#blue tea

Who wants a... Blue tea?

I’m not going to bury (drown?) the lead, Gentle Drinker, because I have invented a tea.

Well, created a tea.

With help.

You can read on for the story about how it happened, my taste testing, and more. But for now, I’m delighted to introduce you to…

Tea Punk Teas Presents

In Collaboration with Gail Carriger

In honor of the Tinkered Starsong series

Deep Blue Abyss

Insert wild cheering (or loud sipping) or polite gloved clapping. Whatever works.

Deep Blue Abyss is a carefully curated blend of butterfly pea leaf & Ti Kuan Yin oolong

Add lemon to watch the magic!

I had so much fun working with Tea Punk Teas to create this.

We did it simply so you could get the blend all in one place. I love them and wanted to support them, and they were a delight to work with. I really hope you enjoy this tea, I think it is DELIGHTFUL.

The tin has a quote from the first book, Divinity 36, about tea and my signature as a stamp of approval.

It’s also tons of fun. I have a whole section below about all the things you can do with it.

I like it warm or iced with a little lemon.

It has been a long time since I did any kind of blind tea taste testing (2009, would you believe?).

And then I wrote a sci-fi series about a barista and wanted him to have a special-tea.

Yes, blue & purple tea do, indeed, show up in the last book, Dome 6.

Tea In Spaaaceeeee !

So for those of you not following the saga elsewhere. I got excited about blue space tea, because I think it’s something Phex would love. Also I decided what most butterfly pea flower tea lacks, in my experience (aside from… ya know… flavor) is caffeine.

I figured if it was going to mix butterfly pea with anything it probably needed a white tea or an oolong. Butterfly pea flowers don’t have much flavor, kinda green, a little grassy, a little hay, I they’d meld best with oolong.

So I started to experiment.

First I invented this version:

Butterfly Pea Flower + Milk Oolong

And then I was chatting about it online and it started to get too complicated to explain to you, Gentle Sipper, how to make it so I thought:

You know one thing steampunk has given me? Direct access to specialist boutique tea vendors. Why not just reach out and see if they want to create a tea with me? I mean, I’m cool enough to know 3 of them. This girl is using her “celebrity” status for good. I tell ya.

Well, at least… for tea. (Which is kinda the same thing as good, IMHO.)

All of which is to say, I reached out to Tea Punk Teas. They responded with alacrity (alacri-tea!) and in very short order 4 samples arrived via post and I got to sipping!

Testing the Tea Samples – Oolong vs White Tea

It was a complicated and hard fought battle.

But… I am pretty confident the winner was sample #3:

a mix of Ti Kuan Yin oolong and butterfly pea leaf flower (of course)

It had the smoothest finish to me and also tasted nice with lemon, which I think is important with butterfly pea.

The next morning I tried it with milk and (separately) with a different acid component (jam – don’t knock it until you try it), and also iced. Simply to make sure it was as flexible as I wanted, and so it would satisfy the most readers, different people’s tastes, cultures, and locations around the world. Phex would be this way about it.

I also tried the white vs oolong with one of my local writer’s groups. They agreed the oolong won.

Space tea tasting notes

Instructions to myself:

I tried to be as single blind and as scientific as possible.

I drank water in between.

I did them all first with nothing added whatsoever. (no lemon or milk)

I did them all with the same amount of water, the same weight of tea, and at the same temperature. I timed them all to steep for three minutes.

The instructions on the packet were more precise than this, but I am an everyday tea drinker and I’m going to make a new tea the way I make it. Which is with boiling water and a 3 minute egg timer (if it’s not black).

So I’m gonna treat these teas that way if I want to drink them regularly. So any more precise instructions on the packet were ignored.

Approach:

At first I just sample each one in a row and took tasting notes.

After that I’ll put them aside and just tried to drink them deciding which one I liked best.

I ended up with one I clearly didn’t like (the strongest white). And one which was too mild for me and left me indifferent (the weakest oolong).

Two where I kind of liked both of them (one white, one oolong).

Because this is butterfly pea leaf I then put a dash of lemon juice into each one. I wanted to see the color change to purple, but also to taste it with lemon.

One of my LEAST favorite teas (the white that had the most brisk complexity to it – I don’t like my teas too brisk or too complex) actually tasted the best with the lemon. But of my two favorites, it was the final one that tasted of the best, the oolong.

So that’s the tea that I chose as my winner.

It turned out to be the stronger Ti Kuan Yin oolong blend.

And some polling of the fan group and extensive discussion (googling) the name we decided on was Deep Blue Abyss. It harkens not just to space but to the ocean and the mermaid colors of this tea. (Interestingly, that’s key to my NEXT book.)

Additional tests I put the tea through!

MILK

I tested it warm and with milk = very tasty. Because I feel like oolong already has a milky consistency when it’s at its best, adding milk simply adds to that flavor profile. Plus the little bit of sweetness doesn’t hurt.

SECOND STEEP

Because this turned out to be the oolong, I also tested the blend on a second steep. (The best oolongs take and second and even a third seep and taste completely different each time. It’s part of their charm.)

The second steep on this tea is nice, but be warned the color is mostly gone. An oolong leaf can go through more than one flush but the butterfly pea flower only seems to work the first time, at least for a strong blue.

The second steep still has some blue to it but is was much paler and more teal with he natural yellow green of the oolong coming through.

The Ti Kuan Yin oolong was robust enough to take the second steep and still have a good flavor but I don’t think it can take a third.

WITH JAM

A word on the Russian tea variant. 

If you like your greens or oolongs (or even blacks) a little fruity you can add a jam to this tea to get a nice flavor AND the pretty purple color. I tried it with apricot jelly and then pineapple jam, (also I think marmalade would be nice).

ICED

I had some left over of this in the pot so I stuck it in the fridge.

I made a LOVELY iced tea the next day and I think would be a great base for a homemade bubble tea so I tried it like that…

BOBA VERSION

I used coconut jelly to keep the blue color (it also got dyed blue) and blueberry popping boba to change the color a little. Or any other for a rainbow experiences.

COCKTAIL VERSION

Okay so I love coconut so I tried it with Malibu rum. It was very yummy. You could use any clear alcohol though. Vodka, gin, tequila  etc…

Before you ask, YES I did.

More of me talking tea?

30+ Best Tea, Teapots, Teakettles & More: My Epic Tea Post

Teapot Carrier AKA the Carriage Cozy: Transporting Tea (Victorians On the Go)

Gail Carriger Explains How To Make Proper Pot of Tea: Being an Essay based on Hearsay, Family Tradition, and Opinionated Preferences

Yours (super taster scientist type, plus tea is a serious business),

Mitski’s on repeat in my wired headset again

And I try not to feel sorry for myself, not to cry.

I try to stand my ground, to stand on business,

It’s never enough.

I’m back in that office job again,

Now my old friends, my new friends,

My international friends and fellow Filipinos

Must think what a clown I am.

It’s the same circus, same as Yulo’s,

The difference is he won two gold medals

And has a supportive girl and the girl’s family.

I’m stuck in a cycle with my family.

Time is a circle, as the world spins on its axis.

I begin again, the same day,

Tolerating and hating everything and everyone,

For the past 26 years.

The funny thing is, I thought I could treat my friends

As a replacement for my family –

A break from the scorching summers and hell that they bring

But it opened up

Abuse, recklessness,

Dumbness, idiot,

Idiot, idiot, idiot

Idiot, idiot, idiot

Idiot, idiot, idiot

Idiot, idiot, idiot

Idiot, idiot, idiot

I am a fucking idiot

For thinking that friends can fill the void,

Much less how relationships started

And ended.

In my waking hours and grimdark dreams,

No one ever loved me,

I was only tolerated.

The fat fuck from the Philippines,

Loser – tolerated.

They’re a no one, they are toxic.

My parents loved the dogs more than me.

A female dog is a bitch

And she is.

The dogs they took care of, the white one,

Would bite me when I tried to get close,

Get familiar.

So animals don’t like me, my parents, my sisters,

My family don’t like me,

I am not certain if my remaining friends

Secretly hate me

Or if I have potential partners at all.

Aside from my personal life,

My professional, oh,

I hate numbers, I hate Accounting.

My boss is a bitch,

Who would work us 6 days a week,

From 7 in the morning until 7 in the night.

She would excuse it as personally knowing us,

Or so she claimed and our residence was nearby.

She does not understand boundaries.

The only solace I have is I can steal a few Zs

From working hours, shit, fuck, and game

During working hours.

I don’t fuck anyone, I’m AroAce and Polyam,

Not a monster.

I let my SLOWLY messages

Stack up, let it add up.

Long messaging and waiting for messages

To arrive piss me the fuck off.

By the time something reaches to me,

The Homestuck magic of waiting for a friend’s response

Or mail is gone, it’s gone.

It’s motherfucking gone.

SLOWLY was an excuse for lazy messaging,

A random-izer.

It can be a dating app but for friends.

Every time I hear that dating apps have a friend feature

Or can be used to find friends,

I want to shoot myself.

I loved the randies from Boo and Her app

But for someone to be lazy

and obviously lazy,

To not write something coherent, complex and interesting

Dear mother of god, susmariosep!

Now, I know how it is when people get bored,

I get bored too.

I know uninterested when it writes, when it talks

Yet I’m not a plaything anymore.

My Germans, Americans, and Chinese write to me

And I’m not sure how to reply.

I watch my Russian friend online in the photo app,

I wonder if I will get our usual messaging

But it is a Sunday

And seemingly, same as the Americans I knew,

They are busy with family, work and maybe study.

Or rather, it becomes obvious to my oblivious,

Moron self

That there is not one single person

Who will prefer to talk to me,

The way I speak to my poetry and art.

I pity…not myself, but everyone else.

I am healing, like a caterpillar encased in a cocoon

And about to hatch.

The hatch will be a thing of horror,

Violence to myself for a new life someday.

I’m on the third cup of “Ternate”,

Like the municipality of Cavite.

Third cup of my butterfly pea tea.

I watch the light blue sky turn into deep ocean blue,

A tea in my cup.

I swallowed it whole.

I know I’m the problem

And how mean and rude I am

But I also know I do these things

Because I was hurt deeply,

Left to lick my own wounds,

So a little fun fact about me is that I like to keep Medibang on my computer whenever I can't use my normal art program.