Chambre De Sucre #22 Mon Frere and my thrift store treasure that almost wasn't.

A few days ago I found a lovely, gorgeous and unusual tea cup at my local thrift shop. It holds seven ounces, is hand-painted, trimmed in gold, the artist has signed it in a tiny cursive,(Virginia M. Past), it is, without a doubt, a delightful item. I almost didn't buy it for what am I going to do with a cup like this? Sure, there is no side handle so it kind of looks like a large tea bowl, but it is so elegant with its gold gilded edges and English design! But it was "Anything with a flower on it is half-off day' at the Merry Hall Tree Thrift shop, run by little tiny brown nuns, by the way, so for $2.50 I thought, what the heck? I will never use it and I won't display it anywhere prominent but it's clearly special and I like it, and for goodness' sake, it's $2.50, buy it or put it down, there is an old woman standing behind you salivating waiting to snatch it up! 

That was 48 hours ago. And I couldn't be more wrong about it not getting used. I think I have 'stumbled upon' a new way to 'Tea', and with my recent intensive experiences in Gungfu I feel I am ready to delve into, but won't get lost in, some other sorts of tea offerings. Such as Chambre De Sucre's #22. A gorgeous looking Oolong with hazelnut pieces.
The instructions are 8 ounces of water, steep 3-4 minutes and you know, Dear Reader, I don't really do that, I try to gongfu and flash brew everything but I dug around, found my old Teavana steeper, put the kettle on to 190 and followed instructions. I had no idea how lovely leaves can look as you watch them unfurl! I love my Yixing but don't see why I should be sometimes denying myself this visual pleasure? This tea is a stunner, these leaves are lovely quality and the cup of tea I just made, and the second one following that were such a treat. Chambre De Sucre makes artisan sugars and I never use sugar but for the second cup I did and found it was right 'up my alley'. Who knew I could have more than one alley? I didn't. I rather assumed I was a one-alley-at-a-time-kind-of-lady in regard to tea anyway. Love getting older, that's THE only perk in my mind, I keep finding my heart and mind more open as I feel the time moving by at a faster clip!
So here then are a few photos. Enjoy, go visit the website, a very special experience awaits each and every one of us there!
Hmmmmm, I wonder how many times I can steep this? The obvious quality of the leaves suggests many more. Off to find out!

http://www.chambredesucre.com/