Life is calling my attention away from tea and this blog these days, as my son has come down with a particularly nasty bout of flu. I will write more on South America when I can, but, so far, here are my tasting notes on Argentinaâ??s Flor de Oro FBOP, which I tried yesterday, and Brazil BOP, which I tried today.

Both came from Le Palais des Thes, and I brewed them to instruction steeping 2.5g in 7oz boiling water for 5 minutes (Argentina) and 4 minutes (Brazil). The results were unremarkable. Both cups looked good. The Argentinean tea was a rich brown, with a sweet scent that vaguely recalled Cha Thai. The Brazilian tea was more restrained in both scent and color, which was a deep amber. The mouth was hardly exciting. Flor de Oro was a bit flat and vaguely oily. The Brazilian tea was ever so slightly better, perhaps because it was more restrained, but it still had a slightly oily quality. In all honesty, the only art they brought to mind was some of those rather flat figurative portraits sold by art students at street markets.

Letâ??s hope tomorrow will be betterâ??both in the cup and for my son.