I just spent a few days at the Peninsula Hotel in Chicago (to which I could dedicate pages and pages of luxury blogging). The luxury amenities and services this hotel has to offer are endless - but it was one small luxury that I enjoyed the most: the tea. The Peninsula serves Mighty Leaf tea, perhaps the smoothest and most heavenly tea this mortal world has to offer.  Within one sip of Mighty Leaf’s Leaves of Provence black tea, I had vowed never again to buy my daily cup of Starbucks coffee.  I admit I took a few samples and stashed them in my purse, and today alone I’ve had three cups of various brews - all while surfing through Mighty Leaf’s website.  I am officially a tea enthusiast now.

When you open a packet of Mighty Leaf tea, the aroma hits you at once - but it’s not that manufactured, fake-flavor scent of many popular tea brands.  Whether you’re sniffing the Vanilla Bean black tea or the Chamomile Citrus herbal tea, the aroma transports you to a vanilla plantation in Madagascar or a flower field in Egypt.  I’ve never smelled tea like this. 

When you take the tea pouch out of the package, you notice the silky fabric tea bag (biodegradable, of course) that adds a luxurious aura to the whole experience.  I actually called a friend over to feel the soft tea pouch - we were both impressed.  The leaves and buds inside are so natural and often in their whole form, rather than the shredded manufactured form they often take in big brand tea bags, which often strips the tea of flavor.

 And of course, the taste - the most important sensory factor when judging a tea.  Well, each variety I’ve tried has been fantastic.  Smooth, elegant, no bitter aftertaste.  The kind of taste that turns a coffee addict into a tea drinker instantaneously.  The flavors are subtle yet strong - so a fruitier flavor tastes sweet, but not the kind of over-the-top sweet you might get with a fruit tea from another company.

I’ll stop here before I have a script for a 30-minute infomercial.  But I urge you to try out Mighty Leaf teas - whether you like tea or not.

I’m off to brew my White Orchard tea…

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 30th, 2007 at 12:08 pm and is filed under Luxury Lifestyles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.