Palm Beach Teas

Traveling Tea Box Tea #7
I opened the tiny tin of this and it looks very similar to a blend that I loved, that I have since been on the hunt for. It was a Special Tea Company blend with coconut and pineapple (actual fruit pieces) on a black base. The way the fruit is cut here LOOKS the same. I’m not quite convinced this is the same blend… as the black tea here wasn’t very deep and dark. But the coconut and pineapple were pretty well done and balanced. The fruit seems the same as the blend I remember, so maybe it is from the same wholesaler, it is just that the black tea base would probably have changed after all these years? There is one serving remaining, so I might keep it…
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug //20 minutes after boiling // 2-3 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 5 min

Sipdown! We were visiting family in Florida for a few weeks, so I tried out some local tea options while we were there. One of the more notable was high tea at Serenity Teahouse in Palm Beach. The place is super cute, very frilly and extremely on theme for a teahouse. They have vegan and gluten free options for the high tea but they need 48 hours notice for that. They were able to do a vegetarian version with a same-day reservation though! The food was delicious. Housemade salad dressing, fantastic scones, really no complaints. I got the vanilla sencha with my meal. It came with a little sand timer and wasn’t particularly difficult to get the leaf out when the timer was done. It was a nicely balanced blend, with that soft, almost marshmallow-like vanilla. The other one that I wanted to try was this hazelnut vanilla oolong, so I picked up an ounce to take home.

My guess is that it’s a catalogue tea, just because I don’t think they generally blend their own. It’s pretty enjoyable. The hazelnut and vanilla flavors are tasty, well balanced, and not too strong or alcoholic or anything. The base oolong is fairly mild, which is my biggest complaint. I’d prefer these flavors on a sturdier oolong base. Also, and this is my own fault: smaller bits settled at the bottom of the bag and I didn’t think to shake it up. Which means that when I got to the end, the last couple of cups were unpleasantly bitter. I ended up adding oat milk to make them drinkable. In previous cups, the oolong base was too mild to hold up to milk at all! So that’s my caveat for this blend.