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This was specifically the reason for my return visit to Savoy Tea Company. (Oh, who am I kidding? It’s a decent tea shop less than two hours from my front door. Of course I’m going to stop there every time it’s possible.)

Must be one of their more popular blends, because when I placed my bulk order, the lady asked if I’d read on Facebook that it had just come back in.

What grabbed me on the first sample pack was the luscious creamy caramel texture and flavor with a little bergamot thrown in. First cup out of this batch, I noticed more bergamot and it was a little pushy. (Stand back, you, and let the caramel through!)

I’ll check time and temp more closely next time around and see if I can whip it back into submission. Otherwise, I may just have to go to the Ozarks again. Darn.

Savoy Tea Company is a cozy little shop on the Promenade in Rogers, Arkansas. Bulk and custom-packaged teas, cupcakes, tea goodies and accessories, just a storehouse of things near and dear to our hearts.

As I was browsing, husband was a couple of paces behind me, he checked out the “sniffer” jar of this one, and when my back was turned, I discovered a sample pack in the shopping basket :)

This smells so good, sweet apples and toffee, it took a good deal of willpower not to chew it and swallow it whole. It took even more to wait the full…10…minutes recommended for a full-strength steep.

The steeped stuff is the color of a clementine orange rind. The texture is light, but the flavor is (paused to think about it, but my sweetie pegged it for me) Apple Jacks! (I knew I’ve kept him around for 27 years…today…for a reason!)

I’m thinking that with a little half-and-half I would have me a lovely little cup of cereal milk. And decaf at that.

One of those lovely close-to-perfect days where you want to push “pause” and leave it there. Slow, steady rain all day; temps in upper 60’s. Took a travel mug of this with me on a trek to North Arkansas (Google “Crystal Bridges Museum” … it was great!).

If you put this, Marco Polo, and H&S Tower of London Blend in front of me without telling which was which, I would be hard put to tell the difference. This is berry-creamy sweet, has a great quality tea base, didn’t need a bit of sweetener. Thanks to ashmanra for the treat!

Since I started fooling around with Tulsi this spring, it’s turned into a full-blown love affair. After a long search for an herbal remedy that actually unkinks the knots in my neck after a just-shoot-me stressful day, I think I have truly found my cure.
(Just-shoot-me + oops I forgot to take my blood pressure medicine = you could pour what’s left of me into a thimble.)

Which got me prowling around for pharmacological info to figure out why this works so well when other herbals don’t … boy, this stuff will cure whatever ails ya because it’s:

An immuno-modulator that balances and improves the immune response of the body in fighting antigens (disease causing agents such as bacteria, viruses, microbes, allergens etc.) and maintaining health

I won’t get radiation poisoning either.

So here’s to good health, a better day tomorrow, and not glowing in the dark.

Straight up this morning; a good, sharp, coppery basic. Teases you awake instead of bulldozing you awake. A little milk would likely tone it down from a C sharp to a B flat but I don’t need toning at the moment.

Hmm…could be that I’ve just let this packet get old, but the heavy leather-couch-and-old-book flavor has dissipated enough that it takes milk OK. (I don’t usually add anything.) Good sound solid breakfast for a fall (almost) morning.

One cup away from an empty package of this one, but I enjoyed it immensely. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact that I was rocking gently in the patio glider, temps were in the lowish 70’s, had a good book in my lap, and the lawn was finally mowed.

Love this one because it is truly fruity and not tart. Probably won’t shop for an equivalent until spring, but I hope I can find one.

A new one, since I had a lovely leisurely hour to enjoy it.

Had to refer back to the Encyclopedia Upton-ica to remember its origins—it’s a Nepali tea. Pretty cool, because I just finished writing some kids’ curriculum about Nepal.

This is definitely a Darjeeling-style tea. Lots of light greeny-gold tips in the dry leaf, a very white-wine personality—that is, if you’re drinking it with a mouthful of melba toast. Dries your mouth a little, but not much.

Sandalwood, as in the description, I don’t get, but it does have a really fruity, spicy scent.

Took a second steep well—even when I got sidetracked and left it easily 10 minutes. Still not bitter.

Nice for afternoons and, as my friend Dr. Cooper would say, pre-venings.

Trying to make my peace with this one before the sample runs out. This attempt involved a little sweetening with maple syrup—well, if you can call Mrs. Butterworth’s real maple syrup ;) Hey, it was all I had…

…which means that the not-very-strong blackcurrant became merely a holding mechanism for the syrup.

It was such a lovely, crisp, apple-peel fresh-air sort of evening, it didn’t matter what I was sipping. I sat out in the back yard and smelled fall and felt bountiful for a while.

I have a theory that nearly all of the single-estate tea samples I got from Upton will be excellent mix-and-matchers. Didn’t have quite enough for a full pot this morning, so I spiked it with some Assam Gold from Tea Merchant. Can’t tell where one starts and the other leaves off … smooth and weighty, a little sweet fruit tang at the end.

Perfect for a cool and sunny morning.