<Author’s Notes>
For being with me all this year, thank you very much. I will be in your care again next year.
At Illness-san’s suggestion, I decided to set up an original tea blend. I don’t really understand the intricacies of flavor balancing though, so I’m learning how to do it from Illness-san.
Nebula, who heard about what was going on from Illness-san, also offered her cooperation, and so, the three of us decided to work together on the development of an original blend.
[This time’s tea leeeeeeaves don’t change much in taste depending on the amoooooount, so we have to adjust the taste accordiiiiiiiing to the tea leaves we add with iiiiiiit. Thuuuuuus, I have prepared tea leaves that I peeeeeeersonally think are a good match with the tea leaves Nebula first maaaaaaade.][It’s no use thinking too deeply at first, so please use your intuition and choose the amount and combination of tea leaves that you think is the right amount. After that, I and Illness-san will adjust the balance of flavors.]
[Unnn. Alright…… Incidentally, do you have any tips to give me?]
If Nebula and Illness-san’s going to handle the taste adjustment, I won’t have to worry about the tea blend having a strange taste. However, since I don’t think completely relying on intuition is enough, I decided to ask Illness-san for some tips.
[Let’s seeeeeee. If you want to give your tea blend a stroooooooonger taste, you should add tea leaves from thiiiiiiiiis area. On the other haaaaaand~~ If you want to give it a refreshing taaaaaaste, you might want to add tea leaves from thiiiiiiiis area.]
[I see…… Then if I want to make a blend with a slightly deep, yet calming taste, I should go for the tea leaves in this area huh.]
[Yeeeees. These two tea leeeeeeaves have a subtle sweetness to iiiiiiit, so they also have a relaxing effeeeeeect.]
[Then, I should add tea leaves from this area……]It might taste nasty if I add too many different things, so I’ll follow Illness-san’s recommendation and use the sweet tea leaves that she suggested. As for the quantity, I really just measured by feeling, and following my intuition, I scooped up the tea leaves with a teaspoon and put all of its contents on a dish.
[Oya?]
[Fumu……]
Thereupon, Illness-san and Nebula reacted at the same time, so I turned towards them out of curiosity.
[Eh? Did I do something wrong?]
[No, it’s the other way round. The distribution of the tea leaves Milord scooped up was quite good…… It has an exquisite amount that even if we were to blend them, it would have quite the balance. Milord has good taste.]
[That’s riiiiiiight. It almoooooost doesn’t need any tweaking. All that’s leeeeeeft was for us to add the tea leaves previously made by Nebulaaaaaa and then, it would turn out into a delicious bleeeeeend.]
It seems like it wasn’t that my choice was strange, but that they were impressed because what I had done by feel was better than they had expected.
Feeling a bit ticklish by their words of praise, I asked them to make the final adjustments to the taste.
[With this, we now have our first prototype. Let’s brew it and drink it right away! After that, let’s make some more adjustments and try other patterns to get it closer to perfection.]
[I see. Even so, it’s a bit exciting to see how my own tea blend will taste.]
[Thaaaaat might be the charm of original bleeeeeends. Well theeeen, I’ll go brew a pot right awaaaaaay.]
[Thank you very much.]
By tasting and adjusting it like this, we would gradually approach a flavor that suits our personal preferences…… Of course, it would be very difficult if I’m doing this alone, but thanks to the support of the two tea experts, Illness-san and Nebula, even an amateur like me can have a lot of fun.
I hope things will continue turning out great and I’d be able to make a good blend…… but in any case, I’m looking forward to our first taste testing.
<Afterword>
Serious-senpai : [It’s quite the heartwarming scene. If no one thinks about the stomachache afterwards, this would be quite the laid-back scene…… If no one thinks about the stomachache afterwards, that is……]
T/N: Last chapter of the 2023, Happy New Year, everyone.
