In which I get ready for Dawi to return to The Old World...
With The Old World bringing back two of my white whales from my childhood in the form of Bretonnians and Dwarfs I’ve had a lot of fun projects this year. I wanted to do a slightly different Dwarf scheme than the old green and gold I remember seeing in White Dwarf as a kid and settled on the old Zhufbar livery of white and light blue. It makes for a striking force on the table top and is relatively speedy to paint up as detailed below!
In which I finally start delivering on the promised painting guides...
I have been sat on a fully constructed Battle of Pelennor Fields box for just about a year after purchasing it as a Christmas present to myself at the tail end of 2021. Having signed up to a few "slay the grey" style challenges in the New Year I thought it was time to start with a nice easy paint job.
In which I modify an old family recipe to be vegan friendly...
After successfully turning my hand to vegan Christmas cake I thought it was high time I adapted my old Christmas pudding recipe to be vegan too.
In which I discuss getting the dominant colour from an image quickly...
I have recently made a Discord bot that searches for online versions of board games to help people find games to play remotely. This link will add it to your server.
Discord embeds have a colour bar down the side that can be manually set. I thought it would be cool to have this display the 'average' (i.e. dominant) colour of the board game box and decided to investigate the best way to do it.
In which I plan my holiday tasks…
So it may just be because it is 2020 or perhaps I'm just a bit lazy but I’ve found that I often start holiday breaks with a list of things I’d like to do and by the end of the trip* I’ve not achieved most of them. Whether it’s odd jobs or relaxing activities I wanted to get through I just accidental sit around and don’t do them. This holiday season I decided I needed a to do list and though I’d try out the new Todoist Boards feature.
*Or, let’s be real this year: sitting on the sofa at home.
In which I try my hand at a Austrian cake recipe...
So following a straw poll of Network as to a difficult cake to finish off my term of CAOS cakes I settled on Sachertorte. A traditional Austrian cake recipe invented in 1832 by Franz Sacher.
While I have returned to the UK this week I brought back some leaf tea from Germany with me.
Pictured is a delightful tea shop in the Arkaden at Potsdamer Platz. The staff were friendly and happily let me peruse their selection of teas which all have samples in little glass jars for your nose's pleasure.
The tea I chose to purchase smelled amazing - Blueberry Muffin tea :)
Brewing
Despite not being able to read German I have been able to ascertain that this tea should be brewed for between 2 and 4 minutes. I, as usual, preferred to brew it for longer. I decided to try the tea with and without milk as I was unable to determine the suggested course of action because of the language barrier.
Colour
A nice light brown which looks good with or without milk.
Aroma
There is a very strong smell of blueberry muffin which is almost overpowering in the bag. However when brewed the aroma is still present (and still lovely) but weaker. A good compromise I think.
Taste
In a similar vein to the sticky toffee flavoured tea from Whittard's this tea has a normal taste while the aroma provides a pleasant experience :)
I found that adding milk was my preferred choice for drinking this tea.
Cakes!
While I actually enjoyed this tea with a prototype cake (more on that after a tea party I have planned) I did also visit some friends this week (a delightful couple should you ever meet them). Their cake offering was an apricot flan with a good balance of sweetness (not too sweet as is common) and nice shortcrust pastry - lovely :)
Conclusion
German tea is definitely in a more than acceptable state, at least within Berlin.
Web-link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_culture#Germany
- Good elsewhere too it would seem!
See you all next week!
P.S. The Riots
I strongly support the movement to drink tea in protest of the rioting in England currently. Show your support to our police forces, firemen and volunteers!
This week my I am in Berlin on holiday. When else will I get the opportunity to assess the state of tea consumption in this fine country?
At breakfast I chose to try Ronnefeldt's English Breakfast blend.
Brewing
No official timings so I defaulted to a few minutes brewing before adding some alpenmilch. The main point with this brand of tea though was the tea caddy system which is definitely a better solution than Twining's little tea bag strings.
Colour
A nice brown tea colour as expected.
Aroma
Smells like a standard tea - a good sign for tea abroad.
Taste
This is a fairly normal blend of Ceylon tea for a good breakfast cuppa. Definitely a successful tea. Apparently tea drinking is on the rise in Germany which can only be a good thing :)
Breakfast
In order to do this tea justice I did my best to assemble a Full English from the buffet. Very crispy bacon, scrambled eggs, toast, tomato and some würst later and I had the closest approximation I could muster.
Conclusion
Deutschland has definitely succeeded at normal tea!
Web-link
http://www.ronnefeldttea.ca/business/shop/category.php?id_category=7
See you all next week for more German shenanigans!
