drink 43 types of tea

22. Real Chinese jasmine tea. It’s definitely one of my favorites. I finally found the “Sunflower” brand at the Asian grocery store. I first tried it in Paraguay (it had been a gift from some Chinese people to the friends I was staying with). It has a lovely, light flavor, needs no sweetener, and helps settle your stomach when you’ve overindulged. What’s not to like?

Another Totalitea purchase. This one is a Ceylon tea blend with vanilla bean pods. It is quite a strong black tea but the vanilla aroma makes it smooth and sweet.

This is a loose tea from Totalitea. It is blended with cornflower petals and Christmas spices. It’s a fairly strong black tea, but the flavours balance quite nicely. When I first smelled it I thought it would be too spicy for me, but it tasted quite mellow.
I would buy this one again for sure.

This is the type of Japanese tea that is served at sushi restaurants. I found a huge bag of it at my local grocery store for under $4!
The tea is light and lovely with a nutty flavour. The best thing about it is the roasted rice grains. Some of them are popped open like miniature popcorn!

Twinings’ Lapsang Souchong

When I first smelt this tea, I was overcome with the incredibly strong smoky scent. I thought this would make the tea unbearable to drink, but surprisingly, the taste was quite mild. A tea I would like to drink on camping trips and out in the nature.

Tumeric is my latest fascination. I see it becoming the next ‘it’ herb and sparking a health ignited consumer craze of this herb you can get a pound of for a dollar at the small indian grocery (you can also get it fresh specially? I don’t know I haven’t gone that far yet!) It’s that yellow powder that gives mustard, curries, and many dishes their beautiful coloring. It has strong anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiseptic properties. In fact my friend from India said it’s used on skin rashes, cuts, and acne. I’ve put it on my face as a mask (and was yellow for a couple of days) but wow good results!

So I found a can of tumeric tea in the vitamin store marketed by ito en. I paid 3.99 for it. Turmeric is an acquired tasted so it wasn’t too easy to drink but after I finished I kind of wanted more. But what did I actually drink? I didn’t taste any tea! Yes the 3.99 ‘turmeric tea’ was distilled water, ascorbic acid, and turmeric. DAMNNN you can make this at home!

I decided to go for a real tea with turmeric – a plain white or green tea that is really leafy in taste I like most with this. (I’m using bonjemi white I got at asian mart). Last I add my ascorbic acid (slice of lemon). Turmeric is interesting as a brew on it’s own, interesting is good/bad… but I can say brewed with green/white tea this is really heavenly combination. If anyone is interested in trying this, a little turmeric goes a long way! Start with just a tinyyy pinch if you aren’t familiar with it’s taste.

Last two:

Lipton – the box is at work and I can’t remember the exact name but it’s something like Morocco Mint and Spices. It’s another mix of crushed peppermint with cinnamon etc and is another great minty tea. There are so many good mint teas in the shops now.

And the 43rd tea:
Twinings Ceylon. Well I thought I’d end on a classic. It’s an amber tea that is apparently supposed to be drunk at those light, relaxing moments of the day. I don’t really have light relaxing moments so decided to have one of these after lunch to see if it brought on a light relaxing feeling. I certainly had a better afternoon than morning, so perhaps it has magical properties.

I’ve really enjoyed this goal and will miss it lots.

13)Arctic Fire Tea – not at all what the name sounds like, loose-leaf black tea with lots of fruity notes, tropical fruits yum yum!

14)Pumpkin Spice Tea – love this! but I am truly a pumpkin fan, spicy and tasty, perfect for fall and to top it off I had a pumpkin spice donut too!

Whittard Moroccan Mint tea

Takes me back to my holiday a few years ago in Morocco, when we drank so much mint tea that the gite actually ran out of mint. This is described as a ‘refreshing combination of green tea and spearmint drunk for centuries in Northern Africa, often served with sugar’. This is an understatement – they put loads of sugar in it in Morocco.
This is fine to drink without sugar, does taste authentic but I kept it light, didn’t leave it to brew for long. Healthy, refreshing and comforting.

Whittard Chinese White Tea

On the box it tells me ‘made from the youngest buds and dried immediately to preserve their nutrients. It produces a very pale and delicate tea with an almost ethereal flavour. Brew until you achieve a pale silver liquid.’

Unfortunately I left the tea in to brew too long – not so much pale silver as suspiciously yellow – so it was quite bitter. Will try it again as I want to like it – and I still have 48 bags to go.