Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Meditations with Grenadine



Today’s tea has grenadine in it, but I couldn’t remember what that was. Back when I thought I needed to impress people, I remember buying it and feeling oh, so sophisticated. It’s a good thing we grow up.

According to Wikipedia, grenadine is a syrup made from pomegranates. It is often used as the “cherry” in cherry cokes. Today it was used, along with some vanilla in my tea, The Tea Table’s Monks’ Blend. Supposedly the monks [don’t know who they are] blended this with Ceylon tea to keep them awake during long meditations.

Upon opening the package I was hit with a very strong fruity smell that seemed ultra sweet and was off-putting. It’s taken me days to finally taste this tea because of that. The tea is basic black enlivened with some bright gold flowers. I brewed a teaspoon for 4 min at boiling. By then, the scent had softened to a mellow, softly sweet fruitiness. The liquor was very dark. Sad to say, I thought this tea tasted awful, primarily medicinal, with a sweet edge. I could detect no vanilla and no taste of the tea itself. Not one I will be buying again.

In tea news, The Republic of Tea is coming out with seven new Rooibus flavors, plus a bunch of other new herbal flavors, if that is your cup of tea. I have purchased some of their black teas in the past and found them to be modestly good. I rarely drink herbals, so I really can’t say much about them, but the plain rooibus I tried I thought was good for what it was. I don’t mean to sound nasty or anything, I just have little experience in this area of tea.
How do you like the fancy doo-hickies on those horses? They are actually functional, helping to keep flies out of their eyes and ears.

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