i shall start my fortnightly friday teas again after i get through the next three alarmingly work-filled weeks! this semester i shall invite some of the english first years and a few old hallmates from perkins. that should take me to the end of term. but probably i should invite the first years later on, because most of them will be here over the summer studying for the general exams. now that i have a chinese tea set (or at least most of the necessary paraphernalia) i could do chinese tea parties instead. i'll have to think up a menu of tea appetisers that would go with these though - agar agar, mochi, fruit, that sort of thing. things that would not compete with the delicate tea - this year i have nu'er huans and dongding wulong and a very limited supply of guanyinwang from beijing. six single portions to be exact. i tasted one and sent one to von, and i'm far too selfish to go about making the remaining four indiscriminately for any old person. i'm not even sure teas like my dongding and the guanyinwang would be to most north american tastes. i think that's why i love using the tealuxe strawberry sencha at my parties - it's light enough not to overwhelm other tastes, but is very distinctive in its own right. its fruitiness makes it go with pastries and cakes and sandwiches, but it is still a sencha, with the grassy astringency that goes with chinese or japanese tea appetisers, but not so "green" that infrequent drinkers would be put off. in fact, i think i'll do strawberry senchas at all my teas, and j