As the days get closer and closer to Christmas, I find myself getting more and more into the spirit of the season. As Yule has passed, and the days are no longer getting shorter, all those scrooge-like curmudgeony feelings start to melt away like the week old snow on my front lawn. It's soothing as well as energizing feeling, just like a cup of brisk, hot tea in the cold.
Frustratingly, many small events prevented me from enjoying my first cup this morning. Long story long, I usually filter my own water in large glass jugs with a stick of binchotan charcoal inside. But the last few days I have been without water on account of some stupid plumbing issues involving a dishwasher, a new disposal, 12 chopsticks, and some aggressive mice. (That may be another story for another blog...) I ran out of drinking/tea water last night and forgot to fill my water filtration vessels. Woke up late the next morning to plumbers fighting off the King mouse to hook up our kitchen sink again. Once they had left and I had a mere 6 minutes to get out of the door. For some reason, my sleepy brain thought it would be okay to just use the water from the tap for my tea this morning. Since I don't live in a place that has good tap water, It made my first brew taste like garbage. I could hardly taste the tea over the metallic and chlorine taste. Granted, I'm the kind of person who won't even use tap water to boil pasta.
When the time came, I managed to brew a decent cup. I really like the combination of vanilla and coconut to compliment the black tea in this blend. It felt like a much thicker, creamy coconut element than the previous blends with coconut in them in the countdown. When brewed up properly, I could finally enjoy the richness of the coconut and even get a good velvety vanilla mid note. I am happily surprised at how sweet this blend is. The black tea even gives it the buttery and flaky crust aspect. A very vivid tea when the flavors have been extracted with good water, which if today is any kind of reminder, it would be that 99% of tea is good old H2O.
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