You know what is just a glorious thing, heated blankets. I was able to get a good deal for a new one thanks to Black Friday sales and it was ready to be picked up from JC Penney today, which Ben and I did. It is wonderfully fuzzy and of course wonderfully warm, much better than my usual heating pad usage since it is bigger and not as scalding. I get angry at the heating pad since even on the lowest setting it can be intense, but the heated blanket is like taking a nice hot…dry…bath, perfect for me! It also means I can go longer without opening the dreaded heating vent!!
Today, you might notice, is a Sunday and not one of the days I usually blog, but I was in the mood to write and have many teas piling up that need their story told, so why not? So I decided to delve into my new favorite company, Tea-Historic, a tea company…you guessed it…themed around dinosaurs! It is quite literally the perfect company for me to geek out over, and not just because thanks to this company existing I now have an ammonoid filled fossil tray and jade cup. They were a birthday present for myself, but along with these awesome pieces came some teas to review!
Presenting Mesozoic Malt, a GFOP Assam from Chota Tingrai Estate, being both sustainable and organic. Before I get into the tea, let us have a brief side rant into Paleontology…for once it is actually topical! The name Mesozoic is one of geology’s laziest names ever, one of two Geological Eras, smack between the Paleozoic (ancient life) and Cenozoic (new life) with Mesozoic’s name being ‘middle life’ which definitely sounds cooler in Greek. It is marked by extinctions, starting after the Great Dying and ending with the K-Pg event, called the ‘Age of Reptiles’ which is cooler than middle life, but not really correct since it was really dominated by dinosaurs. Or proto-birds if you feel creative. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Paleozoic, it has many of my favorite animals and of course my favorite extinction event, but my real passion has always been the Mesozoic! So, this tea, sniffing it I can say this is one of the sweetest Assams I have sniffed! This made me happy, you probably notice I don’t drink a ton of Assam, usually I find the brisk and woody notes too strong and the sweetness absent, so having an Assam that has the familiar brisk and woody notes, but also an immensely strong malt and a drizzling of brown sugar made for a happy nose.
I tossed the leaves into my steeping apparatus for the steeping time, I had to set a timer on my phone because I gongfu so much that I will wander off if I brew western style! The aroma is still very sweet, notes of strong malt and molasses with a touch of sweet honey and distant woodiness. There is also a touch of starchy molasses cookies, which adds to the sweetness. The liquid is surprisingly nutty and malty, with an undertone of brown sugar and molasses which again, reminds me of molasses cookies…yum!
The moment of truth, does the sweetness linger…yeah, yeah it does. The description on the website says this is a very sweet Assam and it is not an exaggeration, notes of brown sugar and molasses mix with rich malt and an underyling nuttiness that lingers on in the aftertaste. As I said earlier, usually I am not a huge Assam fan because of its overwhelming briskness (the same can be said of a lot of Ceylon and African black teas) but this one has gentle briskness and a wonderful mellow quality that had me downing this cup super quick! Also it goes for two strong steeps, which is fantastic. The website says this makes an excellent iced tea and I am tempted to get a bunch to send to my iced tea loving grandmother in the South to enjoy.
For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/12/tea-historic-mesozoic-malt-tea-review.html
