Blueberry bang, we admit, is a strange name for a cup of tea. To explain we take you to 1930’s New Brunswick. In those days a German immigrant named Frederick Wolfhasen began experimenting with new machines to facilitate the picking of the low growing wild blueberries that grew in abundance around his farm. Searching for the ultimate apparatus, Frederick built machines with pulleys, ropes, bicycle pedals, you name it. Everything went swimmingly until one day in August of 1934 when he fired up his latest invention, a diesel powered picker. We must tell you here that back in the old country Frederick was a tailor, not an engineer. Suffice it to say, he probably should have kept clear of the internal combustion engine. He pulled the starter. As it began to whir and rumble, Frederick began to calculate the dollars he would soon line his pockets with.
A half-mile away, Frederick’s sturdy wife Gisela was preparing lunch. As she mixed and stirred she heard a “loud clap, booming and most frightful.” Running outside, Gisela froze in her tracks when she saw what would be described as, “a wall, nay, a tidal wave of blueberries,” flying towards the house. Moments later Gisela, her new sundress, the porch, and her dog Fritz, were plastered. Frederick, whose English was still not all that good, covered the half mile back to the farm house in a mere 5 minutes yelling, “Blueberries! Bang! Gisela!” over and over as he did so. By the time he arrived, Gisela, being the good stout wife that she was, was already back in the kitchen stirring her dough, which was now peppered richly with the deliciously sweet wild blueberries. Frederick blurted again, “Bluberries! Bang! Gisela!” To which Gisela replied, “Yah. Blueberries. Bang. Frederick.” Well, about 30 minutes later they sat down to the most delicious dish either of them had ever eaten. At her husband’s urging, Gisela later entered the concoction at the local fair and the name stuck.
90 years or so later, this wonderful blueberry bang rooibos tea has been created as a tribute to the Wolfhasens. Wonderful hot or cold, this tea has the mellow qualities of rooibos with the character of a cupful of fresh wild blueberries. Wunderbar!
