Terri HarpLady

This is the tea I took out into the garden with me today, & although I didn’t get nearly as much done as I had planned/hoped to accomplish, I did get a few things done. This is a lovely & gentle blend of Yabao buds, florals, vanilla, & goji berries. Mildly sweet & a little creamy, it kind of smells like cotton candy & marshmallows to me. As a dry tea, it is beautiful & looks like something fairies would drink.

After a weekend of practicing hard & running around playing gigs, I’m ready to settle in to some time at home. It’s been awhile since I had a cup of Golden Fleece! Where have I been? I’ve been drinking all these BOLD Assams, which I love, don’t get me wrong, but THIS is a wonderful cup of buttery goodness, so nurturing, so rich, like a cup of flavorful but gentle broth after you haven’t eaten for days. It’s like an invitation to relax & just breath!

1 Tb + 8oz X 1 min (2 min resteep) (3 min other resteep)

Wonderful!

Sil Sample Sipdown!!
I’m sitting here waiting for the Game of Thrones to start. I’ve been enjoying sipping teas.
I have to say, rooibos freaks me out, LOL. I don’t know what it is, but it’s really creepy looking stuff. It looks like insect legs, or something. It looks like it’s made out of the same stuff beetles are made out of, shellac or whatever.
Regardless, I’ve enjoyed this peach & rooibos tea. Thanks Sil!

Thank you Sil! This is a tasty fruity treat! I haven’t had a lychee in years, & as soon as I started sipping this, that was the first thing I noticed. The lychee is the dominant flavor, & it lingers on the back of the tongue. This is mouthwatering & lovely.

Thank you Sil! This smells awesome! I could just sit around huffing this stuff, & never drink it, & be happy. It smells wonderful! Flavorwise, it’s ok plain, with an earthy mildly sweet flavor. The addition of caramel really adds to the natural caramel-like essence of Shu. With stevia, which really brings out the caramel flavors, it’s even more delicious!

It’s been a long & busy weekend. I feel like I haven’t really gotten to drink as much tea as I like, all of my teas were drank while I was driving from here to there, practicing like a crazy woman, etc. It’s also been a wonderful weekend of performances, which I’ve truly enjoyed, so it’s all good. So now I’m hanging in my PJs, sipping.

This is an interesting tea. It’s a creamy lime pudding kind of flavor, & pleasantly so. The citrus covers up the rooibos taste somewhat.
Not sure if I like the lemon or the lime chiffon better, but I think it will probably be the lemon. Thanks Sil, for letting me sample these 2 teas!

I’m cheating, sort of…
I have this list & I’m suppose to drink each tea on the list before I can start over. Those are Ms Theresa’s rules, of course, which we try to follow, but today I said, “hell no”.

I’m leaving to play a wedding, I’m really tired, I’ve had some nice tea, but nothing that’s substantial enough to kick me into high gear, & I know that THIS one is just what I need, so I’m drinking it!

So THERE, Ms TherEsa! ;)

My son Drew (24) is drinking a large pot of Tardis. I just nabbed a cup!
It’s Earl Grey Bravo, Blackberry, & Vanilla, & tasty & bold. IMO he brewed it a little weak…

First cup of the day.
This is a nice tea, but I tend to use a TB, as I prefer something a little bolder, I guess.
Flavorwise, it is very tasty.

Another treat from Sil’s Super Box of Awesomeness!
I haven’t had a marshmallow treat in many many years, but amazingly the taste lingers in my mind, & this was a pretty good representation of it, as I recall. Thanks Sil!

I drank this earlier today, & it was a nice smooth & robust blend, with a hint of smoke! The funny thing is, I didn’t notice the smoke until the last couple of sips! Anyway, I really like to combo of Assam & Yunnan, especially since those are the 2 categories of tea that I seem to enjoy the most. Together? Oh yeah, Sil, it was satisfying! Thanks!

This is one of several teas I drank during the Steepster malfunctioning hours today. This is one of several teas I wrote reviews on the were lost in transit. I know it sounds like I’m complaining, but really up until today the Dashboard has been working wonderfully for quite awhile.

Thank you Sil for sharing this tasty treat with me!
Sample sipdown!

Sipdown!
The first time I ever drank this tea it freaked me out a little, it was too intense. It was like a slap in the face of citrus & bergamot.
It was also Tony’s favorite tea. He took it personally that I didn’t like it, LOL. He can be like that sometimes, but he got over it.
So did I. This tea is very bright & was initially very acidic to me, but it doesn’t seem so bad now. Although it isn’t a favorite, I can drink it, & with sweetening it tastes very juicy with the flavor of orange, & a little bergamot. Unsweet, it tastes more like grapefruit, & the aroma of the dry leaf is more grapefruity than orangy, IMO.
If you can get past the fruitiness to the teabase, it’s actually kind of nice too, with a bready flavor.

Sasha, you & I must have been having the same dream!
This is awesome! I drank the first cup plain & it’s so tasty, spicey, & good. I love licorice & it’s naturally sweet anyway. I re-steeped & added stevia, & it’s dessert!

Thanks for the sample, Stacy! I can’t believe I’m already planning another Butiki order, LOL, but I’ll have to have MOAR!!!!

I’m starting the day with this Assam. I got a sample of it from Stacy a few weeks back, & it was wonderfully tasty, so I ordered a couple of oz which came yesterday, along with a few other things.

I love the name of this tea! It’s also a beautiful tea to look at, & although it’s not as wild & crazy as the Premium Tiawanese, there’s still a bit of an adventure in getting it from the bag through the tsp & into the cup. It has a nice sweet & malty flavor, a little on the astringent side perhaps, but tasty none the less, & it resteeps pretty nicely too! I’m on the 2nd steeping, but my eyes keep roving towards a certain sample of licorice tea…

Thanks Stacy, for all you do for us crazy tea drinkers! I think I speak for everyone when I say, “We Love You, Ms Stacy!!!”

Honey, I’m home!
I steeped & then resteeped this & combined them both in my thermal cup to take to my gig tonight. It was a wedding rehearsal dinner. I brought my electric harp & played a mix of rock, jazz, etc. The actual wedding, which I’m also playing for, is on Saturday.

Those of us who have enjoyed this tea know the secrets of it’s awesomeness. If you haven’t tried it, you should, then you’ll know the secrets too! :)

I’m not gonna write an actual review on this, because I haven’t drank the sample Stacy sent me yet, & also because I think Sasha should write the first review.

BUT I AM gonna say that it smells AWESOME!!!!!!!!
Cuz it does!

This is really nice!
I think I needed something with Keemun to help me get grounded.
The banana adds a nice touch, & the walnut is there without being bitter. I didn’t add any sweetener of any kind, as it’s got a natural earthy sweetness to it that I also needed!
Now I’ve got a gig to get ready for!

So this is actually ‘Two Friends’, but I’m ‘Too Lazy/Busy’ to create a listing for it. It is Sil’s custom blend from Butiki, & as always, Stacy is the awesome Mistress of the Arts of blending! Here’s what I like about it:
1 It’s bold! The chocolate isn’t some wimpy milk chocolate flavor, it’s dark chocolate, all the way. Very satisfying!
2 The orange is very juicy, very mouth watering, & it’s not ‘life savers’ kind of orange flavor, it’s more like a grown up orange, like an orange liquor.
3 They are blended together perfectly, & remind me of candied orange slices dipped in dark chocolate.
4 It’s decadent!!! I’m kind of grumpy. I need decadent! It’s tasty plain, it’s delicious sweetened, add french vanilla coconut milk creamer & it’s chocolate & orange pots of cream. I love them all. Its probably also delicious cold, but I haven’t tried it that way yet.

and I also had a cup of this, with stevia added, just for variety sake.
After breakfast, I went to starbucks, which is in the same strip mall. I had my 16 oz awesome stainless steel travel cup with me, because at least I can get a decent Chai from there! And I did.

The selection of teas at the restaurant was, of course, not particularly exciting, but they had one back of this, which for a bagged EB is ok.

I’m not having a very good tea day so far. I got up, did my yoga, made a cup of this, took a few sips, & jumped in the shower. It didn’t settle well with my stomach. I couldn’t drink any more of it, or I would have barfed. Plain & simple, some teas do that to me on an empty stomach, mostly green teas & ceylons. I can drink Assams, Keemuns, & Yunnans before breakfast, but this tea fits into the ’don’t drink before breakfast’ category. It also reminds me of the ‘iced tea’ kind of tea, so I put the cup in the frig, & left to meet a friend for breakfast, basically tea-less.

My son Leif (age 20) came to me this morning, informing me that we have just enough of this brew to make a large pot of it.
“How about when I get home from classes we do a sipdown together?” he suggested. And we did!

We’ve really enjoyed this tea with it’s sweet potato & cinnamon flavorings, & the irish breakfast base makes it nicely bold too. My sons & I all agree that this is probably our favorite adagio fandom blend, & it is definitely the best of the ‘Hobbit’ brews.

So…this is another part of my secret formula I’m working on (But NO MATTER WHAT, I’m not gonna tell you what ELSE is in it!!!).

My initial response to Lapsang Souchong was not favorable.
“People drink this sh*^?”
I had purchased some to use in a chicken recipe, “Tea-Brined Five Spice Roast Chicken”, from Mindy Fox’s cookbook, “A Bird in the Oven & then Some”. You brine the whole chicken in a mix or orange, lapsang, cloves, cinnamon, star anise, ginger…etc. Then you air dry it, then you bake. What results is a delicious beautifully lacquered looking bird with a subtle smokey spiced exotic flavor. The carcass makes great soup stock too!

So naturally I drank a cup…& it was strange. Interestingly enough, my love of Keemun has led me to realize that I do enjoy a bit of smoke, & I’ve discovered that if you add stevia, smokey flavors can (sometimes) taste like caramel.

My younger sister, Liz, goes by MsWhatsit on steepster. She’s not as out going as I am, so most of you probably don’t know her, but she’s a fun & wonderful writer, so I’ve cut & pasted her review of this Lapsang into my review. I hope you enjoy it!
MsWhatsit:
Some teas evoke images of pagodas and elegant ceremonies. That’s the sort of thing I was imagining at the first whiff of this in the package. I’m still not sure what happened. Perhaps I’m a lousy judge of character where teas are concerned. Or maybe this tea, which rode in with a sample package from Harplady (Thanks Sis!), picked up some of the more refined fragrances from those surrounding it. Or maybe, as when a rugged man tidies himself up like a gentleman to win over the ladies, it just gave me the wrong impression. No matter. The minute the hot water touched it, this teas true nature emerged. The scent did NOT evoke images of pretty ceremonies in little rice paper lined tea rooms at all. No, my imagination told me I was camping out with Genghis Khan and his rowdy entourage. It tastes like…well, tea, but with an interesting smokiness. I have read reviews of smoky teas with some skepticism. I wouldn’t have expected to like a smokey tea but found it surprisingly pleasing. Maybe it has something to do with my love of barbeque. Perhaps it’s the yen I’ve had for seasonal flavors. Pumpkin spices aren’t the only thing you smell in Autumn, it is also the season for smoky bonfires and firing up the wood stove. What better than a smoky blend such as this one to celebrate this time of year? The tea itself is a subtly fragrant presence with no bitterness, just a light familiar background flavor. As a girl with some Southern influences, I thought of barbeque and of sweet tea. I thought, ‘this would make the perfect sweet tea for an event without barbeque.’ Near the end of my cup, I tried it sweet and it was good. Then I added lemon. That was a little strange. I reflected that my husband (resident hillbilly and sweet tea expert) is right, lemon isn’t necessary or helpful. During the unprecedented second steeping I did consider going with the barbeque theme and adding a bit of cider vinegar and molasses. I’ve always been a fan of switchel and suspect this would make a good base. Perhaps when I try this a a cold brew, I will. But that second steeping was as good as the first and I had it all by itself savoring it’s uniqueness. I think I’ve found my new favorite autumn tea.