Nordic Forest

Adventaggedon Day One – 2/5

Gongfu!

So, back before The Tea Practitioner announced their advent, I was really struggling to decide on a fourth advent. It was at that point that Marika came up with this secret plan to put together an advent for me from Epices de Cru – the spice shop owned by her family, which also has a really solid tea assortment.

Now, Epice de Cru doesn’t actually sell advents so this is one that she had picked out and packaged for me – it’s honestly one of the most thoughtful gifts anyone has ever gotten me around the holidays. I’m also sure it totally confused her parents when I tagged them on IG and announced that I was doing an advent from their store.

Today’s tisane was a slam dunk for me, though! It’s a blend of mostly fir and cedar, with some Labrador Tea and Tamarack. I decided to basically stuff a little tiny glass teapot with as much of the needles and herbs as would fit to brew gongfu earlier this morning. It’s a bit of a lighter tea just by the nature of its ingredient composition, so this is definitely a full rolling boil and long infusion sort of tea. Even still, I found it surprisingly more flavourful than other cedar or fir based tisanes I’ve had. Mostly it tasted of fir – crisp, sweet and woodsy. Really refreshing. I liked the addition of tamarack though, I thought it really did add a pleasant sweetness – a bit honey like and a bit like wintergreen. Of course I liked this tisane though, my predictable palate is on board with any tea that tastes like drinking trees.

I have to say that my only criticism is that the Labrador Tea in the blend feels redundant. It doesn’t detract from the infusion, but I didn’t feel like it added any noticeable body or taste either – and at the end of the day I’d probably take more fir in the blend in place of the labrador tea. That’s splitting hairs, though.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/ClpC3C9OZ7i/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNZu8-d8_8Q

Shae Advent Day 21

This tea is so fun and unlike any I’ve had before. The flavor is very fresh, light, earthy, and piney. I really love it. Pine is the primary flavor I get. I’d totally order it. Thanks for letting me try something that’s been on my wish list for a while, Shae!

This tea is really cool! It’s really like you are sipping all the scents in the forest! It’s a little bit of pine, maybe some spruce… cedar? I have no clue, but it’s really great! The scent is very light and deceiving when it comes to the flavor that comes through when I taste it. It’s strong, but smooth and vibrant. The finish is slightly sweet. It’s also a really magical looking tea, meaning that it’s made up of little bits of green plants that all have different shapes and textures. It’s pretty to look at! I can totally imagine while sipping this tea walking through a forest and nibbling on little bits of the various greenery I come across. I’m really taken by this tea!

Thanks so much to AmandaStory for the sample of this!

Well…this tea is perfect.
It’s an herbal blend consisting of tamarack, cedar, balsam fir, and labrador tea. It truly tastes like a Nordic forest. Earthy, green, and absolutely stunning. I was surprised by how sweet it both smells and tastes.
This is the cedar/fir tea that I’ve been searching for. I can’t believe how perfect both this and the Vanilla Saffron are.