Tea Blends: The Gods of Sun and Moon

First of all, thank you to the anonymous reader who sent me a set of the tea strainers I mentioned! That was very kind, and they are very useful! I'd only meant to make fun of my purchasing priorities, but I will definitely put them to good use.

Continuing now with tea blends devoted to the Crossover LARP pantheon, I present Sun and Moon. Moon is still in development, which I'll go into, but Sun went from concept to execution without so much as a change in ingredient ratios, and is one of my new favorites. Not quite the full spectrum of blend difficulties, but close! Typically blends take more time if they're outside of my comfort zone or if I hit a concept that's difficult for me to put a flavor to. Moon has a little of each problem.

Faithful Of The Sun (a breakfast blend)

Morning Glory

The blend:

For every teaspoon of whatever breakfast tea you have on hand (though preferably English),

 - 1/4 teaspoon of dried orange rind (You could use fresh zest, instead, though I'd halve the amount in that case.)

 - 1/8 teaspoon of whole peppercorns

 - 1/4 stick of cinnamon
 - a pinch of red pepper flakes (to taste)
 - a pinch of calendula petals
Steep at boiling for ~3 minutes. The longer this steeps, the more the red pepper will spice the tea.
[Edit: After squinting at my notes, I've adjusted the orange and peppercorns down a size.]

Notes on ingredients:

 - Breakfast teas are usually a blend of different black teas, often Ceylon and Assam, though occasionally others. There aren't specific rules or ratios governing what goes into a Scottish blend versus an English blend, but traditionally in terms of deep flavor and maltiness they go from English (most astringent, least malty) -> Irish -> Scottish (boldest, most malty). I tend to prefer the deeper, richer flavors of Irish and Scottish blends, and don't normally recommend the sharper bitterness of English Breakfast, but I suspect this blend would work best with it. That said, this pot was brewed with Green Dreams Irish Breakfast from Auntie Arwen's Spices, because that's what I had on hand.

 - The calendula (marigold) petals I've been sparing with until I find a new source. 

 - Everything else came from the spice section.

Notes on design:
Regardless of the exact mythology in question, I knew that I wanted any tea I created for a sun deity to be a morning tea, perfect for waking up and greeting the day. In the case of Crossover's sun god, whose keywords include "Presence" and "Glory", and whose followers are paladin-esque warriors, I knew that I wanted an even more aggressive blend to punch you in the face and get you going. So a sharp, highly-caffeinated base, orange for brightness, two types of pepper for that extra zing, and cinnamon to tie it all together. Continuing the theme of golden radiance, this tea goes VERY well with honey.

Faithful of The Moon (a (mostly) white tea blend)

Gibbous Moon

The blend:

For every teaspoon of white tea, 

 - 1/8 teaspoon lavender

 - pinch of sage

 - 1/4 teaspoon ginger
 - 1/4 teaspoon lapsang souchong
Steep at ~180°F for four or five minutes. Similar to the green tea, if you bring the water to a boil and then give it a second or two to cool off, you should be set to brew without strict temperature checking. Fortunately white tea is also more forgiving than green, in those respects.

Bonus: For a "New Moon" version instead, replace the white tea entirely with lapsang souchong, and steep at boiling for about three minutes! Smokey and more highly caffeinated for all of your late night stealth mission needs.

Notes on ingredients:

 - The white tea I used is Peet's Snow Leopard tea, which is now apparently Mighty Leaf. I don't drink much white tea, and have almost never had it unflavored, so I don't know how this one measures up to others, but I enjoy it and enjoyed working with it.

 - The lapsang souchong came, again, from MEM Tea Imports, since I drink it nigh constantly and buying in bulk remains ideal.

 - The dried lavender I found at a local spice shop, where you can buy it in bags as big as your head. (I did not take that option, though I considered it.)

Notes on design:
As I mentioned earlier, I consider this tea to be still under development. Where the Sun in Crossover is glory, purification, and battle, Moon instead governs secrets and stealth. So my goal for Moon was a tea as subtle and soothing as Sun is brash and waking, and that leads to tricky balances in flavor profiles. What I ended up with was my first ever attempt at a white tea blend, with lavender and sage as calming background notes that blend together almost seamlessly, and in certain quantities evoke (for me, at least) the feel of a field at night. But they're both finicky ingredients, and particularly when combined they can all too easily shift from subtle to overpowering. The ginger was for brightness, but the candied ginger I used imparted more sugar sweetness than anything. I'd like to try smoking some ginger, if that's at all feasible, to see if I can add smoke to the tea that way, rather than bumping its caffeine content with the addition of lapsang. 

The "new moon" version, all darkness and smoke, no light, is a variant I wanted to exist entirely because having a caffeine pick-me-up at 3am before sneaking off on a LARP mission seemed useful, and it pairs well enough with the ingredients, though unsurprisingly the smoke overpowers most of it.

Still! This version is subtle, soothing, and tasty, and I do recommend it, though be careful and adjust the lavender and sage to suit your preferences. If I end up experimenting further and revising, I'll let you know!

I doubt either of these blends will enter my rotation as regularly as Life or Death have, but I'll keep fiddling with Moon until I settle on it, and Sun I'm definitely keeping for early mornings and afternoons that need help getting started. Joy will follow in a few days, but Sorrow may be delayed. It's causing me even more issues than Moon, since tea is the antithesis of sorrow in my world.