the freshly brewed kind. The only time I've had non-instant coffee it turned out to be too strong and gave me a headache that took six ibuprofen (200mg ea) to relieve. I'll stick to the instant coffee, but I'll prefer some tea.

Tea vs herbals

At several of the places I have visited in Latvia, I have been offered "tea". It isn't tea. It usually is a homemade collection of wild flowers and such that makes a nice herbal drink. Along with the tasty birch juice, it's something I don't see in the states.

Tea in the stores

Tea selection in the store is like buying bread at to store in the states — so many kinds, and covering a large area. When I've had the bagged tea, I've had luck with Tetley and Lipton teas (pyramid bags). I did manage to go to a looseleaf tea shop in Sigulda, it had a selection about the same size as, or maybe smaller than, Teavana. I picked up some Black dragon pearls, darjeeling, and venetian rose. Of the three types I purchased, the best one was the venetian rose which tasted rather similar to the litchi flavored tea I picked up at Gong Fu Tea. Both the dragon pearls and the darjeeling teas might have been better if I used bottled water.

Tea is mostly water

The quality of the tap water in Latvia isn't the best, don't get me wrong, it has improved since the Russian occupation, but I've been spoiled in Des Moines. The water here is high in calcium and iron. It might be high in other elements, I just don't know. I was told that the town I'm in, Sigulda, had recently added an iron removal process. It works pretty well at removing most of the iron, but I can still taste it. With tea, much of the flavor is influenced by the water, and I haven't been too happy with the results from the dragon pearls and darjeeling.