gmathis Send Message

Either you love Branson or you don’t…a two-mile carnival of touristy, kitschy shows and shops plunked down in the middle of the Ozark Mountains. Usually we go for the mountains and nostalgia—my husband and I met there. This time around, we put on our “tacky” and hit the strip. But in one of the little glitzy shopping centers is a gem of a tea shop called TeaMaze: quality loose leaf tea, both unflavored and creatively flavored, and a extremely knowledgeable owner who is a delight to tea chat with. (teamazeshop.com)

So I went a little overboard…and with the help of my beloved enabler, came home with more than intended, including this unusual and delightful herbal blend. It leads with deliciously sweet blackberry flavor with pine—yes, you heard me correctly—as a crazy good counterpoint. It does not taste like disinfectant. It tastes like pine and berries, or more poetically, like summer in the mountains.

Overboard, incidentally, was the theme of our little date-cation. We did the “Titanic” museum and attraction; the exterior is an approximate half-sized model of the real thing. As you check in, you’re provided with a boarding pass with the persona of a real passenger; at the end of the tour, you discover how your namesake fared. I am pleased to announce that both my hubby (a widowed farmer traveling in second class) and I (ladies’ maid to one of the socialites aboard) survived.