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Justin du Coeur - Doomed to a new addiction
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| The latest addition to the Burlington Mall is looking to cost me a fair amount of money. They've just added Teavana, an expensive, fairly upscale tea chain. I've never been a serious tea connoisseur, but this may well suck me in -- while the place isn't any better than Tealuxe and such, it's now far too convenient to ignore. So far, we're gotten two varieties, and they're both big wins. For my workday mornings, I picked up a tin of a delightful Lapsang Suchong: just the kind of dark smoky flavor that I so love, and strong enough that it should be enjoyed straight. Meanwhile, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} msmemory picked up a 50/50 blend of Mate Vana and Rooibos Chai that they pushed at us. It's a perfect cold-weekend starter: with the right amount of good sugar, it's almost like a highly-caffeinated cup of cocoa, with just the right blend of flavor, sweet and strength.Given my fondness for novelty, the success of our first two experiments, and the fact that they sell something like eighty varieties of tea there, I can hear my doom calling. But I expect to enjoy every moment of it -- especially given that coffee really isn't good for my stomach any more, a tea habit is probably worth encouraging... | ||||||
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| The Teavana here has some very pretty tea brewing equipment, as well. | ||||||
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| Yeah, but it is OMG pricey -- according to the catalog, ballpark of $175. For that, I'll stick to our nice blue ceramic teapot... | ||||||
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| Aiiiii! Seeing that pricetag, I'd stick to that, too! I prefer my brown betty, myself. I remember getting my sister a very pretty artful cast iron one there for around $25, but this would have been quite a few years ago. | ||||||
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| If they're expensive enough to hurt your wallet, they're pretty expensive for tea. The most expensive teas I know of are still only around $100 per pound, and a connoisseur can be pretty happy at $20 per pound. And a pound is a lot of tea. | ||||||
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| If they're expensive enough to hurt your wallet, they're pretty expensive for tea. Well, they're quite a bit more expensive than that, since they're selling retail to impulse buyers like myself. Their minimum purchase is 2oz, and their high end is *way* high -- $25 for that 2oz. (For the fanciest of their Oolongs.) But mostly they run $5-10 for the 2oz: still very expensive, but really not all that much to my wallet. This is mostly sticker shock at the concept of spending $10 for 2oz of *anything*. Intellectually, I'm coming to understand that 2oz is quite a bit of tea (indeed, *vastly* cheaper per drink than even cheap bottled iced tea), but I haven't quite internalized that yet... | ||||||
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| I feel very puerile for what my first thought was when I read your complaint about paying $10 for 2oz. (And now I have "Gin & Juice" stuck in my head, great...) | ||||||
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| It's rather nice. I suspect you'd like the Mate/Rooibos blend -- while it isn't what I normally think of as "chai", it has a very similar flavor profile... | ||||||
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| Lapsang Suchong Lol, dark smoky is an understatement. We cook with the stiff, it's great for Chinese tea smoked chicken. I always wondered if anyone actually drank it straight. I'll second the Mate Vana, though I never cut it with anything. Straight up Yerba Matte has an odd smoky undertone I'm not fond of. You might enjoy it. | ||||||
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| Lol, dark smoky is an understatement. We cook with the stiff, it's great for Chinese tea smoked chicken. I always wondered if anyone actually drank it straight. Oh, yes. But I'm weird: I consider "smoky" to be as important a flavor as the common ones like "sweet" and "sour". I'm fairly consistent that way -- I like everything from scotch to barbeque sauce to have a fairly smoky component to it. And I'm quite consistent that way when it comes to tea: my favorites are things like Lapsang, Genmai, Hoji, and so on. I'll second the Mate Vana, though I never cut it with anything. They were giving out samples of the Mate/Rooibos mix in front of the store, and it really grabbed us. It does require some sugar (which is unusual for my taste), but it's quite yummy. And it doesn't have as much caffeine as the straight Mate, which is okay by me. Straight up Yerba Matte has an odd smoky undertone I'm not fond of. You might enjoy it. Hmm. Yeah, might suit me -- I'll have to try that. Thanks! | ||||||
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| Do they sell samplers, or are you having to get reasonably real quantities of each tea? | ||||||
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| Real quantities -- you have to buy a minimum of 2oz of each. They do have some samples in front of the shop of what's currently "on tap", though... | ||||||
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| The one I went to would make you a cup of just about anything. Starbucks level pricing, but still not to bad. They'll also open the massive cans they store keep the stuff and let you get a good sniff of it. I noted about 96 different teas offered. ( The giant cans fit nicely into a 8x12 set of compartment behind the staff. ) Also, as mention, they like to blend the things. | ||||||
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| If you're buying loose leaf, you have to buy 2 oz., but I think you can order a single cup of anything in stock to taste on the spot. | ||||||
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| They chose two good gateway teas for you. Lapsang is a one of my favorite moody teas. If you like the Mate/Rooibos, I'd second the Yerba Matte suggestion. Good smoky undertones and more caffeine. It probably looses some of the fruity subtleties of the rooibos blend, though, so your mileage may vary. Hmmn, the Burlington Mall isn't that far away... | ||||||||
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| Actually, the Lapsang was entirely my own idea -- I think it's a little too smoky for them to put out in front for the passers-by. And I'll clearly have to try the Yerba Mate, given the second recommendation; thanks! | ||||||||
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Justin du Coeur - Doomed to a new addiction
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