More on Tea

Made with help by "The Enchantress"

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Luxwood bark tea

This tea is the student's friend, as they say. The scent of the bark is soothing and calming, washing the fears of your exams aside. The flavour is slightly peppery and piquant. While some insist the bark itself clears the mind and improves focus, this may be a result of the calming scent and joyful bold flavours combined. Fantastic for study, or to prepare for that difficult conversation you've been dreading.   Luxwood bark tea became popular during the rise of the academy and never really left the zeitgeist. With each new generation of student, someone believes that they have come across a new way to brew the mix, but usually steeping long dried sticks of the bark over hot water for about 5 minutes seems to be the best way to optimise the experience.  

Sakura Offering

It is said to have a petal of the great sakura in each batch sold. A modern twist on a traditional ceremonial tea made long before the humans came to Levis, the mix of blossoms and fruit evoke the peace of a kindly heart. There is the sweetness of a gentle breeze lent by the dried stone fruit, and slivers of almond return the flavours to the ground with slight earthiness. This tea asks you to enjoy with a sense of gratitude and consider what you are grateful for. If not, this tea may induce feelings of inexplicable gratitude for nothing in particular.   This tea, and the ceremonies it is involved in have traces back to early Levis magic, where spells were more ethereal and the source of magic came from the caster alone - harking back to witch magic itself. Performing the tea ceremony is the closest we can get to linking to that earlier magic, and the people of Levis hope to never lose this link to the cultures of the past.  

Forest Gift

Not for the brewing novice. A weak blend is inadvisable, but overbrewing results in an intollerably bitter brew. Lichen and moss provide a desirable bitterness when treated with care. Base notes of leaf and loam, and barks of wattle-wood. The woodiness makes this tea grounding. It is best enjoyed with a trip to the forest to truly appreciate its origin and the nuances of its flavour.   This tea sees odd spikes in controversy, both with the high chance of stone flecks if harvested without care, and in the unsustainability if a tea craze for this taste goes through the community. During the 1400s AOC, this flavour saw such a high demand that lichen growers started to pop up, cultivating their own rock farms and spawning a whole look for a few decades.  

Elytheran Orange

A pale orange coloured blend, with touches of mint and popped water reed, this tea comes from the shores of Avani, the shrub covering there growing a thick leaved plant that delivers a smooth brew that has a longer steeping time, usually done at cooler temperatures. Smell depicts the length of the brew, wafting for notes of that reed giving off cravings for snacks. The blend itself must be stored above floor level as it attracts insects.  

Ocean's Kiss

Ocean's Kiss is a phenomenal blend, made almost entirely from the coastal succulent Azure Phenelope. Every part of the plant - from the roots, to the blossoms and the fleshy leaves are used in the tea, bestowing upon the drinker the very essence of the plant and its coastal existence. The salty environment produces a savoury note in the tea, and the phenelope itself has a clean, mildly astringent flavour. Impossible to drink without picturing a calm ocean. The azure petals give the tea a teal hue like calm waters, but beware a bright blue as this is a sure sign of an imitation blend.   Oceans kiss is popular with the privateers of the oceanus region, especially the troll captains. Easy to store and keep fresh, and great to trade between ships on the way through for supplies, this brew has a long history on the open waves. It also has a long history of people trying to make it easier, as the succulent is hard to coax to grow and periods of boom and bust in the production of this blend have let the less patient into attempts at forgery to maintain their own particular lifestyles. Displeased captains often would trade for one of the harder to remove blue dyes, staining a forger's hands bright blue as a marker to other captains to beware.  

Whisper of Twilight

A rich 'black' tea brewed slowly from the purple leaves of the Forbidden Forest's strongest Acretia plants. A nighttime specialty, it lulls the drinker into a restful sleep, full of good dreams and the promises of better mornings. Best brewed then strained, the steeped leaves can then be muddled into a rudimentary spell ink. The tea also enjoys lacing with your choice of fruity alcohols, as its taste mellows in the presence of berries or sweetness.  

Spirit Red

Taken from bushes in the desert around Saburra, and mixed with dates from the area, it is a dry red tea with a deep red look. With somehow notes of eucalyptus leaf, it is not a tea for human consumption - despite the dates. It has a mild toxicity to it if brewed too hot, but much like a ill prepared puffer fish, the thrill is in the tasting. Shake out the sand when the desert comes knocking.  

Starfire Bloom

Filtered from the pomace filtered from the starberry wine making process, Starfire bloom layers warm bright flavours atop this slightly musky pomegranate-like base. The sun-drying process leaves the drinker with the sense of a summer day, but witnessed through the stained membrane of an old library. The mouth feel is rich and velvety, and the unique blend of spices creates a warming sensation that begins with the chest, creeping towards the extremities. Suppliers go the extra mile, mimicking this blooming heat sensation in the display of how it can be brewed, fashioning the leaves and the starberry peel fragments into delicate buds that bloom endearingly at the touch of hot water.