Sil

This was my official green tea thi morning that I was given when I went out of my way to specify that they give me not English breakfast lol. I’m thinking tomorrow I go for broke and ask for a gaiwan and see what happens :) it’s not a terrible tea as far as bagged teas go but I am for sure glad I brought my own tea. Especially since at this rate I’m not even going to be able to buy tea here unless its sold at the airport :(

On the upside? Traditional evening meal tonight that was pretty damn spectacular, so there’s no shortage of me trying new food ;)

Oh man had this this morning on my way to work…I’m really glad that I thought to bring tea with me, as much as everyone gave me grief for it. It’s been a crazy day and even after starting my day with other tea, I needed this one to jump start my day.

Night cap before bed. I also had “fruit” tea over dinner tonight which is super tasty but essentially tastes like really delicious hot juice. Dragon fruit, pineapple, tomatoes, orange all in a kettle and then as near as I can tell they add water to it. It was damn delicious.

The pollution is wreaking havoc on my lungs so I opted for a night cap of this tea before an early sleep.

I think I found out where they’re hiding the magic tea…exception was too exhausted this afternoon to try it. BUT I’m well prepared for tomorrow! But since I was too tired to e organized with tea upstairs, I’m having a cup of this in my room while I rest up for dinner. We hit the square AND the forbidden palace this afternoon so that was slightly tiring. Navigated the subway so I think I should be good to figure out getting to the tea market on my own….though I’m starting to worry I won’t have time for any of this fun stuff at the rate work may keep me busy.

Ah well, there’s a reasons I brought some of my own tea lol still digging this one! Creamy and delicious all in one.

What I heave learned about china/beijing today:

Take advantage of uber nice hotels since what’s outside the hotel is pretty gross.
And secondly….as a white foreigner in said hotel, when you ask for tea with breakfast you won’t get a choice…they will bring you English breakfast twinnings….even if they have gaiwans and three different (at least) kinds of tea on their tea bar lol

So I had this. Wheee!

Sooo I’m in china, with a very limited amount of my own tea from home. I pretty much threw in some tea bags at the last minute and a few teas that are nearing sip down. It’s not going to be enough to get me through my entire time here, but im hoping that by the time the second week rolls around ill have purchased some new teas to take home with me :)

I woke up at 4:30 am here and haven’t managed to get back to sleep so I am just saying to hell with it and I’m going to get this day started. First some tea while I lounge about in this giant hotel room and te its a quick swim before breakfast #1. Apparently they also serve tea here every day in the executive lounge in the afternoon so ill be checking that out today for sure!

So far I’ve had only “Chinese tea” on the plane (they would give me nothing more specific than that) which turned out to be a mouthful of jasmine green something or other ickyness. That being said, I’m totally bringing home some “jasmin tee” in bag form for someone to try lol go go hotel room tea!

Edit: oh yeah…sip down! Haha

Still trying to decide which two teas to bring with me. I know it’s silly but at the same time, how to narrow it down to just TWO! Black for the morning and a herbal for the evening. Had this one today to remind myself to relax and enjoy. I’ve been steeping it all morning so i’m a little hoped up at the moment. Starting to enter “OH MY GOD I AM LEAVING!” territory lol

SIPDOWN! well kind, but not really since it’s not in my cupboard BUT since this is my last morning with access to my tea stash, i decided to celebrate getting my cupboard down to under 180 before my trip with my last cup of the sample Stacy sent me of the custom blend we’re working on. Since we’re hoping to have it finished by the time i get back, i thought it was fitting. Plus i just wanted something tasty and delicious. :)

mmmm having this this afternoon. I have a ton of things to do tonight when i get home – pack, charge camera, back up cameras, computer etc…, figure out my carry on…all that jazz! In addition, i need to make a decision on which ONE? TWO? of my teas are coming with me to china in the event that pollution causes me to have to stay indoors more than i’d like to.

Still enjoying this, and will look at picking up some more whenever i get down to New York, mostly because I don’t necessarily want 4oz.

guys…i WILLINGLY chose to drink this today. In fact, i actually purchased MORE! of a GREEN OOLONG. Yeah, that’s right. I can get behind this tea. It makes me smile. It’s creamy and delicious and smells divine!

grrrr steepster. Imma drop kick you.

mmmm this is pretty tasty this morning. I wish i weren’t thoroughly exausted. One more day – thankfully my other half is cleaning the house and doing laundry today. YAY! I like the sweet/sour of this matcha. I’m not sure that I’d pick it up for myself but it was on my list to try. Not because i don’t enjoy it, but simply because there are others i love more and i’m trying to keep my matcha flavours manageable. :) Maybe i’ll bring this into the rotation in the summer :)

tried this again tonight to try and see if it can be passed on to IB…but apparently i’m too tired to really review it properly. it tasted less ick from the first time i had it so maybe it just needed time to cure even more than i’d left it. still not entirely convinced….

I’m bagged…tea bagged? lol yeah.. so tired. Massage tonight in rep for china, followed by dinner and board games with the other half as a “de stress and spend time together before you disappear for 2 weeks” kind of thing.

I had this in the afternoon…it reminds me of another tea that i can’t place at this precise moment. tasty but reminiscent of something..

SIPDOWN!

This one’s a little more ginger-y than my first cup so that’s nice. I like seeing how the actual presence of ginger impacts the tea. I really like how the two flavours come together in this tea. Still on the look out for a delicious pear (found grapefruit, now i’m on to pear!). This is probably my favourite so far.

Hello old friend. It’s been a while, you see i’ve been busy. But now, i’m trying to figure out which of my friends are coming on a trip with me and i needed to remind myself what it’s like to wrap my tastebuds up in you. (deep breath) it has been too long. thank you for this moment this morning. I needed the calm before the storm.

This matcha + belgian chocolate matcha = a less artificial tasting even chocolatier wonderful matcha smoothie :) it’s a good morning even if it is T MINUE 2!!!! BLAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!1

mmmmm Figured i’d try this tonight because i can! actually i’m panicking a bit and just need something to keep my mind focused so new teas it is. I actually kind like this one. it really does remind me of lime jello salad, though i REALLY want to brew this cold now with a bit of sweetener.

Well i thought i’d try this one as a cold brew since it’s a suggestion on verdant’s website. While its not too shabby cold, i still prefer this one hot. I do like how the flavours are just slightly different when they’re cold. Overall not a bad little one.

SIPDOWN!

So uh funnny story? I like this better hot haha. Cold brew from the other day and it’s so much better warm.

Thank you Raritea for this tea try! The verdict is still out on this one since midway through enjoying my cup, my parents called to a) freak out about my impending trip to china that they’re worried about since OMG their only child is going to be so far away in a communist country on her own and AAAHHHHHH! (nevermind that it’s on business) and b) Show me all the tea that mom was awesome enough to pick up while she was in London @ selfridges…namely 3 different teas from Mariages Freres. Yep! I get to have Mariages Freres sometime in the future whenever i can meet up with my parents (they’re about 3 hours away from me).

But anyway this tea? It smells divine and seems to taste mighty swell…but i kind of drank it without paying attention to it lol

I tried the last sample i received from this company today and needless to day i have a bit left over for another round of it. From this one, i’m getting mostly a rooibos taste, which i don’t mind but is clearly lacking the blueberry piece of the tea :) Holding off rating this though since i was at work and not paying much attention to how long i steeped it. That being said, wouldn’t it be nice if the website had SOME information on the tea? lol sigh

I finally found the other half of my sample bag lol At work…so i’m not crazy just forgetful. Had this so i could be in true sipdown status for this particular tea :) Was a good afternoon tea to try and help keep me relaxed and focused.

Yeesh…I probably used water that was a little hot for this one. I wasn’t thinking when i made it that it’s a black and green blend. There’s a bit of bitterness behind it, that may very well be my fault so I’ll hold off rating this tea. I suspect that if this was brewed properly it would sit in about the 75 range. I like the blackberry taste, but i’m not getting a sense of the maple.