Well, the lip piercing idea was a mistake, I remembered why I took my piercing out all those years ago pretty quickly. Turns out, the older I get, the less tolerant I am of things that irritate me, this usually applies to clothing texture, but it also goes for jewelry, so no lip ring for me. I will have to find some alternative, maybe just take up wearing blue lipstick again? So, piercing problems aside, expect something exciting after Christmas…if things go as planned I am finally going to get a decent little smartphone and start using Instagram. Just think of all the tea selfies and random nonsense you will get to see! Plus all the work in progress craft projects too, it will be exciting, I hope. Another piece of good news, my spider arrived today! It is super cuddly and does an excellent job at balancing on my head.
Today’s tea has a seasonal feel to it, part of my quest to get some Christmas and winter themed teas onto the blog during the month of December. This might be somewhat subjective because this time of year is full of memories of smells and tastes. Winter Pine by Trader Leaf is a blend of green tea, orange slices, planed almonds, flavoring, pink peppercorns, and safflower. I can safely say I let out a little squee when I opened the bag, the aroma of the tea smells just like almond crescent cookies, probably my favorite ever holiday cookie. My mom made a version of them for years, then when I was a teenager I found a recipe in a New Age book for moon cookies and had to make them…after eating one I realized they were the same cookie, just in crescents! It is a blend of almonds, oranges, and a touch of pepper, the aroma is very sweet and quite a lot like dessert. My mouth is watering, especially since I have not found a gluten free version of this cookie I am happy with yet, I need them!
Brewing the leaves brings out more of the almond sweetness, like marzipan and shortbread, with sweet orange zest and a touch of pepper. It is exactly like the cookies of my youth, except more orange, which I like! The orange notes mix really well with almond and pepper. The liquid is essentially the same, sweet with notes of orange and almond, in fact I would say the almond dominates here as well.
Yum!! It tastes like cookies! Ah, each sip is like a walk down memory lane. Seriously, the taste is like liquid cookies with a bit of orange jam on the side, so much sweet almond! Like almond cookies and marzipan, my mom who I had to share the cup with, agreed that the taste is very much like almond cookies. It is not as sweet, but a little addition of sugar changes that, but I actually like it not as sweet. This is certainly a mellow tea, the green base does not make itself known too strongly, there is a distant hint of fresh vegetation at the finish along with pepper, so if you are afraid of green tea this might be a good one for you to try! Also, if you are interested in getting this tea for the holidays, Trader Leaf was awesome enough to provide me with a pair of coupons, use code amanda for free shipping or butterflies for $10 off all orders over $40.
For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/12/trader-leaf-winter-pine-tea-review.html
