Terri HarpLady

“Dreary Winter Day
Early morning reverie
sipping cup of Spring”

LOL, I wrote this Haiku the last time I drank a cup of this Matcha. Today is not a dreary day, it’s a beautiful sunny day! The sun is so bright it hurts my eyes, but I am loving it. I’ve been taking a walk in my garden for the last several days, looking around to see what’s waking up, & fantasizing about this year’s garden. This morning it was so sunny that I stepped out back barefoot, sliced of a few scallion tops from my Egyptian Walking Onion bed to use in my breakfast. The ground is still cold, & actually there’s a cold wind blowing today, but I love this weather! I’m ready for spring!

No notes yet.

There’s nothing else I can say about this tea that hasn’t already been said, by myself & by others. It was just what I needed this morning!
I’ve had a couple of busy days, drinking lots of tea on the go, & it was nice this morning to just enjoy this. I steeped the leaves 3 times: 3 minutes, 4 minutes, & 5 minutes. I sipped while I fixed my breakfast, I sipped with my breakfast, I sipped after breakfast during my 1st student of the day. My morning is complete!

This is not the first time I’ve drank this, or even the 2nd, but apparently it is the first time I’m logging it here. It is very nice, with flavors of semolina & perhaps a dark dried fruit, like raisins or prunes. It’s very smooth, a nice depth to it, & doesn’t have any of the compost pile flavors that some Puers feature. It’s a little late at night for me to be drinking tea, but I’ve had a busy couple of days & I feel that I deserve some Shu, plus it doesn’t ever seem to keep me up, so I’m enjoying my last cup (steep # 8, I think).

I woke up with a headache, & so spring begins. I love spring, but my allergies tend to make it a rough time for me. I know other people that are also already having allergies, so at least I’m not alone. Anyway, the only thing on my mind was getting some caffeine in my sys, in hopes that the headache would pass. I drank, in succession, not all at once:
Keemun (London Tea Room)
Kenyan (also LTR)
Bolder Breakfast (Tea Spot)
Three Gardens Breakfast Blend (Rep of Tea, in bags)
I still have a headache, & inspite of my caffeine buzz, I’m not feeling particularly awake or alert. Gonna go practice for an hour, then I have to leave for a orch rehearsal.
Onward through the fog….

I’ve always loved licorice root. It is definitely one of my most favorite herbs. 30 years ago I used licorice root sticks to quit smoking, & I’ve turned others onto them for the same reason. Basically, I’d buy the sticks, which are about the size of a long thin cigarette, & chew on the end of one, holding it like I would hold a cigarette. The flavor is naturally sweet & pleasant, at least to me. What’s amazing about licorice is you taste it after you swallow it, & the flavor lingers for quite awhile. I have drank licorice as a tea for a very long time, both plain & in combinations. I originally became interested in it in my 20’s when I read that it is a natural antidepressant, helps balance your blood sugar & helps for chronic fatigue syndrome, problems I suffered from for a long time. (Not anymore, I’m cured from that, fibro-whatever, arthritis, & everything else).

So I used to get a licorice tea from an herb shop in Kansas City, “House of Hezekiah”. I’ve also enjoyed this blend from Yogi teas for years. It’s sweetly spicey & gently warming. I haven’t drank a lot of licorice lately, & I think I need to add some back into my life. I’ve even been thinking of adding it to my garden this year, along with Elderberry, burdock, & a few others.

Sipdown!
The gig went great! I sold a bunch of CDs, ran into a few people I hadn’t seen for years, & as always, had fun doing my favorite thing. Before I left the house I filled my Starbucks 16oz Thermal thingy with the last of this Assam, & it stays so hot in there that it got me through the gig.

In my sippy cup to drink during the first set!
Basically an earl grey a la Orange, plus stevia

I’m sitting in my car, polishing of the last of this mornings first cup before I unload my electric harp & sound sys. This morning I’m playing at an event called the Healthy Planet Expo. There will be vendors for everything from wheat grass juicers to grass fed beef. There will be experts on solar panels, holistic health, org gardening, etc. I think I’m the only person who actually gets paid to be here. Luckily, they like my mix of jazz, blues, originals, classic rock, & the occasional classical piece. (Did someone ask for Canon in D?)

I do a similar event in the same location, & that was is a psychic fair.
Anyway, I accidentally overstepped this a bit, so it’s a little more peppery than usual & slightly bitter, but the maltiness is still there, & I just took the last sip.
Time to unload & play roadie.

Sipdown from the Azzi-box! Thanks again Azzrian!
I worked on the tasty cup while practicing the aforementioned orch piece. Got a busy day tomorrow, so that’s all the caffeine I get today!
Now for some food!

Another tea from the Azzrian Box, this one is tasty.
I’ve been drinking this while I study the score to a piece I’ll be playing for the Orchestra @ the university I teach at (UMSL).
One of the kids from the U won a concerto competition on cello, so we’ll be performing this piece (which requires 2 harps, my student there is playing the 2nd part) on the 18th, with rehearsals on the 11th & 18th. It’s a beautiful haunting piece, Schelomo by Ernest Bloch, based on Jewish melodies. Very dramatic, with lots of tempo changes, so I’ve been listening to the piece & following the score, to find the harp part, which is not easy to find in some places! But I’m starting to get the gist of the piece & how I fit in. I just got the music a few days ago, so it will take priority for the next week of so!

After a series of milk-toast teas (not counting ‘fo shou’, of course, because it’s anything but dull), I’m craving bold assam. This is the only one in the house, so I’m going for it.

I need to find a few really awesome assams to add to my collection. Bold, malty, you know what I’m looking for!
Suggestions?

I’ve had quite a bit of tea this morning, most of it not particularly great. I started with Anxi Fo Shou Black, which I DO deem worthy & worthwhile, & it lent a very nice start to my day. So there is that!

Then we went to our fav breakfast haunt, where the house tea is Numi.
a cup of china breakfast, a cup of aged earl grey, a cup of decaf vanilla…none are particularly inspiring to me this morning, but the breakfast was great! It always is!

The final sipdown of the night, & another thank you to Azzrian.
I do love Peach, Mango, and Rose, but I have to admit this one didn’t really do it for me. It was ok, but maybe the flavors were just too Mellow. Oh well, can’t win em all, right?

Azzrian must have read my bio when she sent me these teas, as I love the flavor of peaches, & she sent quite a few peach blends.
This one includes Hops!
A long time ago, in a land far away, I was married for 13 years. We had an awesome garden that included hops, elderberries, & lots of asparagus, plus various other veggies of course. I keep hops in my cupboard, it’s a great tea for headaches or to drink as a sleep aid.
However, I never would have thought to combine hops with peaches, & I must say, it’s a lovely combination!
Thanks Azzrian!

Continuing my sipdown from the Magical Tea Box Azzrian send me! Thanks!

I’ve never had a Zabaglione, but little Terri is convinced that this tea would require stevia & french vanilla coconut creamer. I reserve those for dessert-like teas, & this one hits the spot! We’re taking our tea in the car to pay little Terri’s traffic ticket (Ms Theresa will be driving, while little Terri drinks the tea).

The rehearsal went great!
I found out my guitar player/composer friend is a tea drinker, although his tea experience is not particularly esoteric: put a bag in the cup & steep 3 minutes. But I think most of us started there, I know I did.
So I started a Gaiwan of Autumn Laoshan Green, as he said he liked green tea. He was blown away (of course!), saying something like, “I’ve never had green tea that tastes like this! Where did you get this?”
We rehearsed for awhile on one of the pieces, then a tea break. I went with Golden Fleece, & he was floored! After a few cups of that, we returned to rehearsing. Our next break we had some Ms Li’s Dragonwell.
Again, he was like, “Where do you get this stuff??? I’ll never be able to drink bagged tea again!”. LOL, I love sharing tea with people!
I gave him the URL for Verdant tea, & I’m pretty sure he’s hooked!
The addiction spreads like a virus… ;)

Sipdown #4 from Azzrians Box of Wonders! Thanks girlie!

The first thing I noticed was a taste of cinnamon! That was followed by honey & peaches & a little graham crust! This is very nice, very smooth, & very flavorful. It reminds me a little bit of the oriental beauty, with a honeyed sweetness to it, but the underlying flavor has a robustness as well. I was really careful to brew this at 170, even putting my cup of hot water in the frig for a few minutes with a thermometer in it to get the temp right (unusually anal behavior for me, must have been Ms Theresa’s idea).

Next on my agenda: a rehearsal with a guitarist friend who is working on a composition Masters degree at a local university. He has a concert coming up next month of his original works, 3 of which include harp, so we’re gonna go over our parts together, & I’m gonna help him perfect the harp parts (which are a little lame…). The harp is a difficult instrument to write for. Most people don’t really understand how it works, & there are a lot of misconceptions about what the instrument can & can’t do. Luckily, I’ve played it for a long time, so I know!

He said he likes green tea, so I’ll fix him some.

Sipdown #3 (of the day) from Azzrian’s box of goodies. Thanks Lady!
For some reason that I cannot fathom, I was avoiding this one. I honestly don’t know why. In the world of Oolongs, I tend to enjoy the roasted ones the most, & this is really quite nice! It has a boldness that I enjoy, & the flavor is a mix of roasted carrots, sweet potato, greenbeans, & acorns. It’s been a long time since I tasted acorns! I grew up in San Diego, & in 6th grade we went to camp palomar for a week. We did all kinds of things there, including making acorn cakes, which required us to collect acorns, find a good smooth rock, pound them into flour in the indentations on the rocks made by native americans pounding acorns over time, rinse the flour repeatedly to remove the tannins, make a batter & shape the acorns into patties, & fry them. They were terrible, LOL. I was the only one who liked them. The flavor was unique, although they were still rather bitter. I guess we didn’t rinse the flour enough!

This is an interesting tea, mildly sweet, unique, & I like the flavors.

Continueing my sipdown of teas from Azzrian, this Bailin Gongfu is awesome! It’s a black tea drinker’s black tea! Aroma of chocolate, but the tea itself is more of a caramel & malt taste, & a little fruity. It’s also ridiculously smooth, & mean the whole cup just went down!
Thanks Azz!

Azzrian & I were talking about a trade the other day. We did a tea swap back in the fall when I first joined steepster, & I enjoyed the lovely teas she shared with me, but I realized I still haven’t drank them all! I got caught up in all the amazing black, green, oolong, whites, & puers out there, & wasn’t drinking much in the way of flavored teas. My mood for flavors comes & goes, & I’m glad because I don’t want to be some kind of perfect purist, although I will maintain my right to be a tea snob & stick with high quality teas that aren’t loaded with artificial crap.

So…this tea is nice. I hadn’t read the info on it, & was expecting a breakfast blend, like the founding father’s version of english breakfast. It smells like graham crackers & cranberries & caramel. I brewed it kind of strong, cuz that’s the way I roll, & it’s delicious! The taste reminds me of a cranberry almond granola bar, held together by buttery caramel. I thought about adding some stevia…it is robust enough to do so, & I’m sure the sweetness would make the flavors pop, but I’m enjoying it so much as it is, that I finished the cup plain.
The flavors are nicely balanced, & it’s a Sipdown!
Thanks Azz!!

I’ve reviewed this one before, but it’s been awhile since I drank from these leaves. This tea is a musty redwood forest in the evening, & drinking it feels like that Ent-draught somebody (sorry, can’t remember who) made reference to a few weeks ago. It really is an interesting brew. In spite of it’s woodsiness, it’s very clean feeling, energizing, & ‘fresh’ feeling. There is an underlying mintyness, but not so much in the taste as in the way it makes me feel refreshed.

This is one of the shu’s I’ve bought that gives me a strong Chaqi response, although the effect is not as uncomfortable to me as it originally was (when I felt like I was on the front edge of a ‘shroom trip). I can drink off these leaves for hours, & I’m grateful that I bought a whole brick of this while it was available.

It’s been a long day. Suffice it to say that I slammed down a cup of Assam, left the house early & had breakfast with my 2nd daughter (the breakfast was awesome!), then spent hours at the courthouse on the first day of what is probably going to be a very ugly & expensive custody battle between her & the father of her son. Now I’m home, & I wanted something soothing, something special, this!

Dry, it’s interesting looking little blocks, with multishaded layers of sage, cream, white, black, & gray. The dry aroma is rich, & it took me a few sessions with this tea to identify the very familiar aroma: A very fresh goatmilk. A long time ago I raised goats, & when goats milk is good, it is really really good, but sadly, it is very susceptible to aromas, & also can spoil quickly, so it is best when it is very fresh.

The wet aroma was of malt & canned condensed milk!
I steeped 1/2 cube + 4oz gaiwan (rinse) X 6 sec, then 8, 10, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 35

The color is a beautiful amber Honey.
The flavors: fresh cream, malt, hint of vanilla, & a gentle fruity sweetness. It is delicious! I usually go for teas that are more assertive, but the richness & creaminess of this tea makes it very satisfying!
I hope that David gets more of this someday. I’ll buy it!

Yes, I’m drinking Elder berry again.
It’s the best protection I know again viruses, & they’re all around me!!