Good morning, dear tea friends! The sun is shining in a deep purple-blue sky on a world of white today. It snowed for much of the day yesterday, a heavy snow that fell in wet clumps. Around sunset, I was outside shoveling when the skies cleared and the landscape came alive with this unearthly glow. I stopped for a moment and just gazed at the western sky ablaze in streaks of orange and pink. It looked like a painting. A beautiful moment.

Everything about my tea this morning is warm and inviting from its deep cocoa aroma to its rich, complex flavor. I’m pleased to introduce Panyang Congou Select, a black tea from northern Fujian province in China.

I steeped the large, tippy leaves for 5 minutes in boiling point (212F) water.

I found these wet leaves twisted together and as I drew them apart, magic happened. Happy Valentine’s Day!

The dark amber liquor has a pronounced aroma of cocoa, which carries over into the smooth, full-bodied flavor. It’s more the flavor of unsweetened cocoa so this tea would go great with a little sweetener and a splash of milk. Yum. There are some spicy hints, almost like cinnamon toast, which linger into the finish.

This is a great winter tea, one to be savored as you watch the snowflakes swirl around outside your window. Ok, time to go outside for more shoveling. Have a wonderful two weeks and enjoy your tea!

“There is in us an instinct for newness, for renewal, for a liberation of creative power. We seek to awaken in ourselves a force which really changes our lives from within. And yet the same instinct tells us that this change is a recovery of that which is deepest, most original, most personal in ourselves. To be born again is not to become somebody else, but to become ourselves.”

~Thomas Merton