This tea ages so strangely! Over the past couple months, I’ve been trying to figure out what the scent of the dry leaf reminded me of. Fresh, it was exactly like eggnog: creamy and spicy, especially heavy on the nutmeg. But lately, it’s been smelling a little on the astringent side, kind of like vinegar? At first, I thought that maybe it reminded me of something cidery, but that’s not quite right either. Sniffing and sniffing as I was waiting for the water to boil, it finally dawned on me. This smells like ketchup chips. KETCHUP CHIPS. Especially the Old Dutch brand. I freaking love ketchup chips but I’m not exactly stoked about the idea of a tea tasting like them. My mom also agreed with me that this is SO that.
Luckily, the steeped tea does NOT smell or taste at all like ketchup chips. Whew. The spices come back, although the creaminess has taken a back seat. With light cream, this is a lightly spiced nutmeg tea. Yummy. Still not as good as it was when it was fresh, but it’s something that one ought to really drink up fresh. Yeah yeah, you can say that about any tea, but not all teas turn into ketchup chips after a while. What a fancy magic trick that would be.
