A tea to lift the spirits: Hepsabaugh Berry Tisane ... From SBS Teas...
"Bring your favorite dolly and have a tea party! What better blend to have but our flavorful fruit melange with hibiscus blossoms, elderberries, grapes, bilberries, citrus peel and natural raspberry-cherry flavor. Deep berry flavor! Kids and adults both love this tasty brew! Wonderful hot, chilled or frozen as a sorbet. Gorgeous deep red color."
" I'll tell you how the sun rose a ribbon at a time."
Emily Dickinson
I made this ravishing tea as the sun rose, and the sky was the amazing unimaginable colors of early morning, pink, blues, the layover of one color into the next, and then I brewed this early morning tisane, needing something to bring me into this world and out of the place that a dream will sometimes take you, to a land you need most urgently to leave. But I wanted to be able to go back to sleep so I chose a lovely fruity tisane I had not tried yet, and I was nearly dumbstruck at the aroma, the color, a deep cherrry red, the color of red wine. And the fragrance of berries that filled the air brightened all of my senses and brought me back into the world of light. I held my oversized mug in both hands as I watched the kaleidoscopic changing of the sky's colors and a tiny chickadee feeding at the kitchen window feeder. I leaned back against the kitchen counter so as not to frighten the wee small bird away, and my whole body relaxed.
I have come late to the joy of tisanes. I had had black teas and flavored teas and herbal teas in my time, but never true tisanes, all fruit, and juicy as biting into the ripest berries, sweetened by the sun with a bit of tartness quickly swept away by layers and layers of flavor. This is a very complex tea, soothing, and if you like berry teas you should not miss this one.
I went back to sleep and rose again and as the day went along I decided, having brewed a large pot, to try it iced! Oh, what a heavenly treat iced. I was thinking it would make incredible popsicles! I did feel like a little girl at a tea party, and wished I could set up a tiny table with dishes and dolls and my dog and know, in that place of lost dreams, that the world was an innocent place where nothing would ever go wrong. The child's mind before it becomes cluttered with the world's doings and the sometimes harsh realities of life.
I am a dollmaker. I have a wee tiny teaset sent to me by one of my dearest friends. I think I shall have a dolly tea party and pour droplets of this tea into acorn top sized cups. Even if, as the tea disappears, it is I who have drunk it down with a giggle and full of delight, it shall be a wonderful way to turn a rainy, grey, cold Sunday into a day of delight. Tea does that. So do dolls, and knitting, and watching the sun rise, a ribbon at a time.
Maitri