Tea of the Week for May 8, 2023!
A blend of green teas (gunpowder & chun mee) with freeze-dried pineapple bits, blood orange wedges & alcohol-free rum essence. It’s everything I want from a cocktail: something sweet & fruity & not too bitter or ethanol-ish. Plus, it’s tea which is better than a cocktail, but with this tea, you get both – but since there’s no alcohol, you won’t have a hangover the next day.
It’s organic, vegan, gluten-free, allergen-friendly & all natural!
organic ingredients: green teas, pineapples, blood oranges & natural flavors
More about this tea: I have a confession: I blended this tea without having a name for it. I blended blood orange, pineapple & rum (alcohol-free essence) together & I like what I tasted. I googled the ingredient combination and there are recipes for “Blood Orange Pineapple Rum Cocktail – but that’s just a little too “wordy” for a cocktail for my liking – not to mention – too precisely literal. Cocktail names should be cute & clever. I wasn’t looking for something outrageous like Zombie’s Slutty Mama – I just wanted something like Pineapple Sunset – but that name has already been taken.
So, I found a cocktail drink name generator online & to be honest, most of what it was generating were kind of – well – not what I was going for. So, after about a half an hour of pushing that little name generator button, I gave up & decided to call this the Cute & Clever Cocktail that is also known as the Blood Orange Pineapple Rum Cocktail, but better because it’s cute & clever and not so literal.
I love the way the pineapple & blood orange work together here – it’s tangy but not too tart, it’s sweet & deliciously fruity. The rum flavor is not particularly assertive here, but you can definitely taste it – it’s enough to let you know that it’s there – that there is more to this tea than blood orange & pineapple. A really nice warmer weather kind of tea drink!
to brew: shake the pouch well to distribute the ingredients. Use 3g of tea to 12 oz very hot water (175°F) steep for 2 minutes, strain & enjoy!
serving suggestion: I crafted this tea primarily with iced tea drinking in mind because it’s getting to be that time of year – so I highly recommend cold-brewing this tea. My first taste test with the tea was hot – so it does work as a hot beverage as well, but it really shines as a cold tea. I like a teensy bit of raw sugar in the blend (or honey!) as it gives it more of that sweet, fruity cocktail drink taste – but it’s also really nice unsweetened.