May: Still Not Doing the Floral Thing
Dear Victims of Another Thematically Inappropriate May,
A long time ago in a land called… Chicago… I went on a walking food tour that stopped at a tea house called TeaGschwendner. Walking into TeaGschwendner was like walking into a library — except instead of books, every shelf and wall was lined with tins and boxes and little drawers, each one containing a different tea. Floor to ceiling. Every direction. Twenty-year-old me stood in that shop, had a small but significant revelation, and then immediately went completely off the rails bulk ordering five hundred grams to a full kilogram of my favorites at a time. But sadly, TeaGschwendner was a German brand with a single United States location, and then it closed. Just like that. I spent the better part of a decade rationing the last of what I had, watching my supply dwindle, one cup at a time.
I recently learned that it reopened. Under a new name, Chicago Tea House. The teas are the same. This is relevant because this month’s tea is from Chicago Tea House.
Tea of the Month: Blood Orange Black Tea by Chicago Tea House
Bold, slightly citrusy, and deeply dramatic — a tea that arrives in May like something that has no business being here and knows it. Blood orange is autumn in a cup. It is crimson and brooding and slightly mysterious and I am sending it to you in spring because May belongs to chaos now. You know this.
Here is where it gets interesting though: I would actually recommend you brew this one twice. Once hot and once as iced tea — because something genuinely strange and wonderful happens to the flavor when it cools down. It becomes almost an entirely different tea. The blood orange opens up in a way it simply does not when served hot and you will find yourself wondering if you used a different bag. You did not. That is just what this tea does. Steep it hot first. Then brew a second cup and serve on ice. Report back.
And one more thing — consider this your official sneak peek. Sometime later this year, buried in a future month, two teas are coming from Chicago Tea House that I have been hoarding for a very long time. Irreplaceable teas. The ones I rationed for a decade because I thought they were gone forever. The Blood Orange is a great tea. Those two are something else entirely. Stay tuned.
May your May be unseasonably gothic,