Desert Island Discs is a BBC Radio 4 programme that invites guests to imagine they are castaways on a deserted island. The “cast away” must choose 8 songs they can play, one book and one luxury item – the latter choices exclude The Bible/other religious texts, The Complete Works of Shakespeare and any item that would enable them to get off the island.
Now I change my mind about my songs and my book but I always say to myself that my luxury item would have to be tea (unless I am stranded on an island containing a tea farm but that would be a bit farfetched!).
Looking past the fact that I would have to fashion some sort of tea brewing device which would obviously be my priority above searching for food, help or a way off the island (I can’t do much without tea in my system) I need to choose which tea I would have!
Now this is going to be hard – LuLin Teas is a relatively small tea company but we still stock around 50 teas – already a hard number to narrow down…never mind the thousands of other teas that are available on the market.
Some teas for me to choose from!
First things first – I will narrow it down by type. I sometimes like to drink Black tea with milk and I may not have a source of milk on the island so that rules out black tea. I would prefer to have a source of caffeine so I can cross Tisanes off my list. I like drinking Puerh but I’m not sure that something that raises your metabolism when I might not have a constant food source is something I really need so I will leave Puerh behind.
That leaves me with Green and Oolong. Categories that contain two of my favourite teas: Ginseng Oolong and Jasmine Dragon Pearls.
As much as I love Ginseng Oolong, I fear that the energy burst from the Ginseng may have the same effect as Puerh so that leaves me with the lovely lovely Jasmine Dragon Pearls.
Funnily enough when I presented this question on Twitter earlier:
If you could only drink one tea for the rest of your life what would it be? Tricky I know! #tea
— Hannah @ LuLin (@LuLinTeas) July 26, 2012
This was one of the responses:
@lulinteas Got to be Jasmine pearls, great any time of day. #tea
— Claypath Deli (@ClaypathDeli) July 26, 2012
So Jasmine Dragon Pearls seems to be a clear winner!
Asking around in the office however I got some different responses…
Pawel went for a Lapsang Souchong because although he loves Puerh tea he felt that a Lapsang might fair better in unknown conditions!
Amy decided on a blend of Green and White Puerh because it would keep her refreshed while she sunbathed on the beach!
So readers, what would your Desert Island tea be? Or would it be a tea at all? Please comment and let me know!
Thanks for reading,
Hannah McGimpsey
