Zestfully Green & Watership Down

Ember's Tea Review:

Davids Tea is perfect for Easter! With the big meals ahead for this weekend, this particular green tea would serve as the perfect digestive aid. Made with lemongrass, ginger, matcha, apple, licorice root, orange peel, blackberry leaves, and natural lemon flavours, this tea has a fantastically bright and refreshing flavour.

When I went down to Davids Tea to purchase this tea for tonight's review, I was disappointed to hear they were no longer selling it loose. This was a tea we had known we were going to do for weeks, and had already picked out the date and book to pair with the Easter weekend. We couldn't go back now! Originally my plan had been for 50gs of the tea, just enough to get us our sample. Instead I ended up spending 32$CAD on 140gs of tea. It doesn't sound like much more than the 50gs, but when everything is done by weight it really adds up. While this tea is especially delicious (and my roommate was pleased I brought so much home) I was sad to hear that it was no longer available loose. It is, thank goodness, available in smaller increments online!

As is expected with Davids Tea drinks, the smell is always way more fragrant. When I pulled the leaves out of the bag, it look like I was staring at the grass in the image we used for this week's blog post. It was the exact same shade too! 

Using the usual 85-90° water for my greens, I did find that this tea had to steep a little longer then usual. Sometimes this can happen when you mix in fruits with your tea. With matcha being so prevalent in this tea, I would recommend making sure to really watch your water temperature. Burned matcha is a horrible experience no one should ever live through.

After steeping, I noticed that a lot of the green powder from the finely ground tea leaves had strained through in to the bottom of our cups, and we could not see the orange hues of the orange peels. The ginger and citrus aromas that had drawn us in when we originally purchased this tea were not nearly as strong. As you may remember from an earlier blog post, I mentioned that teas that lose a lot of their scent after steeping tend to be a weaker flavour. This was also part of the reason why I chose to steep this tea for three minutes instead of my usual 1-2 minutes. 

Once I poured our cups we were left with a wonderful light green colour. The flavours are not as punchy when the tea is still fresh from the pot. I recommend letting this tea sit a bit, or even cool all the way. While this tea did have some good flavours hot, I found that the flavour really bloomed once it had a chance to cool ( and I am still drinking from the same pot I steeped around noon this afternoon ). When hot this tea has a lighter flavour profile with a hint of ginger and lemongrass. However, when this tea cools all the flavours really pop. You can taste the citrus,the ginger, the lemongrass, and the matcha all swirling together to create a perfect balance. 

This tea is great as a pallet cleanser, or good after a heavy meal to help settle the stomach. You can thank the ginger and lemongrass soothing your indigestion, as the two are known for aiding the digestive tract.  

Zestfully Green also is fairly caffeinated due to the presence of matcha, so please keep that in mind if you are sensitive to caffeine and the affect it can have on the body, or if you are wanting to avoid any restlessness before bedtime. 

All things considered, this is one of those teas that I will be trying to keep as a staple in our tea hutch, and will likely be drinking all spring and summer long.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Astra's Book Review: 

This Easter long weekend, what could be more fitting than bunnies?? Actually, Watership Down by Richard Adams was one of the first books we picked to feature on this blog, and we were simply waiting to line it up with Spring and the perfect tea: Zestfully Green. The lush green quality (both visually and flavour-wise) of this tea seemed like the kind of tea the rabbit characters in Adams' story would drink, if rabbits were to drink tea. 

Watership Down is a modern classic (originally published in 1972), and for good reason. Adams proves that a rich world setting can be woven out of even the most mundane topics. His viewpoint--even when speaking directly to his human readers--is so perfectly anchored in the sensibilities, desires, and dangers of a rabbit's life that the realism created is complete. We can believe that this is the secret life of all the meadow-dwelling animals, unfolding beneath our noses. Even his beautifully pastoral and in-depth description of the bucolic settings make sense in his prose; these details mean the difference between life and death for his heroes. 

A hero's epic, the tale begins with Hazel and Fiver, a pair of low-ranking rabbits in a warren grown over-populated yet sedentary. Fiver possesses a sort of prophetic sight (a rare but known quality some rabbits possess), and sees looming disaster. Yet, the warren's leader dismisses the warnings of this tiny rabbit, much like the Greeks ignored Cassandra. Only Hazel truly believes in Fiver's premonition, but using the growing unrest in the lower ranks of the rabbits, Hazel manages to gather those itching for a chance to escape the warren and make a new start. One of these defectors is Bigwig, an erstwhile enforcer of their commune. A rabbit as big as he is bullheaded, Bigwig is an impressive figure that the other runaways are willing to follow. So with Hazel, or perhaps Bigwig, leading the expedition, the defectors throw caution to the winds and set off on a haphazard journey to a distant "safe place" Fiver has dreamed of, praying that it truly exists and that they will all survive long enough in open country to see it.

What unfolds is an adventure in acts, with each new place the rabbits discover representing different societal structures/systems of government. The dangers of each, from fascist dictatorships to nihilistic communes, forces our heroes to learn how to work together in order to survive. They make new (and often unexpected) allies, and face terrible losses. All through it, Adams beautifully conveys the dangers from the scope of a field-dwelling creature. Cats become terrifying adversaries, wide-open fields enough to make a rabbit go tharn, and man-made "black rivers" a deadly thing to cross. 

For those interested in getting into the richly built worlds of fantasy, but to whom the full alien quality of such worldbuilding is too much to swallow, Watership Down may be the perfect place to start. Adams' lapine dialect and sparse but enlightening footnotes make the story feel otherworldly, as if this were a text translated from a distant culture. The story's strongest merit lies in reminding us that humans are not the sole species on this planet. After facing Hazel and Fiver's trials in these pages, we cannot help but pay greater attention to the world around us--both natural and man-made. 

So sip your Zestfully Green, and really smell its bouquet. Watch how the sun dapples the leaves on the trees outside. Feel the breeze stir your hair. Watch the birds soaring up above and twitch your nose. Can you sense danger on the wind? Watership Down can lead you to a place of peace and plenty.  

---