Tea of the Week for January 2, 2017!
The inspiration behind this flavor combination harkens back to the days when I would blog about food on occasion on my Hungry in Portland blog – back to Knoshy box days! What’s Knoshy, you ask? Well, Knoshy was a food subscription service – every month a box would arrive – kinda like the tea subscription boxes from me! – but instead of amazing teas, the Knoshy box was filled with specialty foods and in the case of Knoshy, those foods were from small American businesses like The Jam Stand. (You’ll see why I use this company as an example in a moment.)
Knoshy would curate a box of four or more food items – and the box would be curated to a particular theme. One month, the theme was Tea Time! (One of my very favorite month’s indeed if for no other reason than TEA! I mean, seriously – is there a better reason?) During the month of Tea Time, there was a jar of Blueberry Bourbon jam from The Jam Stand! The jam was delicious – brimming with blueberries, kissed with a wonderful vanilla note and hints of bourbon – and while I didn’t write an individual review about this jam, the flavor of the jam was delightful enough to leave an impression on me so when it came time to start coming up with different tea flavor ideas – this idea came to mind!
For the base, I decided to go with a rich, flavorful combination of Golden Yunnan & an Assamica tea grown in the Jingmai mountains. I figured this base would provide a nice backdrop for the bourbon notes but as I sip on this, I find that it also melds beautifully with the blueberry! I added a hint of vanilla since the aforementioned jam had vanilla in it and hey, do we ever really need a reason for vanilla?
A bit unusual, this flavor combination – but quite lovely too!
As for the name, I decided to call this blueberry, vanilla and bourbon flavored black tea “The Blues” because I wanted a catchier name for the tea than “Blueberry Vanilla Bourbon” so I went with The Blues. But don’t let the name fool you – this tea is not at all gloomy or depressing! It’s delightfully tasty and a wonderful way to kick off the new year!
ingredients: black teas, organic blueberries, organic calendula petals, organic vanilla beans and organic natural flavors
