Writerly Bundle #26: Internecine, The Feast of Starlight, & Mirkwood

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.

This tea is blended after Mirkwood, so I had to make this last Writerly Bundle Hobbit-themed!

The Word:

internecine

adjective

1.) of or relating to conflict or struggle within a group:

an internecine feud among proxy holders.

2.) mutually destructive.

3.) characterized by great slaughter; deadly.

Example Sentence: The elves of Mirkwood have an internecine grudge with the Erebor dwarves.

The Song:

"The Woodland Realm"

The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug Soundtrack

by Howard Shore

Howard Shore brings back the classic style of Lord of the Rings into the Hobbit soundtrack with new added themes for the new lands introduced in the three movies. I love the tones he takes for the Woodland Realm of the Mirkwood elves. Unlike Lothlorien and Rivendell where the tones of the songs speak of wonder and majesty, Mirkwood errs more to danger and isolation. The Mirkwood elves care about their own realm and their own people and not others. The piece highlights on the beauty of Mirkwood in their celebration of the Feast of Starlight. I love the beautiful young male vocals here and the subtle clarinet notes of the Mirkwood theme. 

The Tea:

Mirkwood

Straight out of the deep forests of Middle Earth comes an old recipe by Radagast himself, delivered to Whispering Pines by a team of Rhosgobel Rabbits...


Mirkwood is a blend of the famed 2013 Ontario 1357 Shou Pu-erh and highly sought-after morel mushrooms, hand cut and blended to perfection. The taste opens with a thick, buttery body strongly hinting at mushroom soup, with hints of salt and a brothy umami finish. You can also find notes of walnut, vanilla, and oak with a very creamy mouthfeel. The finish is sweet, with honey and white pepper, floating off with a touch of cooling camphor. The qi from the base puerh is very strong and will leave you uplifted and focused. A unique blend that pushes the boundaries of body and depth in a simple tea infusion, I highly recommend drinking Mirkwood in a big thermos on a hike through your favorite woodlands!

How I found it: Sara Letourneau introduced me to Whispering Pines Tea Company with this blend actually. Since I love fandom-inspired blends, I knew I had to check out their site. I've bought several teas from them and they've become my second favorite tea company. I love their simply, but quality teas. As a perk, I love that they include inspiring quotes from people such as Winston Churchill and E.E. Cummings with every purchase!

The Tea: Honestly, I was a bit skeptical with this tea. Mushrooms plus tea seemed like Radagast food, but I wanted to try something new, so I decided to get this tea while it was available. The tea is visually appealing. It reminds me of what you would get if you scooped up a bit of earth from Mirkwood what with the dark Shou Pu-errh tea leaves and the morel mushroom pieces mixed throughout. It smells very shroomy and earth with a hint of butter.

The brew is very dark almost the color of coffee. Without sugar the tea has a strong mushroom and oak flavor with a spicy ending. I prefer the tea with sugar because it brings out the honey and butter flavors with more of a spicy sweet aftertaste. The flavor is a bit to rich for me without sugar. There's definitely a big difference with and without. Overall, it's a very rustic and savory tea. I'm not sure elves would like this tea very much, but I'm sure Radagast would drink this regularly. 

Serving Recommendations: I steeped this tea for three minutes at 204 F and added sugar. 

How much is it and where can you get it? You can purchase this tea online at the Whispering Pines Tea Company website for $10.00 USD. However, this tea is limited and only available at certain times, but you can sign up for notifications for when it goes in stock again.

So how good is it? This is a very unusual and intriguing tea and perfectly fitting for its name. Four stars!

Have you seen or used this word before? Have you heard this piece before? Have you tried this tea? Have you seen or read The Hobbit?

Click here for last week's Writerly Bundle! This is the last of the Writerly Bundles. I hope you enjoyed theme and you'll see the occasional tea review with book reviews!

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!