I need to get started on my truffle-infused New Year’s preparations, so to finish off this (tea-) year in review, what better candidate than my favorite tea find of all from 2013? Oh, Cookie – no matter how you steep or how you brew, when I’m alone, I’d rather be with you; **** these other leafs, …
Year
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2013
Printemps à Shangaï – Comptoir des thés et des épices
Oh. Oh. PEACHY. Really good, natural peach flavour is so hard to come by. But here it is! Right here! This tea is playing tricks on my brain in the best way. Smelling the dry leaf made my tongue tingle with the anticipation of soft-rough peach skin – this, in spite of the fact that …
Violette-Framboise – Comptoir des thés et des épices
I’ve been catching up on books and movies lately – the World War Z mantra is as suitable as any other for that process, or moving into the new year, or getting through the tea stash, for that matter: movimiento es vida. This has been a year of chapters closing, much like the year before it. …
White Mulberry – A.C. Perch’s
Again, I cheated a little. I surreptitiously emptied the tiny tiny sample left of this that I’d been clinging to into the extra super pretty Lupicia tin I got in October. Poof, gone! Because thanks to T. and her unsurpassed Christmas gift giving skills I now have a full tin’s worth of this. I could not be …
Vanille des Îles – Mariage Frères
This is a cheat note – I’ve had this numerous times already. It’s been this year’s holiday tea, as I got if for Christmas. Well, sticking with the theme, it was technically a cheat Christmas gift. Something I was supposed to get did not arrive on time and so I was tasked with finding a temporary replacement …
Vert à la vanille – Palais des Thés
It’s been a busy end of the year; travel, travel, some more travel and then boom! Christmas! So let me wrap it up with a bit of tea. The word ‘serendipity’ always rubs me the wrong way – possibly because of the sheer, undiluted horrors of that Cusack/Beckinsale romcom (2001?! I can’t believe it’s been …
Cookie – Lupicia
Okay, so this is one tasting note for two individual steeps, because I got SO GREEDY and just had to have another cup. The second I even had… with popcorn! Seriously, this tea is amazing; all malty, buttery caramel popcorn. There is no end to how much I love this.
Flowery Pineapple Oolong – Butiki Teas
The base tea here is wonderful, and the dry tea gets extra bonus points for the big, lush pieces of pineapple. Scent wise, it’s not for me – I get a sweaty, chemical ginger note I’m guessing is the ‘flowery’ part of the equation, and which reminds me of Kusmi’s ginger-lemon on a bad leaf …
Grapefruit Green – Lupicia
In the bag, this perfectly mimics grapefruit – one of those very aromatic grapefruits, with tons of citrus oil in the peel. In the nose there’s definitely rind and bitterness – the full scale of true grapefruitness. In the cup, though, the bitter element is reduced to the slightest hint in the aftertaste, just enough …
Pineapple Oolong – Lupicia
Both pineapple and coconut are flavors that can be very difficult for me to appreciate (see how brave I’ve been this time around – melon, lychee, pineapple and coconut; I’m taking on all my taste nemeses) and in the bag, this is all piña colada, with an emphasis on the coconut. No bland, artificial coconut, though, but …