They Never Accuse Me Of Having a Rosy Disposition ORLook at Me! Cultivating a Rosy Attitude!

Know me well, or actually barely know me at all, and you know that I am a tea drinker.  While I'm not so much a fan of floral teas, I mean, you can keep and steep your Earl Grey, I will fist fight you for my Dragon Pearl Jasmine.  Oh, I hear you.  You're thinking, "Her!  I could totally take that skinny little thing!"  You think so?  Well, okay you probably could, but you'd have to catch me first!

So, a while ago, when I received a sample of Rose Scented Tea with an order from Harney Teas I was sort of "meh!" about the whole thing.  That little envelope lived in my tea stash and every once in a while I would open it, take a sniff and think, "Ewww, roses!"  The aroma was strong, sent me straight into thoughts of my nana's rose scented soaps and bathroom fresheners, just strong enough so she could smell it and overwhelming enough to encourage the rest of us to hold it until we got home.

Then a couple of weeks ago on my daily rummage through the stash for the day's iced brew I decided to purge something, get it out of the stash for good.  The Rose Scented had to go.  I'd brew it and if it was so bad I'd dump it.  I even brewed a second pitcher of a different tea just in case.  Alright!  A third pot, because I always brew two anyway.

To say I was surprised at the taste would be wrong.  It pretty much tasted just like I thought it would.  The glass approached my nose and I was immediately knocked into a rose garden.  The first sip tasted like roses and I didn't think I liked it.  I didn't hate it.  I was compelled to keep sipping.  And sipping and sipping.  Until I went for another glass and all that was left was the scent of roses in the air.

My next stop?  The Harney website, I love this tea.  It was all I could think about until I replaced it.  In another surprising twist, this tea was truly enhanced by the addition of a little bit of sweetener (Truvia is my sweetener of choice), and if you are familiar with my taste in tea you know that I prefer it neat, hot or iced.  That little bit of sweetness really brought out the flavor of roses. 

So there you have it, my floral shunning, sweet rejecting tea drinking self is converted with this tea.

Eighty-nine.  AAAAAARRRRRGHGH!!!!!!!!  Could you hear my wail today?  After writing this post last night (Wednesday) and setting it to publish, I had a doctor's appointment today and among a bunch of information I got the results of my food allergy/sensitivities test.  This is the one that may be causing some of the main issues I've been having, but certainly causes others like the muscle and joint pain among other immune or allergic reactions.  Turns out that I really do have to go yeast free and I had figured out that strawberries and blueberries were on the list, but on the list of things that I have to at least limit, maybe eliminate, was..........BLACK TEA!!!!!!!  WHAT!? 

Okay, so I actually don't drink all that much black tea and limiting it to once a week or less shouldn't be all that hard, right?  But the Rose Scented tea!  So. Sad.  But, I immediately went on a search and found this and this, this and this. Luckily for me, Harney anticipated my needs and came up with Hot Cinnamon Spice in green and rooibos varieties. There are more changes to be made to my life, hopefully the next two weeks go by without too much discomfort. Onward and upward. Even if less caffeinated.

Comments

[Alison]

Oh my gosh! Well, I'm glad you can still drink green & rooibos, but I'm very sad for you that you can't have black tea! And if you need someone to take that black rose tea off your hands, please keep me in mind... (I happen to love all the rose teas that I have tried so far, but I haven't tried Harney's....)

[Liz]

African Autumn is fantastic. Try it!

[CyndiG]

No black tea?!! Wow. The roses are beautiful!

[Manise]

Wow! Well at least it's not all teas, though sorry your original rose tea is off limits. The green and white ones look interesting! Beautiful roses! Part way through the post I thought you had used the petals from the roses in your vase.

[Carole]

Bummer that you finally succumbed to the pleasure of rose tea only to then find out you can't have the one you love. Life is full of compromises, isn't it?

[Dianna]

If it is caffeine in the black tea, one can decaffeinate any tea by steeping for 45 seconds, dumping that brew, then pouring in new water and steeping per usual. Learned that at Jacqueline's Tea Room in Freeport in february. However, if you also can't do Roibus, then it must not be the caffeine...

[Kim]

O man....that bites! Thank goodness it is not all teas. Did they find anything else?

[Renee]

Really? I've never tried Rose tea thinking it would be like drinking air freshener.

Your flowers are gorgeous!

[Vicki]

I felt the same way about lavender sugar cookies -- how could something with such a strong scent (even one I loved) TASTE good? Good luck with all the changes -- I hope you see some wonderful, desired results!

[Norma]

Oh, I ADORE flower-scented foods. Love lavender shortbread, rose-water cookies, etc. Lemme see, it's not up there on a status with your gourmet varieties, but I have an addictive (to me) rose-scented green tea by Republic of Tea. I LOOOOVE it. And by a quick Google I found lots of other brands, as well. I hope you find one you love as much as the one you mentioned.

[Danielle]

Oh, yikes, giving up teas? It's like asking a monkey to forgo bananas. Hang in there, darling!

[Cookie]

Oh no! I'm sorry you got such sucky news. Try to remember how much better you'll feel once you're following that new list of yours.

xo

[Cheryl S.]

I'm usually not big on flavored teas, but I sure like Harney's Cherry Blossom. Haven't ever tried a rose tea.

Feel free to send me all your black tea. As long as it isn't Earl Grey. :)

[monica]

yeast is sooo hard to eliminate. I did a yeast free detox thingy once and I was shocked to see in how many foods they do sneak it in...

Good luck!

[Harper]

Thank goodness you can still drink green tea. And some are quite hearty-tasting. I don't know how you feel about smoked teas but hojicha is yummy. This has made me curious about what might happen during fermentation that makes black tea unfriendly for you.

[claudia]

Tea??? TEA!!!?!?!

That is just so. bogus.

I guess we will be sharing a pot of green tea in the future.....