Nostalgia, the tea blend that was inspired by the thought of having a “Dark Side” blend in reference to Star Wars; however, to avoid any legal issues it was renamed Nostalgia with a similar approach.
Generally, I use a piece of paper and draw stuff while I invent the blends I will come up with. Unfortunately this method isn’t the best because I end up with a lot of blends I can’t make; such as the tea that looks like a cloud. This blend ended up with two colors of black and some red in it. That made it somewhat difficult for me because what was I going to use for red that wasn’t a flower or fruit… neither of which I see someone on the Dark Side endorsing (though I may be very wrong about this). What ended up happening was odd because I was looking for some sandalwood wax on Etsy and saw someone had sandalwood tagged in a tea blend. Looking into it, I found out that red sandalwood is used for food/drink so I was like: “I’m using red sandalwood!” Since I am honest about what I do, I cannot give you a reason how the rest came about as I have no idea… all I know is that I ended up breaking apart a 2012 oolong cake over an hour and a half and then mixed it up with some Fujian black tea to create a rich and dark chocolate dessert (but a dessert was not the final product in mind). The vanilla just happened and I am so happy with that purchase. While it was odd to spend $30 on some vanilla beans, what I got in the mail was fresh vanilla beans which I have never seen. Trying to hold one was odd because it was like a miniature tree with sap seeping out of it from all over. The crazy part about this blend was I only tasted it once over those four weeks which is an accomplishment for the impatient type of person I am.
Teaser: https://instagram.com/p/5LEFSnRYPE/
Now for the test:
This was to be the first and only tea I was going to rate, but it was brought to my attention that such a thing would not be best practice. Critiquing my own tea is not an easy task because I want to be proud of my work without the thought in the back of my mind knowing I could have done better.
Upon getting a single scoop out to brew I realized that the smell reminds me of a chocolate vanilla brownie mix. Over time I have decided that the look of leaf is a minor thing, but the red sandalwood is more of an orange color which means it was not what I was going for. I decided to brew mine without the vanilla bean; everyone who purchased this tea got a little package with some of the vanilla bean used in this blend which they can do various things with. Thankfully the 150 seconds I put my timer to didn’t feel so long since I was watching Star Trek. Random note: Personally I hold Star Trek as superior to Star Wars.
The smell of the tea when it’s brewed is still very similar and I find that quite odd. When I went about creating this tea I didn’t think I would end up with a dessert tea, but it seems like that is what this turned out to be.
The mixture of Da Hong Pao’s roast, Fujian’s chocolate/malt, Tahitian Vanilla’s vanilla/cream, and the very minor (rather unnoticeable) red sandalwood woodsy taste, it is apparent from the first cup that this tea is a success. Part of testing my teas is to swish the liquid about in my mouth and this one pasted that test as it has a smooth texture to it; this may sound weird, but I generally want a velvet or silky texture to my teas. Though I enjoy what I came up with, I am curious what this would taste like if the mixture was 80/20 or 20/80 instead of the measurements that I used. It is possible that more cocoa and malt in this mixture could make it more enjoyable or something more brisk and roasty would improve it. That is why I enjoy playing with tea, there seems to be an infinite amount of possibilities.
(Does not look so dark now that I gave it a few baths)
After the tasting, confidence fills me as I believe it will help me achieve being on the Dean’s List of tea blenders; if there is a such a thing.
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