Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog

Thursday Tea is a weekly meme hosted by yours truly. To play along, all you need is some tea, a book, and the answers to these questions: what tea are you drinking (and do you like it)? What book are you reading (and do you like it)? Tell us a little about your tea and your book, and whether or not the two go together.

Apologies for this being posted so late in the day!

The book: I’m about 200 pages into The Riddle, which is the second book of Pellinor and the sequel to The Naming. There’s still the problems of slowness mixed with high, intense action bits, but there’s a lot more internal/emotional stuff and I think that makes the slowness more bearable. Maerad is getting a bit gloomy and she’s doing a lot of introspective stuff, so the journey in this book is less physical (though they still do a lot of that) and more spiritual. It’s good, but the language is turning almost purple prose-y. It’s not something I can’t handle, and it’s terrible, but sometimes I just roll my eyes and wonder if some of the text was taken from a 13-year-old’s diary. Anyway, I’m sure the book’ll end on a hopeful, if not entirely happy, note and I look forward to continuing the series.

The tea: I went on a mini tea shopping spree this weekend and picked up some flavors I haven’t tried before. I love trying new stuff, but sometimes I wish I could just try a bag or two and not have to commit to a whole box. (Especially when I end up not liking the tea! Is there some sort of tea-trading website, maybe?) Anyway, one of the teas I picked up was Tazo‘s African Red Bush. I’ve wanted to try it ever since I first read about it in The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, and so I was really excited to get a box of it on sale!

I wasn’t sure whether it needed any milk or sugar (the box didn’t say), so I just left it alone and drank it black. I did accidentally let it steep longer I than I meant to– about 7 minutes instead of 5– and so that’s probably why it was so strong. But it was extremely delicious and refreshing, and a really pleasant change from all the fruity teas I normally drink.

Here’s a rather poetic description of the tea I found on Amazon:

Tazo African Red Bush is a complex blend of the legendary red bush tea of Africa, hibiscus flowers, lemon, and sweet spices. In the color of its amber liquor you can sometimes catch the blazing rays of an ancient, flaming sunset over the Great Rift Valley.

Do they go together? Africa Red Bush has a lot of different plants and things in it, and it seems like a very earthy kind of tea. Not necessarily in taste, but just in the association in my mind. And in the Pellinor books they drink a lot of teas like that, so I’m fairly confidant that these two things go together.

What are you drinking/reading this Thursday?