Oh, okay, wow. So I’m having quite the The O Dor sample party today, courtesy of some Steepster friends and the EU swap box. Before yesterday, I was a Theodor virgin, but things are getting pretty depraved pretty fast over here.

All these preconceived notions of what I’m going to like are so often completely turned on their heads when I try out a brand new company. I thought Lupicia’s blacks would be insufferable (but it turns out they’re just as amazing as their greens and oolongs) and I thought Butiki’s flavoured teas would be right up my alley (turns out I prefer the plain ones) and I thought I’d like Damman Frères far more than Comptoir des Thés et des Epices (a million times no).

And here I was, convinced this tea would be just average, and that Celebration would have to be the most desirable in the entire The O Dor kingdom.

As it turns out, I realized chocolate teas don’t really do it for me, even if there’s hazelnut and vanilla involved… and that this tea is gorgeous. Seriously, the last time I had a tea experience like this was with Lupicia’s Cookie. (And you all know how I feel about Cookie.)

I did a double take smelling the sample, because it was so rich and lovely. I always talk about the wild card, that inexplicable something, and there it was, in the dry tea already. And this teal is solid and reliable, because that something stays there all the way, both scent wise and flavor wise. There’s a perfect, creamy intermingling of coconut and pistachio, with an aftertaste that is all smooth vanilla with this slight floral hint that literally makes me smile.

My mnemonic analogy (there always seems to be one hard-wired into some part of my brain, after all) emanates from memories of love, suitably. When you’ve been in love, and you’ve loved, and you think you’ve got it all figured out, and then you meet that goddamn person who just turns everything upside down and shows you what all those stupid songs and books and movies were really about.

Je T’aime – the evolution of love, in a tea cup.

(You will be my special coconut and pistachio tea forever.)

[Sample from the second round of the EU Travelling Box, spring 2014.]

90 C, 3 min 30