I’ve finally made a cup of my Winter Holiday Cheer blend! As I put in my description, it’s a blend of bits and bobs of different holiday blends from Harney, Upton, plus the last of my Vanilla Assam and some Kusmi Prince Vladimir! Since all of the teas were good individually, I had a lot of confidence that the blend would be yummy. I even included a 2 oz tin of it in my Office Secret Santa gift (along with some hand knit fingertip towels and home made vanilla extract!) because I knew it would be super cozy for Winter Break.
…and it IS! It’s sort of like Constant Comment only way, way, way, way better. Spicy, clove-y, orange-y, and the hint of vanilla has my name all over it :) I had it with a little sugar and milk, the way I like my Constant Comment, and it’s warm and comforting and now I want to go listen to Leonard Cohen sing Suzanne (…and she feeds you tea and oranges, that come all the way from China).
(I’m feeling a bit better today! I can taste what things are supposed to taste like! Last night my husband was worried because he brought home chocolate covered pretzels and I had one and said “OH these are good! I never had peanut butter ones! and he was like uhhhh they are plain chocolate!!” but today things taste true and I’m sitting up a bit etc.)
I can only imagine the look on your hubby’s face when you said that! Though the peanut butter ones are very good! And your blend sounds so good, too!
Oh my! I didn’t even know that pretzels came in peanut butter!
I like the idea of combining several teas you enjoy into one giant super tea! Although I’m sure results vary, but at least yours turned out good.
Peanut butter pretzel’s? Yum! Glad your tea concoction turned out well!
Judging from your previous cooking-related posts, I think I’d trust you as a tea alchemist! Hmmm…sounds like an interesting way to use all those last-half-a-teaspoon scraps sitting around the kitchen….
gmathis – try it! I try to pair things not only that go well together but things that need toning down with things that need pizzazz – like that Prince Vladimir is delicious but SO clove-y that it sent me into a teenage nostalgia fit of clove cigarette smoke at punk shows. BUT paired with all the other spices and the vanilla it became pure holiday pomander/constant comment/leonard cohen goodness. Much more productive association. It’s so much trouble digging out all those old records and sharpening the eyeliner after a cup of plain Prince V! ;)
Ah yes! I remember the Djarum tobacco-less cigarettes! Very clove-y! I toted one around while wearing a white oxford shirt, black jacket with buckles and grommets, skinny jeans, a skinny tie, and black boots! I must have looked like a band member of the Cars or Simple Minds! (Loved Ultravox, too! Especially Vienna!)
I mix Hot Cinnamon Spice with plain black tea because it is just too spicy for me. I tried Golden Monkey with a little Assam one time – pretty good, and more or less Harney’s Golden Blend.