The world of tea is a mysterious, whimsical, but tasty place to visit and explore. So, being a tea lover who is more than devoted, I felt like it was my duty to help new and experienced explorers find new teas. This week the tea is not from a sit-down tea shop or a box from a store, it’s from a very well-known tea shop called David’s Tea. This is a store where you can find gifts for the tea-lover in your life, like cute little gifts boxes or a set of tea samples. Another interesting thing about this place is that most of their tea is loose-leaf, or tea that is sold without a bag!  
There is something about drinking loose-leaf tea that just makes it a more fun and interesting experience. This bring me to the star of our show, Zomba Pearls. When I walked into David’s Tea the other week and stumbled upon this tea, I could not believe my eyes! The tea itself is kind of ugly, brown, dried up, and gently twisted into a small oval shape. The real magic happens when you brew it and the leaves uncoil as the tea is steeped. When I made my first cup of tea I made sure to use my trusty tea steeper, three Zomba Pearls, seven minutes, and a pot of boiling water. As I tested making this tea, I found out that this tea needs boiling water to be able to steep correctly and that using the stove to heat the water up instead of the microwave gave me a yummier cup of tea. The directions on the package say to use two level spoonfuls of tea (which is strange since this is not a normal tea, but more like a blooming tea), 195-degrees-Fahrenheit water, and to let it steep for about three to five minutes. 
Now, the taste of this tea is strong like a green tea or a black tea with the aftertaste of a fruit or herbal tea and is classified as a white tea. When I was making the tea, I tried it four ways: without anything added, just sugar, just cream, and both cream and sugar. I found the best ways to drink it, in my opinion, were plain and with sugar or cream. When I added the sugar or the cream separately, it seemed to compliment the flavor, but when I added both it overpowered the tea making a much less enjoyable experience. David’s Tea describes the flavor as a “light, buttery taste with natural citrus and vegetal notes.” Personally, I found the vegetal notes a very interesting detail because tea is usually described as fruity or strong.
Overall, this is a really good tea. It was not difficult to find online or in store and I was even lucky to get it on sale! It was also not as hard to make as a matcha or bubble tea, but still added a splash of fun as a flowering tea. If you love tea and tea culture, this is something you must try!