Winterwolf

Backlog:

This tea taught me something – goji berries are also known as wolfberries.

The description from M&K’s says that this tastes like: “like an apple met a cinnamon stick and got caught in a magical honey ocean.” and yeah … it does.

I love that the base is a green rooibos – which I prefer over red rooibos. Green rooibos is a little sweeter, lighter, and fruitier than the woodsy/nutty red rooibos.

Event though wolfberries = goji berries, I didn’t taste a strong goji berry flavor. Instead, I tasted honey, butterscotch, cinnamon and apple.

It was quite a wonderful tisane and I’m glad I tried it.

Today I needed a celebration tea and this is the one I use for just those occasions. This tea holds up over time and just makes me happy. I wish it was offered all year round because I find myself hoarding it. I love the cinnamon green roobios goji berry combination. It is like drinking or eating sweet cinnamon berry flavored honey. I love this tea and I am hoping that M&K bring it back this year along with their Pumpkin tea for the fall season.

Why do I need to celebrate? My boyfriend proposed to me last night! I am still incredibly shocked and crazy excited. If you want to read about it, check out the link below. Thank you for all that have already congratulated me. I’m still on Cloud Nine!

http://www.cuppageek.com/index.php/2015/08/01/so-today-the-exploding-kittens-game-arrived-and-now-we-are-engaged/

So, before I get into the tea review, I want to take a minute to thank everyone who reads my ramblings! It has been an awesome year, and I greatly look forward to another year full of tea! I should warn you all that there is a slight chance that this will be my last post until the first of the year. Ben will be swooping in tomorrow night and having a brief visit before we take an epic (though not as pretty as the one mom and I had this fall) road trip back home. So I hope you all forgive me for wanting to spend the last few days in PA focused on packing up, re-acquainting myself with my long missed boyfriend, and having many tear-filled goodbyes with my mom. If I find time I might blog, if not, have an excellent rest of December!

Today is the last of the Christmas teas (actually no, I have a few stashed away in my notebook for a July Christmas or something along those lines) and I am not going to lie, I saved my favorite for last. M&K’s Tea Company’s Winterwolf (which is an awesome name, fun fact, when I was in my ‘Japanese obsession phase’ in my late teens, I went by Masshirona Okami, yeah I was a dork) is a blend of Wolfberries (also known as the beloved Goji Berries) roasted in honey, Green Rooibos, Vietnamese Cinnamon, and Natural Butterscotch flavor. The aroma of this tea is yum, I had a very hard time not eating the goji berries, seriously, I love those things so much! It is a blend of warm cinnamon, butterscotch, honey, sweet freshly mown hay, and of course goji berries. I love their sweet and slightly tart aroma oddly they remind of the sweet aspect of tomatoes, I know that sounds a little odd, but they have that quality to me.

So, with great self control, I did not eat the gojis and placed the tea into my steeping basket and let it soak. After a few moments I noticed something awesome…the aroma coming out of my cup is egg custard pie. That is, hands down, probably my favorite dessert ever. I seriously did a double take when I sniffed it, and then did a little happy dance in my chair because yum! There is of course goji berries as well, and now I am tempted to add them to egg custard next time I make it. The liquid is spices, goji berries, egg custard goodness, and a bit of sweet hay that almost gives it a crust-like aroma.

So, now that the tea has steeped, I am eating the goji berries. It is a good way to pass the time while waiting for the tea to cool, anytime teas have little nibble bits in them and I am not expecting a resteep I tend to eat the bits, but I also do that on the last steep of green teas too. So, the time of truth, the time of tasting…and HOLY BUTTERSCOTCH CUSTARD PIE, Batman!! Holy Mary Mother of Mudkips, seriously! I want to create smellovision and instant ‘taste things through the screen’ because oh my that is yummy. It tastes like warm egg custard pie, the good kind that has cinnamon dusted on the top and the sugar on the top layer has caramelized. There is definitely a hint of crust in there as well, and of course, the beloved goji berries add their sweet berry goodness to the tea. I really love the wolfberries because they do not have an overpowering flavor, they are sweet and very juicy with an almost floral taste, and they are wonderful at imparting this into the teas they are blended with. So yeah, this was definitely my favorite of the holiday teas, it might not scream ‘Christmas’ but it makes me feel immensely happy, and really, isn’t that what the holidays are about? Now, I need to use my Christmas money to buy a big ol’ thing of this tea, I do not need to run out of it!

For photos and blog: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/12/m-tea-company-winterwolf-tea-review.html