Picard’s Foglifter (Organic Earl Grey Chai)

At some point in May of 2019, a realization struck. I had many chais, but despite the intersection of a love of chai and a fondness for Earl Grey, I hadn’t combined the two.

I dug through the tea journals. I went through the piles of tea ideas that hadn’t been put into tea journals yet. I checked various online spaces. The idea seemed so obvious; I was certain I had to have jotted it down somewhere.

In the end, I concluded that the idea had been so obvious some part of my mind just assumed it would happen and that it would stay present enough in my mind that I’d get to it.

Either that or it fell victim to the “so many tea ideas, so little time” problem that frequently plagues me.

Six years in and it hadn’t happened.

So, I decided it Must Happen.

And it did.

Earl Grey is an old and familiar friend, within the framework of tea blending. The set of spices that I use for chai blends is similarly familiar and comforting. The work of creating an Earl Grey Chai was relatively simple.

The finished tin of tea was added to the overflowing Teas-in-Need-of-Names shelves and stayed there for a few months.

In the interim, it was sent out as part of the Tea of the Month Club. When I was closing out paperwork for one of the six-month sets, I realized I needed to give it a name. (Things like pricing and cost and other things essential to proper processing of paperwork do not occur until a tea has a name.)

As had been the habit, at the time, I asked my corner of the Twitterverse if they had any thoughts or ideas or suggestions for a name for this Earl Grey Chai.¹

I had no direction to give, with this one, not even a vague semblance or a glimmer. This tea had been part of a stress relief burst of tea blending – and teas that come out of that particular mental space rarely come with any thoughts as to name.

There were a number of interesting suggestions, some of which have been put into the “good names that need teas” file.²I also learned a new-to-me piece of history³, but once the inevitable connection to Picard was suggested it was pretty much a given that he would be involved one way or another.  The first suggestion was “Spicy Picard.”⁴ The latter portions of the thread turned into collections of various Picard gifs.

Spicy Picard led to Picard’s Foglifter – which played well with the character’s well-known love of Earl Grey, as well as the enlivening nature of the spices.

Upon thought and discussion, I decided that Spicy Picard would be an excellent name for a cocktail where this tea was one of the components. The plan was to do experimentation with a variety of alcohols, to discover what fit the tea best. This is still the plan – but if someone else gets to it before I do, I’d love to hear your notes.

Now for the basics:

Organic Ingredients (Caffeinated): Earl Grey Tea (Black Tea, Bergamot Oil), Cinnamon, Cardamom, Ginger

Organic Ingredients (Decaffeinated): Decaffeinated Earl Grey Tea (Black Tea, Bergamot Oil), Cinnamon, Cardamom, Ginger

Batch Size: 5.7 ounces, 161 grams, 45+ servings of tea.

Options

Loose Tea: 5 serving sample (Bag or Tin), Full Batch (Bag)

Teabags: Single Teabag, 5 serving sample (Bag or Tin), Full Batch (Bag)