They had sniffing samples, which freaks me out a little but not enough not to sniff.
Sometimes, you think it is Tuesday, so you get up and get dressed and go to work, but then you get a phone call, and two hours later you’re eating a week-old mango in the parking lot of South of the Border on the way to Fayetteville, North Carolina. While I don’t recommend that particular timeline for your stress levels or workplace productivity, these things happen.
Before we begin, I would like to say that if you ever find yourself in Fayetteville, I strongly recommend you wander over to Marquis Market. It’s on Person Street in the historic part of downtown, and it’s a hidden gem. Expansive and warm, it looks like something on Apartment Therapy, and has Boylan sodas in the machine and good coffee and sandwiches to boot. It’s also super cheap. They stock Octavia Teas, which I am not too familiar with. I grabbed a cup of the Blood Orange White and commenced to drinking and contemplating how I got to this place.
What do you know about white tea? You probably know it’s a little pricier and would guess it’s a bit delicate in flavor. It’s a lightly oxidized tea, and it is purported to have antibacterial properties. Cool, right? It also helps improve blood flow and can reduce stress. Blood oranges have a ton of vitamin C, so you can’t lose there, either.
I wanted to love this, because I love the gentle flavors that white teas have, and I am eager for citrus season every year. I was curious how the blood oranges, which are a vibrant taste, and the more nuanced tea would balance and they just…didn’t. It didn’t really have enough of either to be satisfying, and it mostly just tasted like a gently scented water. It tasted like the third steep on the first. If you like something very, very mild, this might be for you, but I wasn’t crazy about it.
I’m interested in trying out some of the other products Octavia’s got. If this sounds like it’s for you, it’s $13 for an ounce and a quarter and can be purchased here.
Anyone tried a tea I might should try? I’m all ears.
