Tea Sommelier Series: Thanksgiving Edition 🦃

When you visit an elegant restaurant, a wine sommelier will help you choose a wine to complement your dish. As a tea enthusiast and someone who spends much of her days trying new teas and receiving countless tea recommendations, I’m excited to give myself a new and exciting title: Tea Sommelier.

In this blog series, I will pair teas with different types of experiences, like different holidays, seasons, tv shows, movies, etc. Whichever experience may be enhanced by a cuppa tea, I’ll be there for you with a hand-picked recommendation.

As someone who loves a theme, for this first recommendation, I’m going with an obvious theme for this week: Thanksgiving!

If you’re like me, you’re probably anxiously awaiting this year’s Thanksgiving celebrations. Last year, my family and I weren’t able to get together, so I’m very excited this year to return to some of my favorite traditions.

Of course, like most American families, my Thanksgiving tradition starts with the parade in the morning, food around the afternoon (leaving plenty of time for leftovers later in the evening), and football scrolling across the TV throughout the day. However, my most favorite Thanksgiving tradition is... the after-dinner nap: the time of the day where your body is so full of food that you slip into a food coma, with the help of some turkey-fueled tryptophan. I always adore these moments and cherish these memories, because after all the chatting and joy of the day, I feel most at peace when I am resting on the couch surrounded by my favorite people.

I hope you and your family share a similar post-dinner Thanksgiving tradition, and if not, this year is the year to start! To accompany your post-dinner nap, I’ve compiled a tea that will help get you snoozing faster than tryptophane.

The Apple/Pumpkin Combo

In my Instagram #teatalkwithtab series, throughout the fall season I have showcased two different fall-themed teas, a “Cinnamon Apple Chamomile” tea, as well as a “Decaf Pumpkin Spice” tea.

In my reviews, I favored the apple tea over the pumpkin spice, mainly due to its sweeter taste. The pumpkin spice tea was quite bitter and bland, and I was disappointed, since I’m a pumpkin spice latte fan! So, for this first Tea Sommelier recommendation, I decided to try and mix the two flavors to see how they tasted together.

In one word… delightful!

Simply take one tea bag from each box and steep them together in one mug and delight your senses with an assortment of fall flavors. The sweetness of the cinnamon apple tea helps balance out the bitterness of the pumpkin spice, and with the help of the pumpkin flavor, your cuppa tea will have a lovely autumnal aroma.

By themselves, these teas have quite the intense flavors, but together they form a perfectly balanced fall-flavored treat. Pair this combo tea with your after-meal nap (the chamomile in the apple cinnamon tea will help speed up your sleepiness), and you’ll have yourself a cozy Thanksgiving evening!

So while you’re taking the turkey out of the freezer and making your last-minute shopping runs for extra stuffing (Because, let’s face it, you’ve already dug into the first box), be sure to add some apple and pumpkin teas to your list.

I hope you have a happy Thanksgiving, and happy sipping! ☕