Behind the Blend: Writer's Fuel

For those new to our blends, welcome! Our themed teas are mostly developed from CEO Friday Elliott's neurological superpower, lexical-gustatory synesthesia. These BTB (behind the blend) posts serve as a dissection of Friday's process and experience.

Caffeine jolt with a leather body and smoke underbelly

You know that energy dip that hits about 70% through a writing session? The total drop in motivation and the brain fog that accompanies it? This tea is designed to taste like the opposite of that. Sometimes we all need a little bolstering, and sometimes we need a lot of bolstering. That bolstering kick in the butt tastes like no-nonsense peaty earthiness and bitey smoke with a honeyed zip of go-get-em smile. These qualities manifest in today's featured tea, Writer's Fuel!

I started with a base of Rwandan black tea, a smooth and sweetly malty-floral black tea from Africa (made with cultivars brought from Taiwan, hence the floral notes). It's full-bodied and rich like the determination to focus and pull a project together. Those malty tones speak to stubbornness. This is the part of the writing process where we dig in our heels and decide that it's time right now to write the damn thing.

The zippy inspiration that we cross our fingers for, hoping to pull a writing project out of a funk tastes bright and a touch piquant. I chose a tippy Assam black tea to bring the zest. Most Assams are on the heavier side, but the young leaf of this particular pick brings the bright, clear amber of a Ceylon black tea with a hint of Darjeeling muscatel. Those are fancy wine nerd words for bright and floral, for those less intensely versed in palate lingo.

A fire to create, the drive that brings us back to our pens, pads, keyboards, typewriters, voice recorders, etc.? That's all sultry smoke. Pine-smoked Lapsang Souchong black tea (well, technically a green tea, but that's a very in-depth quibble for another post) brings leathery smoke that tastes like ambition, cleverness and wry wit.

All combined, this tea blend is intended to boot your rear and refocus you on your work. Life is full of distractions and "oh I really should be..." thoughts that need to be fought back with swords of tea and tenacity.

Now writers: brew up a cuppa and go write the thing!

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