Beverage Review: Eat, Pray,Love,

(first published as Beverage Review: Eat, Pray, Love at Technorati on 10/26/11)

For all the readers and movie enthusiasts around, whenever you see the words “eat, pray, love,” it would automatically remind you of that bestselling memoir of influential writer Elizabeth Gilbert depicting her self-discovery journey in three countries: Italy, where she discovered the joy of pleasure (through eating); India, where she discovered the joy of spirituality; and Indonesia, where she discovered the joy of balance (the balance of pleasure and spirituality). The memoir became a huge hit with positive raves from literary critics everywhere that Hollywood became attracted with the story and produced a film adaptation starring Julia Roberts as Gilbert.

Eat, Pray, Love is in my personal list of favorite books and I’ve also seen the movie, however this particular review isn’t going to be about the memoir or the movie, knowing there are hundreds of different reviews for them. Instead, this review will be of a refreshing beverage that was inspired by the memoir. Renowned specialty tea label, The Republic of Tea (TROT), collaborated with Gilbert in creating and presenting the Eat, Pray, Love Blood Orange Cinnamon Black Tea.

The highlight of the Eat, Pray, Love black tea are the three major ingredients in the tea blend: the juicy crimson blood orange representing Italy; the smooth black tea leaves representing India; the cinnamon spice representing Indonesia. It doesn’t indicate the actual type of black tea, except for the fact that it came from the hills of Southern India. The tea makers of TROT carefully blended these three ingredients together with a fourth ingredient, ginger root, in order to create this distinctively juicy and refreshing tea beverage. TROT, like all their teas in their extensive catalog, served the blend in their signature round unbleached tea bags. Steep one bag in your cup and pour 6 ounces of fresh, filtered hot water (heat the water close to boiling), then brew for 3-5 minutes. For the iced tea version, use two round bags and use the same procedures as the hot tea. Let the tea cool by itself or refrigerate it for faster cooling, then pour it over ice.

Prior to writing this review, I have tried both the hot tea and the iced tea versions and I have to admit that both versions give that very light, crisp, distinctive flavor that really got me in to an adventurous bliss. I usually add a packet of Stevia sweetener on really strong teas, mainly black tea, to cancel the bitterness, along with a splash of milk. Because this was the first time that I’m drinking this tea, I drank both the hot and iced version by themselves with no added extras. The blood orange flavor was there, but not overpowering, and the three main ingredients truly balanced together that created this distinctive taste. The bright amber color that the black tea leaves produce can easily mistake this tea for Rooibos (red) Tea. The cinnamon spice was also enough to make its presence in the blend of flavors without overpowering the rest of the ingredients. For all the tea enthusiasts out there, we all know that black tea has the highest natural caffeine content among all the types of teas, but still way less than your regular cup of coffee. This tea contains 50mg of natural caffeine per 6 ounce cup, which makes it a good little pick-up beverage in the morning or a refresher in the afternoon.

The Eat, Pray, Love black tea is a part of TROT’s catalog of limited edition teas, which means that once this tea is sold out, it’s gone forever (unless they decide to make more due to popular demand). The packaging comes in TROT’s signature recyclable cylindrical tin cans containing 50 round unbleached tea bags, which is a lot in count compared to majority of their teas served in tins at 36 tea bags. Unlike majority of TROT’s teas, the Eat, Pray, Love black tea does not come in loose leaf versions, which of course, makes this tea indeed a special limited edition tea. It is also quite expensive at $11.50 for a can of 50 bags, but not as expensive as the Double Matcha Green Tea (at $13.50 for a can of 50 bags) or any of the loose leaf teas in their very rare teas collection ($16-$30 for 2-3 ounces of loose leaf in a tin). In addition to this tea’s limited edition status, it can only be purchased on very select retail stores or specialized tea stores or at TROTs website. Should you decide to purchase a tin of this tea, it’s up to you whether you got your money’s worth once you try your first cuppa (British slang for a cup of tea).

You don’t have to read the memoir or watch the movie first just for you to enjoy your juicy and refreshing cup of the Eat, Pray, Love black tea, but the tea may inspire you to read the book or watch the movie or vice versa.