de Malt et Mint

Yum! I added some chocolate mint coconut milk to this and it’s incredible. The Assam definitely comes through, and the real mint tastes even better than the flavoring of the milk on its own.

My original plan was tea hot chocolate, but I paid $3 for the quart of this milk, and it’s been extremely disappointing to drink on its own. I’m definitely finishing it up in this tea in the next couple of days because it’s so good this way.

I would also like to announce that I found my parakeet the perfect seasonal Songza station for him: http://songza.com/listen/acoustic-guitar-christmas-songza/ He is a very content feathery puffball now.

For a while, I was nearly out of all my favorite teas and this was all I had to keep me company for a month or so. I still have some left, believe it or not :D After much experimenting, I’ve decided that it is best brewed for 2min30 seconds. I’ve over steeped it a number of times when I left the room or didn’t hear my timer beep. It isn’t bad for a long steep. The mint compensates for the bitterness that would accompany a straight black tea, but I find that the flavors are in the best balance at a shorter brew time.

Thanks to Katiek for sending this to me in her incredibly generous mystery tea box.

I’ve been on an herbal/decaf kick the last few days due to Travelling Tea Box C (there was a huge amount of herbal/decaf teas in it) and now I’m suffering the consequences. I’ve got a bit of a caffeine withdrawal headache and need to do something about it. I decided to cold steep this today since it has assam as well as peppermint in it. The assam and mint are perfectly balanced and this makes one tasty iced tea. It was also the perfect cure for my caffeine withdrawal.

This was definitely the winner by a mile in my casual sampling last night of most of the WP blends I ordered. S’mores was kind of odd, not bad but bracingly evocative of things far removed from s’mores (though I can see how a particular mysterious earthy funkiness in it sort of evokes the grain in graham crackers); Mint Chocolate Chip was alright but I’ve other Grasshopper-y teas I like more (with the bonus they’re tisanes so I can drink them late at night, which is when I always crave that sort of thing), not quite as thickly flavored rich and sweet and treat-y as I’d hoped; I’m reserving judgment on Peppermint Chai because I get a strong sense it needs the proper stovetop milk-n’-20-minutes-stirring treatment to do it justice, not the mere whizzed latte deal I did. Nothing undrinkable and everything was at least interesting/compelling/unique. So that’s good!

But this one! So so good. I wish I could give more detail but late night, yadda yadda, hopefully I do a more detailed note soon. It is a great balance of rich satisfying chocolate (that that’s just the Assam is a bit startling frankly, ‘cause it is REALLY chocolatey) and tempering yet invigorating, palate-awakening mint. The two don’t clash at all; they meld so smoothly and deliciously, like an Andes mint but better. Definitely putting this on the “perennial staples shop list”, yum.