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Thanks to Michelle, I am having my first taste of something with schizandra berries in it. (Schizandra—sounds like a sneeze.)

Lots of spice in this one, cloves especially. I think I have more or less permanently burned off, from my love of heavy black Assams & breakfast teas, the taste buds that can actually pick up the subtleties of white tea—so if there’s some white tea character in here, I’m not registering it.

This is still OK, and would likely please a chai lover.

I keep this one in reserve for mornings when I need to WAKE UP. It is a potent breakfast tea, but not so strong or bitter it can’t be imbibed on its own.

Blends of tea should do one of two things: mesh together so well that you can detect every individual element, or mesh together so well that no one element interferes with the blend as a whole. This falls in Category #2.

Decided to give my taste buds a weary Wednesday pick-me-up by trying something new. Dry leaves are small and thin, but they pack nice and densely in the pouch. Does that make sense? Lots of blonde tips.

First thing I noticed was this was a very “juicy” Assam. I can catch the tones that made the Upton folks call it raisiny. It has strengthened significantly since it has cooled and I’m nearing the end of my 12-oz. tumbler. I think it’ll take milk nicely. Pretty good caffeine kick, too.

Lovely evening. RAIN! and cool enough hubby baked homemade pizza and break-n-bake chocolate chip cookies. This is a lovely, sweet, complement to tonight’s dessert. The vanilla is significantly stronger than the rooibos flavor. Actually, this would make a fine dessert on its own, but I am not letting perfectly good cookies go to waste.

Michelle packed a potent packet of this in a pouch of precious prizes (sorry—-y’all know me and alliterations). Wordplay notwithstanding, I think this is my favorite EG blend to date. Heavy on the cream, light on the bergamot.

(Afraid to say this very loudly for fear of jinxing it…) It feels like almost-fall outside! 60 degrees when I sat outside for my first cup. So in honor of the weather, I pulled out an oldie that I associate with cooler temps.

I think I under-leafed or understeeped, the smoke/leather flavor this is most tagged with is only barely detectible. Still drinkable—just lots of room to beef it up. Next time.

Saved this sample from K S for a day when I could have time to enjoy it. And enjoy it I am. This is candy in a cup, even without aditional sweetening. Junior Mints. I am having to strain to detect any puerh personality at all, though I’m sure it’s creating a rich base for the chocolate.

Looking forward to more steeps! My thanks.

I’m going to have to do some pondering on this one. When I first snipped open the pouch, I could have sworn I smelled something sour, almost like vinegar. That set off an automatic uh-oh, but the scent dissipated pretty quickly.

I forged ahead and steeped it 4 minutes, water a little under boiling as prescribed. Net result is clearly decaffeinated (aka no punch whatsoever) black tea that hints at being somewhat berry-like.

Could be that a little sweetener will coax the blackberry out of hiding, but it’s been a long week, I’m in my cozy glider with my feet up, and I’m just too lazy to get up. Maybe next time.

Ahmad Warwick Assam + jacquelinem’s “Berry Melange” = a cozy mystery tea with a sense of humor.

Last summer, when we were setting up temporary quarters at Shabby House, jaquelinem fixed me up with a tin of her shaken-together bits and bops of berry black tea. So, half-and-half with Ahmad’s good solid Assam, I have a mystery to solve every time I pick up a fruity hint. Am I tasting strawberry? Blueberry? Razzleberries? Crunchberries? Throopberries from the lesser-angulated throopberry tree on the western Isle of Picallilli?

At any rate, this is strong enough to noodge me awake and sweet enough to feel a little celebratory—after all, we did make it to Friday.