Tea Tasting Winter Teas from The Whistling Kettle Paired with Winter Book Scenes

I don’t need an excuse to drink tea, but in the winter, it’s not only a drink, it’s a tool to keep warm on cold days. Winter is by far my least favorite season, but it does have its charms. One of those charms includes very sweet winter tea flavors from The Whistling Kettle. Below I sample three of these flavors and pair them with three wintery book scenes from classic novels.

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Maple Taffy and the dance at Grandpa’s scene from Little House in the Big Woods

Maple is a warm, sweet flavor that is perfect for cold winter days. The Whistling Kettle’s maple taffy flavor is a black tea that contains cinnamon, dehydrated maple syrup, popcorn, and white cornflower blossoms. One teaspoon is steeped in hot water for four minutes.

When you open the package, the popcorn smell initially hits as actual popped kernels are mixed in with the other ingredients. It steeps to a dark amber color, and from there, it gives off a smoky black tea flavor.

The maple and popcorn aren’t overpowering, but it also doesn’t need anything added to it to enhance the flavor. It’s the perfect compliment to a stack of hot pancakes or to warm you up after you’ve been out shoveling snow.

I’ve paired this tea with the maple sugar dance scene from Little House in the Big Woods for obvious reasons. After collecting pails full of maple sugar after a winter thaw, the Ingalls family all gathers at Grandpa’s house in the Big Woods for a dance.

“Grandma stood by the brass kettle and with the big wooden spoon she poured hot syrup on each plate of snow. It cooled into soft candy, and as fast as it cooled they ate it.

They could eat all they wanted, for maple sugar never hurt anybody. There was plenty of syrup in the kettle, and plenty of snow outdoors. As soon as they ate one plateful, they filled their plates with snow again, and Grandma poured more syrup on it.”

Maple sugar becomes the main attraction at this party. It’s a celebration of having made it through the winter while at the same time paying honor to the season and the good things it can bring us.

Sparkling Sugar Plum and the magical feast in A Little Princess

The Whistling Kettle’s website explains that sugar plums are actually candied seeds, nuts, and spices. This flavor is a black tea that contains peony petals and white sugar. One teaspoon steeps in hot water for three to five minutes.

This tea does have a fruity smell and brews to a golden color. Once brewed, it has a light, almost honey flavor with no lingering aftertaste. A little sugar will help to bring out the sweetness, but if you want a more straightforward flavor, you can easily drink it plain without any bitterness.

The sparkling sugar plum’s sparkle comes from its white sugar pieces. It’s sweet, innocent, and magical like Sara Crewe from A Little Princess. In one scene, she and her closest friends throw an elegant party in their damp, dingy attic, the new home of the once affluent girl. Life is tough, but imagination and hope gets her through.

“Ermengarde came in, rather staggering under the weight of her hamper. She started back with an exclamation of joy. To enter from the chill darkness outside, and find one’s self confronted by a totally unanticipated festal board, draped with red, adorned with white napery, and wreathed with flowers, was to feel that the preparations were brilliant indeed.

‘Oh, Sara!’ she cried out. ‘You are the cleverest girl I ever saw!’

‘Isn’t it nice?’ said Sara. ‘They are things out of my old trunk. I asked my Magic, and it took me to go and look.’

‘But oh, miss,’ cried Becky, ‘wait till she’s told you what they are! They ain’t just – oh miss, please tell her,’ appealing to Sara.

So Sara told her, and because her Magic helped her she made her almost see it all: the golden platters – the vaulted spaces – the blazing logs – the twinkling waxen tapers. As the things were taken out of the hamper – the frosted cakes-the fruits-the bonbons and the wine-the feast became a splendid thing.

‘It’s like a real party!’ cried Ermengarde.

‘It’s like a queen’s table,’ sighed Becky.”

With some old decorative treasures and a generous donation of party food, the girls transform their surroundings into a lavish banquet. And I could see them sipping some sparkling sugar plum from small tea cups, bringing some color to their gray situation.

S’mores Toffee Crunch and the snowman scene from To Kill a Mockingbird

The Whistling Kettle’s S’mores toffee crunch is a black tea mixed with graham cracker crumbs, chocolate bits, toffee pieces, almonds, and marshmallows. The moment you tear apart the package, the strong chocolate smell immediately emerges.

From there, one teaspoon is steeped in hot water for four minutes. It brews to a standard black tea color and smells just like simple black tea.

The chocolate flavor is very prevalent in the taste without tasting like hot chocolate. When sugar is added, it really brings out the marshmallow flavor which follows the chocolate taste.

To Kill a Mockingbird takes place over the course of a few years, but being set in the south, it takes on more of a summer feel. Then again, so do s’mores, bringing about thoughts of campfires. But marshmallows can also be roasted from a fire in your fireplace and sandwiched between chocolate and graham cracker crumbs, creating a warm, winter dessert from a collection of sweet flavors.

In once scene of To Kill a Mockingbird, the Finch children experience their first snow fall. It’s not enough to build a standard snowman. So, after collecting as much snow as they can, they also collect mud to build their first snowman.

“’What are we gonna do, Jem?’ I asked.

‘You’ll see,’ he said, ‘Now get the basket and haul all the snow you can rake up from the back yard to the front. Walk back in your tracks, though,’ he cautioned.

‘Are we gonna have a snow baby, Jem?’

‘No, a real snowman. Gotta work hard, now.’

Jem ran to the back yard, produced a garden hoe and began digging quickly behind the woodpile, placing any worms he found to one side. He went in the house, returned with the laundry hamper, filled it with earth and carried it to the front yard.

When we had five baskets of earth and two baskets of snow, Jem said we were ready to begin.”

This blend of materials creates a unique piece of art. It closely resembles the multiple ingredients that make up s’mores, or in this case, s’mores toffee crunch.

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