3/6
What a bittersweet day. After driving 2 and half hours I was more than happy to be back at “home”, my college home anyways. I missed it and came on the most beautiful day! It was nice to see Sarah again and finally get a look at all the faces of the people I am classmates with.
Giving my final presentation made me a bit nervous (as any public speaking does for me) but half way through, the vibe of the class relaxed me. I was happy to see people engaged and asking questions about my presentation as I went. My pictures really amazed some people which is great! I was willing to be a guinea pig for the first presentation to help set my classmates up for theirs next week, definitely went over time so that is something I recommend they rehearse because I didn’t! The feedback after was very constructive too. Looking back on it, the way I set up my presentation made me realize how much work this quarter I really had done and how interconnect it was.
For the tea sampling, it was my first time trying puer tea and I honestly had no idea tea could come in bricks! The tea reminded me a lot of green tea with added astringentes. I got hints of an oaky, dark finish as well. I was surprised to learn that tea bags have plastics in them that release after you steep the tea, made me think twice about the tea I consume at home and how that impacts my baby. I also didn’t realize how intricate soaking tea can be, especially the way the instructor did it to utilize the most flavor out of the tea, I’m used to soaking my herbals for almost 10 minutes, the instructor soaked his for hardly 30 seconds.
As for the hops, I had never heard of the Yakima Chief Hop Union but our instructor gave very informative background information on them and their place in the hop industry. Hearing the name “Yakima Chief” I had the same thoughts as Sarah but didn’t ask, “Is the name offensive to indigenous peoples?”. I was surprised the instructor admitted to it being similar to using the name redskins. I wonder what Yakama natives think on it personally. Once we got out the hop samples, the room filled with the smell of citrus and earthiness. I won’t lie, the hops reminded me much of marijuana, not only its structure but its smell and the names given to it. Fun fact: when I went to encore teas after class I was looking at some tea samples and thought I saw a hop in some of them, come to find out it was!
1. If it didn’t just look at hop samples I wouldn’t have been able to identify it
2. I wonder what properties hop tea provides when it is drunk in tea form?
I probably won’t be visiting Evergreen until the summer so I am so happy I got to make this trip!