The Zealous Zeppo

Another Buffy inspired fandom blend as I continue my rewatch of the series in French!! I rewatch this series at least once a year, but often rewatch my favourite seasons several times (3, 6, and 7). It’s not that I’m not enjoying this rewatch with the French voice over, but something about it feels less “bingeable” to me – maybe because I have to focus so intently on the episode in order to catch what’s going on and read the subtitles, so I can’t multitask as much!?

I was trying to think, as I drank this tea and watched the show, what my ideal “Xander Harris” fandom blend would be like – I had a clear idea of the direction that I would take the Angel blend, but I struggled with how I would approach this one. It’s going to seem like I don’t like any of the characters (that’s because I’m saving the blends for the characters I do like for last), but I actually am not a fan of Xander – I was the first time I ever watched the show, but the more I rewatch it the less I enjoy him. I find him pretty misogynistic, unsupportive of his friends for a lot of the series, and a ton of his early season focus was about him being a whiny baby about not being able to be with Buffy and then unappreciative about his relationship with Cordy…

In fact, here’s a whole article about why he sucks:

https://poplurker.com/2018/05/31/8-reasons-why-xander-harris-is-the-worst-part-of-buffy-the-vampire-slayer/

He does show some growth throughout the series, especially in the later seasons, but it’s a slow process – so maybe I would choose a young sheng pu’erh for a Xander themed tea as the base? Something that starts off really unpleasant, but that has the potential to develop into something nicer. Maybe toss in some green tea as well, because of how bitter it can be and to capitalize on the phrase “green with envy” as a way of expressing his general jealousy. Maybe some peppermint; both to continue the green theme, but also because of how “cool” Xander both wants to be/thinks he is. The one thing that I do think this blend gets right (in terms of capturing the character) is the blueberry – I think having something blue, because of how whiny/mopey he is, feels appropriate.

So there you have it – sheng, green tea, mint and blueberry.

As for this tea and how it tastes!?

Well, I don’t think it captures Xander Harris but I do think it’s pretty pleasant. The cup I steeped felt a little thin/weak, so in the future I would up the amount of leaf used by a little bit but there was a really nice balance between sweet berry and tart berry overall. I think the blueberry is the strongest flavour element present, and while I could detect that there were other contributing fruit flavours at play, I would not have been able to pin point peach or apricot as those contributors.

I imagine it would probably be nice iced, actually!