A fun (and delicious) new way to enjoy tea!

It is rare that someone comes up with a truly new way to enjoy tea, but when Sashee Chandran wrote me recently about Teadrops and offered to let me try a sample, I was more than a little interested!

A Teadrop, she said, "is a literal morsel of finely sourced tea, spices, and organic sugar that one simply drops in hot water and stirs to enjoy."

My samples soon arrived, and I was impressed with the pretty wooden box packaging them.

It slides open easily, and the first thing I thought was what a great gift this would make. (The second thing I thought? Tea room gift shops ought to love these!)

Each flavor of tea is a different shape. From left are the Vanilla White tea, which is bundt-shaped, the Rose Earl Grey tea, which is flower-shaped, and the Cardamom Spice tea, her most popular flavor, which is star-shaped.

When I turned over the box, I was intrigued to see that it says these are "Made in a Home Kitchen" and even listed the permit number. I like that!

I was very curious how these Teadrops could possibly "work," because it seemed to me those finely ground tea leaves would be swirling around my tea and I'd need to strain them out. But the video I watched said no, no straining was required. How was that even possible? I added the boiling water to my cup and watched closely as some tiny bubbles formed near the surface.

When I stirred the tea, its look suddenly reminded me of the popular homemade powdered tea mix many of us have tried over the years. (And yes, it's a bit creepy that you can see my little blue camera and my fingers reflected in the tea. Thank goodness I painted my fingernails this weekend!) The Cardamom Spice tea was the first one I tried, and I must say I just snuggled under an afghan and sipped away, thoroughly enjoying the spicy goodness. It was a perfect treat for a cold winter afternoon. Then I tried the Vanilla White tea, which had a much more subtle taste, but I loved the rich vanilla flavor of it as well. Last, I tried the Rose Earl Grey, and again I was impressed that these magical, pretty Teadrops could result in such a tasty cup of tea!

So where do the ground tea leaves go? Apparently at least some of them sink to the bottom as you drink the tea, and I was so very surprised that I didn't once taste anything but liquid tea. How neat is that!

I can only conclude that these Teadrops have been magically engineered to provide this elegant new way of enjoying tea! I'm so happy I got to try these Teadrops, and you can learn more about them yourself by going here!