Got back on Tuesday from a Seattle-Portland-Victoria vacation with mom and aunts. One of our stops was at the Willow Stream Spa at the Fairmont Empress in Victoria (can’t vacay without a spa stop, y’know). I picked this up there, untasted and untested.
It’s not bad. If I didn’t have the package description to refer to, I’d swear this was blackcurrant. And it has a distinctly grapey taste as well. It’s smooth and not overly heavy. I’m not sure how they decaffeinate it “on the estate” and how that really differs from doing it somewhere else but it doesn’t really matter to me. I’d have bought this with or without the caffeine just to try it. I don’t see myself reaching for this over my other teas, but I’ll throw a couple of bags in the travel tea snob tea wallet just in case of emergency.
In other tea news, I purchased my first yixing pot while in Seattle. It is highly likely to not be real yixing, but it’s clay and it’s cute. And shortly after that I purchased my second clay pot. Just too cute and too reasonably priced. Seasoning the tortoise and the hare for golden monkey and the dragon for bi luo chun types. Probably don’t need different pots for them since they are similar in flavor profile but, shrug, why not. :) And my auntie got a cool tea for one set for me at Queen Mary in Seattle. I love the unusual handles and that the cup is on a pedestal.
I love the tea cup in the tortoise and hare picture, too. And the tea for one set is gorgeous!