Chocolate Rose

Huzzah for propane! To celebrate I pulled out my black teas and blended my Rosebud from Stash and the last of the Chocolate Chai. I added my usual spice blend and !boiling! water. I ended up steeping it for longer than I meant to due to dealing with fussy baby and overactive toddler but luckily it didn't seem to affect the taste at all.

Gotta get a tea-timer,,,,

Yeah, it's been a while since my last entry. Life got quite busy and, while I still had time to drink tea I didn't have time to write about it. Plus I wasn't drinking blends. Well, ok, so I didn't do a blend this morning either but I feel like writing this anyway.

With the recent (and hopefully very short-lived) wet weather we have been having I decided to make a return to chai, specifically Stash's Chai Spice Black Tea. It's been a while since I've had one of the wonderfully spiced chais from Stash so it took me a little bit to get the milk/sugar/tea ratio just right. Well, that and I think I steeped it just a bit too long. I really need to get a tea-timer so that even when I get busy (read: two children + attempting to make breakfast for myself and convince my son to decide what he wants) I can still avoid over-steeping. But for all that it didn't turn out terrible...unlike that blend I tried to do Easter morning. Pro-tip: do not attempt blending fruit melanges with anything other than another fruit melange, the result is quite weak and drinkability is questionable (that was dump-down-the-drain pot #4 ).

Vanilla Chai

Still rainy, cloudy, and icky out and my son wanted to share tea again so I chose the Vanilla Chai from EnjoyingTea.com and added my usual spices. I know I didn't add any pepper but I can still taste it...and looking at the ingredients listed on the site there is indeed pepper.

Spicy Rose

Today I woke up to a light blanket of snow covering the trees and ground and decided to stick with chai again. I chose EnjoyingTea.com's Bangalore Rose Chai as a base and added Rosebud Black and Jasmine Yin Hao from Stash as well as my usual spices. I absolutely love the deep red that the Bangalore steeps to and the opaque peach-orange that results from adding milk is lovely as well. I should try brewing this the traditional way sometime.

Vanilla Rose Chai

Today dawned cloudy and chill so I decided to return to spiced black tea for the morning. I chose Stash's Rosebud black blended with the Vanilla Chai from EnjoyingTea.com and added my usual spice blend. I think it needed a bit more rose in there. I'll have to try that after our roses have bloomed and I've had the chance to dry the petals. Anyway, it was definitely what I needed this morning. And it even went well with the spiced blackberry-peach jam I had on my bagel, which I find amazing because usually the spices in the jam overpower the spices in the tea. While there was a bit of that going on the vanilla and rose flavor notes complimented the jam so well that it was totally forgivable.

Chocolate Blossom

Today's blend: Chocolate Chai from the Bar Harbor Tea Company with Stash's Rosebud Black and Jasmine Yin Hao. It amazes me how much my son likes the floral teas when it took me so long to get used to drinking something that smelled like perfume. Perhaps it's because he's never smelled jasmine perfumes that he drinks it so readily.

We also enjoyed the toast with butter and cinnamon sugar that accompanied the tea.

Three teas later...

So this morning my son decided to sleep in. Getting tired of waiting I put together a blend of Sencha and Dragonwell green teas...and then he woke up. Ok, separate the teas , put them back, get out the big pot and grab a couple bags of Stash's Chai White tea. My son tried it and decided he did not like it so I got the small tetsubin out again and steeped some of the Blood Orange black tea with cinnamon and cloves. He liked that better but still only drank about half of what was in his small cup.

After he left the table I decided to take a break from the chai and try the tea I'd made for him. Of course. He'd been impatient for it to be done so I hadn't steeped it long enough and it was much too weak for my tastes. I'm now up to four pots of tea that have gone down the drain...but at least I didn't have to drink yet another pot of tea this morning...

Chocolate Covered Strawberry

Today's blend: Chocolate Chai from the Bar Harbor Tea Company and EnjoyingTea.com's Strawberry Black teas with cloves. It was perfect with the banana bread we had for breakfast.

Sadly I am nearly out of the Chocolate Chai. Even more sad is that when I was in town earlier in the week I noticed their shop was closed for the winter. I'll have to wait for them to open up in the spring to replenish my supply. I am not going to pay shipping costs for something I can get just by going into town.

A rose is a rose is a rose...not

I had a bit of my chocolate cereal left this morning so I decided to try a new rose blend. It didn't work out too well. I used EnjoyingTea.com's Bangalore Rose Chai as a base with a touch of Stash's Rosebud black and Monkey King Jasmine teas and my usual spice blend. The only flavor note that stood out was the jasmine, the rest was all muddled together in a rather bland mix. I blame the chai.

Orange and Spice

Today's blend: Stash's Blood Orange black tea and EnjoyingTea.com's Indian Mocha Chai with extra orange peel, cinnamon and cloves. It went well with the buttered bagels covered with cinnamon sugar. Could have used some cardamom though...I really need to get to the natural food store in town and see if they have any whole cardamom.

The same, but different

Today's blend: Chocolate Chai, Strawberry black, and French Vanilla black with some extra cloves and cinnamon. My son wanted to share my tea this morning again so I wanted to change it just a little while still keeping the base flavor the same for him. I think it might have been better if I'd added more of the Strawberry black and left out the Vanilla though. We also shared a bagel with pomegranate jelly.

Tea to Share

Decided to have some of the strawberries again this morning with banana bread and Chocolate Chai from the Bar Harbor Tea Company. Not only did I love it but my son did too! Three years old and having his first cup of tea. Gotta corrupt, I mean, train their taste-buds early!

A bit of Pepper

Today's blend: EnjoyingTea.com's Lemongrass Chai with my usual spice blend of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg as well as peppercorns. A good match for savory foods like the swiss and colby jack omlet I had with it for breakfast.

The importance of planning

When I chose my tea this morning I thought I was going to be having scrambled eggs with cheese so I chose EnjoyingTea.com's Roasted Mate Chai with my usual spice blend (cinnamon, nutmeg, clove) for it's more savory flavor. I ended up having french toast instead (we got better syrup yesterday) and the flavors didn't really work very well together.

Let this be a lesson on how important it is to make a firm plan before you start preparing a meal!

Bangalore Rose

There are still chocolate chocolate-chip muffins left this morning (in a house with a toddler...something's not right here) so I am having another rose-based blend. For this one I am using EnjoyingTea.com's Bangalore Rose Chai with extra spices (since EnjoyingTea doesn't put much spice in their chais for some reason) and a touch of French Vanilla Black tea from Tea Francais.