Akua Nature

One of the things I did while I was on vacation in Saskatchewan was spend my brother Cedar’s birthday with him. Just the entire day dedicated to whatever he wanted. I did have five years of missed birthdays to make up for, after all.

One of the things we ended up doing was going thrift shopping so I scooped up a new teacup for me – I was really attracted to the handle shape and green colour. It ended up being perfect because I’d brought with me some Cedar tea to make with him because I just thought it was too perfect wordplay wise to not drink some Cedar with my brother Cedar. So sue me. It was lovely, as usual. Light but fresh and woodsy with just a hint of natural sweetness.

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CvimVjhv2AZ/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjWdqoVf-cs

Cold Brew!

So I had this idea that, as a cold brew, this would be really forest-y and refreshing but turns out that straight up Cedar doesn’t infuse all too well in cold water ever when you leave it for like 48 hours, so this ended up being a brew that tasted practically just like water.

In this moment I don’t really know how to describe this tea other than to say that it tastes like Cedar!? Which is the most obvious and unhelpful description ever, I know. I loved it though, and if (like me) you’re someone who likes drinking things that taste like trees then I can think of few better teas to sip on than this tisane which tastes very much like drinking trees.

Tea (err, tisane) pop!

So Spruce Beer is a thing here in Quebec. Other places too, it just seems to be more popular in Quebec than anywhere else I’ve been. It’s been a bit of an acquired taste for me, and it got me thinking that trying this tisane out as a tea pop might be kind of interesting. The flavour of this is light, so I did load up my gravity steeper and I also steeped it for pretty much eight hours. Basically from the time I got into the office up until about a half hour before I left. I’m glad I did so because it was still preetttyyyy light in taste – but definitely came through and created a weirdly ethereal and refreshingly resinous sparkling tea that tasted like fizzy forests. In a good way.

Tastes like Christmas tree y’all, and I mean that in the best possible way. However, maybe don’t steep this one grandpa style. I tried that and every now and then a needle broke off the brand and accidentally slurping up a fir needle is not a fun mouth experience.

Picked this one up a couple days ago at the Montreal Botanical Gardens!

This tisane has such a fresh, clean and sweet woodsy profile that’s just incredibly immersive and evocative of being outside in the forest on a cool Summer morning after a night of heavy rainfall. As someone who has pretty much always sought out teas and tisanes that help me feel connected to and grounded by nature, this tisane brings me such a feeling of peace and comfort!

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cfb6Kr1OXgx/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH49U-vVs_g