Photo by ToDryFor.com |
New Jersey was hit pretty hard by Hurricane Sandy. I am still without power, heat or hot water but I consider myself lucky because there are many who lost much more than that. Atlantic City was badly damaged so the Coffee and Tea Festival has been postponed. I was disappointed but grateful that the storm did not hit while I was there. Thankfully the blog kept ticking since I had my posts scheduled ahead of time.
Tea and all of its trappings definitely helped me to weather the storm. I discovered that keeping my testubin (a Japanese cast iron teapot) under the covers with me was a wonderful way to keep warm. I spent a lot of hours reading and drinking lots of genmaicha.
Speaking of reading, I finally got around to finishing The Tea Companion by Jane Pettigrew. It was a fantastic read and I’ll be posting a review of it soon. I also read the latest Tea Magazine and an issue of Art of Tea that I had been meaning to finish.
Since I didn’t have internet, there were no tea reviews to write. I dug into my private stash and drank tea just for the heck of it. I forget to take breaks from reviewing sometimes and this was a great reminder that I should do it more often.
I’ve been touched by how many friends from the tea community tweeted and Google+’d to check on me. I hope that none of you were seriously affected. Things will hopefully start to get back to normal soon.
Addendum: If you are in the New York City area, Tea for Humanity is looking for volunteers and donations to bring tea to people staying in evacuation shelters.