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Celestial Seasonings Madagascar Vanilla Red (1 bag) + 1/2 t. tulsi = ROOT BEER?

Yeah, root beer. Go figure.

Last night was proof that my family no longer does severe thunderstorms well. I know Whose hands I’m in—last spring and summer brought living proof of that—but I can’t seem to get that message across to my central nervous system. Hamster heart and clenched muscles.

And it looks like I’m waking up to a day of the same weather conditions, which despite my screaming desire to stay sheltered, I have to go out in for elder care duties.

Therefore, I was deeply grateful that the Xmas Bunny (a subsidiary of Easter Elephant, Inc.) remembered that even yucky birthdays should start somewhat pleasantly and left one last tin of KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON British tea.

Good and stout—the Kenyan in the blend is the most noticeable; the other varieties (Ceylon/Indian) keep it from getting out of hand. First cup straight up for fortification; the second with a splash of half and half, which makes it mild but strong at the same time.

Someday I am going to indulge my inner tea geek (inner? who am I kidding? who doesn’t know that I am?) and do a side-by-side tasting of my beloved British breakfast blends (say that five times fast) and arrange more precisely by strength so I can accurately pick the blend to fit the morning.

Psalm 91 to y’all. Stay safe.

Introductory cup of a sample I’ll eventually review at www.itsallabouttheleaf.com, so I won’t steal my own thunder, but I can’t help but declare I’ve finally found a white tea with some meat on its bones.

1 part Grace Rare Tea Assam (2nd steep) + 2 parts Thomas Sampson, last bit of the tin = a really nice slow-morning pot. They play together nicely, the Grace assam warms up plain ol’ Thomas quite nicely.

I’m thinking that, much like simplyjenW does a Franken-breakfast blend that’s heavy on the keemun, I may try dumping my all my Assam scraps together to see what happens. (Somebody’ll have to peel me off the ceiling?)

Added a little half-and-half to the cup, and it accentuated the rooibos flavor, not the chocolate or vanilla. Go figure. It’s still nice and smooth and tasty.

Equal parts tulsi (holy basil), lavender, chamomile.

Contininuing the tulsi experimentation and so far, it hasn’t been unwelcoming to anything I’ve thrown into the mix.

Next time … ya think vanilla might work?

The nice thing about the Easter Elephant is that he doesn’t forget how hard it is to ooze back into work after a lovely Easter weekend, so he occasionally leaves a small little post-Easter treat by the kettle after an icky Monday. You really need to get to know him.

In this case, it was a lovely little box of rooibos goodness from a seller I can’t find much about online at all—just one little “coming soon” site with a really cute logo.

I’ve mentioned before that rooibos was just made for ice cream flavors—so in this case the double whammy of chocolate/vanilla is really nice. Lots of chocolate scent in the dry teabag; heavier on the vanilla when you steep it. And decaf enough that it doesn’t muss up bedtime.

Another surprise from the Easter Elephant. A nice bagged morning blend (EE knows that mornings are always a rush and it’s easy to ruin good loose tea). Not as strong as I had anticipated. I’d place it just past Yorkshire Gold on the plain hot water——>PG Tips left to stand 30 minutes scale.

The Easter Elephant came (he’s WAY better than the bunny because he can sneak in and out undetected as big as he is) and left this in my kitchen!

This gets off-the-scale wacky cool points for the color alone. PINK green tea. Box recommends a very low temp (I actually used a thermometer and kept it around 160) and short time (2 min) and by golly, it’s pink! Website tips you off to the trick, there’s just a bit of hibiscus in there, but you can’t see it in the pyramid teabags, and you can’t taste it at all. Pink!

Now, as for flavor—I’m still working on it. I used a clear mug for the christening cup because I wanted to watch the color, and the mug is oversized, so when it was full, I didn’t taste much but dishwater. (Nifty pink dishwater, mind you.)

The Kandula folks say each pyramid bag is good for 2-3 steeps, so the second time around, I didn’t top off the cup, did 2 more minutes and got some really nice flavor. Light, fresh hay. Second steep color wasn’t as pretty, more of a pale rosy beige.

So, if I don’t overdo on the H20 next time, I anticipate a lovely balance of color and flavor. This has been fun to play with! (Thank you, Easter Elephant. I will never forget how thoughtful you are.)