New Tea Season

The change of season heralds a change of products at the convenience stores. The Rose Pu Erh tea that Tod enjoyed this summer is gone, and we’re casting around for some new drinks to take us through the winter.
Tod came home with some Ucon Cha yesterday. It’s turmeric tea. I love Okinawan black sugar and turmeric candy and turmeric is a good tonic for the liver, so can you go wrong with turmeric tea? No, you cannot. It’s really tasty. This brand is mild and subtly nut-pepper-ginger-citrus flavored.
Turmeric has been used in Indian cuisine as a flavoring and a food dye for 2500 years. It works great as a dye in modern times, too, it stains the plastic bottle yellow!
Tod also found a tumeric tea with ginnemu, a weedy mimosa that’s used in the tropics to feed cattle. The ucon-ginnemu tea has a distinctive flavor. When he opened the bottle, it smelled a little bit like urine. I think I’ll stick to the Ucon Cha.
Another tonic tea on the market contains guava. Guava is supposed to be good for your blood sugar levels. I don’t understand that at all, but the tea has a minty-anise flavor that I enjoyed.
There are scads more new teas, mostly oolong and sencha variations. I’m sure we’ll try them all over the next few weeks.