nite chat: 5:6

i didn't start all this as a believer in the warm beverage principle
i drank tea
sometimes because i like tea
and sometimes as a health thing
like when i drink the pu ehr tea
i like it and it's healthy
but then
i ordered that healthy chai
not actually because it was healthy
but because it had lapsang souchong in it as the black tea component
and i love lapsang souchong for like forty years
but it doesn't present itself much
and i'm rarely hunting around for tea
i drink coffee
pg tips is easy to come by and nice
typhoo is less nuanced but strong
in fact when i say a box of extra strong typhoo at work
i had to buy it just to see if it was really stronger
yorkshire gold is also really nice but pretty smooth not that strong
i don't currently have any of that
i have some irish breakfast tea from ireland
can't remember the brand off hand
but it makes the english breakfast cry uncle and hand over it's lunch money

sometimes i'll stop into a fancy tea shop
and get a monkey picked oolong
or a richly spiced chai
but i rarely get flavored teas
and
i'm not much for herbals
sometimes i buy them
but i don't really drink em
i have a box of nettle tea
nettle tea is so nutritious--  choke full of vitamins and minerals
and it actually tastes pretty good
i've had it for two years
i'm not half way through it

i try to get as many servings out of this healthy chai as possible
the tea plays out after two cups
but the spice can go four
so i'm using the typhoo in the third and fourth cup

i ordered some berry tea from root girl
it's got hawthorn berries and elderberries
and some other berry and orange peel
which is all great
but then it has a fuck ton of apple
which i'm not mad for in tea
it makes it too sweet and too something else apple-y
i tried adding nettle and that helped
but i ended up adding a pg tips tea bag

i'm seriously, i think, going to try to mix my own
because i'm on board now with the warm liquids
not so much because i think the warmth
makes you any healthier
but
herbal infusions could, potentially

so
idk
this is early days in the tea creation
it's probably not going to look much like creation yet
just old fashion blending
which is very traditional, i'm afraid
but i ordered some devil's club bark
and i have the nettles
those should go well together, i theorize having never tasted devil's club
because nettles have a smooth agreeable flavor like weak tea
but
i'm leaving open the possibility (that was a challenge)
of making a decoction for the bark-y root-y elements
and possibly the spice element as well
and then brewing the lighter herbal elements as a tea
and then blending them together at the end

devil's club
could go burdock, dandelion, osha, possible other for roots
i would like the health benefits of a medicinal mushroom--  chaga maybe
but i don't think that's going to work with the flavor
cardamon for sure
i would have said i could take or leave star anise
but i've been drinking it in this healthy chai
and i honestly don't think i'd want to leave it out
i would have said i could not go without cinnamon
but this chai doesn't have it and i have not missed it
however i'd like to introduce the cinnamon orange combo element
one of my favorite teas growing up was constant comment
and a few years ago i had a russian samovar tea that was even better
at the cinnamon orange element
however
that maybe a second tea
it might be too distracting for the chai
that may be the base of the berry tea

they may have black tea
or pu ehr tea
or rooibos

or they may not
it depends on what i can come up with

the idea is to come out with at least two
herbal infusions that i really really like