Howdy folks!
I’m writing to you from the beautiful town of Penticton, BC, where André and I will be spending our holidays. Snowflakes are delicately falling from the sky, the fields are blanketed in white and the Christmas tree is sparkling in the corner of the living room. No better way to start this festive day than to have a nice tea by the fire. Here we go!
Tea: Gingerbread Cookie
Description: Happiness is…the smell of gingerbread cookies baking in the oven. Warming up with a perfect cup of tea. And sharing something sweet with your family and friends. And with this sweet and toasty tea, you can have all three at once. We started with a smooth base of rooibos, then added a sweet hint of maple and molasses. Then we warmed it up with spicy cinnamon and crystallized ginger. Finally, we added a dash of yerba maté for an energizing kick. With this in your tea cupboard, happiness is just a steep away…
Ingredients: Rooibos, green rooibos, honeybush, cinnamon bark, currants, candied pineapple (pineapples, cane sugar, citric acid), crystallized ginger (ginger, sugar), maple sugar, white chocolate (sugar, partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil, whey, milk, mono and dig)
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Stacey is a busy researcher with meetings and appointments and a Star Wars viewing, so André‘s mum Cheryl is stepping in and joining the blog today. Our bestie, MK, is also back from her adventures in India and England and her voice is helping out, too.
André: Is this my mug? The one with the holly on it?
Cheryl: Have a holly, jolly, Christmas!
André: Oh! It smells so good it made me hiccup!
Cheryl: That’s different.
André: It smells very spicy- I can feel the rooibos but I’m trying to pick out all of the spices in this. Cinnamon? Ginger?
Brooke: This smells delicious.
André: Ooh, I just put my nose in it. Now it smells like hot.
*sip*
André: Wow, that’s an awesome tea. Like, this is great. It tastes just like gingerbread with a mild hint of rooibos.
Brooke: Oh yes, this is yummy! Normally rooibos teas are a bit hollow for me, it just tastes like rooibos bark with spices. This one, though, is heavier thanks to the maté. I really enjoy it!
André: Yeah, much thicker than a usual rooibos.
Cheryl: I like it better than a green tea- those taste like grass floating in water.
André: Mm. It’s like having a liquid gingerbread cookie inside my mouth.
Brooke: Where else would it be?
André: In a bath.
Brooke: Of course.
André: I really enjoy this one.
Brooke: Me too. I love it, even with the awful chemical taste still in my mouth from my bummer of a root canal the other day. MK says that the tea reminds her of a cross between an Indian Chai and a cinnamon bun. And that since the taste isn’t right for me, she will give us some in Kelowna when we visit. What a Christmas miracle!
Final thoughts:
André: I find this tea is remarkably well balanced. The flavours of the gingerbread and its spices compliment the rich tastes of rooibos. It’s Christmas in a cup.
Brooke: I really, really enjoyed this one. Something about it made it creamy and thick which, as André mentioned, rounded out the rooibos bark quite well. I’m looking forward to having another cup post-Christmas with MK.
Twitter was also pleased with Day 23:
Bathing in Christmas.
Tea Connoisseurs 