Jolie Blooming Tea

Watch the Brew.

I was so excited to try another blooming tea! You can check out a video of it on my instagram. 

One of the the most interesting aspects of a blooming tea is that you get to watch the brewing process in action. Although regular tea leaves expand when they brew, just like this tea, we don't often pay attention to it. This tea makes the process more enticing.  

When I took the video and sped it up, it was incredible. When the tea expands it looked like it had life, like it was evolving. The environment caused the tea to change it's behavior. Even in a harsh environment it continued to bloom and brew me delicious tea. 

This process of blooming is very important to me. I feel as though we're all like this blooming tea at some point, afraid and closed tight. We fear to let ourselves open up and spread our beauty to the world. It's often a harsh environment that shows our true colors, instills bravery and causes us bloom. 

I know I haven't talked much about the taste of this tea but for me the blooming tea is more about the experience. One of my favorite things about tea time is that it's a process. A process that takes my full attention and care, that makes me stop my busy mind to concentrate on how many leaves to put in the pot, how much water to pour over them and how long to let the leaves expand. 

The blooming tea is a bit different because the beauty of it holds your attention entirely, I always sit there and watch it fully open not looking away for fear of missing some portion of the process. This is a form of meditation. This is calming. This is why I drink tea. 

We often think that in order to be successful we have to run around until we collapse from exhaustion. I think we'd all be better off if we get that notion out of our minds and make time for tea (or whatever you fancy) . Tea time is sacred! 

Is your tea/coffee time a chance for you to slow down? If not, I challenge you to give it a try!

 

 

Sugar Plum Fairy

Berrylicious. 

Aren't packages the best?! I came home to a surprise from my best friend Ashley. We met in college and clicked, besties for life! I opened up the package and was thrilled with the contents! A Tea Shirt. Oh my gosh, I've always wanted one of these because Tea and also, puns :) 

Ashley told me about a small tea shop in Salem called Jolie Tea Company. She sent me two types of tea, what a sweetheart! I tried the sugar plum fairy!

Ingredients: Chinese Black tea, blackberry pieces, organic ginger root, blackberry essence and blackcurrant essence

I've been trying teas from smaller tea companies and I love how creative the blends are! 

This is another example of a fruity aroma paired with a black tea. This type of tea is certainly growing on me. I do love the stronger smelling tea but because of my love for berries, I enjoy blackberry fragrance that emanates from this blend.

After tasting this tea, I was stumped. Such a berry scent but such a bold flavor. The flavor is very similar to my routine earl grey and ceylon blend tea. The ginger flavor really comes through when the tea is brewed. 

The most surprising thing about this tea is that it is so refreshing even as a black tea. After several sips, the after taste is sweet. I really enjoyed this tea and am exciting to have it again!

Wild Chicory Joe

Coffee Tea.

Are you a coffee lover trying to kick the habit but you're just not a fan of tea? Well, have I got some good news for you! Enter, Wild Chicory Joe.

It's no secret that I don't like coffee. I LOVE the smell of coffee, I like coffee ice cream but the actual beverage is kinds gross to me. Even specialty coffee drinks with lots of sweeteners are no good to me. The flavors taste good at first sip but then it leaves such a bad taste in my mouth. Now you know how I truly feel! I'll still try to convert you coffee lovers to the world of tea :) 

Back to the Wild Chicory Joe, it contains roasted chicory root, roasted dandelion root, fennel seeds, crystal malt, chocolate barley malt and coffee flavoring. The aroma of tea is not anything like a tea I've smelled. It's 100% the smell of coffee and because of the chocolate barley, it's more like a mocha coffee smell. 

You might be asking, how is this even a tea? It's actually an herbal tea because of what it's comprised of and has no caffeine! It takes exactly like coffee so you can get your fix but you're actually consuming zero caffeine and benefiting from the herbal ingredients! For all you tea lovers that like the taste of coffee but want the health benefits of herbal tea, this is for you too!

 

I'm no doctor but here are SOME of the health benefits of the ingredients I found upon researching a bit. 

Chicory root: Full of antioxidants, lower inflammation in the body, aids digestion, antibacterial and anti fungal properties 

Dandelion root: Improve liver function, boosts immune system, antioxidants 

Fennel seeds: Good for your heart

Thao Tea Part III, Ripe Papaya

Fruity Black. 

Do you like black tea? What about papaya? If you said yes to these, you need to head over to Thao Tea Co and snag some ripe papaya. 

I feel so honored to be able to be on this tea journey where I'm experiencing exciting blends and generous people. 

I have come a long way in the past few months and have tried teas that I NEVER thought I would like. All I really needed to do was to give them a try!

I'll be honest, for my blog I try a lot of different teas but on a daily basis I drink my favorite earl grey and ceylon blend tea. 

I never thought I would like fruity teas because I enjoy a strong flavor. I had also never had black fruity teas. 

This ripe papaya has black tea, corn flowers and papaya. This tea smells like someone just split open a fresh papaya and placed it on your nose. 

To someone who doesn't like fruity tea, such as myself, this can be off putting. But just like the lychee peach tea, the flavor was delicious and bold as it's a black tea. I would recommend this to someone like me who thinks that fruit tea is sub par because you get the best of both worlds! 

 

Chai Tea Shortbread Cookies

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Tea is for more than drinking.

Until I get my hands on some matcha I'm going to keep baking cupcakes and cookies with the tea in my collection because the result is oh so good! 

This chai tea from Wight Tea Co has to be one of the best chai teas I've ever had so I thought to myself, this will probably be delicious in cookies!

Artsy Flour Shot

Artsy Flour Shot

Ingredients

  • 2 sticks butter salted
  • ⅔ cup brown sugar
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 tablespoon chai tea crushed up
  • 1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)
  • 1 tablespoon sea salt (optional) 

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. This all depends on your oven. Mine is really hot so I have it on 350 but if your oven isn't as strong you could stand to put it up to 375
  2. Mix the butter and sugar then add in the vanilla.
  3. Separably combine flour and chai tea. Add the dry ingredients to the butter, sugar and vanilla.  
  4. Form the dough into a log shape to fit the size you want your cookies to be. Wrap with saran wrap and freeze for 20-40 min.
  5. Line the baking sheet with parchment paper and cut your cookies to desired thickness. Bake for 11 minutes.

OPTIONAL

  1. Melt chocolate chips with a double boiler or a bowl over a pan of boiling water. 
  2. Dip cooled cookies in melted chocolate and sprinkle with sea salt

Lychee Peach Black Tea

Peach Heaven.

Tasting part two of the Thao Tea Co samples I received! My only experience with lychee is in martinis, but they were delicious!   

The Lychee Peach includes black tea and safflowers. 

This tea smells so fruity! The peaches remind me of summertime. 

After tasting this tea I really enjoyed it. It had the boldness of black tea which is the taste I enjoy but I still got the sweet fruity fragrance.

 

The strong aroma of peaches made me feel like I was drinking this tea in a field of peaches! I normally don't like fruity teas but because of the black tea taste, I enjoyed this. I always try tea without any sweetening but when I added honey, the taste turned out like I was having peach honey! 

I have been so impressed with the Thao tea blends, I can't wait to try ripe papaya!

If you missed it last time, check out my interview with Thao the founder.  

Meditative Mind

Aroma Heaven. 

I had the pleasure of trying another tea from The Tea Spot called Meditative Mind. I figured that this would be like chamomile tea but boy was I wrong! 

Ingredients: White Tea, Jasmine Pearl Green Tea, Rosebuds and Petals

Let me start out by saying that this is one of the most beautifully smelling teas I've ever experienced. I know it sounds strange to use the word beautiful fora fragrance but as soon as this tea was brewed it emitted an aroma that immediately made me imagine a beautiful scene- a garden full of blooming flowers. 

My boyfriend and I must have passed around the glass 10 times, each taking our turn smelling this tea because it was that good. It doesn't note it in the ingredients but to me, the fragrance is so sweet like that of a honey suckle. 

 

Although the fragrance was the most memorable part for me, it had a great taste as well! Just as you would expect from a green & white tea mixture the taste was very rich and full bodied. Earthy is a word that kept popping into my mind. This is where I knew that whoever created this blend did an amazing job. The smell and taste pair so well. Your nose thinks flowers and your tongue things earthy. Flowers grow in the earth so it's an incredible couple to your senses! 

I would suggest you get a large slice of rich cake to accompany this delicious tea!

Head over to The Tea Spot and check out Meditative Mind !

Introducing Thao Tea Co

Cantaloupe Mint.

I had the pleasure of getting a package from Thao Tea Co! 

So when I opened this package I thought to myself, HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO CHOSE WHICH TO DRINK FIRST?! What delicious sounding combinations and the packaging is so cute! 

I decided to try the green tea first! I'm not sure if you've read other posts about how I feel about green tea but quite often I don't like it very much. I've had two green teas that I genuinely liked, was this going to be the third?!

This tea is made up of green tea, sunflower petals, chrysanthemum flowers and peppermint leaves.

As soon as I opened the package up the smell filled my kitchen, it was lovely! The first thing that came to mind was cantaloupe gum. There is a distinct minty flavor but it's also fruity so it reminds me of a fruity mint gum. The fruity fragrance is definitely unique. I notice that ripe fruit has a much different smell than other fruit. This was a rich, ripe fruity fragrance.

Now to the best part, the leaves. Look at this beautiful tea! *heart eye emoji* 

Annnnnnnnd the verdict is that this tea is amazing!!! Wow, what a refreshing taste. The minty flavor pairs perfectly with the fruit. I think that tea would be even better iced. I can imagine myself on the beach, soaking up some sun with a tumblr full of cantaloupe mint iced tea! I would definitely recommend this! If you want to taste the refreshing flavor too, head over to Thao Tea Co and grab yourself some! 

Probably one of my favorite parts about trying teas from different companies is learning their story. 

Meet Thao!

1) What inspired you to start Thao Tea Co? 

I wanted to inspire others to drink healthy tea instead of unhealthy beverages such as sugary energy drinks or sodas. 


2) What is the process behind choosing flavor combinations for your unique teas? 

The first question I ask myself is what flavors are not yet out there that I can create and that others would love? Once I decide on the flavor(s) then it goes through a few trials to obtain the perfect formula. We taste every single ingredient separately, then together to make sure they are a good combination. We would create multiple variations of the blends to find that perfect one.

Sometimes blends are even inspired by our travel experiences. Such as our Vietnamese Herbal. This blend is inspired by what we learned about Vietnamese herbal teas during a trip to Vietnam but it still goes through the same process to make sure we find the prefect formula.


3) Which Thao tea would you suggest to someone trying to switch from coffee to tea? 

Coffee drinkers are use to the amount of caffeine and the bold taste of coffee so they tend to prefer more bold tea flavors. I would recommend the Lychee Peach, Ripe Papaya, Citrus Yerba Mate, or the Japanese Matcha. Mostly because these blends would provide the bold taste and caffeine kick compared to other blends.


4) People all over the world brew their tea in different ways with different types of tea ware. What is your method and equipment of choice ?

There are different ways and accessories to brew teas but my method of choice is always brewing tea with any glass teaware (I normally used the glass teapot on our website). Brewing tea in glass teaware tastes the cleanest to me. Glass teaware does not interfere with the flavors of brewed teas as it does sometimes in silicone, paper, ceramic, or plastic teaware. 


5)What is your favorite vessel to drink tea in? 

I love glass teacups because I enjoy seeing the color of the tea liquor through the glass. I even drink teas in wine glasses!


6)If you could go anywhere in the world to have a glass of tea where would it be?

That's a hard one to answer because that would be everywhere! But if I have to pick I would love to enjoy a glass of tea on a beach on an exotic island.


8) What is your favorite Thao tea and why?

Each THAO Tea is special in its own way but I would have to say the Vietnamese Herbal is my favorite. That one is my favorite because the story behind it. I am Vietnamese and last year I went to Vietnam to learn more about where I came from and to connect with my roots. That is where I discovered a Vietnamese herbal tea of which THAO Tea's Vietnamese Herbal is inspired by.


7)What is your favorite tea pun?

"Can't we all just get oolong?" There should be more love and less hate in this world. =)

If you like tea puns too, check out my shop!

 

Bedtime Brew: Evening Tisane

Sleepy Time Tea.

A little bit about my tea drinking habits. I started young. I became accustomed to the caffeine of black teas at all times of the day. It could be 10 pm, I'd have a glass of tea and be able to fall asleep right away. Because of this lack of reaction to the caffeine, I don't usually go for chamomile teas. It seems unnecessary. 

The whole purpose of my blog though is to step away from my comfort zone and try all the teas I've strayed away from. Without further ado, I present to you...Evening Tisane from Wight Tea Co!

This blend is made up of chamomile, lavender, spearmint and apple and boy is it pretty!

To me, this blend definitely has a powerful minty smell from the spearmint. I like the smell for several reasons. One, it kind of reminds me of my favorite gum flavor! Two, the smell is refreshing which gets me excited to take my first sip.

The flavor of this tea is exactly how it smells, minty! I like this because on one hand it's refreshing but at the same time it's soothing. I think any good tea leaves a flavor on your tongue but there is something different about this, maybe because I'm not used to drinking chamomile teas. A few sips into this tea and I was ready to chill out and relax. 

I would definitely recommend this to someone who wants a warm tea at night but can't stand the caffeine! The flavor left on your tongue is much lighter and joyful than what is left when you drink a heavier black tea.

Can't wait to try more tea from Wight Tea Co and follow their tea journey. So far all of their blends are so thoughtful and delicious!

Get social with them! 

Have you tried a chamomile that you loved? Please share! 

Persian Rose Garden

Rose Water.

Rose water is essential in Iranian culture. Rose water is often seen in our desserts, it is an acquired taste for some. Rose water is also an ingredient used when making tea. I went to Rumi Tea and Spice this weekend for their "festival of flavor." I was honored to have some of my tea photography and calligraphy on display. Of course while I was there I had to snag some of their newest tea, Persian Rose Garden! 

Hi! This is me being super dorky next to my work :)

Hi! This is me being super dorky next to my work :)

The Persian Rose Garden tea mimics the classic rose water tea with whole rose buds and cardamom! 

Close up of the roses !

Dry & Brewed Aroma: This tea has an earl grey base and that is definitely the dominant fragrance. The rose petals do place a role in sweetening the smell of the blend. When brewed the scent is very similar but a bit mellower. 

The floral fragrance of the tea makes think the tea is sweeter than it is when I taste it. 

***NOTE: This tea is perfect with a cookie*** 

My favorite part about this tea is that the aroma reminds me of my childhood. We would go to my cousin's house every weekend and I remember the adults all sitting and chatting with tea in their hands. As soon as we arrived the tea was already ready and the whole first floor was engulfed with the florals of the tea.

I would suggest this to anyone who loves earl grey or ceylon teas! You can purchase it online soon!