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FAVORITE TEA EVER!!!!!!!!!!

Synopsis of my long post: The tea gods love me. You must try this lightly sweet nutty wonderful tea. Full tasting notes come at the end of the post.

Back in 2010 I spend a semester at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and found this amazing tea shop Anteaques. There I had this wonderful chestnut tea. When I came back stateside I searched for a comparable tea. And searched, and searched, then searched some more. Some of the chestnut/nut teas were truly awful – undrinkable- others were ok. I admit I might have been overly hard on these nut teas, but I was on a mission.
Several months ago I was on a Ceylon fix – I’d just finished my last Ceylon – and I purchased some truly delicious teas from Single Origin Teas. Recently I decided to revist their site and that’s when the stars aligned and the tea gods smiled on me. Right there on the home page: Candied Chestnut tea.
I was all like “Be still my beating heart, you’ve been disappointed before”, but given the high quality of the teas I already purchased from Single Origin Teas I had to give it a try. When I smelled the leaves I knew I had found my chestnut tea at last. I swear this is the same tea. This tea makes me happy – the aroma, the taste, the warmth – Keats should have written an ode to this tea. The best part is that the tea lives up to my memory of it. I was starting to think that I had idealized this tea so much that should I drink it again I would be disappointed. Not so. It’s my tea “dream come true”.

Tasting note time:

As I’ve said before with Single Origin Teas what you see is what you get when it comes to the leaves. The dried leaves smell sweet. The first sent to hit your nose is sugary vanilla then comes the sent of chestnut with a barely there hint of fruit from the leaves.
Once brewed the predominant aroma is sweet chestnut with a touch of vanilla and the slightest fruity/floral hint.
Everything about this tea is light, but in a good way. The chestnut flavor is present throughout with a background note of vanilla. It’s sweetest when it’s in your mouth. As you swallow the phantom fruity/floral quality appears again. As the tea cools the fruity note becomes slightly more present.