I’m super picky when it comes to food and drinks. It’s probably because my family is really good at cooking (especially with fruits and veggies Dad grows in the garden).
I am also horrible at drinking water. I’ve been drinking a certain diet soda that starts with a “C” and ends with an “oke” as my go to beverage for a while. But a soda habit like that gets expensive after awhile. And it’s horrible for you.
Now, I don’t want to sound like the beginning of a recipe blog here, but I realized I was going to have to switch it up a little bit, which is when my friend Rita bought a cute little tea-pot from Curiosi-Tea House. Now, I have been making tea with my Keurig, and I’ve been hating it. I feel like I’ve been using the wrong steep time or I’ve had the wrong amount of water in the cup.
On Thursday, I went to the shop with a couple friends, and ended up buying my own tea-pot. I then proceeded to make a cup of Echinacea tea that knocked my socks off.
I looked into which kinds of tea were “essential” for a beginner and bought a couple. Not all of them were personally winners, but they weren’t losers.
Now, I’m looking forward to trying new kinds of tea, but I’d like to write about the ones I have tried (in the order I tried them, naturally, this isn’t a competition).
White Pear-Curiosi-Tea Blend
This tea honestly tasted like apple cider to me. I drink a lot of the apple-pear sparkling cider, so this was a hot, non-bubbly version of that.
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White Tea
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Low Caffeine
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Sweet
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Light Flavor
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Pair with: Any kind of apple dessert. My mouth waters to think of the marriage between Ferguson Orchard’s Apple Turnovers and this tea.
Chamomile & Lavender Herbal Mix- Curiosi-Tea Blend
A zero caffeine blend of Lavender and Chamomile—this one was definitely my favourite. This is a nice variation of the “sleepy-time” tea, which had stuff I was kind of allergic to, so it was nice to just have the two ingredients I could see. I trusted that I was going to wake up in the morning with this tea.
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Herbal Tea
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Light flavor
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Sweet
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No Caffeine
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Pair with: A Good Night’s Sleep (or Snickerdoodles). Chamomile tends to be a calming tea, and I’ve conditioned myself to associate lavender scent with sleep time, so drink it before bed! Highly recommend pairing with a good old-fashioned Agatha Christie.
Choco-Mint Julep-Curiosi-Tea Blend
This one was probably my least favorite, but Rita liked it! The flavor was similar to the chocolate scented lip-balms we used to have as kids (universal experience).
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Black Tea
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Heavier flavor
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High Caffeine
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Very sweet
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Pair with: Sugar cookies! No frosting, frosting is for chumps. I probably would have liked it better with something to eat, so go nuts! I’d just recommend you not try it with anything super rich, as you will not finish it.
Jasmine Green Tea- Curiosi-Tea Blend
I woke myself up with a nice cup of this, and I could have had literally anything for breakfast. I like eating savory breakfasts, so I could have made a nice spinach omelet and had some toast with strawberry jam, and it would have been a great morning. It very clearly tasted like tea, but I wasn’t overpowered. I really enjoyed this one!
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Green Tea
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Medium Caffeine
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Light flavor
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Slightly sweet
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Pair with: Brunch spread (even though it’s not technically a “Breakfast Tea”).
There you have it folks! This is basically where I am in the tea game, and I enjoy the loose-leaf options I’ve reviewed. Having the tea-pot (with a built in infuser!) has made my long and arduous (kidding) tea journey much easier, but you don’t need one.
The Curiosi-Tea house is a women-led store, and they also have a Mankato location that happens to be closer to my hometown, so give them a visit! I also posted a picture of the set on my Instagram, here. It’s yellow!