Page 20 of Brewing Up a Bad Boy

“Videoing you snoring.”

“Ha. I don’t snore.” He pulled his water bottle out and took a long swallow, then ran his hands through his hair again, a curl dropped to his forehead. She reached up to push it back into place without thinking.

He went very still. Pulling her hand back and tucking it under the blanket as quickly as she could. “Sorry.”

“Nah, it’s good. Anything good on the media for this flight?”

Appreciating the change of subject, she struggled to remember what was on the screen. “Not sure. I’ve been journaling and trying to figure out some new blends for autumn. I like to have time to play around with different flavors.”

“Do you have any recipes you return to?”

“Some. I mean, I lean heavy into ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon. Pumpkin spice tea is huge for me.”

“Yeah, the Yanks love that stuff. Owen sent me a recipe for pumpkin spice ale. I’m going to try it this fall.”

“What other flavors have you tried?” This part of Alistair was new to her. It was fascinating to see him doing the very thing that he’d thought was a waste of time back when she’d worked for Lancaster-Spencer and quietly started making her own tea blends on the side and selling them on Etsy.

“Not many. I figured I should perfect a good ale before I start trying to get fancy,” he said with a laugh. “You know how I can be.”

“Yeah, I do. So have you got an award-winning ale yet?”

He blushed, and she started laughing.

“You have! Tell me about it.”

He shook his head. “No one likes a braggart.”

“I asked, so it’s not bragging.”

“I got best regional light ale for Kent,” he said.

“Nice. So now it’s time to experiment with flavors?” she asked.

He shrugged. “I’m doing that with kombucha. It has health benefits and naturally has some alcohol content. I’m going to use some champagne yeast in the second fermentation, and then I want to add some flavors.”

“What are you thinking? Kent has apples, plums, cherries... Are you brewing it for summer?”

“I’ve got a growler with kombucha fermenting now. So, yeah. I was thinking of apricot at first because I’ve got two trees on my property, and they’ve been blooming like crazy.”

“There’s a tea I love. Apricot is the dominant flavor, and they use sunflower petals and blue mallow blossoms to add depth and bring out the apricot flavor. Now, blue mallow is usually a nighttime tea, so it might not mix well with the alcohol, but the essence of it would be nice.”

“What is blue mallow blossom?” he asked, pulling out his phone and opening up the notepad app.

“It’s part of the daisy family. I think it’s pretty common. You can probably order it from a tea supplier in the UK. I can give you my supplier, but they ship from the US.”

They spent the next thirty minutes talking about tea blending and recipes. It had been a long time since she’d talked tea with anyone in person. She wrote posts and read other’s responses on the Tea Society, but this was nice. Alistair had the legacy of his family’s influence over tea drinking, but was looking at it from a beer brewer’s perspective. The kombucha experimentation was equally exciting and gave her an idea. “We should put this in the Tea Society as a challenge for the autumn after we finish the kombucha one. See what everyone comes up with.”

“Good idea. Um...do you think I could invite Owen to join? I think he’d add a lot. The guy is wicked smart about fermentation. Kombucha really requires some different skills.”

Poppy had a second of possessiveness toward the group that she’d started, but she liked Alistair’s suggestion. One of the strengths she developed after their divorce was letting go. She’d stopped trying to keep things the same, because the world was always changing. Even this conversation was something she’d never thought she’d have.

“I’ll show you my setup when we get to my place.”

“What? Won’t we stay at the hotel where the wedding is?”

“On Saturday we will, but I figured for the next few days, we’d stay at mine.”

Six

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