Whole Foods

Can’t just have tea all the time. My favorite use of valrhona used to be ice cold chocolate milk during the dog days of summer, but a. it’s almost winter, and b. I can’t have dairy anymore. I am also out of nut milk. So this was just pure cocoa powder, ceylon cinnamon, coriander, an amount of vanilla extract that we shall not talk about, brown sugar, and a few squares of unsweetened dark chocolate whisked together in hot water. Effect immediate. Mood excellent.

I’m not sure if Whole Foods really is the brand behind this tea or not, but my friend gave me some of this to try, and she picked it up from one of the bulk tea bins. Anyway, it was a really nice rooibos tea. I think it is flavored with mango. Definitely didn’t have that medicinal taste, so then I was confused as to whether it was a red rooibos or a green one. Still not sure, but I like it no matter what it is! Mystery tea!

A friend of mine gave this to me in what turned out to be my first swap! I was planning just to give her some samples of Della Terra Teas that I love, and she brought me some teas too! Win win! Anyway, I could definitely taste both the ginger and the peach in this tea. Only steeped it 3 minutes because it started to get dark quickly. Overall, it wasn’t bad, but I’m not sure I’m that big on ginger. I think I will try it iced next time, as I think that may improve it.

My wife needed to kill an hour waiting for some work, so she wandered into our local Whole Foods store (we don’t normally shop at such frou frou stores) and discovered that they have whole section of loose teas for $2/oz. Such a dear, she got me a sample of their Assam Breakfast. Brewed some up this morning. The leaves have that salt-n-pepper look of havning some light tips. Nice large fragments and a clean smell (not mustly/moldy). I poured water at a simmer straighted through the leaves in a mesh teaball and didn’t let it sit more than 30 seconds. I was amazed by how much color I got in that 30 seconds. Taste wise it was fairly flat without any astringency or tannic bite. slightly woodsy and not malty like I expected from assam. I suspect, with the salt-n-pepper look, that its a blend..of what I do not know.

I think this tea was a pretty great value. To me, it’s easy to overdo the fruit or ginger tones on a flavored tea…this one had a really nice balance with actual tea leaves, so it still tasted like tea (and not just fruit-flavored hot water). It was strong enough for morning, but still pretty refined. My 4 year old even liked it (with sugar). We’ll def. be getting more of this.

My local Whole Foods (in Erie, PA) has this in a jar labeled “Oolong Black Tea.” It’s not very descriptive, but with a little bit of research I think this is actually Oriental Beauty.

Oriental Beauty is considered to be one of the darker Oolong teas available, but it is just too dark for my tastes.

I wouldn’t bother logging it, but it has been very good to me. I’ve been at home, sick, for the past five days. Part of this sickness has been a hacking cough. Yesterday I had a cup of this tea and felt tremendously better. I slept through most of the night and the cough is much better today. My plan is to drink huge quantities today.

Such a kick.