Alys's Tea Party Blend: Rhymes with Orange

Rhymes with Orange is one of my specialty Adagio blends.  I set out to make a fruity but not too sweet decaf tea for icing in the summer.  I didn't quite get around to tasting it in the summer, but such is life.

I accomplished what I was looking for -- it's fruity and flavorable, and can be brewed strong enough to ice without becoming bitter.  It's not an overly sweet orange.  But it is also not a tepid limp orange (Lipton "Gentle Orange" I'm looking at you) and it avoids being too tart or sharp.  It reminds me a lot of the orange/tangerine sauces I get with Chinese food.  It seems to be a fairly popular blend, so I guess other people like fruit that is not overly sweet or tart. 

This tea is also a wonderful base for experimentation.  I think this would blend nicely with some alcohols, and also with non-alcoholic ciders.  I may experiment with adding mulling spices.  I'm defintely going to try blending this tea with one of my chocolate teas and see if it produces a good result.

Tea Tasting: Twinings' Buttermint

Twinings has a new herbal tea out called Buttermint.  It's a combination of vanilla and peppermint (no butter).

The aroma is great, minty and smooth like buttermint candies, with a slight hint of sweetness.  The brew itself is not sweet.  It's predominantly peppermint with the vanilla flavor creeping up in the aftertaste.  It's a wonderful comfort brew (I've got a cold coming on, and it's perfect!).   I'm going to try it with honey and maybe some lavender sugar later tonight.

The natural comparison is to my own specialty tea, Marion's Vanilla Mint.  The minty quality in Marion's Vanilla Mint is richer and more complex than in Buttermint, because I used both peppermint and spearmint in the blend.  However, Twinings does a better job integrating the vanilla.

Now that I've got both a box of Buttermint and a half a bag of Marion's Vanilla Mint in the house, I really need to buy some vanilla honey.