When I turn the calendar page to November, there are usually a few things going on in my mind simultaniously:
- Wow, time is going so fast! Another year almost over…
- I should try to organize the last few weeks of the year, so I can actually use the holiday season to unwind, reflect on this year’s events and maybe do a bit of planning for the coming year, instead of drowning in this massive wave of Xmas-stress that’s just waiting to crush everyone…
- And: snow :–) If the weather is not deciding to turn on those polluters among us, we shall get to see some of Winter’s white, glittery beauty soon.
And there it was, last Sunday: the smell of snow.
You know this special moment, when you smell snow, eventhough it did not acutally snow yet? But you know the first glistening layer is not far and you are getting excited…
As I opened the front door for our cat Chico that morning, that fresh, reviving scent put an unexpected smile on my face. The tiredness, resulting from a frequently interrupted night’s rest – or should I say the night-playtime frequently interrupted by little sleeps, hah! (yep, we are still in teething-mode) – was suddenly gone. The powerful magic of smells…
And the one of snow is rather amazing, don’t you think? A scent so pure, crisp and refreshing, carrying happy childhood memories and a sense of a day that is full of endless, wonderful possibilities.
To me anyway :–)
There are a few buddies of this particular wintery smell that, for me, are interlocked with each other: sweet cinnamon, freshly roasted chestnuts and later on in the season xmasy biscuits baking away in the oven… and some of the finest yet: oranges, mandarins and cloves.
When we were little, my brother and I used to decorate some oranges or mandarins with cloves. Our mum put a nice ribbon around them and hung them up in the kitchen. What a gorgeous fragrance!
Last Sunday, those radiant globes made a reappearance in my mind and I knew that it would not simply be tea for breakfast, no, the first day of snowy air of this season required a special drink: hot “cloved” mandarins!
A wonderful option to mix up your morning drink-routine with a warming, fruity, bright brew of happy thoughts and memories ;–) It is so quick to make and doesn’t require a lot of ingredients. I like adding some whole mandarin sequments pinned with cloves. Looks lovely and the mandarin sequments will be completely infused by an intensive mandarin flavour with just a hint of sweet clove…
Also great to warm up after some outdoor time :–)
Give it a try and let me know what you think! Have a magnificent, cosy November-time!
Ingredients:
- 3 mandarins
- 2 dashes of ground cloves
- handful of whole cloves
- boiling water
Directions:
- Fill your kettle with water and bring to a boil.
- In the meantime, cut two mandarins in half and squeeze the juice into two mugs or glasses.
- Skin the third mandarin, reserve a few segments per mug and juice the rest between your fingers directly into the mugs.
- Pin each reserved mandarin sequment with a clove and divide them equally between your mugs. Add a pinch of ground cloves to each mug.
- Top up with boiling water, steep for 10 minutes or longer, until cooled enough to drink, and breath in the bright side of grey November – aaahhh what a lovely smell :–)
Prep time: 5 minutes
Time to steep: 10 minutes
Yields: 2 cups (approx. 250 ml each)