Hint of Mint Herbal Tea

I find the name of this tea amusing “Hint of Mint”, pretty sure it’s nothing but mint. Had a few cups of this at Boyd and Wurthmann in Berlin, OH http://www.boydandwurthmann.com/ It’s a neat bustling seat yourself restaurant filled with locals and tourists alike.

It was much more enjoyable than all the bland “Amish” kitchen/buffets (we only went to one this trip, but I’ve been to a few). I find it amusing that all the reviews for those places said the staff and cooks were clearly not amish, despite their uniforms, but honestly what do you expect? Amish women have better things to do, it’s all the other people in the area that need jobs.

I had the trail bologna and swiss sandwich with potato salad. Trail bologna is pretty awesome, it’s made in Trail, Ohio and we brought some back with us. The husband and son actually made me a trail bologna and cheese omelet yesterday brought to me in bed (Rowan actually sent me back to bed), unfortunately I could’t eat it.

Sick story follows:

The moment I smelled the bologna frying I knew I was going to be sick, I actually had the husband run out to get me a pregnancy test, negative (which I’m grateful for, I have an IUD in but you never know). They also made me oatmeal with raspberries that I opted for, but couldn’t keep down. Yesterday was just awful flu + migraine is my personal idea of hell, complete with fever and hallucinating that my body was made up on things it is not. The only way I was able to regain stability was by just focusing on just my breathing for over an hour. Feeling significantly better today, but not without issues that need not be spoken over tea.

End sick story, resume travel/food log, still not tea related but there is wine:

Next time we’re in Holmes County I want to have breakfast at Boyd and Wurthmann, The Wreck sounds fantastic! Third favorite place to eat was the Chalet in Valley, owned by Guggisberg Cheese in Charm, OH. We ordered way too much food as we wanted to try their fondue, which was delicious, we took most of our entrees home and split an apple dumpling.

We also went wine and cheese tasting around Sugar Creek, the Little Switzerland of Ohio, elderberry wine, strawberry-rhubarb, dandelion wine, ice wine, sherry, tawny port, fun! We brought home Apricot, Peach and a Watermelon Wine (which is surprisingly boozey), sage derby, smoked bacon cheddar, salami cheese and butter cheese.

Our last stop was just down the road from Chalet in the Valley, Hershberger’s Farm and Bakery. It’s really a pie shop the sells other goods like bread, apple butter, jams, cider, condiments and other dried and jarred foods with petting farm (with Holmes County’s biggest horse who looked very sad and lots of goats, momma and baby goats inside and billy goats on the roof that you can send treats up to), a hamburger stand, kettle corn and a wooden toy store and pet shop cringe. Elderberry, Strawberry-rhubarb and dandelion fry pies were fantastic and now I know what a fry pie is, or rather what the packaged things the husband picks up from the gas station are, so much better fresh.

On the way home we stopped at the Toyota dealership and traded in the husband’s leased Corolla for a new small, very orange (habanero) Prius. We bought this time, because with his commute to work it made no sense to lease. My credit is even more solid than it was before, husband’s is not great but it’s getting better. None of the picture online due that orange justice. Husband got made fun of at work for it, someone asked if he was a “fairy”, yeah… they didn’t know him when he had a yellow beetle, but then again neither did I.

Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage also serves this tea in their cafeteria and 4 North. I’m not exactly sure why it’s called ‘Hint of Mint,’ since it’s really minty. Really, really minty. You can smell it through the metallic sealed tea bag cover. It smells a bit skunky at first (perhaps that’s from the styrofoam cup it’s in….), but once it steeps, it becomes explicatively fragrant and Lamiaceous. After three minutes of steeping, it’s wonderfully strong and even the steam has a therapeutic peppermint quality to it. There isn’t an ingredient list on the tea bag, but it looks/tastes like there’s only peppermint there — and oh, what good peppermint it is. This is all I need for sore throat/stuffed sinus season. I usually take my minty teas with milk, but this doesn’t need it. It just needs a ceramic mug.