I was feeling brave a couple of visits to the grocery store ago and I picked up about a tablespoon of this. It promptly caused my pantry to smell like I had been frying meat in it, so I stuffed the little plastic bag it came in into an unlabeled tin. And promptly forgot I had it (or blocked it out).
But last night I remembered and thought I’d try it this morning. Once I took the plastic bag out of the tin the house started smelling like bacon. Or ham. On fire. Once I got the leaf into water, though, the meat smell went away and it turned into pretty much burning wood. As I poured the tea out, I got a hint of a sweet smell – maybe maple – and I really really hope it was from this tea. The tea’s actually pretty light in color. For how this smells I was expecting something black as tar… And eeevil.
Hmm. This isn’t nearly as bad as I was fearing based on the smell. I makes me think of when you stand downwind from a campfire all night and the next morning your clothes (and hair and skin and everything) still smells like the campfire. It has that same taste. You know, if you were to eat those clothes. And there is a little sweetness to it! As it starts to cool, I’m getting a honey-smoked-ham type taste from it. Or maple smoked.
I made the husband try some and he compared it to Liquid Smoke and said that he feels like he’d smell like a smoker if he drank a lot of that (smoker as in device used to smoke meats, not one who smokes cigarettes). So yeah, he’s not a fan.
Honestly, I’m probably not a huge fan either simply because I am not a fan of drinking my ham. Not a big meat fan in general, actually. However, if I were looking for an easier replacement for fried ham in the mornings, this would get my vote. I do enjoy the smoothness of this (which is surprising) and the sweetness (because I am a big sweet fan). So I think I’m going to come down on the side of good tea, not for me.
I think I’m going to see if I can get my dad to try this next time I see him. If anyone would like smoked meat tea, I think it’d be him!
