Ewa

Man, when I moved to California I consoled myself about the fact that I was moving to a place doomed to fall into the ocean with the fact that at least the weather was nice. So WHY IS IT SO HOT? Stupid California.

Made this into Iced Tea – it’s quite nice!

So I am in the “happy” position of having the course schedule of dumb. Specifically, on Tuesdays, I currently have class from 9-10 am and then 3-9pm. THREE TO NINE WTF.

I may drop one of the courses, but it will, sadly, not be the one that ends at nine.

Anyway, a day like that requires LOTS of tea, currently I am carrying Yunnan Noir with me (little known fact: just hot water from the coffee carts costs 5 cents, and bringing your own container gives a 5 cent discount, and therefore…—A WITCH—, I mean FREE TEA while I’m on campus!) It is serving well, so far, but it is a little…dry. Not to mention there is the whole finicky about steeping time thing. Not the ideal tea for a busy day, really. Oh well!

I live!

Lack of structure does terrible things to my productivity and makes me too lazy to write tea notes. But that is done now! For I…have CLASSES.

Specifically, I have Chinese every day at 9 am which means I have to wake up at stupid o’clock so I can catch the bus/get a parking spot. UGH. This is DEFINITELY a job for matcha.

I have also begun to worry that I am going to get scurvy since lack of structure/productivity is also not conducive to eating healthy, so I decided to take a page from Cofftea’s book and get my orange juice + matcha on. Now, the major problem with me and my constant battle to not get scurvy is that I think orange juice is gross, so I am stuck with vitamin enhanced other juice of some kind or grapefruit juice, which for some reason is NEVER ON SALE. Since orange juice was on sale and matcha makes everything better, though, I decided to give it another chance.

The result: matcha makes orange juice drinkable, but only just. Assuming that orange juice continues to be on sale, I will probably stick with it.

This was my random free pouch thing, which points to several possibilities:
1. random draw (boring!)
2. they realized that I am a sucker for hilarious descriptions (“Ingredients: YES.” ROFL)
3. they have noticed that I only ever order black tea and are worried about my blood pressure.

ok, ok, so the first one is the most likely, but I like constructing unlikely scenarios in my head! Especially ones that sounds like movie synopses (“SHE’S a green tea with multiple personality disorder, HE’S a cop on the edge. Together, they FIGHT HEART DISEASE”) But I digress.

This tastes like fruit salad. Fruit salad that has soaked in green tea. It’s actually quite nice, since despite the sheer amount of stuff in it, the green tea is still very much a presence, and it’s the nice buttery kind that I like. Right now, I think the most obvious taste is blueberry, but it may just be generalized berry and I am going to blueberry because I made blueberry crumble. I’m not getting much citrus out of it…or maybe I am! And I think I’m getting peach as well, which is what is giving me the overriding “fruit salad” kind of taste. All I know is if I tried to isolate all of these tastes, I would probably never finish this.

I am really interested if each cup will taste different, or if it will always just give me that generalized sort of fruit salady sort of taste. I made a pot this time around and I’m probably going to make this into an iced tea at some point because that sounds delicious. First I have to finish off the casablanca twist iced tea that I made and have been using for the Laziest Not!Mojitos Evar.

In general I am quite pleased with this, I’ve been needing a green that isn’t the Adagio spiced green, so win all around!

Count me as another person who couldn’t resist 52teas’ recent 4 for 3 deal. I console myself with the fact that 2 of the pouches are in fact going to my brother. That’s right! I managed to sell Mr. Monocle on the idea of Earl Grey Cheesecake! Go me! (doubt I had anything to do with it honestly, think he just read all the reviews that said that the cheesecake part wasn’t too ostentatious).

So he chose two, and I chose the last and I get to keep the free pouch because I may not have told him about the deal and what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him, mwahahahahahahahahaha.

Now, when choosing my one was torn between this tea and the blueberry cream cheese danish, but then I thought about it, and between coconut cream pie, cheesecake chai, and earl grey cheesecake, I kind of have enough creamy/cheesy teas for the moment. In fact, I could do with a tea that wasn’t pretending to be a dessert…a more MACHO tea. Also, the blurb (which consists solely of “yes, really.”) amused me, and I’d been wanting to try something from the Man Teas line. Also, also, any time I asked someone for their input on the matter they told me I was insane for even considering Chocolate Bacon and there is generally no better way to get me to try/do something than to tell me that I am insane for trying/doing it.

Now, not being male, I am obviously not really the target demographic for this tea, but I will do my best to be objective! It is…very interesting, particularly as the base tea is quite smooth. Smoother, I’d say than some of the other 52teas blacks that I’ve tried. I only get hints of chocolate and the bacon was, at first, only discernible as a faint hint of smoke but the more I drank, the more of it I was getting – there are even hints of saltiness about it, which, while certainly novel also kind of makes me more thirsty rather than less. Which is somewhat irritating because once I finish it I need to make MORE tea to stop being thirsty…well-played, sir, well-played.

The flavor of the chocolate comes out more as the tea cools, which is a recurring theme, I’ve found, with chocolate flavored teas, with the exception, perhaps, of the inimitable Florence.

This tea is certainly different from any other tea I own, so I am quite pleased. I think it will be excellent for those times when I want something different but can’t quite put my finger on what.

In celebration of Coconut Day, I invite you, steepsterites, to join me in a rousing rendition of The Coconut Song, which I have just made up on the spot even though there are songs about coconuts in existence.

O coconut, O coconut
You are so white and…nutty.
O coconut, O coconut
In tea you are just yummy

Which is weird, because normally I hate coconut but I have three (3!) teas with coconut in them, which just makes me seem like a liar. SIGH.

Well ok, I mean, coconut cream pie, that’s pie! clearly it does not count.
And in thai chai…well there’s lots of other flavors in it and clearly you NEED coconut to make something thai-y.
and coconut pouchong…that’s coconut MILK which is different.

I win!

I have declared today…COCONUT DAY.

It all started when I realized I had not had Coconut Cream Pie in, like, a week and a half, which is just wrong and strange and needed to be remedied as fast as possible. Added in a bit of ye olde soy milk and it was delicious as usual.

Then, I was thinking, I am kind of in the mood for Thai Chai as well AND while trying to find the buttered cinnamon raisin toast I opened up my tin of Coconut Pouchong and decided I must have that today as well. Therefore…Coconut Day! (Buttered Cinnamon Raisin Toast can wait until tomorrow.)

Morning smoothie! Man, my local grocery needs to stop selling strawberries at $1.50/pack. I want to try other fruit dammit, but I can’t pass up a deal like THAT. Surely, you understand.

Added a bit more matcha today. Nice and green tea-y.

So, every time I see someone review a tea that I happen to own (and like), I basically immediately want to go and have that tea. mrawlins reviewed this last night and so I MUST drink it today. That’s just the way it works.

I used more leaf today on grounds that I generally drink out of a 12 oz mug and the pouch sez 1 teaspoon per 8 oz, and I think the cheesecake is a lot more noticeable. In general it seems much more fragrant than it has other days. yummeh.

Last mug from the pot! Very ginger-y.

Also! For Your Edification:(1)
Real Conversation I Had With My Brother Re: 52teas Awesome Special This Week(2)
(1)not really
(2)note: some knowledge of comics is required to have any idea what we are talking about.

Me: URGH 52teas has a buy 3 pouches get 1 free deal
Brother: POUCHES!? is he ROB LIEFELD IN DISGUISE
Me: …oh man, IF ONLY all of Rob Liefeld’s pouches were full of tea
(pause)
Me: (It would have to be MAN TEA though…holy shit he IS Rob Liefeld!)

the end

reference: Pouches: The Pouchening. Now with MORE POUCHES: http://i.somethingawful.com/fashion/comicSWAT/12.jpg

Giant pot of chai! Weeeeeeeewt!
I was a little worried about this, actually, since 52teas base black tea tends to be pretty non-amenable to long steeping, but it’s worked out really well so far. I think the milk helped.

Hey so…is anybody else not seeing Steepster Selects? Did we stop doing those while I wasn’t paying attention? What’s going oooooooooooooooon?

Made a giant pot of this yesterday afternoon and drank it all evening long.
Very nice! and the longer it steeps the more Golden Monkeyish it gets. I think part of the fun of making a large pot is that (if you are lazy like me and never take out the leaves) your tea changes with each cup as it steeps longer. Of course, that means that you can’t really do it with every single tea…this one works though!

Been drinking this iced for a while now. It’s all right. Like most other people, not getting much peach out of it, but eh.

Needed to warm up after my smoothie. Stupid cold Santa Barbara.

Morning banana strawberry matcha smoothie. The color combination of strawberries and matcha makes for an odd result. Kind of…flesh colored. Ew. Ok, now I have to wash that mental image out of my brain.

I have been pining for Golden Moon Tea’s Coconut Pouchong for a long time now, but they are SO far down on my “to buy from” list (it’s just in order of stuff I have tried samples from – but between various samplers, promotions, and being distracted by 52teas /shakes fist at Frank, I keep putting it off)

Also, I am cheap. And poor.

So of course when I saw that Vices and Spices (to which, if you recall I had a $50 gift certificate courtesy of the BEST MUM IN THE WORLD) had a coconut pouchong, I decided to try it, knowing full well of course that it will probably not be as delicious (unless they are secretly sourcing from Golden Moon, but…I don’t know!)

I actually brewed up a bunch in my teapot rather than a single serving in my ingenuitea. Sadly, the water I used was too hot. I have recently switched over to a stovetop kettle as the wiring at my new place is…not that great and I have so far managed to blow a fuse twice – both times using my electric kettle. Anyway, I still have not figured out the new kettle’s “moods” regarding water temperature so I just let it boil. I could really tell that the water was too hot, because the leaves tasted kind of burnt and vegetal at first. As the tea steeped longer and cooled, it finally settled on that nice borderline oolong taste. Hurray!

Now, at this point, I do not really remember how Golden Moon’s Coconut Pouchong tasted, although I do recall being very pleased with it. I was very pleased with this as well. (well once it cooled) The coconut milk is not overpowering and goes well with the oolongish taste. I got three (giant doom coffee) mugs out of Ivan last night and was very satisfied – especially since each mug seemed better than the last. I love a nice forgiving tea that doesn’t mind how long it steeps!

I think I shall go grab some tea lights so that I can activate Ivan’s “pretend samovar” mode and keep this nice and warm for afternoon drinking.

Second smoothie try today, used less matcha in general and also sifted it before blending. Much better this time around – and the color is much more appetizing as well! The taste is still much more GREEN TEA RAR than either of the other two matchas I’ve tried, so it makes for quite a different smoothie, but it’s also tasty this way, so I’m good. I will even be magnanimous and inch the rating up a bit.

Trying to finish this off. Getting more and more meh on it.

Tried sifting the matcha in order to have it plain today. Dissolved very nicely so it looks like sifting is the way to go with it. It’s interesting because the color was darker than i expected it to be, more towards olive than other matchas I’ve seen. I may have added too much water though, I am out of practice with plain matcha.

Plain, this matcha seems to have a much lighter taste than either the DoMatcha or the strawberry matcha, but once again, I may have diluted it a bit too much. As expected it doesn’t have the smoothness that the DoMatcha has, but I mentioned before that it is pretty cheap stuff. HOLY shit I just saw a frickin HUGE squirrel. I thought it was a cat at first, and it’s tail was, like…SO FLUFFY. ahem back to the matcha! (note to self: matcha does not help short attention spans) Anyway, clearly this is a matcha for mixing with stuff – not as awesome for mixing as the strawberry matcha, of course, but not something I’ll be falling over myself to drink plain unless I REALLY need a quick energy boost.

Went out walking today, and found a historical park about 15 minutes from my new place, score! love historical parks. Took some casablanca twist with me on my walk, which was a good choice, I think. The mint was very refreshing.

I was thinking about this tea and how much of it is basically an herbal tea – just looking at it, the darjeeling seems to only appear here and there. Now, as I understand it, you’re supposed to use a bit more herbal tea when steeping than you would use black tea, so I decided to go with 1.5 times what I use normally to see if it made any difference. It’s hard to evaluate this without immediately drinking another mug of it prepared the normal way, but it did seem ‘more’ more minty, more refreshing…I dunno, maybe that’s just because I was expecting it to.

First trial of the matcha I bought from the coffee shop yesterday. Again, I have no idea where they get it from, so I just wrote what it said on the label.

This is from a strawberry banana smoothie, so it’s not a straight taste, I’ll probably try it by itself later, maybe tomorrow. My impression is that it is much stronger than the other matcha’s I’ve had. I’m getting less subtle smoothness and more rar I am concentrated powdered green teaaaaaa rar out of it. Also, it doesn’t seem to have blended as well, so I should probably try sifting it, or possibly even dissolving it in water prior to putting it in the blender. I’m not overly disappointed or anything, since I wasn’t really expecting much for $5/oz; it’s still tasty enough, it’ll just require a bit more tweaking to figure out how to get it to work for me.

No rating pending trying out the stuff I mentioned above and trying it by itself.

So, while exploring the neighborhood I moved too, I came upon a coffee/tea/bulk spices/random knickknack shop called “Vices and Spices” where you can buy tea both in bulk and to drink right then. My mom was with me at the time, and, as it was coming close to my birthday she got me a 50 dollar gifts certificate (isn’t my mum the best?), which today I went to use so that I could have interim matcha while I try and convince my brother to mail me the strawberry matcha I left at his place. Since I was there, I thought I might as well try some tea as well and I went with this.

Now, I asked the person working there if she knew where/who they got their teas from, but unfortunately she had no clue, so I’m just going to be writing these up under the shop name. Such is life!

Weirdly, despite the fact that I have both lived in Japan and study it, I have never actually tried green tea with sakura before. Which is a shame, because it is SUPER tasty. I really like the combination of green tea and sakura/cherry flavoring, apparently! It tastes like pudding! I seem to get pudding association with teas fairly often. Oh well. And this tastiness was accomplished with boiling water! Imagine how tasty it (hopefully) is when prepared with water at the right temperature! I know I sound pretty enthusiastic, but I’m happy to have found a green tea that I actually like.

Anyway, this tea is only 2.00 an ounce, so I will definitely be going back for some to add to my cupboard once I clear out what’s currently in there a bit…

Seems like a lot of people have been logging this lately. It really made me crave it, so…here I am! Mmmm, this tea is definitely one of my favorites from 52teas so far. I mean, it just WORKS so well, I still can’t believe what I am tasting half the time.

After Earl Grey Special, it was time for my other Earl…Earl Grey Cheesecake, you could stand to be more complicated! I need more cheesecake, darn it! But your straightforward Earl Grey-ness is also delicious.