Well, I have to say, nothing gets through my “need beer nao” haze, quite like the sudden arrival (at 9pm, wtf UPS?) of my Art of Tea dessert tea sampler. So now I am totally like “need tea, go away beer.” Ah, how fickle is woman, etc, etc.
Naturally, for my first pick from the sampler, I randomly drew one of the packets and this is what I got. Now, I have to say. Banana and I have a relationship that is even rockier than mine and Vanilla’s. You see, outside of tea, I am generally fine with vanilla. Whereas A. I have never HAD tea that involved banana and B. I am just not a huge fan of bananas. Unless I am in a banana mood. Which happens like, once every two months. Still, I was willing to give this tea a chance. Also, I am pretty sure someone else mentioned this, but monkey in the title! How can you go wrong?
Even before brewing, I am pretty impressed. This tea smells like a banana split! It has been ages since I had a banana split! I shouldn’t even remember how one smells! Which probably means that this smells like banana split should, not how it necessarily does.
The taste however…hm. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s tasty! So tasty, that I suspect Art of Tea of witchcraft, but it’s also kind of…confusing. Sometimes, I totally get chocolate and banana. But sometimes I also got this tang that puts me more in mind of a Polish dessert called kisiel. Which I am never in a million years going to be able to explain, so Wikipedia to the rescue: “It consists of sweetened juice, thickened with arrowroot, cornstarch or potato starch, and sometimes red wine or dried fruits are added. It is similar to the Danish Rødgrød or German Rote Grütze.” So, there you have it. It is usually tangy, has the consistency of custard (basically) and is super tasty with cream.
Anyway, which of the two things it’s gonna taste like varies basically from sip to sip, although the chocolate banana seems to be gaining the upper hand as it cools. My aim with ordering this sampler is that I want to find a dessert tea that I can use to full my sweet tooth into thinking that I have had dessert when nothing of the sort has actually occurred. I am unsure if this will serve the purpose. Further steepings are required! With milk! and possibly some sort of artificial sweetner! The more calories I can free up by avoiding dessert, the more beer I can consume! Yes, I have a one track mind, leave me alone.
