When Doves Cry

It’s hard to believe that the FIFA World Cup is here again when I remember the last one like it was yesterday, hanging out in my West Coast apartment watching match after match while sipping on excellent tea. Work has been such a drag, facing endless passive-aggressive task dumping while coworkers stand around and do nothing but play on their phones, being subtly pressured into giving up my volunteering job/only day I’m unavailable if I want to continue getting more hours (while others with much worse availability get around the same hours), etc. Lather, rinse, repeat. So more so than ever, I’ve really been yearning for peace and quiet with a cup of tea.

This tea! I was so stoked about the apricot, vanilla, and candied violet combination. Violet! Always a pleasure having in my teacup. But I couldn’t taste any? I think my taster pouch had like 2-3 pieces of candied violet in total, so that could be why. They can be potent little things though, as I have a little tin of candied violet that I randomly treat myself to every once in a while and they pack a punch in terms of flavour.

Here, I am mostly getting very subdued apricot, maybe a hint of vanilla. I’ll admit that I was hoping for apricot à la ATR’s Tangier (RIP). Ok, maybe not that intense, but definitely more pronounced. I can taste the base more than anything, actually. I guess that isn’t a bad thing either, because after all, aren’t we all here for the actual tea and not the mix-ins?

Finally got around to trying this one today. As far as first impressions go, the dry leaf is in itself a pretty amazing thing. There are whole sugared violets (which are huge!), cubes of dried apricot, and a base of bai mu dan , which is impressive both for the size and length of its leaves, and the predominance of silver tips. It’s also still fairly green, unlike some white teas I’ve tried in the past! I used 1.5 tsp of leaf for my cup (measuring was a challenge…), and gave it 3 minutes in water cooled to 175 degrees.

The small surprise is the blue/purple colour of the liquor once brewed. I guess I should have expected it, with the violet in there, but somehow I didn’t. As a Prince tribute, it’s a nice touch. To taste, the initial flavour is sweet violet – reminiscent, to me, of parma violets only slightly less perfumey. The mid-sip is almost exclusively apricot, also sweet, but not overpoweringly so. It’s refreshingly fruity after the initial hit of floral violet. The end of the sip combines the two flavours in a gradual fade out. They’re both fairly delicate to begin with, but clearly identifiable. It is possible to taste the base tea underneath the flavouring just at the end of the sip, and that, too, is delicate and mildly floral, with the “sugar water” vibe that white tea can often have, although I suspect this may have been helped a little by the dissolved sugared violet. It’s definitely not a blend that would require additional sugar, unless you like your tea super, super sweet.

I’m enjoying this one as much as I hoped I would back when it was first announced. It’s a fitting tribute, and tasty to boot!

Beautiful and elegant, I love this violet and apricot white tea. It tastes like apricot to me, which I enjoy a lot. Apricot is my favourite “rarely represented” tea flavour. Even with no candied violet petals this has a sweetness to it.

Sipdown (219)

Kittenna was kind enough to share some of this blend for me to try and it is really quite nice. Soft apricot notes with a touch of creamy vanilla. The flavors are subtle, but there. And if nothing else, the crystallized violet petal contributed a cool blueish-purple ring of tea that hung out at the bottom of the mug. When I got to that part of the mug, I got sugar and floral notes as well so in hindsight I probably should have stirred this before drinking. Still, it was pleasant and that made for a nice pop of flavor at the end.

Thank you Kittenna for the sample as it satisfied my curiosity and left me happy. I don’t think I need anymore of this but I am grateful to have gotten the taste :).

What rubbish timing my body has! The last week I have felt increasingly worse, headache that won’t quit, increasing body aches, but then the coughing and fever started and all I could do was go ‘well crap!’ Every Autumn since I was a kid I get a chest infection, either sparked off by allergies or as a secondary infection from a cold or flu, and I am thinking since Ben has been snuffly that it is the latter. Stupid weak lungs, it is getting in the way of me setting up my tea room! Luckily baby Advil (because silly stomach hates pain killers) Robitussin, hot steams, and copious ginger and garlic have helped take the edge off, but I am still rather angry about it.

Today I am looking at a tea that has nothing to do with being ill, which is good, though I do admit when I am feeling really awful I tend to favor a giant mug of tea over gongfucha, and this tea is perfect mug tea. 52Teas’ When Doves Cry, yes, it is a Prince tribute tea, I love Prince and his passing was a punch to the gut, so drinking a tea created in his honor while listening to his music seemed like a great tribute. Though honestly, even if this were not a tribute to one of my favorite musicians I would want it, it is made from White Tea, vanilla bean, dried apricots, and Candied violets…many of those things are favorites of mine and the combination sounded awesome. The tea smells good, with notes of vanilla and honey, apricots, a delicate violet note, and a finish of hay. Just the right amount of sweetness, not cloying but certainly not mild.

Steeping the tea really allows the base white tea to shine, with notes of lettuce, honey, melon, and hay. There are also notes of apricot and vanilla with a gentle sugar cane note at the finish. The incredibly colorful liquid (kinda blue, kinda green, violets turn things fun colors) is sweet and crisp, notes of honey and apricot dance with a distinct lettuce and broken hay note, I am glad the white tea is really standing out, a LOT of blends I have had with white tea just drown it out.

So, it is very fitting that a Prince tribute tea be unique, and this tea certainly is that. The first thing I thought was that it tasted like vanilla ice cream with a topping of apricot jam, it is sweet and rich, doubly so with the candied violets adding sugary sweetness to the mix. After the initial burst of creamy fruity dessert the white tea steps in to say hello with notes of melon and hay with a crisp lettuce note. The end has a wonderful lingering wildflower and vanilla note, the vanilla lingers for quite a while. Usually I don’t like my tea sweet, I only add sugar to Masala Chai, Ostfriesen Tea, and the occasional sour herbal, but clearly I liked this one since I tore through my sample super quickly, because sometimes it is good to step out of my ‘norm’ and have a little fun.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/10/52teas-when-doves-cry-tea-review.html

(52teas (Anne) 2022: 201)

W is for… When Doves Cry!

Didn’t really get to taste this one properly… oops. Can just say that it was okay. I have a single cup of it left to finish for another day.

I’m actually taking time to sit down and drink the tea while I write about it! I’ve tasted this tea several times in the last two weeks, but I didn’t take the time to sit down and record my thoughts on the tea until now.

I love the flavor combination of Bai Mu Dan and apricot. These two flavors work together really well. The vanilla adds a creamy element that plays to the natural creamy notes of the white tea nicely. The violet adds a very slight floral note to the cup – it’s not a strong or prevalent flavor and it’s most noticeable while the tea is hot. As the tea cools, I find that the floral note softens as the vanilla and apricot emerge a little more.

I definitely prefer this one hot because I like those floral notes (Note: you probably won’t taste the floral notes if you don’t make sure that there’s a violet in the brewing vessel when you steep this tea because I didn’t actually flavor the tea with violet essence – I just added the crystallized violets to the blend)

Here’s my blog post about this tea that I just published: http://52teas.com/blog/taste-test-when-doves-cry-a-tribute-to-prince-and-his-art/

_For those of you who are looking for brewing parameters, I do make some suggestions on the blog post. If you weigh your tea when you measure it out, I suggest weighing it without the dried apricots and crystallized violets on the scale as they will throw off the weight (both are rather heavy). _

There’s still some of this tea left – there’s only one of the large (maybe 2) and a few of the taster size – it’s going fast!