Tea update

Even though it's been super hot lately, every day has been borsch day. Yum. It would make more sense to eat something cold, but D made a giant pot of the soup and I got hooked on it. He used a seasoning packet from the Russian store this time. It was okay, but I think he's actually really talented at just picking out random spices from the cupboard to use.

But- tea news!

So, I promised in February that the days of tea craziness would end. And they have. We still drink tea every day and every night, but the tea buying sprees are over. These past few months I was focused on drinking up what we had, not looking for new ones. Today I want to share just three teas with you: raspberry / currant, rose, and root beer.

Raspberry currant black tea

This matryoshka is THE BEST!! She was a gift from my sister-in-law and is definitely getting membership in The Collection.

The packaging inside is equally adorable-

I had the idea to save the tea for an amazingly special day. There have not been any amazingly special day so far, so it's probably just time to dig in anyways. The label is in Russian and says black ceylon tea + raspberry leaves + juniper* + red currants. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

* Had to google this word to find out what it was at first. можжевельник. Unusual, yeah?

Rose raspberry black tea

Next, my one tea purchase this whole spring-

We were at the rose garden the other weekend with family. I followed D's nephew into the gift shop, which was filled with rose-themed everything and smelled just as good as the actual garden outside. What a cool place to shop! I tried to resist this tea but it was impossible. Black tea + rose petals + raspberry + local company! I walked away the first time... but then looped back and grabbed it. (Also from that store: a wedding ring, finally! It's a) something to wear while traveling and b) totally within budget [ahem, $20]. Will share a pic with you later.)

This tea is perfect. Rose tea is always a great choice, and rose tea with raspberry is even better.

The last tea is a strange one.

Root beer black tea

It's been in the cupboard for months, since nothing sounded less appetizing than drinking root beer-flavored tea during the winter. I opened the package last week and tried brewing a cup of iced tea. Don't be weirded out- it's much nicer than it sounds!

I imagined the flavor of root beer minus the carbonation to be gross. It's not. (Unless you talk to D, but he thinks all root beer tastes like toothpaste.) This isn't as lovable as, say, peach black iced tea, but it's got a really interesting taste. There's about 1/2 a bag left of this stuff, since I gave some away to people who were equally fascinated by the idea of it. It's a fun experiment but when it's gone, it's gone.

Wishing you lots of приятного чаепития, happy tea drinking! And maybe one of these summertime beauties -