Wow – I can’t believe the rating on this is so low. Last time I looked it was something in the seventies, and now fifty four!? Jeez… I guess a lot of people are anti licorice root. Alas, I still love this one (and considering the low rating and generally negative reception I’m thinking this wont be returning so I’m glad I’ve stocked up).
Anyway, this morning I decided I was in a black tea mood and I needed something breakfasty because, well, the tea was going to be my breakfast (although black tea itself is just good breakfast tea in general). Despite my determination to drink some of my lovely black teas today, I kept coming back to this one. My remembering this actually does have black tea in it and then opening my tin of Pumpkin Chai and realizing it wasn’t as full as I’d imagined was enough to justify making this for work.
For prep, I used a 1/2 tbsp. steeped in my timolino for five minutes (with boiling water). I was making Perfect Pear from Della Terra at the same time (the other tea I’ve brought to work today) but the smell of this one steeping completely overshadowed the smell of the Perfect Pear. My last mug of this was a resteep tasting primarily of graham crackers but this one smells boldly like chocolate and hazelnuts with sweet licorice in the background. Yum!
I’ve been stealing small sips over the last few hours because this is still really hot and a big sip would burn my tongue, but it’s very nummy and the chocolatey licorice aftertaste lingers long enough that I’m not in any rush to chug back this super hot liquid Nutella beverage. I’m glad I made this my breakfast tea choice: it’s almost as good as Nutella smeared toast (which I might have had instead if we actually had bread in the house). Oh well.
I have a swap waiting to be sent out tomorrow, so that’s something to look forward to. I’ll be getting rid of the rest of my tin of Red Velvet Cake that I wasn’t so fond of. I actually considered one last cup of it this morning instead of this, sort of as a “final goodbye” or whatever. But no thanks – I’ll pass. I hope its new home is more welcoming to it than my home was. Anyway, that’s removed from my cupboard now and I’ve got more tin space now! I think I’ll fill the tin with some Cranberry Pear, since I’m nearly out of that and definitely want more. Damn, when am I going to find time to make a DAVIDsTEA run inbetween all this work? Better yet – when will I find time to head to the bank and cash the paychecdk I’ll be getting on Tuesday. Plus buying groceries (cheese and crackers just isn’t cutting it) and doing dishes… Ick, life.
I also have dinner tonight with my Aunt Nancy (the only family I have living in town with me). Honestly, I’m kind of impartial towards her – we’re not super close and she wasn’t a large part of my childhood growing up. However, it IS a hot cooked meal that I don’t have to prepare or worry about doing the dishes for (that’s really selfish of me to think, but I don’t greatly care right now). Also, she’s a big tea drinker (the Steepster kind of tea drinker, not the “I have three different kinds of teabags and one is cherry: I’m crazy experimentive with my tea” kind of tea drinker) so that’s one thing we DO have in common. Maybe I’ll bring her 25g or so of one of the tea I have which I don’t plan to restock/desperately want to get rid of. That’s a nice balance between lovely gesture for making me food and selfishly clearing out my stash – right?
…And I just realized that I’m pretty heavily rambling now and this note no longer has much going on in the way of relevant information or critique regarding this tea so I think I’ll stop now. Oops.