October 16

I misjudged Calgary. Last year, the winter was brutal. It came early, suddenly and lasted for what felt like forever. I was thoroughly convinced that this was a city of two seasons: a long winter and a short summer. While I probably shouldn’t revoke my judgement too early (it’s hard to tell whether this season or last is the anomaly), the whole point is that winter still hasn’t come. There has been a real fall. The leaves have changed bright yellow and the weather has been pleasantly cool but not too cold. I am pretty sure that fall is my favourite season so I feel very pleased that I get to experience one this year.


Regardless, I know what’s coming and sometimes thinking about it makes me want to crawl under a warm blanket and pretend it’s a hug shielding me from the cold. While this is one solution, sometimes, I have to come out from under the blanket and take charge of things. Tea helps. Not long ago, my tea selections were limited to black tea, mostly chai. However, in my months of self-employment I have often frequented the local coffee shop. One of the most unusual surprises was a green tea latte flavoured with mint and vanilla. It was deeply delicious and called ‘snow dragon’, which made it even more delightful.



The tea is rich from the milk, warm but refreshing from the mint and has sweet notes from the vanilla. Both the vanilla and the mint are prominent flavours and they go surprisingly (I guess not that surprisingly, the more I think about it) well together. Topping the tea with some minty, vanilla whipped cream amps it up across all departments. It is the epitome of a special-tasting drink and I am happy to have it in my repertoire for when I need a warm hug, in liquid form.