TeaMaze

Merry Thanksgiving! Normally, I am a stickler about keeping holidays distinct and separate, but we’re making a mashed-up exception today; toodling around in jammies and putting up a tree … after all, December is essentially upon us. How did that happen?

It’s raw and rainy outside, so something a little festive is in order. Not much new to say about this Chocolate Orange blend, other than that the flavors are spot on with no artificiality or chemical-osity.

Lots of blessings to count today: faith and family memories, friends I’ve met, and those I haven’t (that would be you all). Hope you find a few moments today to ponder on what matters most.

They are easier to find around Christmas, but one of our favorite indulgent candies are little orange jelly sticks dipped in chocolate. This is the tea equivalent. The orange peels in the dry mix are sweet and pithy, not bitter, and it tastes as good as it smells, even without sweetening. Second steeps well, too—this morning, I tossed in a little no-brand looseleaf Ceylon to strengthen it back up, and it was still pretty delicious.

This is another selection from my new favorite little purveyor in southwest Missouri. It is precisely what the package says: a classy blend of rich chocolate and tangy orange. Extra points for the orange not being tart or bitter; extra extra points for the chocolate being strong and not watery.

I tried a little milk in mine this morning; didn’t ruin it, but this is best straight up and strong.

Not to rub it in, but it was a delicious 54 degrees this morning. Don’t you just love that first turn in the weather when you trot out the teas you’ve been craving after a sweltering summer? This one is a cocoa-y, bourbon-y treat. I wish I could say it curbs my chocolate cravings; unfortunately, it prompts them.

This is not normally a breakfast standard for me, but after a weary week on the road with nothing but bagged stuff, after I slept off the jet lag, this is what I woke up craving. Rich and chocolatey with a wonderfully cockeyed bourbon whang. I savored two large pottery mugs full while I watched yellow leaves turn our back yard into a shag rug.

Happy 4th! We’ve been enjoying the freedom to fritter and putter and do things all out of order…a rare and lovely opportunity.

And since the theme of the day has been “unconventional,” I decided to see what happened if you cold steep this nifty blend from TeaMaze. After a hot cup this morning (there were about three minutes after I got up before it got hot and muggy), I steeped the stuffin’ out of the leftover leaves in a pint jar.

Chilled it all day, and I’m now enjoying a happy little tumbler that reminds me of chocolate root beer. Goes great with burgers and brownies.

This one grabbed my hubby with its aroma alone, and a full tin made its way home with us. First steep is thick and creamy, chocolatey and bourbon. Second steep was thinner but still very nicely flavorful (I controlled myself and used a smaller cup this time.)

Isn’t “tippy” just a happy word? It is, when applied to this particular Vietnamese orange pekoe tea—another discovery at the little TeaMaze shop last weekend.

My favorite black teas are those that prompt taste memories of dark, yeasty, wheaty bread. This one reminds me more of light biscuits or sweet cornbread with honey.

One teaspoon to 8 ounces of water yielded one very rich cup and one medium-bodied cup. Then I got stupid and tried a third steep in a 12-ounce tumbler (I’m terrible about underleafing), which resulted in what my son calls “water with aftertaste.” Lesson learned. Again.

You know you’re at my house a week before kids’ VBS when:
a) There’s a laundry basket in the middle of the living room filled with beach balls, plastic iguanas, dollar-shop hula skirts and a six-foot stuffed alligator.
b) You hear me muttering things under my breath like, “I can’t find my good duck lips!” or “I have GOT to glue that frog back together.”
c) I engage my husband in a complicated engineering conversation as to whether one can stick miniature marshmallows onto a hippo’s mouth with adhesive putty.
d) I lose the same 18 by 24 inch leader pack (with things that are absolutely essential to my teaching plans) four times within 15 minutes in three different rooms.

In mild panic, I have collapsed in my glider with a strawberry shortcake ice cream bar in one hand and a cold pint jar of Pine Forest in the other.

This is one of the most unusual herbal blends I’ve ever tried: blackberry, pine nuts, and some other fruity thing going on in the background (the label doesn’t tell you much). The pine is more prominent chilled than hot, but there’s still enough fruit to keep it from tasting like floor cleaner. I’m thinking it might be tasty with a little extra fruit juice added—raspberry, maybe?

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.