Country of Origin: India, Sri Lanka, and Belgium
Region: Travencore in India, Nuwara Eliya in Sri Lanka
Shipping Port: Cochin (India), Colombo, (Sri Lanka)
Grade: OP (Orange Pekoe)
Altitude: 4800 – 7600 feet above sea level
Manufacture Type: Orthodox
Cup Characteristics: Seasonal Malabar Coast spices
with sweet caramel come to the fore with a sensuous
Belgian chocolate finish.
Infusion: Bright and coppery with gold highlights.
Ingredients: Luxury black tea, calendula, sunflower petals, white chocolate, chopped and
powdered ginger, cardamom, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, natural flavors.

Information: The Night of the Iguana is often considered to be the last major artistic,
critical and box office success for Tennessee Williams, the distinguished American
playwright and noted tea lover. The play features a captive iguana that is tied up to the
edge of a veranda while a cast of characters discuss their sometimes tormented sexual
relationships. For his own part, Tennessee Williams was something of a tormented
soul. At an early age he suffered a nervous breakdown and throughout his life lived in
fear that he would go insane. Williams' subsequent outlook on life was that it was
woefully impermanent. He is quoted as saying, "Whether or not we admit it to ourselves,
we are all haunted by a truly awful sense of impermanence." It is perhaps because of
this outlook that the playwright took such comfort in a hot cup of tea; its impermanent
nature is what makes it so wonderful. After all, once brewed and enjoyed, the leaves are
discarded.

Our Master Taster decided to honor the complex themes of The Night of the Iguana by
creating an equally complex chai. He used as its base a lush, full-bodied black Assam.
Next, white chocolate, caramel, and a heady blend of spices from the Malabar Coast of
India were added to the mix of sharp ginger, cardamom, coriander, cinnamon, cloves,
and black pepper. Finally, calendula petals and elder blossoms were added to give the
blend some color, representing Williams' colorful existence. The result is one of our
most intoxicating chais. It is at once rich and astringent with pleasant overtures of spice.

Traditional chai preparation methods require that the tea be brewed in heavy milk in
order to bring out its spiciness, but adding scalded milk to Night of the Iguana will have a
similar effect.

Hot tea brewing method: Bring freshly drawn cold water to a rolling boil. Place 1 heaping
teaspoon of tea for each cup into the teapot. Pour the boiling water into the teapot. Cover
and let steep for 5-10 minutes (for true chai steep at least 7 minutes). While the tea is
brewing prepare your cup to receive the chai – put 2 teaspoons of sugar in the cup and
add milk (about 20%) of the cup’s volume. When the chai is ready – pour into your cup.

Iced tea-brewing method: (to make 1 quart): Place 6 teaspoons of tea into a teapot or
heat resistant pitcher. Pour 1 1/4 cups of freshly boiled water over the tea. Steep for 5
minutes. Quarter fill a serving pitcher with cold water. Pour the tea into your serving
pitcher straining the leaves. Add ice, milk, sugar and top-up the pitcher with cold water.
Garnish and sweeten to taste. [A rule of thumb when preparing fresh brewed iced tea is
to double the strength of hot tea since it will be poured over ice and diluted with cold
water].
50 grams
$4.00
100 grams
$8.00
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About Camille's Tea:
Camille's Tea, based in the San Antonio, Texas area, offers a wide variety of gourmet teas, including flavored teas, traditional teas, green teas,
herbal teas, decaffeinated teas, decaf teas, caffeine free teas, and iced teas, and lavender, Shea butter, Chantal teapots, Lomonosov teapots, tea
infusers, tea accessories, Bearington Bears, tea linens, neck warmers, Herbal Concepts slippers and eye pacs, and Pre de Provence bath and
body products.  We also feature multiple tea of the month clubs.  Read more >>
To pay by check or money order,  email camille@camillestea.com.