Guest Post: Veronica of Boston Tea Party

Veronica is a subscriber here with a fabulous blog all about my favorite drink, tea! I asked her to write a guest post for me about her favorite tea to share with my readers, so enjoy!

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image from mrsliz's flikr

I never used to be a tea snob, and I still am not one today. For the most part, I have been perfectly satisfied with a Lipton home brew or the occasional Tetley for the past twenty years. But it wasn’t very long ago that I considered becoming an explorer of sorts and trying new types of tea. When I got to college, the flavored bagged tea in the dining hall was so good (it surpassed the food quality by far) I would frequently steal handfuls to brew in my dorm room. My taste for good tea has developed since then. So when a Teavana store opened up in my parents’ hometown, I cynically predicted that it would turn into the leafy equivalent of Starbucks and start selling medium-quality low-on-taste tea.

Buuuut–it just so happened that this past summer some relatives from Canada were visiting and my aunt asked me to take her shopping. On our last leg of the shopping trip, we passed the Teavana store and I suggested we go in and take advantage of the free samples to recharge. I had always found the employees excessively friendly, and running on little caffeine I struggled to match the energy level of the sales girl as she handed me and my aunt what looked like shot glasses full of tea. I took a sip, just wanting something warm in me, and was instantly won over by Samurai Chai Mate. Described as a “naturally very sweet and fruity” tea, Samurai Chai is indeed so flavorful it needs no sugar to taste just right. I have only had loose leaf tea a few times in my life but I knew this was something good, so I asked the sales girl to take her silver tea shovel and scoop me up some to take home.

image from avlxyz's flikr

This tea would eventually become a godsend over the summer. Coming home from long shifts at my job, it only took one cup and half a teaspoon of sugar to melt away a long day and tired feet.  My friends laugh at me when I tell them “It really makes me feel like a samurai”, but who doesn’t want to feel powerful in the morning? Some people have a power tie or a power suit. Some people have that little black dress or their special perfume. As for me, I wouldn’t trade waking up like a warrior for anything.

Samurai Chai Mate

Some more information about Samurai Chai Mate and loose-leaf tea:

• Samurai chai is a blend of tea leaves, spices, herbs, and hints of citrus.  Because of this, the first sip is very strong.  So sip slowly, and enjoy the mild after taste and thirst-quenching effect.
• This is also a mate tea. Mate teas have no caffeine, but they do contain mateine, a stimulant similar to caffeine. So if you’ve had so much coffee that your caffeine tolerance is unbearably high, a mate tea may be the tea for you.
• This is a loose leaf tea, which means you will need a basket, strainer or infuser so that you don’t get hundreds of tiny leaves in your mouth as you sip.
• Finally, you will need an airtight container to store it in. You can purchase one at tea shops, or even old cookie tins will do, provided you’ve cleaned them. Loose leaf tea tends to be a little more expensive, so you’ll want to keep it fresh so it lasts you a long time.

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Thank you Veronica for your great post! You can read more of her stories on herblog. If you want to try out this deliciously vibrant tea yourself, you can purchase Samurai Chai Mate online here.

~Maria

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