It is cold and rainy out, but sadly I am not at my apartment with my rainy-day teas. I’ve already taken most of the ones from my house, but thankfully I got my shipment from Rishi today! I am a sucker for sales so I jumped on their Mother’s Day one—I ordered too much, but I essentially got 1 tin for free and free shipping as well because of the sale. This is how I justify a lot of my tea buying: it’s on sale so I am saving money (even if it’s money I wouldn’t have spent otherwise ^^;).
So I’m waiting to go to the movies (to see The Avengers for the second time—part of a late mother’s day adventure because my mom is awesome) and a wonderful tea-filled box arrived. I sniffed them all and this was the clear choice for today. It smelled like ground ginger, not fresh, which was interesting and perfect for a chilly day. The steeping instructions seemed kind of off, more for a black than a pu-erh, but I decided to go with it and hope 5 minutes wasn’t too long. It came out fine, not too strong at all! It brewed up so dark though, almost coffee-colored, and smelled like yeast and a bit earthy. Definitely a good smell, at least to my nose.
The taste, surprisingly, is both fresh and dry ginger, a combination I’ve never had in tea before. There’s that spicy, hits you in the back of the throat heat you get from ginger root, and that mellow baking flavor from the dried. The pu-erh is definitely a nice addition as it gives a fullness to the cup, it’s not overwhelmingly ginger the whole way through but has a rich, earthy finish. I don’t really taste any of the orange, though—which is better, I like it being just ginger. Ginger + orange = the holidays to me. I can see this as being a blend I regularly reach for on colder, wet days (which happens quite a bit this time of year in NY).
this is a good one for nasty weather!
Yes, it was really the perfect day for this to arrive!