Bees and tea

A nearby community government funded a project for 'Beehives in every
neighborhood'. It was a small stipend with a representative giving
show and tells. This weekend I attended a small presentation which
also included the city beehive club. I got the particulars and it is
something I've always wanted to do. Anyway I'm talking with someone
about the benefits of honey and he said he personally knew of someone
who was depressed for years on medication who started drinking green
tea with honey and is now off meds and doing okay. I've mentioned
before standing in my fruit trees drinking my tea with the bees
buzzing around my noggin. Occasionally one will check the cup but too
hot.

Jim

PS The individual hives seem to be doing okay but it is the statewide
commercial hives suffering from CCD.

A Georgian (ex Soviet) I have worked with has bought a small tea
garden and has hives of bees busily making honey from Camellia
sinensis flowers. As a teaman I dislike this - tea bushes should be
kept in the non flowering juvenile phase of rapid leaf production by
strict training and severe pruning - flowering bushes equals bad
husbandry and butts should be kicked.
As a businessman I see "Tea Honey" as a great product extension to my
retail range of exotic teas and just sqeezable into the self imposed
but oft confining title of "Nothing But Tea". However the European
Union has very strict import restrictions on honey and Georgia has not
yet done its homework to meet them, so as yet Georgian Tea Honey is
still on the commercial drawing board.
I'd be interested to know if anyone has seen genuine tea honey offered
anywhere on their travels.

Nigel at Teacraft (and at Nothing But Tea)

On Aug 5, 1:46 pm, Space Cowboy <netst...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> A nearby community government funded a project for 'Beehives in every
> neighborhood'.  It was a small stipend with a representative giving
> show and tells.  This weekend I attended a small presentation which
> also included the city beehive club.  I got the particulars and it is
> something I've always wanted to do.  Anyway I'm talking with someone
> about the benefits of honey and he said he personally knew of someone
> who was depressed for years on medication who started drinking green
> tea with honey and is now off meds and doing okay.  I've mentioned
> before standing in my fruit trees drinking my tea with the bees
> buzzing around my noggin.  Occasionally one will check the cup but too
> hot.

On Aug 6, 9:41 am, Space Cowboy <netst...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> Tea is my #1 passion.  Honey is #2.  
...buzzz...snip...
> Talking to the honey guys is like talking to the tea
> guys.  A lot of passion.  One part of our state is famous for
> cantaloupes, watermelons, pumpkins which you find locally but worth a
> trip just for the best honey I've ever tasted.  Our commercial raw
> honey comes from a mountain community noted for its wild flowers.  I
> think the one thing that destroys the taste of tea is sweetness.  So I
> never add honey to tea but everything else!
>
> Jim

Very cool, I never knew you were into honey. I really enjoy talking to
them as well, it is infinitely interesting and from my math/computer/
geek side I find the natural perfection and efficiency in design of
the honeycomb to be awe-inspiring. I'm not normally one for any sort
of sweetener myself, but my occasional exceptions are only for a few
honey's and raw or yellow lump sugar. When I have a sore throat, want
something sweet, or just for some strange reason. Sometimes it is just
a basic Ceylon or even a Red Rose/Salada teabag steeped quickly and a
nice copious amount of honey once it has cooled a good bit.

I touched on it in my first reply, but the cleanup must be terrible.
I've seen the spotless facilities of my local guy and I have seen how
sticky and covered everything is when it's running. It must be
laborious and massively time consuming, but I guess like anything it
can be made enjoyable and relaxing. I just have a natural aversion to
sticky and it would be my personal nightmare/hell. Unless there is a
trick beyond patience and time to cleanup.

- Dominic