Boo-Berry Cotton Candy Zomba

Happy Halloween! It’s my mom’s birthday today (I got her a birthday advent with coffee samplers; I never could convert her to tea but respect our differences!) When I moved into this condo last summer I rescued a completely black cat with Granny Smith apple green eyes (I named her Chiya, the Nepalese word for tea!) and she seems to be full of the “Halloween black cat” spirit today as she’s a huge ball of energy this morning; last night the wire snapped clean in half on her favorite chaser toy, so we are having to make due with an older chaser until the replacement shows up. (Obligatory Halloween kitty photo for those that like cat pictures: http://bl.canadia.info/photos/Chiya%2001.jpg )

I decided to brew this one because it is one of my oldest teas, ergo a good sipdown candidate, and the title seemed appropriate. I measured out 2.5g of green tea leaf and then added in several blueberries to the leaf separately, and steeped for 2 minutes in 175F water for my work thermos. The tea is quite nice; I can actually get a lot of the base green tea notes shining through, with a slight vegetal note that is a bit beany. I actually do taste a bit of a cotton candy vibe, as the tea is quite sweet, and leaves a sweet/fruity aftertaste on the tongue. A lot of teas with blueberry notes taste very thick, syrupy, or artificial; the blueberry here is present but doesn’t have that “blueberry pancake syrup” vibe I get from other blueberry teas, it tastes a bit more on the fruitier side and a little more subdued so I’m getting more of the base tea notes pulling through. I also feel a little tang of tart berry at the back of my tongue balancing the sweet candy-like flavors that is really pleasant.

I’m really enjoying this tea, and finding I like how the flavors seem to pop even more as my thermos cools, so I think I may like this even more as a cold brew; I may try that out with some of my leftover leaf (I do love flavored greens as iced teas). I think it hit the mark well though, and is a satisfying warm cup on a cold Halloween morning.

Sad sipdown! I steeped this as a round two before heading to work thinking I could squeeze in that second cup, but I barely touched it while waiting for it to cool, so I transferred it into my water bottle and took it to work. Was so delicious lukewarm! Hoping to have more of this in my life someday. How I wish I could just make some 52teas all-star favourites order and stock up in one go.

Apparently I never got around to writing a tea note on this one. I drank it up ages ago and memories are now foggy, but it was a nice cuppa while it lasted. Cotton Candy is a very thin, light candy flavour and sometimes that made the tea come across as watery- otherwise, I can’t think of other complaints right now.

Edit: I found some leftover tea in the back of the cupboard and I rescind my “watery” comment. The flavour to tea is full and complete; overall, the tea is delicious. On a second note, it’s really annoying to find a tea in your cupboard after you’ve unchecked it from your stash list.

Sipdown (228)

This tea is almost 2 years old so it is about time to say goodbye. It has blueberry cotton candy flavor still. And the zomba really gives this a nice, rounded flavor. Alas, there has been definite flavor deterioration and so this last cup is a fraction of the deliciousness of the first. That is my fault though.