Pomegranate Mojito by Zest Tea
Saturday’s are always busy for me. I try diligently to set aside time to write, but more often than not I have to resign myself to getting nothing done in that department. Lucky for me there is a second day in the weekend and this past Sunday was great for my writing bones. I edited one entire chapter, which may not seem like much, but when you work full time you take what you can get.
To help me accomplish this task I sought the help of a decently caffeinated tea. Unfortunately my April Sipsby box didn’t contain anything helpful so I had to move on to May where I found the Pomegranate Mojito by Zest Tea. While there was another “High Caffeine” tea in that box, this one was advertised as “Coffee-level Caffeine” and I felt my nerves tingle.
These were the first pre-bagged teas I had received from Sipsby and I have to admit not having to stuff an infuser was most helpful in getting my fix as quickly as possible. Ripping open the bag the strong scent of peppermint infused with pomegranate floated up and infiltrated my nostrils. It was magnificent! I’ll admit that I normally don’t drink any type of peppermint tea unless a cold has got me down, but for this I made an exception and I can say that I don’t regret it as much as I probably thought I would.
The full ingredients are Young Hyson Chinese green tea, peppermint, tea extract, natural pomegranate flavor, and natural lime flavor. Truly the perfect mojito, minus the alcohol of course. As it was such an off the wall tea with the capabilities of coffee I felt no reservation in using my Luke’s mug. I don’t think Lorelei would begrudge me too much.
Hey it is coffee-level caffeine, it counts!
Getting to the tasting part – I wasn’t prepared for the experience my body was about to go through. Sure, I’ve had regular peppermint tea before and I was fully ready for the calming effects of just such a drink. However, I am also a proud drinker of a black cup of Joe and I know what to expect from a coffee-level caffeine jolt. Needless to say combining the two was weird.
The warm peppermint with pomegranate undertones was just as calming as I imagined and I was able to gladly go back to editing what will hopefully be a best seller (fingers crossed). It wasn’t until about five minutes later when my computer screen was no longer a haze of electricity and my brain felt like it was buzzing with the answers to life and everything that I started to take in what it was I had actually drank.
This stuff is an elixir that will give you powers, let me tell you. I wrote for hours straight with no break. I drank that tea like a giddy drugged up yuppy and the best part? There was no crash. No low that pulled me down from that high. Now, I didn’t stay wired the rest of the day, it did eventually wear off, but it wasn’t a full stop. It was a gradual feeling that I was very grateful for, because it allowed me to continue writing even though I wasn’t caffeinated to the nines anymore.
It was a happy roller coaster ride with a satisfying ending, which is why I think the best pairing for it is —
Rant: The Oral Biography of Buster Casey by Chuck Palahniuk.
Though probably not as well known as his other popular books, this stands as one of my personal favorites. I haven’t read much else of Palahniuk, but because of this very book I plan to give his catalog of novels a thorough dissection in the future.
I find this book to be a perfect pairing for the Pomegranate Mojito because it manages to do exactly what that tea did to me. You start off calm, despite the story being a little weird at first. It still is a story that you understand and then it slowly starts taking a left turn and before you can stop the oncoming crash you are in the middle of an intersection with a fake dead dear tied down to the roof of your car being chased by fellow Party Crashers making you scream like a pterodactyl. Then the sun slowly rises and you head home with your car a little worse for ware, but you are good; you got your adrenaline fix.
If this is not your experience with this book, it should be. And if you decide to try and have this experience do so with a steaming cup of this tea in your hand.
