This was the final tea of tea party today! It is the last day of October, we are now officially hurled into the holiday season full force, and I want to celebrate!
A long time ago I felt that Thanksgiving had become just the warm up, inaugural dinner of Christmas and had lost it own meaning, so I made the Thankful Box. There are slips of paper and a pen beside it and anyone can put in a note. We set it out on the first of November, and we take turns pulling out a slip and reading it aloud on Thanksgiving night. So when I say Holiday Season, I really mean two separate holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas, and we draw them out and get all the family time and tradition into them we can, and drag along as many friends as possible!
By the end of our time together on tea party day, we have snacked and talked and laughed, and the final tea is pretty much sipped all by itself. I don’t have to worry about pairings and balances so much because the tea is standing alone. I chose this flavored tea as the final tea for today because it feels like an inaugural tea for the Thanksgiving season! Cranberry and turkey! It was really good. I reserve it for this time of year most of the time. Next week, I think we will have its cranberry companion, Boston, which is nothing at all like it! Both have a place reserved on my tea shelf. I can’t imagine not having them, especially this time of year.
One of our tea party teas today, this was served with pound cake made from freshly ground soft white wheat and frosted with homemade caramel frosting. We also had a cookie I just made up, mashing together the ingredients for oatmeal cookies sans cinnamon with the addition of M&M’s, holiday ones, of course! They were made with freshly ground hard red wheat. Hubby Iked them, and that was the goal! :)
This is a delicious tea that just screams HOLIDAYS! to me even though it technically isn’t a Christmas tea. Good without additions, or a pinch of sugar if that is your bent!
I could not resist serving this one for tea party again today. I thought it would pair wonderfully with our low fat pumpkin dip and cinnamon graham crackers. It did! This tea evokes the holidays for me more than most teas that are trying to be holiday teas! It was the hands down favorite today at tea party. The tea base is so smooth, and the flavors are so well balanced and pleasant.
This tea was so good at tea party today that it almost made me weak in the knees. The tea base is so smooth and good, with the crisp cranberry flavor over the top. My guest and I both liked this one most today. I will be keeping this one on hand to serve as my main Christmas tea. It was perfect sans additions, and was paired with cinnamon toast heavy on the brown sugar and cookies.
This was one of the three tea party teas today and it was an absolute delight! Even though it isn’t cold here yet, the unmistakable autumn light is here and it feels like it is the perfect time to drink this tea. It is smooth, light, and so fruity, no sugar needed. Our main snack today was Thomas’ Bagel Thins, the plain ones, toasted and smeared with Nutella. Yum!
This was one of the Wednesday tea party teas! It is very bright without being tart, smooth and flavorful. We took it without additions and it went very well with our cookie plate!
I wasn’t sure where to log this! I had read a comment where someone asked about Boston and whether it was a mellow version of CA. I decided to try mixing Cranberry Autumn with Elyse’s Blend, my yummy new honey friend. It made a pretty good tea! I mixed it half and half but to keep a little more of the bright tone I think in future I would mix 2 parts CA to one part Elyse’s in future.
