The first time I tried this blend, I chai’d it up1. Yes, didn’t you know? It’s a Thing. So I chai’d it up, and it was incredible. But I hadn’t yet tried it on its own, so didn’t feel right giving it a rating. Since today is Diwali2, I wanted to try something I’ve been eagerly anticipating, so I waited for Mum to get here and chose this.
Mayan Mist’s dry leaf fragrance is very sharp. To be honest, it can be a little off-putting. But really, if you’re put off by it, just ignore it, or you’ll miss out on a pretty lovely experience. The brewed tea loses all of that sharpness and just smells really orangey. If flavours of the “orange spice” ilk are your thing, you should really enjoy this.
Except for the coconut, the taste is exactly what you might expect. I say “except” because I can’t smell or taste any coconut. Maybe it’s just there to take the edge off, provide balance, something. I dunno. But although I do like coconut, I’m fine with it not playing a starring role here; orange spice is more than good enough for me. It’s really orangey and it’s pretty spicy, but if it were just a little more spicy, I wouldn’t complain.
I have enough of the sample left for one more cup. Eep! This is definitely a blend I want to keep around all the time. As far as I can tell, it’s as versatile as Samovar’s Ocean of Wisdom3, which is awesome. If I had to choose a preparation method, it would be the chai version, which was so good all I could do was sip and “mmmmm…” until I reached the bottom of the cup. Steeped normally, it’s still really good, but it doesn’t cause the temporary loss of speech.
I’ve got to branch out more! So far, my Happy Place resident teas are all Della Terra blends (save for one, Samovar’s Ocean of Wisdom).
Tea amount: 1 tsp/~4.75g
Water amount: 6oz/~175mL
Additives: Fresh, grated ginger; ½ tsp/~2.4g Demerara sugar.
1 http://steepster.com/bleepnik/posts/137647
2 दिवाली मुबारक! Happy Diwali to my Steepster family! =) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwali
