Review: Winter Solstice Tea from Peet's Coffee

Earlier I shared with you my 2013 Tea Addiction, the Trader Joe's Vanilla and Cinnamon Black Tea (aka "Christmas Lemur Tea"), well, today I give you last year's Tea Addiction, the Winter Solstice Tea from Peet's Coffee:

 

Sorry for the extra large picture, but sometimes you want to see fine details, right?

Speaking of fine details, let's take a second look at those leaves, shall we?

Mmmm... whole cloves, orange zest, chunks of cinnamon, whole rolled black tea....

Winter Solstice is one of those teas you will love from the first inhaled wisp of steam.  It's vanilla (subtle), and citrus (strong), along with cinnamon, clove and allspice.  As you can see from the picture, it's the real deal in there.  I would generally expect that to be true, as Peet's produces some serious quality teas.  It remains delightfully aromatic for a loooong time.

Whereas "Lemur Tea" is a cookie-flavored punch in the face, Winter Solstice is more like opening the oven door while your orange-something muffins are baking.  It's not subtle by any measure, but neither is it overpowering.  And man oh man, does it smell amazing.  I could just hover over my cup and sniff at it for several minutes (*ahem!* Not that I would know anybody who's tried that sort of thing, you know, but I, um... could.  Yeah.)  Or to put it differently, to Lemur Tea's cookie, it is a delicate flower in full bloom.  Damn, that's poetic.

Now, drinking loose-leaf tea comes with its own set of obligations, namely, to brew it properly.  Now you're venturing into the realm of the serious tea drinker.  Well, dipping your toe in the pool, anyway.  There are a couple ways you can go about this.  You can buy a package of empty tea sacks (think condoms made of filter paper), or if you're not the disposable goods type, a couple bucks in the right shop will yield you a handy-dandy tea ball .  It's a mesh ball (sometimes mesh one side and with small colander-like holes in the solid metal other side, and sometimes all mesh) with a hinge and a latch, into which you put your leaves, then toss the whole thing into your cup or teapot.  There are also teapots with an incorporated removable tea infuser .  Another method is to add your loose tea directly into the pot and use a tea strainer over your cup when you pour out. If all of this sounds really intimidating, you technically can purchase this tea in teabag form (though tea lovers will tell you that the rolled leaves are superior to the chopped up form used in teabags.  Not having purchased the teabags form from Peet's, I cannot verify the state of the leaves therein, but I WILL say that in the stores, they put loose leaf into the tea sac.  Take that for what you will.)

Directions for proper tea brewing are on the side of the tin.  Preheat your teapot by swishing hot water around inside, and let it sit while you heat the water for your tea.  Don't forget to pour it out before filling up your teapot!  This prevents cold china from sucking the heat out of your tea too quickly.  Measure out one teaspoon/teabag per cup of tea.  Lovers of strong tea will also add "one for the pot!" in their larger teapots, lovers of weaker tea will use somewhat less.  But start with one-per and go from there.  Put the tea/bag/ball in your teapot, and pour boiling water over it (there is some difference of opinion about brewing temperature, some swear it must be absolutely boiling, and some suggest that you boil it, remove from heat, then pour it just slightly off-boiling, but regardless hot-hot-hot!)  Now let it brew for 3-5 minutes.  Then, and this is the main reason I subjected you to this whole lesson about tea brewing, remove the tea!  Obviously not possible when you just dump the leaves directly in (note the recently-used tea ball in photo above), but otherwise, it's a good idea to pull it out.  Past about 5 minutes, extra brewing time doesn't get you stronger tea, using more tea does.  But with some teas (I've found this to certainly be true of their Jasmine Fancy green tea), the taste can turn bitter if you leave the leaves in too long.

As always, I take mine with milk and sugar.

Peet's sells Winter Solstice during fall and winter only for $11.95 (maybe spring until sold out, but don't count on that) in attractive 4-oz. tins with a copper-tinted lid.  (Most Peet's teas come with gold-tinted lids.)  These tins are great for reusing - I actually store my sugar in an old Peet's tea tin.  The box of 25 teabags is $9.95.