Holiday Tea-son! Coal! Coal in the Bird & Blend advent calendar today! I can’t do Lapsang Souchong because it is a migraine trigger, one wiff of the teabag of Smoky Russian and it promptly went into the bin. I tried a pine-smoked lapsang exactly once in my life, and the resulting migraine was one of the worst I’d ever had (smoke is one of my migraine triggers, and the aroma from the cuppa of lapsang souchong I tried in a teashop on vacation alone proved to be enough to tell my brain I absolutely needed that head pain right then). So never again.
So, I decided to brew up the Second Day of Tea from 52Tea’s 12 Days of Tea last year, Holiday Marmalade Green Tea, an orange spice blend on a green tea base rather than the typical black tea base. It certainly smells nice, particularly with a lot of orange and clove aroma coming from the dry leaf in the bag.
Since I was unburying my car when my tea timer went off, I actually don’t know how long this ended up steeping… I was pleasantly surprised it wasn’t a bitter mess. Oversteeped greens can get messy quick.
The flavor is quite nice. The orange tastes brisk and juicy, not overwhelming or wildly artificial as it can easily get in orange spice blends, and the spice is also not extremely strong and doesn’t leave any unpleasant hot or tingly sensations. Mostly I get tasty clove and allspice notes that compliment the orange nicely. There is a hint of sweet cinnamon toward the end of the sip, too. It’s a warming, comfy sort of tea. Probably not the best fit for first thing in the morning when I tend to go for something a bit more energizing, as I’m finding this the sort of thing that is quite relaxing on a foggy, cold, “had to unbury the car from last night’s snow” sort of morning. I’d be much happier if I could stay in under a pile of blankets and drink this, rather than having to catalog books with this in my work thermos. But that isn’t the tea’s fault. Meh.
Flavors: Cinnamon, Clove, Orange, Smooth, Spices, Sweet
