There’s a storm signal over the metro so it’s been raining off and on the whole day. After the past week’s late wave, this cool weather is very much welcome, especially since it gives me opportunity to indulge in thick blankets and steaming hot drinks.

Lately I’ve been indulging in hot tea. It’s the simplest of beverages to prepare — I mean, how hard is it to boil some water and put a tea infuser in? I usually enjoy it with some milk and Splenda at my favorite coffee and tea shop. I haven’t had any tea at home since my family and I have just moved into a new place and haven’t stocked our pantry well.

I attended the Lipton Thoughts and Teas blogger event at Paul Calvin’s Deli, BGC a few weeks ago (on a rainy day like this!) and tried to expand my tea preparation repertoire. Celebrity chef Rosebud demonstrated how to create home-brewed chai tea and orange tea with a few spices and extracts. It all seemed so very simple.

And then we were all challenged to create our own signature tea recipes for a prize! I immediately thought of apple-cinnamon, which would have been perfect for the rainy weather we were having…

…if only I knew how to execute it properly. I had no idea how difficult it would be to balance all those ingredients and flavors in one cup of tea!

I threw my first attempt out (it tasted like tea with vomit, ewww!) and tried again. It was better, of course, but didn’t taste as rich as I wanted it to.

In the end, it was a matter of who executed a good idea better: someone else was able to create an apple-cinnamon tea that appealed to Rosebud’s palate. As for me, I think I’ll stick to my black tea with milk. That one’s tried and tested. Ü

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