Sometimes when I get to the bottom of a tin of something there isn’t enough left to make a proper cup.
However, I hate wasting tea.
Depending on what was in a tin, I will drop it in on top of one of my foundational teas.1
In the case of the experiment that led to 8-429 the tea in the tin was Browncoat’s Desperation (Chicory and Cacao Nibs) and the foundational tea was Lapsang.2
The test cup was good enough that I blended up a test batch with better ratios for working with Lapsang and the end result was 8-429.
I’m not really sure where to go with a name on this one, as I feel no particular need (or desire, at this point) to attach it to the same franchise – and I’m coming up blank as far as general thinking.3
Taste notes are hard because the combination of the three ingredients lightly sweetened with no milk of any sort was perfectly what I wanted. It took the tea that is one of my go-tos for when I am too wired (on whatever level) to find sleep – but too tired to do much of anything where I would like to be able to trust the results and added smoke. Which made it even more comfortable and soothing and happy-making.4
When I added dairy the taste was such that with more sweet5 it would translate as a smoky chicory chocolate bar that had been turned into something eminently drinkable.
The image of the tea brought to mind thoughts of a pebble-covered beach for one of my long-term tea people, and they stated that it was clearly a mermaid’s tea.
I know there’s a name in all that somewhere, I’m just not finding it.
Perhaps something with a water or ocean or… feature (whether geologic or aquatic) that would be a safe space for mermaids?
I am open to ideas/suggestions/thoughts.
It is a lovely tea, and it definitely deserves a good name.6
- Generally these are blends of “just tea,” though genmai and hawthorn berries count on their own, and I am planning on some barley blends as well.
- The lovely humans in my corner of the Twitterverse helped me decide on that one.
- I’m going to blame this on brain still being fractal and a bit fragile as I work on putting myself and other things back together – and hope, fervently, that I am right.
- The taste of Lapsang is comfort food for me.
- Far more than I would tend to use, admittedly.
- And now I have Leia’s hologram message, paraphrased, stuck in my head. (“Help me, (mermaid or science or ocean or …) Twitter (or online community), you’re my only hope.”) I need either more sleep or more tea.