My Mug of Blueberry Tea

Remember when I won 3rd place in the Shrinking Violet Promotions book-title contest? Here's what I won: my very own SVP mug with a photo of (shrinking) violets on one side and the quip, "Silence is often misunderstood, but never misquoted" on the other. Thank you, Robin and Mary, for the mug. It is now my new blueberry tea mug.

"What is blueberry tea?" you might ask. "Is it an herbal infusion of blueberries, or is it something more mysterious and suitable only for grownups?" If you were to guess the latter, you would be correct. Here is my favorite recipe for blueberry tea (with nary a berry in sight):

One mug of hot Earl Grey tea brewed to your specifications*
1 shot Grand Marnier
1 shot Amaretto

The resulting brew is citrus-scented and lightly sweet. It inspires me to no end. Some recipes call for Orange Pekoe tea, but that may be because of the mistaken impression that "orange" refers to the flavor of the tea instead of the size of the leaf. It's an understandable error, but someone needs to tell the marketing departments of some of these great tea empires.

If you don't have a SVP mug, the ideal way to drink blueberry tea is in a snifter like one you may have received as a wedding gift:



If you decide to drink blueberry tea from a glass drinking vessel, remember to warm up the glass first with hot tap water so you don't inadvertently shatter your Romanian snifter.

*Tea-brewing times vary according to region and person. I once lived with a friend from a little town near Cornwall who was particular that her tea not be oversteeped. I could understand that, but "oversteeped" for her was different than it was for me. A number of times, I would pour the boiling water over the tea-bag and tell her, "I just poured the water over the tea-bag." Her response was to screech, "Take it out! Take it out! It's steeped too long!"