TeaMaze

Our Christmas run to Branson and the Ozarks is steeped in tradition…right down to which booth we occupy at Godfather’s Pizza in Nixa, MO (balcony area, left side in the middle) and precisely which seats we grab at Silver Dollar City’s Courthouse Theater for the “A Christmas Carol” musical (center auditorium, 2/3 of the way back, exactly in front of the sound booth). When Tiny Tim starts to sing, I’m like Pavlov’s dog…it’s the automatic emotional trigger for me to start blubbering. The run was extra misty this year; I’m missing my parents and sister, and when (again, according to tradition) we stopped to smooch in front of the building façade where I met my husband circa 1980, it was GONE. Bulldozed in favor of a water ride. They did not ask my permission.

Sorry, just had to get that out. The tea part’s coming. Day 2 of the tradition involves Christmas shopping at favorite venues, and some of that shopping was embarrassingly self-indulgent at this fun, colorful little tea shop on the strip.

We asked the TeaMaze owner to guide us to her strongest stuff, and this was on her recommended list. It’s a clobber-you-upside-the-jaw Assam CTC. A teaspoon and a four-minute steep was incredibly stout…malty pumpernickel in 10-pound Doc Martens. Second steep at 5:30 was still strong enough for an a.m. tea for most of you, and took milk extremely well. They’re calling for a hard winter in these parts. This will be useful.

I have dearly missed Celestial Seasonings’ Sweet Apple Chamomile, so I just homebrewed my own. This is (truthfully, a little pricey) packet of dried apple cubes that steeps up somewhere between Granny Smith and Fuji. I threw in an equal amount of bulk chamomile and let the whole mess go for about 15 minutes. Bingo!

Once I’ve used up this apple blend, I think I’ll try to hunt down some plain old dried apple bits at our bulk Natural Grocers for a slightly less expensive combination.

I went overboard. We were in our happy place (the Ozarks) and stopped at our happy place in our happy place (TeaMaze) and, well, I was so happy that I just over-happified and pretty much blew my tea budget until spring.

I was persuaded by the sample that the purveyors had all cozied up in a hot pot. It was fruity and sweet with just a tiny bit of tang in the sip. I just finished my first cup at home and concluded that they must have sugared the sample a bit to up the apple-tude. I’ll have to do that next time. However, even straight up, I think the natural sweetness will make this a good and gentle nightcap.

Happy Boxing Day…as the servants are off duty (or would be if I had any), it was up to me to get the bedroom curtains down and in the washer. Rewarding myself with a cup of this rich, coffee-puerh-cocoa magic. Nothing to add to prior reviews other than I love this stuff and I’m glad I bought a refill when we were in the shop last month.

Theme song for the remainder of my Christmas break: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeELC0RoWak

Low’s were in the upper 30’s last night (I believe that’s about 3 for you Celsius folks). It’s not unheard of in these parts, but rather unusual for this early in October.

So it was a little tough to slide out from under the quilts this morning (doubly so with a cat snoozing on my feet). This tea helped. It is a lovely balance of black tea, puerh, and coffee beans to provide the proper taste and aroma without the coffee buzz that makes me feel like a fluorescent light flickering on and off.

However, it does get your eyes open—a good thing. Deer are on the move in our neighborhood and I had to brake to watch one sprinting into the brush. (Were it not for traffic behind me, I would have paused to keep watching…how does something so big fly?)

Welcome to just over 18 hours in southwest Missouri: 65 degrees F, severe thunderstorms, tornado warnings, flash flooding, areal flooding, winter storm advisories, freezing rain, and sleet/snow that goes “snick” against the window. Weather that goes “snick” isn’t much fun. Temps in the teens anticipated for tonight.

But as it was a great day to stay in, I made a full pot of this lovely, mocha-y, chocolatey pu-erh. The scent is as good as sniffing the liner of a Whitman’s chocolate sampler :)

I am loving this one. Rich coffee, pu-erh, and chocolate, without the buzz that requires my coworkers to pull me down from the building flagpole. It second steeps beautifully in my little Adagio ToasTea thermos.

One of the chief reasons I choose tea over coffee is that the civilized nudge of morning tea is much kinder than the jolt of morning coffee. With that said, strong coffee scent makes me melt into a happy sensory puddle. I think we’ve landed on a beautiful friendship here with this pu-erh-coffee bean blend. Just enough bean and flavor to add aroma and personality to a very good tea base. The pu-erh is gentle and sweet, and there’s a little creaminess going on here, even without milk. I wish I could attach the smell to this note. You’d love it, too.

Family is beginning to warn me that I repeat myself…so pardon if I’ve used this analogy before. But you know those annoying alarm clocks that get louder and louder the longer you ignore them? That’s a fair description of this morning tea. The first few sips are sweet and wheaty, but as you progress, the toast turns from seven-grain to dark pumpernickel. If you aren’t awake when you take the first sip, you should be by the bottom of the cup.

Continuing to enjoy this one—it’s not often you can find a plain black morning tea that can give you two good unleaded, caffeinated steeps. Just a tiny bite to it, but this morning I need bit. (Prepping to teach my high octane 10 and 11 year olds.) If you don’t need teeth in yours, this is great with milk.

I didn’t add a picture, because the photo on the TeaMaze website looks like a full-leaf tea, and the contents of my package are little nubblins and granules, like my old faithful PG Tips.

Which is the best comparison I can provide for this strong breakfast tea. The fresh cup was deep ebony, and at first, I thought it was milder and gentler in flavor than the usual British builders’ tea. However, it strengthens as it sits, and now that it has cooled, it’s downright sharp and puckery. Not for the faint of heart.

I anticipate a perfectly acceptable second steep, and next time around, I believe this one will welcome a splash of millk.

Seren-dippy-sippity! This is a tin I have eyed for sipping down anyway and I had a big tumbler full this morning even before I checked the April scavenger hunt list. Orange.
Nothing much new to say about it; still a favorite; sweet orange instead of tart; always a lovely little mood lifter; even the empty cup smells delicious.

My inbox is full of Happy National Iced Tea Day ads, and the same to you. I woke up craving my favorite Chocolate Orange and although I don’t normally care for chocolate teas on ice, this one worked OK. (Summer landed with a bang and after two hot sips to get me going this morning, I was ready for something cold!) The orange in Teamaze’s blend is pith and peel without any tart additives like rosehips or hibiscus, and on ice, it’s soft and pleasant.

I can’t top anything I have previously said about this one, other than the fact that when we were in the TeaMaze shop, rather than buying a little packet to top off my existing tin, we bought a whole ’nother tin. Good stuff. Still smells delectable and the chocolate is lingering in my mouth after a third steep.

Based on my previous notes, I must have subconsciously dubbed this one as a holiday tea (Thanksgiving, Christmas)… it just seemed like the perfect Easter morning accompaniment to the basket of gratuitous sugar the Xmas Bunny (long-standing family joke) left for us this morning. No, we have not grown up yet.

I want my chocolate teas to taste like hot fudge straight out of the dispenser (a throwback to first Dairy Queen job in high school). Unfortunately, few of them do. However, the orange peel in this nice blend complements the tea-flavored chocolate—a really nice balance.

We took the long way to a favorite mom-and-pop Mexican restaurant today for carry out—down weaving county lanes that make “tree tunnels” as you drive through them. Dogwood and redbuds in full bloom and fresh, moist, green vegetation of every flavor. Just a lovely nature-y reminder that hope still abounds. ..y’all be joyful, in spite of everything.

Merry Thanksgiving! Normally, I am a stickler about keeping holidays distinct and separate, but we’re making a mashed-up exception today; toodling around in jammies and putting up a tree … after all, December is essentially upon us. How did that happen?

It’s raw and rainy outside, so something a little festive is in order. Not much new to say about this Chocolate Orange blend, other than that the flavors are spot on with no artificiality or chemical-osity.

Lots of blessings to count today: faith and family memories, friends I’ve met, and those I haven’t (that would be you all). Hope you find a few moments today to ponder on what matters most.

They are easier to find around Christmas, but one of our favorite indulgent candies are little orange jelly sticks dipped in chocolate. This is the tea equivalent. The orange peels in the dry mix are sweet and pithy, not bitter, and it tastes as good as it smells, even without sweetening. Second steeps well, too—this morning, I tossed in a little no-brand looseleaf Ceylon to strengthen it back up, and it was still pretty delicious.

This is another selection from my new favorite little purveyor in southwest Missouri. It is precisely what the package says: a classy blend of rich chocolate and tangy orange. Extra points for the orange not being tart or bitter; extra extra points for the chocolate being strong and not watery.

I tried a little milk in mine this morning; didn’t ruin it, but this is best straight up and strong.

Yeah, it’s a little on the nose, but what better day to drink this? Especially as it’s starting to show its age a bit—still chocolately and boozy and perfectly drinkable, but the flavor needle is starting to veer a teeny bit toward medicinal alcohol instead of the other kind. All the better to make room on the shelves.

And in the meantime (I may have shared on an earlier St. Patrick’s occasion, but this Irish blessing always makes me smile), may the Lord hold you in His hand and never close His fist too tight!

Of late, I really don’t want cutesy tea in the morning—just give me something stout, dark, and unflavored. So when I grabbed this yesterday, it was almost too bourbony-cocoa for a morning brew. I remedied that today by topping the second steep with a teaspoon of plain Irish Breakfast. That toned it down appropriately for a.m. us.

That said, I still like the cocoa-bourbony sweetness for an afternoon or dessert option.

Not to rub it in, but it was a delicious 54 degrees this morning. Don’t you just love that first turn in the weather when you trot out the teas you’ve been craving after a sweltering summer? This one is a cocoa-y, bourbon-y treat. I wish I could say it curbs my chocolate cravings; unfortunately, it prompts them.

This is not normally a breakfast standard for me, but after a weary week on the road with nothing but bagged stuff, after I slept off the jet lag, this is what I woke up craving. Rich and chocolatey with a wonderfully cockeyed bourbon whang. I savored two large pottery mugs full while I watched yellow leaves turn our back yard into a shag rug.

Happy 4th! We’ve been enjoying the freedom to fritter and putter and do things all out of order…a rare and lovely opportunity.

And since the theme of the day has been “unconventional,” I decided to see what happened if you cold steep this nifty blend from TeaMaze. After a hot cup this morning (there were about three minutes after I got up before it got hot and muggy), I steeped the stuffin’ out of the leftover leaves in a pint jar.

Chilled it all day, and I’m now enjoying a happy little tumbler that reminds me of chocolate root beer. Goes great with burgers and brownies.