Sadaf

I tried this as iced tea yesterday. Quite wonderful! The cardamom still lends personality to the tea, and this has a lovely flavour as an iced tea. I imagine it would be great with a Thai style splash of cream as well – I’ll have to try that soon. :)

I’m still in love with this tea. I sometimes feel guilty smothering the cardamom “bite” with milk, but it’s great either way. It feels like a bold black tea with that extra kick of cardamom, and it’s deeply satisfying with or without milk. This has become my current dinner tea!

If you’ve ever been to a Persian restaurant and ended up falling in love with the tiny glass of fragrant tea, then you need to find a box of Sadaf’s Ceylon Special Blend with cardamom. Not quite as spicy as a chai, the cardamom lends a subtle kick with a sweet finish in this tea. I sweeten mine, because I’m silly that way; it’s even good with milk. But the first time you make this tea, just inhale the beautiful perfume of the cup. It’s fantastic.

There is a stubbornness in human nature which condemns us to making the same mistakes. Perhaps the least of these is under steeping the Sadaf, again.

The lower temperature was an accident rather than an experiment, but somehow it did work out better. I’ve felt like the bergamot oil and the tea are better balanced when the steep time is longer. In this case, it seems a bit less astringent that when the water is boiling.

First, did I mention the importance of adding cardamom to this tea? Ok good, also it seemed to have a bit more body with a longer steep time. I really should be at work by now but the combination of Sadaf Special Blend and a little Piazzola has put me in a spicy haze that has rendered me incapable of getting anything done (including writing coherent metaphors).

This is ideally a tea to savor with dessert and a bit of sugar. However, I’m having it straight with oatmeal in the morning. At least I put three cardamom pods in. The taste of actual tea is in the background at this point, behind the cardamom and bergamont. This ok since the tea is pretty one dimensional. It seems like this may be a good candidate for chrine’s London Fog recipe so I will probably try that sometime this week.

Much better with 3 cardamom pods. Mildly, but not unpleasantly astringent. I may try it a bit hotter tomorrow.

Hmm… I’m running out of cardamom pods and this tea really needs them.

I enjoy Special Blend Tea with a couple of cardamom pods. It reminds me of the desserts at Chelokababi, which was just down the street (until we moved, sigh).