Pomegranate Oolong

I could tell Sitwell's was a catch-all cafe, if not by the atmosphere itself than by the motley array of hats. We chose a booth across from a fedora wearer and diagonal from a man in a beret visiting contentedly with friends. Before our tea arrived, a man sauntered in wearing a sombrero and a windbreaker of sorts, an unlikely ensemble but nothing the crowd at Sitwell's couldn't appreciate. Our waitress, a hip twenty-something, was sporting a beanie, herself. My observation of hats has nothing to do with the taste of tea I ordered but it helped make me cognizant of the diversity of the homey cafe and admire the artsy atmosphere, even if my tea wasn't top-notch. My pomegranate oolong tea was more medicinal than anything, soothing and smooth but akin to cough syrup. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, but I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much had I not been in such great company and on my first trip to Cincinnati. I would recommend having a bottle of Hudipohl's new Amber lager whilst in the Queen City, but I wouldn't recommend drinking it and your tea simultaneously, and I would suggest trying something other than the pomegranate oolong on your visit to Sitwell's. 

Numi Organic Orange Spice White

Note: “Moonlight Spice” is not for the faint of mouth if steeped for fifteen minutes. Beginners should be advised to stay under ten minutes of steeping and use intermittent sips of water to maintain reviewing composure.

There was no subtlety to my experience with Numi Organic Orange Spice White Tea. Although joined by two fellow reviewers at Sitwell’s Coffee Shop, I can claim no partner to the divine time I spent with the drink that some within the business call “Moonlight Spice.” Although the tag cautions steeping for a mere two to three minutes, I knew how long it would take to get the true spice out of the heavenly herbs that sat packed in my tea bag. Not until all of my mug rest content in my belly was the bag removed, for a total steeping time of approximately fifteen minutes at the last sip. Each sip before the last matured in rich orange taste, moving from the delicateness of a single orange slice to the full and complete ecstasy of an entire Floridian orange farm cascading down the ridges of my taste buds: orange, after orange, after orange. The tea infused a content yet hyper-aware state in my being; I was able to identify the chromatic personality of every orange hue in every object in the coffee shop. The spice ignited rockets of endorphins within my body and I reeled internally from the shock of self-awareness and realization. Normally, my fellow reviewers would have distracted me from my bliss with their listless swallowing of dull beverages, but as I peacefully regained my natural state I admired their un-satiated stares, knowing my experience was my own and uninterrupted.