Tea Geek'ery

I am in search of a very creamy vanilla mint tea with melted sugar flavor. Instead, every time I try one I just get peppermint with faint hints of vanilla. It has some spearmint, some peppermint, and the vanilla is barely present. This is just another mint tea, nothing special. one of the nice things about it is that it doesn’t overstep or get too strong if you leave the teabag in.

And that’s a wrap. Iced the rest of this as it makes for a refreshing peppermint and spearmint thirst quencher with minimal rooibos base. I was supposed to go to farmers market today but it’s been raining practically all day so I’ve been sitting at home like a loser all dressed up and nowhere to go. I welcome the rain though! It just sucks I can’t really walk around. Maybe in an hour or two?

In other random news, I cut open the ripening papaya I’ve had sitting on my counter for quite a few days and it’s one of the best I’ve ever had. It almost tastes like a sweet, super ripe kiwi somehow. Juicy and bright orange. I’m starting to grow paranoid buying these guys, and cantaloupes and avocados too, because they’ve been really hit or miss lately. So yay!

Achoo! Please don’t tell me that I’m getting sick. I’ve been sneezing quite a bit today, I’m sniffly, and my throat is a little sore, plus over the past few days, I’ve been experiencing that dull, almost-not-even-there headache that you (at least it happens to me?) can get with an oncoming cold.

Guess now is a good time to have this. Icing this resulted in a minty fresh beverage with a kiss of vanilla. I cannot taste the rooibos in this. There’s a lingering icy feeling on my lips and in the back of my throat from the peppermint, and some lingering sweetness from the spearmint. Very tasty but I wouldn’t go out of my way to get more.

I told myself to go to bed nearly an hour ago but I wanted to write about this since it’s sadly gone. And look at that, I screwed up the picture when I took the screenshot. Oh well, good enough. The soothing sound of this 1:30am rain, the cooler breeze, and the wonderful scent of ozone is highly enjoyable too.

This is fantastic, full of spices, citrus, happiness. I really can taste that cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and orange. Then there’s a soft pop of cocoa. Rooibos can be finicky and woody but this was barely detectable amongst the spice and added milk. It took me a while to figure out what this was reminding me of. The particular balance of spices along with the orange was momentarily taunting me. Why, it’s my pepparkakor! Only with a touch of that cacao. I haven’t made those in so many years and it made me wish I had one to dunk into my tea.

This goes well with whole milk and I’m curious about how it would be iced/cold brewed. It may sound odd but it also paired well with my morning breakfast treat: fried eggs and toast.

Methinks I’ll need to order a full size of this from Amoda sometime soon.

The rooibos is definitely a power-player in this blend, so careful not to over-steep. Otherwise, the coconut is creamy and nutty, helped along by the additional vanilla in the blend. A sweet, vanilla cream herbal decaf for a dessert-like nighttime brew. It was fun to taste it in the Amoda monthly box, but I’m not sure it’s a flavor I would crave on a regular basis. For those of you who like creamy coconut or pina colada, this might be your new favorite tea.