Inspiration: Awaken

Awaken.

This tea was created for someone that didn't want to drink as much coffee, but still loved the caffeine. The blend itself is a base of roasted mate and a mix of vanilla and honey black teas. Roasted mate has a very high caffeine content while still being an herbal. Cinnamon was added to bring out the sweet notes of the mate, vanilla and honey.
This tea is best with a touch of milk and sugar. 

Find it here on etsy.

Inspiration: Dischordia Tea

Dischordia tea was based on Dischoria of Pandora Celtica, a member of the Fall Court and Court Archivist for the Fae Courts in general. When teas began rolling around in my mind I asked Dischordia what she enjoys in a tea. The list was incredibly long but also incredibly helpful. 

She wanted green tea, rosemary too. She listed over a dozen ingredients that she was interested in me using. I did my best. What you see in today's blend is a mixture of her ideas and my own. Green tea, ginger, rosemary, peppermint...

This is a spectacular blend that tastes great both hot and cold!

Find it on etsy.

Photos: Tea Tins

These tins were incredibly limited edition, only for Kickstarter backers of the very first Drayd Tea Kickstarter. Only, I made a few extra.... So they're on Etsy!
These are the only tins with Dryad Tea stickers like these, and they will never be available like this again.

Inspiration: Nessa Tea

Nessa; the darling, amazing, petite Nixie of Pandora Celtica...  She was quite an adventure to blend tea for. I wanted something different, something with pizzazz that was also soothing and fun to drink. 

I had to take into account her love for life, her cheer and many other great qualities about her when coming up with this blend.

I ended up with a green and black tea blend, chock full of Vitamin C and antioxidants. Orange and jasmine are the two strongest notes in the blend but there's also rosehips, heather and other yummy things.

Find it on etsy.

Inspiration: Selkie Tea

This tea happened before its name did. I wanted a tea that was good for vocalists, a tea that tasted and smelled good, and a tea that would be good hot or cold.

First things first, lots of ginger and then some lemon. I chose green tea as opposed to black, for the more calming and antioxidant properties of the tea.

After making the blend I had to choose a name, the name "Selkie" came about quite by accident. I didn't want to think about saltwater, or anything of that sort with a selkie. I found that I could really imagine them all having afternoon tea together with their seal skins draped across their laps, shoulders or tied about their waists. I knew they would keep them close while enjoying tea in the sun.

It's one of Nessa's personal favorites.

You can find this tea on etsy.

Photos: Tea Infusers

Some of the tea infusers that can be found over at Dryad Tea!

These infusers were created with the idea of *not* losing the infuser into your tea cup when steeping loose leaf teas. Some are handmade lampwork that I have create myself, others are gorgeous gemstones that I've collected over the years.

Inspiration: Maid in Bedlam

Maid in Bedlam was a song that I had the pleasure of hearing when I visited Scarborough Renaissance Festival out in Texas. I fell instantly in love with it and brought it back to Pandora Celtica with hopes that they would love it just as much.

They did.

When I started into the idea of blending teas for the music that the band sings I felt like maybe this would be any easy blend. Honestly it wasn't. Floral flavor profiles tend to be incredibly light so I had to make sure that nothing overpowered anything else. I knew that I wanted to quote the song in the tea, 

"With straw I'll weave a garland, I'll weave it very fine

With roses, lilies, daisies I'll mix the eglantine

And I'll present it to my love when he returns from sea

I love my love because I know my love loves me"

I wanted the roses, daisies and lilies to be present in the blend. Even if that meant having a representation of them instead of the actual flowers.

This was the third blend I ever successfully created.