Chance Combinations

So I never said I was a sane person.
So I decided to mix Adagio’s Sylvari’s Awakening blend with Teavana’s White Ayurvedic Chai. I’ve said before that the Sylvari’s Awakening had to much chai, but I just wanted to see how these would go together. I used 1 and 1/2 tsp of the Sylvari’s Awakening and 1 tsp of the White Chai. I steeped this higher and longer than Teavana suggests for the white tea, but I’ve had no problems with doing so with the chai/chai blend.
This smells like some kind of faintly wassil type Christmas treat. I wish I had something orange to add to this as I think it would compliment it well. There are citrus notes in the Sylvari’s Awakening, but it’s too faint in this. Mmm, this is pretty damn tasty together! I think that I’ll use most of my stock of the Teavana tea to drink this way because alone it is a bit too Big Red gum-like to me.

Holy Cow, you guys! I am an accidental genius! I had these bits of tea, not enough to make one potful, so I threw it together and it is amazing! Ok…maybe not amazing, but really good!

Coco Chai rooibos + Forever Nuts + Decaf English Breakfast = Yummy!

The first two are David’s teas and the last is a Metropolitan tea.

Now, one of my main complaints when I had Forever Nuts the first time, was that it wasn’t nutty enough and tasted too apple-y. In this crazy concoction though, the nuts really shine. It tastes mostly like walnuts, which is great with the mild spice from the chai. There’s some smooth coconut up front and the black tea is tying everything together.

So yums! I might have to make this on purpose one day. It’s like a lightly spiced nutty black tea that you can drink before bed!

Hmmmm so I have Florence left from my swap with Amy O and Cocoa Mint black from Teavana. Muhahahaha! It’s almost like that moment in Cast Away when Tom Hanks exclaims “Look I have made fire”. The beauty of this combo is that Florence in my opinion doesn’t have enough flavor and sometimes the Cocoa Mint black has this tongue numbing flavor to it. With their powers combined offers a great mix where you can enjoy the chocolate and the mint. It’s almost like a thin mint in a cup. Outstanding!

I don’t know what I was on when I decided this but two nights ago I tossed a couple teaspoons of green rooibos in the pot with three of Cold 911 from Davids and tossed it in the fridge to cold brew. I know, not exactly something that screams “delicious”.

And yet it is surprisingly refreshing! The rooibos cuts down on the medicinal aspects of the 911, leaving a really nice refreshing mint flavour and burn. I think I may have to try this one again in the summer when I’ll be desperate for the cooling sensations!

Equal parts Tropical Tea Co. Gunpowder, Fujian Jasmine, and spearmint.

The jasmine dominates, but not enough, if that makes any sense. It’d be better if it took a backseat or completely took over.

I mixed close to a teaspoon each of The Whistling Kettle’s Salted Caramel and their Chocolate Cake Honeybush. Reason being I can’t recall if I mix the cake or their Nutcrunch honeybush with the Salted Caramel…because both of those look pretty similar. SO I tried it and it is def. not these two teas mixed together. This isn’t bad but it isn’t the salty-sweet combo I was looking for this morning.

So, you know those custom blends on Adagio? Well I want to make some so I’m testing some stuff out today. I want to make a Dune blend (from the Frank Herbet books, I finished the first one a little white ago).

So I’m testing out teas with some rooibos vanilla chai, a bit of lapsang souchong, and maybe spiced mate. Not sure yet, I need that cinnamon flavor though. I think the lapsang might be overpowering everything though, so I might have to take that out. Hmmm.

Teavana Matevana + Teavana Chai/Chai blend = Cinnamon roll.

Yep, this is spectacular. I don’t particularly like Matevana, and I still have some I need to do something with. So, in an act of desperation I mixed 1 teaspoon of this and 1 teaspoon of the chai/chai sample that I had received with my order from them in hopes of making it enjoyable.

Turns out, that I created cinnamon roll tea!!! Really! It is the closest to cinnamon roll that I have ever had a tea taste. I am really surprised. It is so good a blend that next time I buy from Teavana I will get a bit of each of these teas so that I can get cinnamon roll goodness!!!

I also should probably mention that cinnamon rolls are one of my favorite sweets!!!

I am super happy that this worked out so well for me! I will have to try it with milk next time. : )

I saw someone mention earlier today that they wanted to try a combination of Della Terra’s Autumn Leaves and a lapsang souchong. Not only did I think that sounded very good, but I have samples of both that I want to clear out. So I combined Autumn Leaves with Lapsang Souchong from Happy Lucky. I figured the lapsang would overpower the Autumn Leaves, so I used extra Autumn Leaves. The lapsang is still overpowering and the maple doesn’t really come in until after the sip and in the aftertaste. This smells really good, but will have to be messed with to get the taste right.

I have been craving star anise seed for some reason….. also tartness. I decided to make Yu Lu Lan Cha western with a single star anise and two medium pieces of hibiscus. Made 4 steeps and combined them and put in 3 spoon fulls of light agave nectar. Warm the a anise see was strong, a little too much. I will use a smaller one next time. When it cooled a bit the hibiscus showed through more with a nice tartness. Iced this is even better….. or slushi that is. I left it to long in the freezer. The added herbs are more balance and the roasty chocolaty tea shines through.

Overall very good. I like how the tart hibiscus helps cut the spicy licorice flavor of the anise. Might try it again.