Writerly Bundle #11: Renascent, King of Pride Rock, and North African Mint

 

Welcome to this week's Writerly Bundle! A post where I hope to inspire you with three of the world's greatest things: music, words, and tea.

I was wondering what I should theme this post for and since the new for this week is North African Mint, I though the Lion King extremely appropriate.

The Word:

renascent

adjective

1. being reborn; springing again into being or vigor: a renascent interest in Henry James.

Example Sentence: Rakiki's word had a renascent effect on Simba.

The Song:

"King of Pride Rock"

from the Lion King score

by Hans Zimmer

Disney movies are well known for their lyrical pieces, but many of their film scores are amazing! I didn't know the Lion King soundtrack was composed by Hans Zimmer until writing this post! This is a very roller of emotions sort of piece. You have the devastation and disappointment of what has become of Pride Rock at the beginning, the intensity of battle in the middle, and triumph at the end all performed with an orchestra and choir. African flutes, drums, xylophones, and vocals find their way in especially at the end. This is a good piece for any novel with an African tone be it fantasy or historical.

The Tea:

North African Mint

Explore Northern Africa, from its souks to its deserts, with this intense combination of spices and mint. It combines organic green tea and peppermint with organic cardamom, ginger, licorice root, fennel clove and black pepper. Deliciously sweet, with all the romance of the Maghreb. (MK Kosher)

How I found it: On my recent trip to Canada, I discovered this Canadian originating tea company called DAVIDsTEA. After looking at many of their teas in one of their many stores located in Canada and northern USA, I thought they would be great to review, especially for you Canadians! After I got home I ordered a sampler set and as a bonus DAVIDsTEA sent me an additional three samples, so I have nine teas to show you guys. DAVIDsTEA definitely has a unique flavor to their teas. If you want to take an adventure in your tea drinking, this is certainly a good affordable company to try.

The Tea: So far my DavidsTea tastings haven't been the best, but North African Mint changed that. The tea has a dominant mint flavor with fennel flavor along with it, thought it's not as a strong as Fabulous Fennel to my relief. The tea finishes with black pepper spiciness and a hint of ginger and cardamom. This is definitely a unique combination. The spice is quite significant, but sugar cuts that down. I could see this as a good tea for stomach aches.

This tea reminds me of African Mountains or rainforests like where Pumba and Timone live in the Lion King. It has a freshness that good make a good iced tea and reminds me of waterfall air.

Serving Recommendations: I steeped this tea at 185 F for four minutes and added sugar.

How much is it and where can you get it? You can buy this tea at a DAVIDsTEA store or on their website. You can get just North African Mint for $9,98-$99.80, depending on how much you get. The smallest amount is 2 oz. and the largest amount is 20 oz. You can also get Fabulous Fennel along with five other teas in the Super Spice set (which is what I did) for only $14.00.

So how good is it? The tea is very good, but still is a bit too exotic in ways to merit five stars, but I still enjoy it. Four stars!

Bonus! If you are a first-time Adagio customer I can send you a $5 giftcard! Ask in the comments for details! (This is no joke and no catch I seriously can. It's part of the amazingness of Adagio Teas)

Have you seen or used this word before? Have you heard this piece before? Have you seen The Lion King? Have you tried this tea?

Click here for last week's Writerly Bundle!

If you liked this post, come back every other Tuesday for book reviews; Friday for tags, character interviews, and link-ups; Saturdays for writing advice and life updates; and Sundays for the Writerly Bundle which includes a new soundtrack piece, vocabulary word, and tea review!