While offering to share a pot of Black Dragon Pearl with a friend who’s enjoyed many fine pots of home-roasted coffee with me, I said, “I don’t have any coffee right now”. Her response was, “I feel like I don’t even know you anymore”.
I feel the same way. I’ve sought, found, roasted and brewed some of the finest coffees in the world, and still have more than 2 kilos of sought-after beans waiting to be roasted. But TEA…so many exotic options. With the sheer number of variations of every leaf, harvest, storage and prep method, I just got lost.
But no more! I am roasting a batch of Maui Select, from the Ka’anapali Estate Coffee located on the West Maui Mountains near the historic town of Lahaina. Now. Today. I mean, as soon as I finish this pot of Laoshan Black from Verdant Tea.
From the Autumn 2016 He Family Collection, this tea is enough to stop anyone in their tracks. Its subtle hints of brown sugar and dark chocolate only increase as the cup begins to cool. The delicate looking dry leaves unfurled while steeping to reveal large black leaves 20x their original size. It’s obvious a great deal of care was taken getting this from the tree to my cup.
I wish I’d ordered more. Every sip is a treat, and it’s just one of 50+ reasons in my cabinet it’s easy to forget to roast coffee.
Flavors: Brown Sugar, Caramel, Dark Chocolate
I love it when a tea stops me in my tracks! I had that experience this morning with Teavivre’s Keemun Imperial Black.