MegWesley

Sipdown! Last of the tin.

I made my first mug of this for relaxation. Now I am making it for a study aid. I’m not sensitive enough to caffeine for this to do anything to me this late at night, but just drinking tea helps me do whatever I am doing.

Tea: when sleepy, it helps to soothe you. When studying, it helps to concentrate you.

Earl Grey, hot. One more bag left of this one.

My roommate didn’t like this tea too well, so I got to have the last bag for my morning cup. Big tumbler, hot water spicket, brewed strong, with milk. A good way to start the morning.

Not as flavorful as Twinings Earl Grey, but still pretty good. I might have a sipdown on it tomorrow since I only have two bags left. Or I might do a cold brew experiment. We will see.

Our room now has cable. Dad sent the cable cord to me this week, so I get to decide on whether I want to be sociable or stay in on Dr Who nights now.

Took a conscious step to having a vegetarian diet today. Instead of having a chicken patty, I had a garden burger with some spinach and a green pepper. And it was delicious.

I steeped this one for five minutes and I swear it tastes more minty than when I steeped it for ten minutes. Either that or I am not used to having mint tea anymore. It was good nonetheless. I am making friends with the hot water spicket in our cafeteria. Having tea, juice, or milk with a meal is better than having soda with a meal anyway.

Backlogging from Brunch

Our school doesn’t do breakfast and lunch on Saturdays anymore. So, we have to wait until later to actually eat on the weekends. That makes me a little sad. But, this is always an awesome tea to have with a meal. Hot with milk, as usual.

I am also trying to figure out what to use to record a possible once-a-week knitting videocast. I found some things to use on my computer, but I’m not sure if they are the best ones to use or not. This will be an interesting process.

Caitlin and I had tea again. I have been keeping these “zinger” teas down to a five minute steep because I remember not liking them when I tried to drink them when I was a little girl. This one tasted pretty good. It was nice and orangey without being overpowering or sour. It tasted like warm semi-sweet orange juice. It would actually be nice to drink for breakfast if I didn’t want black milk tea.

The only thing that amused me was that the liquor looked about the same as the True Blueberry I had. Dark and slightly red. I think the redness must come from the hibiscus that the two share in their ingredient list. Hibiscus is Caitlin’s favorite tea, so she tries to get blends that has hibiscus as one of the first two ingredients on the blends. Which is good for me, because I have been very curious about hibiscus.

Hot and plain. More gingery than I remember. Less spicy as it cools down. Also, shorter steep time, so maybe that is a part of it.

My friend Caitlin, my roommate Laura, and I had a makeshift tea party at dinner tonight. Caitlin and I had this tea. We had it hot and plain.

It was pretty good. It was a little sweeter than I am used to with just a hint of tart punch at the back of your throat. I normally don’t really like blueberries, but this was pretty good. I have a hunch that it would make an awesome summer iced tea.

I joined a pride group at school this semester. At our first meeting we made our own felt door banners that are similar to the banners that other bigger clubs have made at our school. So this is a school thing. Our banners said GLOW because our pride group is called GLOW (Gays, Lesbians, or Whatever)

So, I had put my banner on my door on sunday and everything was nice. It was red with a pink banner with the letters spelling GLOW in the middle on some brown pieces of felt and a little rainbow ribbon in the corner. This morning, I came back from the bathroom and noticed that my banner was missing. Of course, I was upset. Eventually I made another sign out of paper and colored pencil (this time the background is rainbow)

So, after a day like this, sometimes you just need a big MUG of comforting tea.

Backlogging from Dinner:

Had this hot with milk with dinner. Very nice and comforting after a hard morning.

Made a tumbler of this before class with milk (a good portion of milk this time, not just a dribble). Ended up drinking all of it before class, but didn’t have enough time to get more water, milk, and tea to make another tumbler full. Apparently, today was a tea morning.

This isn’t very good. It tastes like really watered down apple cider. The apple part of this tastes more like a tart Granny Smith than anything. It is like the apple pies that are made entirely of Granny Smith apples with no sweeter apples to balance out the taste. Not very pleasant.

I’m dumping the rest of the teapot and I’m going to try to finish up this cup before work.

Correction: I’m dumping the rest of the cup too. It is not making my stomach happy.

Now that I am back in school, I have to get used to water heating methods. At lunch, we have a hot water spicket that we get hot water out of and the temperature is normally too hot for green tea. So, I got some and waited about two minutes for the water to cool and then put my tea bag in for about three minutes.

I’m not sure if it is because I have been drinking a lot of blacks and herbals that my green tasted funny. I think I should have the water cooled a little longer. I will try that for next time.

I’ll have a hard time getting my temperature right with my new kettle too because I am not entirely used to it yet. But I want my green tea and I am determined to learn how to make a good cup here at school.

It was a mistake to drink Numi Egyptain Golden Chamomile before trying this one. This one wasn’t as sweet. It also tasted almost dry in comparison. I didn’t like it as much. It was a pretty color though. It was a nice light brown.

I must have been feeling homesick because when I thought of some tea to go with supper, I immediately opened my box and grabbed a bag of Constant Comment. Made with hot water from the water spicket, it was comforting and tasted nice.

I then went to one of my friend’s rooms to get some command strips and she gave me two tea samples to try: Twinings Herbal Revival: Cherries and Madagascan Cinnamon and London Fruit & Herb Rosehip with Hibiscus. They both sound good and I am looking forward to trying them. Especially with rosehip with hibiscus, which are both flavors I have been dying to try.

My mother is very picky about her tea. She has to drink decaf teas because she can’t handle caffeine anymore, but she doesn’t like Earl Grey. The last few times she has went out to eat at a restaurant with dad, they have given her a decaf Earl Grey. The second and third time that they did this to her, she remembered that I dearly love the Earl and decided to give me the teabags. (I also have a sneaking suspicion that she is trying to de-caffinate me, but that is for another day)

I have been wanting Earl Grey to watch with my favorite sci-fi show Dr Who, so I decided to brew up a cup. For being a decaf tea, this was pretty darn good. It was rich and flavorful with the bergamot present but not overpowering. One of the best decaf teas that I have ever tasted.

I feel a little bad for trying all of these teas and not liking many by Bigelow. It doesn’t matter what flavors I try either. Almost all of them seem to be too weak for me.

Then again, almost every mint tea I have tried has been like that. This tea isn’t bad. It tastes mostly like an even-flavored black tea with a hint of mint flavor. I am rating this lower because I have been looking for a tea that screams MINT! to me. This one mumbles.

I needed a plain milk tea today at lunch to go with my soup and couscous. This filled the slot quite nicely and tasted good. It is nice to actually have enough milk in my milk tea instead of a dribble of milk that happened last time.

I am also finding out that water from the hot water spicket to make tea with is better than no tea at all.

Backlogging: This Morning

I woke up with either bad gas or indigestion, so my sides hurt really badly. It took all I had to get out of bed and get dressed. So, I managed to get hot water out of the spicket in our cafeteria and make this tea with a trickle of milk. (A literal trickle. I would have put more in there if they had more and I wanted real milk instead of soy this morning)

It helped me get through the morning and helped me feel better mentally even if it took until noon to get over my side cramps.

I generally don’t like lemon in my tea, but I don’t have anything against lemon. I like lemon pie and lemon pudding and lemonade. This pushed it. It was horrible. It tastes like lemon concentrate heated up in a cup.

I don’t dump out my teas even when I don’t like them. I sit them out and give them a fair tasting review to the very end.

I took four sips and three big gulps of this.

I dumped it out.

This tea is very different from what I am used to. I steeped this for my normal time for herbals and got to enjoy the strong smell of cinnamon coming from the pot. I love cinnamon so I was looking forward to this. The liquid is a lighter color than the herbals I have been brewing up. Almost a nice caramel toffee color.

The taste is very interesting. It starts out with that bite of cinnamon on the tip of your tongue. By the time you swallow, you get that cool peppermint flavor. I’m getting a hint of orange in the cup. I’m not sure about the rosehip or the ginger root because I’m not sure what those flavors taste like.

It is good and I would definitely drink this with a group of friends. Especially if any of my friends are not sure about herbal teas because this would make them see that herbal teas don’t have to be boring.

This is the only type of tea my school cafeteria has anymore, so I decided to open my mind and give it another try. Don’t do it. The only words to describe it is hot leaf juice. Flavorless hot leaf juice. I’m only giving it a 10 because of nostalgia from when I was around 5-8 years old.

I lied last time. This time I finished off my tumbler of tea. Don’t let this set for three days if you cold brew it. You should really finish it on the second day or else all the flavor from the spices disappear.