Rabs Send Message

Am yet again thoroughly enjoying this tea! I think that I should bump up the rating a bit from 81 :)

But here’s the photos of the tea sets that I received yesterday. All I know about them is that my grandpa brought them back from Japan in around 1945. Sorry for the poor quality of some of the images (my dad wanted his tripod back). I’ll only post three links to my photostream, but feel free to look at all of them — especially take a look at the “geisha cups.”

Set One: https://secure.flickr.com/photos/rabstea/7624243696/in/photostream

I grew up hearing about my grandpa’s “geisha cups.” I never realized they were tea cups until yesterday. I was absolutely stunned when I held one up to the light (I thought the geisha name came from the raised portion of the image which you can see in another pic in the photostream): https://secure.flickr.com/photos/rabstea/7624251968/in/photostream/

And the second set: https://secure.flickr.com/photos/rabstea/7624276946/in/photostream

If y’all have any sort of information on any of the sets (any aspect: the stories depicted, the techniques for how they were made, their name, etc) I’d truly truly appreciate it!

What can I say? I love this tea. Depending on how I scoop it, I get a slightly different tea every time. I also love how honey gives it another layer of nom. I was going to write a note on a Celestial Seasonings antioxidant tea that I’ve been adding to this tea’s steeping once this tea starts to lose flavor — I’ve kinda stopped doing that, at least for now. But this particular CS tea isn’t on Steepster yet and I just didn’t have the energy to add it — I blame my mono energy-drain.

On a side-note: I spent most of the day with my parents. They showed me a few items that they’re putting in their upcoming estate sale that I’d never seen before: two amazing tea sets. They wanted to know if I’d like them. Ummm…YES please :) So tonight or tomorrow I hope to take some nice pics of them and share them with y’all. I hope that I can capture the most amazing feature on some of the tea cups — it’s a decorative element that I’ve never seen on a tea cup. I’m hoping that maybe someone here knows something about them/their style. How’s that for a teaser? ;)

This is the other tea I’ve been drinking like crazy. It was very difficult to figure what to rate it because it’s not the most yummy tea, but it does seem to soothe me a heck of a lot. I also credit this tea with helping my lymphatic system get back to normal post-mono. And doing some reading on echinacea, I’ll need to take a break from this for all of next week and then resume for another 4 weeks (repeat sequence) to try and let my immune system start doing its own thing without the aid of this particular herb.

So, I highly recommend trying this tea if you’re feeling a bit under-the-weather. Be careful on the first steep, though, because it can be a very medicinal-tasting tea. I couldn’t tell you the temp (I’ve been heating water with my microwave: GASP), but I only let it steep 2 minutes tops for the first steep and then add a minute to each subsequent steep. I also use honey with it. Oh! And the third steep is usually the yummiest. NE

Hi Steepsterites! I dropped-off Steepster yet again, but this time around I didn’t stop drinking tea too. The circumstances of my tea drinking, however, weren’t too groovy: after three rounds of strep about a month-apart each, I was hit with a very rough case of mono. I was close to going to the hospital-type mono. As my doctor kept telling me that I needed to really push liquids and that my white blood cells were outta whack (and my immune system would be not-so-good for about 6 months) — I realized that I had a great tea to help with all of that: This Tea!!!

And then I checked my tea cupboard and there was no Cancer Fighting Tea! I’d forgotten that I had been trying to sip-down the size of my cupboard and had decided not to purchase more tea until it was under control. Well, I promptly broke that self-imposed rule and bought 2 bags of this. I just wish that I would have done it sooner during my illness!

My throat was so sore that I added honey to this and it was just so soothing. I couldn’t even tell you how many cups-a-day I had of this — but I probably had a 16oz cup every hour of the day. Between trips to the kitchen and then trips to the restroom, well, I think this tea helped start building up my strength — it was the most walking (well, more like shuffling) I’d done for weeks.

When I went back to the doctor a little over a week later — my throat was better, my lymph nodes were finally shrinking more significantly, and my white blood counts were back to where they should be (the doctor was impressed). I have to admit that at night I was drinking Celestial Seasonings’ Echinacea Complete Care (I’d read that echinacea is supposed to help the lymphatic system) so maybe that combo was what really worked.

One other note: I had a small problem with my order and I contacted the company (Daniel) via the website and almost immediately received a very thoughtful and considerate response. I cannot fully express what wonderful customer service The Georgia Tea Company provides. I’ve placed a subsequent order and it was perfect (and a bit generous on their part). I will be happily placing another order in the next month or so (since I’m drinking this tea like it’s going outta style).

I’ve finally broken into more of the “sampler order” I made with Life In Teacup and am so happy that I did! I was really having trouble putting into words how this tastes – the closest that I could get was “you definitely know that you’re drinking plant water.” But that sounds bad, and this is anything BUT bad. I really think the other reviews do a better job of breaking down the aroma/flavor of this tea. And when I read “marshmallow” I had a “EUREKA!” moment of finally being able to nail down the aftertaste. Sort of like a marshmallow that’s been over a campfire (but just barely). I may have to order more of this! NE (would be TG, but I want to spend more time with this one with better steeping parameters than I have here at work).

Wow — it’s been an insanely wonderful week in Rabslandia (hint: it involves a guy). So, I haven’t been online a whole heck of a lot. But, I have been drinking more tea, and last night this one called out from the depths of my tea cupboard. And lo! It was as good as I remembered. I still get the “suntan lotion” moments with it, but that’s kinda fun in my book. I plan on revisiting this one again soon. NE

So, it’s my second day-in-a-row to return to this tea, and I think that I figured out why I keep returning for more: it’s like a different cup of tea every time! I mean, the basic “profile” is the same, but depending on what I scoop out it tastes a little different. So today it’s more jasmine, whereas yesterday it was more red bush. I like this aspect a lot. NE

Thoroughly, truly, and utterly enjoyed this tea several times this weekend. I really need to stock up! I am upping my rating a little (from 82) since I find myself craving this. NE

Realized that I needed to reintroduce black tea into my world — especially on freezing cold mornings. Just a nice black tea. I am noticing some more astringency this time around, but it could be because of not having a whole lot of control over the prep of it here at work. Plus I’m only on my second cup. NE

Decided to mix it up a bit and bring this to work (considering how sick everyone seems to be I thought it might be a nice boost to my system). Several coworkers asked to smell the bag and both said that they liked it. This surprised me since I do find it quite a medicinal fragrance — who knew? I’m thoroughly enjoying this without honey today. NE