This afternoon I was in downtown Tracy and discovered a wonderful little shop. While visiting the Owl Box and speaking to the owner I mentioned that I sometimes wrote about tea on my blog. She recommended that I visit Trina’s Tea Kettle and Boutique and check out the teas that she carried.

Trina’s Tea Kettle & Boutique is on Central Avenue near the Tracy Transit Center and has been open since last fall. The shop is in one of the old historic downtown buildings and looks very nice. The front of the shop is very inviting with outdoor seating and a nice sign and logo.

Trina’s has close to 30 different types of loose tea. The tea line they carry is Harney & Sons.

I really like the way that the canisters are displayed. They have a wide range of teas from green to black as well as herbal teas.

I decided to buy some Pomegranate Oolong tea. It had a nice smell and I was eager to see how it tasted. I of course had to smell a few other teas. I really like the smells of the different types of teas. There are a few that I may have to try in the future.

They were also in the process of picking out some new teas to order, so I will be looking forward to visiting again once they come in.

Here I am getting ready to start brewing some tea. I have the package of tea and my tea cup and infuser.

I filled the kettle with filtered water and turned it on. I then had a bit of time as I needed to let the water cool a bit after boiling as I needed the water to only be 205 degrees. It is better to go to a full boil and cool than to stop at a lesser temperature. You get a little better oxygenation of the water.

Here are the tea leaves. You can see here that it has a lower oxidation since the tea is rolled into little balls. With the Pomegranate Oolong the tea leaves are Ti Quan Yin (Iron Goddess) with flavoring added for the pomegranate taste.

Here you can see that the tea leaves have opened while they are infusing the water. The small teaspoon of leaves now almost fill the infuser.

Here is the cup of tea. The color of the tea is greenish yellow, however the green does not show up too well in this picture. You will notice that there is quite a bit of small particles in the tea. This is because of the added pomegranate flavoring. There were less particles in the second infusion.

The tea definitely had some pomegranate taste, but it was not too strong. So often in pomegranate juice and other food items with pomegranate the flavor is very strong. This was not the case here.

The taste of the tea was really nice with the floral and citrus notes that you expect with a lighter oolong.

Along with the pomegranate oolong tea I also had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich made with pomegranate jelly that I helped make. See: Pomegranate Jelly

If you live near Tracy I would definitely recommend a visit to Trina’s Tea Kettle. Trina also sells tea accessories, honey, flavored sugars, scones, breads and a variety of home decorations.

Steven