My tea arrived! Of the 5 I ordered, I’ve decided to go for this one first, despite being at work and having no control over water temperature. It’s definitely not even close to boiling, so I figure I’m okay enough on temp. Dry, the tea smells really yummy – strong spice smell, definitely putting me in the mind of chai, but a hint of apple that makes me think of cider. A good start! My only qualm so far is how small the package is. I’m Canadian and oz isn’t a unit of measure I ever use so I kind of imagined it being more…I don’t know that I’ll get 20 to 25 cups of tea out of this as the package claims, but that’s irrelevant.
As it steeps, I realize that a T-Sac just isn’t going to provide enough room for the tea to expand. Again, for work and experimentation it is good enough, but the volume has already doubled and I wish I could see these leaves unfurl properly.
Finally, it’s time to sip! I keep smelling this, because there is some definite familiar smell, I think it reminds me of something my grandmother makes. Apple crumble, maybe? With vanilla ice cream on top…More spice smell than apple or vanilla, but the memories it conjure all seem to include apples and vanilla. Finally having tasted a sip, I think it evokes a nice hot cinnamony apple pie with vanilla ice cream melting on top. So good! I’ve been longing for a taste like this for too long. It’s really not hitting me in the face the way I expected it to by the smell, but it’s calming me, and a lovely absent-minded sort of deliciousness. I feel the need to have this on a regular basis. Absolutely. A wonderful start to my 52Teas experience, thank you Frank! I’m saving the T-Sac to give it another steep later on, we’ll see how well it holds up to that. The mildness of the flavour suggests it might not work, but I’ve been surprised before!
ps – Why did I only order 1 pouch when 2 would have been so cheap? Gah!
