Featured Tea Blog: Tea For Today by Marlena Amalfitano

Today's featured tea blog is Tea For Today by Marlena Amalfitano. This blog, among the tea blogs that I have followed for the longest time, is updated frequently and regularly, and I find it is always a pleasure to read.

What I like about Tea For Today:

• The blog frequently introduces me to new tea companies, and new teas as well, new in the sense that I have not read about them on any other blog. Marlena samples a lot of tea, and she samples teas from a lot of different traditions, including traditional Chinese teas as well as more British-style teas.
• Marlena has similar tastes in tea to me. Like me, she tends towards pure teas but does sample the occasional flavored tea. She also loves Upton Tea Imports, my favorite tea company. I tend to trust her perception of taste as being a better predictor of how I will perceive a tea, more so than virtually any other tea blogger. RateTea's matching algorithm shows that we are a 69% match in terms of preferring the same teas, based on a pretty large sample too.
• Marlena often writes about birds, and she makes notes not only about the arrival, absence, or presence of birds, but also shares notes about the bird's behavior, vocalizations, etc. I find this extremely interesting to read, being an avid birdwatcher. To me, part of the appeal of tea is the relationship between tea and nature, the fact that it comes from a plant, and that becoming more aware of artisan teas involves becoming aware of climate and weather in far regions of the world. I like how Marlena also shares her experiences with both tea and nature, in an interwoven narrative that I find is very similar to the thought processes going through my head while I drink a cup of tea and watch birds out my window.
• I also like the color scheme (which has changed since I subscribed to it). The background is colorful without being loud, and contrasts nicely with the photos, which tend to include mostly either architecture or nature.
• The blog has a personal touch, and Marlena shares what is going on with her life, and often writes about her travels too.

If you find you have similar tastes in tea to me, you might also like Marlena's blog for its description of tea. And you may also enjoy it for its pairing of tea with nature commentary, commentary on the birds and flowers and other plants, the changing of seasons, and the like.