Laponic December 25, White

I had mentioned I wanted to try this and Derk kindly offered to send me the rest of a tin to try! Thanks so much, Derk!

This has the strangest steeping directions I’ve seen yet. 80C for 10-11 minutes! It’s very lightly flavored. The scent is a wisp of my spice cabinet, a faint mixture of many herbs (must be the dried basil in the mix). I think the strongest bit that I’m getting is the blackberry leaf sweetness, but it’s not over powering. It almost has a minty coolness. Hard to pick out anything in the sip aside from the light mix of herbs I mentioned smelling, but the finish has a faint perfume to it. I can’t say I can taste the sandalwood, which is what caught my interest in this blend in the first place. I’m not taken by this tea and I really appreciate the chance to try it without having to commit to a 125g purchase. That would have been a disappointment especially after liking two other Laponics that Theodor has.

What is Laponic? I don’t know. A made-up French word?

Here’s a tin of tea, the last from a long-ago swap with ashmanra. Why did I not try this last holiday season?

This tea evokes many memories of my first job at 15, a wrap we made, specifically the pinto beans we put in it. The tea’s not at all beany, though. Basil is the strongest note for me, dried, savory. Cedar flavor provides a cool, woodsy tone. The blackberry leaf is very mellow in its flavor and sweetness. The base white tea is also mellow and slightly vegetal. There’s a very light tang I think provided by the berries.

Gentle tea, rejuvenating like a light broth. I like it. It reminds me also of Ohio and hiking in late fall through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Forest understory, maybe? Hemlock growing in secret locations atop sandstone ledges, narrow, silvery waterfalls disappearing down beech ravines, brambles lining meadows. God, Ohio has some modest beauty.

Whatever Laponic means, it’s a comforting, gentle tea to have on Christmas day as the rain falls in straight lines from the low, grey sky.

Merry Christmas :)

I have had this tea for at least ten months. I don’t know quite what to say. It is….weird.

I LOVE most The O Dor teas, with some of the blends being right at the top of my list, but this one baffles me. I don’t hate it. I wish the tin was empty and I will be relieved when it is. It just tastes weird to me.

In spite of the ingredient list, it does not taste fruity to me. I don’t even know what it does taste like to me. Besides weird.

I tried it hot again a few days ago to see if maybe the first pot I made had been a fluke. Nope, still weird. So I decided to ice it and add sugar and while I WILL drink it just to be not wasteful, I groan when I open the fridge and see it. My husband says it is odd but he doesn’t mind it and is fine with drinking it iced until it is gone.

Yes, life is short and it would probably be better to just throw it away, but we really are not wasteful and try to use, mend, repair, redo, recycle….you get the idea. And as I said, it isn’t vile, it is just super weird tasting to me. I think I have enough leaf for about two gallons. That should use it all up within a week or two. We will see.