317/365
The first tea I picked out from the Game of Thrones fandom blend sampler. I figured it’s October now, so legitimately time for chai! This one’s a blend of Green Chai, Ceylon Sonata, and Caramel. I did the usual dithering when thinking about brew time and temperature, since it’s a green/black blend and I never know quite what to do with those. I went for boiling water in the end (there looked to be more black tea than green…), but kept my brew time fairly conservative. I may try it the other way around next time I have a cup, since it came out much more subtle than I expected. The spicing in particular seemed very light; mostly clove with just a hint of cinnamon. The caramel felt like an unusual addition, but it seems to work. It adds a sweet smoothness to the background that would be lacking otherwise, and it didn’t feel particularly out of place despite my reservations. The green tea is fairly innocuous, mostly I can taste the Ceylon Sonata, which is lightly citrussy, but also strangely “flat”.
I felt this was an interesting blend, but I can’t actually decide whether I like it. I don’t dislike it, but it didn’t make much of an impression on me; certainly not in the way I thought it would. It was okay; possibly I need to tweak my preparation to really get the best from it. Based on today’s experience, I’m not sure I can see any of the Starks drinking this one…