Żywe Muzeum Piernika

Finally, the last tea from a generous swap with Martin.

January and early February goofed me. I thought it was spring out here on the west coast. But no, it’s clearly late winter. It snowed on the mountain but not here in the valley. I’ve seen more hail than ever, which is always cool. And double rainbows – 3 in the past few days alone. I probably should’ve drank this tea in November or December considering the holiday spice profile but no, it was waiting for winter’s second wind.

This tea has a mellow but rich candle-like aroma. Woody-coppery (to me) basic Ceylon black tea character, light to medium in body, turns bitterish as it cools. I get a spice profile that’s so rounded that the only thing that stands out ever so slightly is clove. That spice is mixed with a deep but mellow morello and sweet (not artificial red ice cream topper) maraschino cherry combination. I’m getting a darkish, fruity gingerbread kind of vibe. The aromas don’t separate on the palate and they linger, which is nice.

Thanks for this warmer from the Gingerbread Museum in Poland, Martin :)

Another delightful share from Martin :) And thank you for sharing the tidbit about the UNESCO city and gingerbread museum in your note — that was very interesting!

The dried and steeped tea has a very heady gingerbread scent. There were full cloves in the dry leaf! The clove is there, but not as intense as this essentially pure clove tea from A.C. Perch that I now measure clove against XD. The cinnamon seems to be complementing the clove in a great way where neither overtake the cup. A great balance for sure. There is a whisper of sweetness at the end of the sip that could potentially be the Morello cherry as well. A really lovely cuppa!

I think this one is supposed to be gingerbread flavored, which I sort of see, but I didn’t love the black tea here. With sugar and milk, it was okay, but not as good as other takes I’ve seen on this flavor profile. The spices were a little mild – I tasted maybe some ginger and cinnamon? I actually quite enjoyed my first few sips, but as it sat for a few hours, it got a little murkier. Still nice to try from the last TTB!

Pulled from TTB 2022, shared by Martin Bednář.

This tea smells like Christmas! I think I’m connecting it to the holidays mostly because it smells so much like Harney & Son’s Holiday Tea. It must be the cloves. I think I oversteeped it a bit because it’s bitter, maybe I should have dropped the steep time. Still delicious though!

TeaTiff TTB #15

I had hastily assumed this was a straight black tea like most of the others Martin added to the box, but was stopped short by seeing a whole clove in my infuser. Was this actually a chai? Turns out, it’s neither. Apparently it’s meant to be a gingerbread-flavored tea, but to me it came across as just a very lightly spiced black tea. I mostly tasted the base (nice and malty with notes of stone fruit) and then just a hint of cinnamon and clove in the aftertaste. Unexpected, but enjoyable!

So yeah, everyone knows I have been in Poland in the end of last year, right? I have visited also Toruń, a town famous for gingerbread. And it’s UNESCO protected city center. And why to visit Pisa, when a leaning tower is here too? So, I have been in their Gingerbread muzeum. And then I have decided to buy gingerbread for my friend in Switzerland and I have saw they offer a tea too. So here it is.

It smells fantastic. Very accurate to actual gingerbread (and similar to museum air itself), with cherry undertone. As it is often mixed with some crémes and such, I thought it is pretty good aroma. And pure gingerbread would be rather similar to chai.

I have used two teaspoons (there are no steeping parameters anywhere) in my big strainer, brewed for 3 minutes.
Woo… it is again a delicious thing. The base tea is present and truly making the base, somehow tannic, but no astringency to be found. The cloves and cinnamon play the biggest role in the taste notes. Sometimes the cinnamon is stronger, sometimes the latter. The morello cherry is adding a little, but needed sweetness and a little bit of another dimmension of flavour. But it’s not cherry-like at all.

Honestly, I am very surprised of qualities of this tea and the leaf quality isn’t bad either. It is not CTC, but it seems to be OP! And taste… is just right. Good for colder days for sure!