What Am I Drinking: My March Teas

Hi everyone,

I've noticed that my teas change every month. Mostly the weather affects it, or perhaps the way that I'm feeling. As of late I've been affected by the change of things, and the way that my schedule is being turned around. I've started to gravitate towards greens and herbals that calm my nerves, but at the same time give me a steady long last amount of energy. I love how teas seem to help for just about any situation and mood that life throws at you. Which is why I wanted to share what I've been putting in my cup nowadays.

Matcha Maker  from Good Earth Teas: Eugene and I got this tea on a sale at Sprouts looking for a nice easy packaged Matcha on the go. Where as this tea doesn't really live up to it's Matcha name (flavor wise, it's lacking Matcha's umai taste), we were pleasantly surprised by the flavor of this tea. It brews to a flavor similar to an orange cream with light Sencha notes. This is my go to during the mid of the day when I'm looking to snack. Because it's so sweet, you'll can take this tea alone for mid day treat.

Lemon Balm Herbal: Clean and simple with soft notes of mint, grass, and citrus. This has become a staple in tea collection. Not only does it taste great, it has amazing health benefits. This tea almost always cures those pesky headaches when the weather changes. It also gets me to relax in the evening during a stressful day. Every now and then, I add a few rosebuds and lemongrass to this tea added even more notes to it. Another thing that I love about this tea is that it works great iced or hot, so sometimes I brew a huge pot at the beginning of the day and save the cold leftovers to be iced through the afternoon and into the evening. Lately, I added my cold tea with some sliced cucumbers for a little bit of an herbal detox water.

Yuzu Berry Sencha from Chado Tea: Oh this blend, I had to throw in something that reminded me of my wedding (We got married on Ides of March since we're both play and literary buffs). Our reception was at the Chado Tearoom in Little Tokyo, which we mainly chose because we wanted our wedding to be intimate and have the ability to share what we love. We had tea flights, introducing the notes on each. Yuzu Berry seemed to be one of the ones that I remember the most. It seemed to capture the simple beauty of the Japanese modern theme we had, mixed with the pop of citrus colors. When I go to Eugene's adoptive in-laws for dinner, they bring this tea out and it just brings back so many good memories for me. This tea has the sharp umai taste of Sencha with mid notes of Yuzu and from what I can taste Strawberry and Raspberries. It comes off as beautifully aromatic when you brew it with a finishing sweet and tart note. This tea gives me so much slow building energy and doesn't leave me wired. I love this tea with a salad! If you're at Chado, try it with their berry salad. I prefer this tea hot, but it also taste good iced.

I hope that you enjoyed these selections. I look forward to sharing my selections with you monthly.
Cheers!

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Herbal Haze Tea Haul

Bird Pick was having a sale the other day where all of the Herbal Teas were 20% off. As of the recent wacky weather changes I've been having trouble sleeping so I milled through the shop on what I could find. I was able to get two Herbals and a Tisane, Tisane's are a rarity for me, but this one was very unique that I couldn't resist.

At Bird Pick they do a great job of offering you samples of any tea you can imagine, they're also very knowledgeable on the benefits of each tea. Nothing like a little tea geek chat to get my spirits moving. What drew me to them this time around was the Chamomile Tea. Love had some the last time we were there and I was smitten by the taste that it had. So without further adieu, here's what I got:

Chamomile Flowers: I'm not sure if these are German or Roman, but these blossoms have a distinct thick honey taste to them. I often shy from Chamomile because after sometime they have a characteristic to have a hay like taste, which is rarely masked. So far these flowers have been a little wonder for me. I drink some every night I feel the fidgets and they seem to be giving me good solid hours of sleep.  I must warm people that the first time I drank it at home it made my throat swell which is a similar reaction I had to Chrysanthemum blossoms. Seems like if you have a weed allergy you should be careful with weed like flowery teas. I was able to cure it by using a tea sock which took out any fine bits left.

Tranquli Tea: This blend is famous at Bird's Pick. Some people take shots of this tea in concentration in replacement of certain medications and swear by it. It's a refreshing simple blend of mint, lavender, and chamomile. What makes it amazing is the sheer freshness of the ingredients which gives it a robust flavor. They sell these in bag for as well and I encourage anyone thats looking for a relaxing tea in the evenings to visit their website to get some.

Pineapple Dreams:  I'm not a Tisane person. I really don't enjoy the bitterness thats so characteristic of them and when I do it's loaded with honey. This is why I was so surprised that I was drawn to Pineapple Dreams. Most of a teas taste comes from it's scent, and this tea has the sweet scent of Pineapple balanced with sharp berries. Unlike most tropical tea this was not a super mixed fruity scent but a sweet simple scent of the fruit itself. When trying it, the bitterness was still there, but the difference was the sweet finish which was nice. Usually a tisane will sweep a throat with a dry feeling, this didn't at all. The layers of flavor are what sold me over this tea. Not an everyday tea but a good one to have in the collection.

I encourage anyone to check out the Bird's Pick website when they can. There's a little something for everyone.

www.birdpick.com

-Stef

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