Ewa

I’ve got maybe one more serving to go after this one. I will miss you malted chocomate. I was thinking of getting more, but I have decided that life (and money) is too short to go around repeating teas unless they are a particularly delicious Earl Grey (:P) Considering that basically every time I receive the 52teas newsletter I want what’s in it…it’s time to seize the day! or the tea! That’s right! (are you ready for it?

it’s gonna be bad…

better mentally prepare now….

I’ll give you a few more seconds…

ok, time’s up!)

Carpe Tea-em!

I find a lot of the Celestial Seasonings teas to be too strong/too hibiscustastic for my tastes, but this is a very nice all purpose soothe the belly tea. (Could use some ginger though! mmm, ginger)

I thought I’d finished this off long ago, but no! The very last little bit was sitting in a sample pouch asking to be finished off. I mixed it with some Assam Melody. Well, ok, a lot of Assam Melody. Really it was mostly Assam Melody with a tiny bit of Sally’s Secret on top. Then I promptly forgot to set a timer on it, so it came out as REALLY strong Assam Melody with a tiny bit of Sally’s Secret on top. Still, not bad. I like the little hints of flavor, although mostly they are dominated by the Assam.

Interestingly, for some reason as I get towards the end of the pitcher of iced tea, the black currant flavor is becoming markedly fainter – on the other hand, the scent has grown extremely strong. I might go so far as to say pungent. Odd.

Had this for my evening cuppa. I am becoming increasingly unimpressed with it – my caramel cream rooibos needs to get here soon!

I adore the way this tea looks, not gonna lie. However, definitely need to be careful with steeping times as the astringency was much higher this time around. I’m trying to figure out whether to try this or the Fujian Baroque for iced tea once my Black Currant Bai Mu Dan runs out and I think the Fujian will come out better. Interestingly, I did get a bit deeper, kind of earthy taste this time around. Nice!

Used my very last bit of this for a strawberry smoothie this morning. Unfortunately, there was SO little left that I can’t even tell that it’s there :( Which is a shame because I finally got a smoothie that was actually smoothie consistency. I have finally cracked the smoothie code! Go me!

Was in a minty mood today. It was odd, making this reminded me of this juice that I used to have in Poland. Apple mint. Sounds tasty, yes? But no! It was FOUL it tasted medicinal and bleh. Fortunately, casablanca twist does not! Once again the day is SAVED.

Ah, I’d forgotten how lovely this tastes. As usual, absence made the heart grow fonder.

I am finally getting to the end of the tin of this, which I have now had for (mumble) months. While in Japan, since it and the almond biscotti were the only teas I brought with me, I was able to get over my aversion to it, which is great – and I basically lived off the stuff – especially during the week that I was STRUCK DOWN by delicious greasy ramen. Omg, it was SO GOOD (this is real ramen noodle soup we are talking about, not instant noodles) but it was SO full of fat that my stomach – and the rest of me, rebelled. Then it was Foxtrot to the rescue! Honestly, between the mint and chamomile it is very nearly the perfect belly soothing tea. It just needs some ginger to round out the belly soothing herb trifecta.

Today, I had a pretty heavy meal (accompanied by pretty heavy beer :D ) for dinner and was craving some foxtrot to clean out my system a bit. Now I come to think of it, someone else was talking about using something for detox – matcha I think? I should try that. But not in the evening.

Tried this with my new almond milk tonight and it was quite tasty! No weird clumpy almond milk and no weird aftertaste. This almond milk gets an A plus from me! (it’s Silk almond milk) I think it’s thicker as well, which is interesting. The only gripe I have is that the cheesecake taste was a little overpowered by the vanilla, but that just means I need to put less in.

So, when I moved, I moved a lot closer to the mountains, which means that I am now getting a lesson in how crazy California’s weather can be. Where I lived earlier, there were a few days in August where the cold in the evening had me turning on the heat (because I am a wuss, but still.) Up here, even though it is NOT really that much farther away, I am hot hot hot! Not as hot as I was in Japan, thank god, but hot enough that I am really really appreciating the ability to make iced tea.

This batch is building on the older batch – when that first batch was at about 1/4 (and had been brewing for a couple of days) I added more water and a bit more leaves and left it. The result is much more black curranty, but still definitely has that white tea personality. Win!

Attempt at matcha smoothie number 2!

This one went much better. Longer blending + moar yoghurt is clearly the way! Still a bit runny though. I’m not sure I mentioned it yesterday, but these are actually my first attempts at smoothies, period, so…bit of a learning curve. Per advice received from someone whose smoothies I have tasted and found delicious, I will try adding banana to it to act as a thickener. I also have strawberries (2 packs for $3! I love sales), so I should probably use those up.

Ah well, that’s for tomorrow.

So I realize I’m not saying much about the smoothie itself. It tastes pretty good! Like kinda watery matcha ice cream. There’s an odd aftertaste which I’m not sure what to attribute to. Is it the almond milk? Or should I use different yogurt? I’m trying out a new brand of almond milk, so I’ll have to try it with some other teas to see if I’m still getting a weird aftertaste.

Also, even with matcha smoothie, I can’t seem to wake up! Have I grown immune to matcha!?!? …or should I just start going to bed earlier?

Starting off my bday with a celebratory cup of malted chocomate! How is it different then my normal morning cup of malted chocomate…it’s not! MWAHAHAHAHA
Ah, malted chocomate, truly you are the best morning tea. I am going to be so sad when I run out of you in…oh…two days or so :(

The other tea that my brother got me for my birfday.

I noticed the comparisons to Golden Monkey in other notes, so that is pretty much what I was expecting. The leaves are not particularly similar. Darker and not as crazy curly. Like Golden Monkey, it brews up pretty light, and it certainly does have something of the sweet, malty taste that characterizes GM, but it is still, very much it’s own tea. It has a very interesting spicy note to it, cinnamony perhaps? It’s neat because although overall it is a lighter tea than the Yunnan Noir, it is more complicated. The yunnan was quite uniform throughout, whereas this one has layers of taste and not even a hint of astringency – so big props for that.

A very nice afternoon tea, I’d say. Not enough kick in the morning for me, though.

Tried out making a matcha smoothie today. I do not have much experience with smoothies so the result, while undeniably tasty was not really smoothie-like as such, but I will get better, I’m sure!

I think the yoghurt I used didn’t really go well with the matcha taste, I will have to experiment with different kinds. Sadly, I am almost out of this tin :( Need moar matcha!

So, the biggest obstacle to my enjoyment of homemade iced tea was the fact that due to my living situation, my fridge smelled like kimchee. (I can’t really blame my roommates for it, when 4 people share 1 refrigerator, some stuff is bound to get forgotten) BUT! Now I have a refrigerator ALL to myself (yay!) and am free to begin enjoying delicious black currant white tea iced tea. Which I have done.

I cold brewed this, letting it sit overnight. And I kind of fudged the amount because I was lazy and also my mum was yelling for me to hurry up because she was hungry. The result was still quite delicious, although it definitely could have used more leaves. The currant taste was quite faint but still presentso it was mostly tasty cold white tea with a smidge of black currant. I’m not complaining, though! If at first you don’t succeed, try try again and all that.

Although looking at the amount I have left in my pouch, I probably should have included another bag of this stuff with the 52teas order I just placed. SIGH. Ain’t it always the way.

Resteep from last night because I am lazy.

A much more malty flavor has come out with this with a very very light hint of smoke in the aftertaste. Sadly, the astringency has also heightened, no doubt due to the longer steeping time I inflicted on it. Still tasty, but doesn’t really do it for me as a morning tea. I think it will work out much better as a nice smooth afternoon tea.

I live! (again)

Finally manage to get myself moved and settled in. Sadly, my desktop is refusing to connect to Teh Internets, but at least the laptop works. Sigh.

My brother, who is usually a dork, but occasionally (like this time!) comes through sent me tea for my birthday! He is a giant tea snob, so he chose two unflavored black teas. Fujian Baroque and Yunnan Noir. And this is the one I’m trying first.

The leaves are adorable they’re these brown and yellow curls that remind me of very slightly relaxed jasmine pearls. Very aesthetically pleasing, I must say.

The tea itself tastes lovely. It is very smooth almost silky, with no bitterness about it, just a full, black flavor. Perhaps I shall try it out as a breakfast tea.

Oh man, like the cheesecake chai, this too is better than I remember it, leading me to believe that a vacation from your tea cupboard does you good every now and then. So coconutty and delicious!

It kind of makes me crave the Golden Moon coconut pouchong. (I am planning on getting that as a bday present for myself…just as soon as I have a stable shipping address)

Noticed that I’d been having a LOT of blacks. This is because due to jetlag and the need to drive around trying to find a place, I have been operating on the principle that if I ingest even one non-caffeinated tea, I will just pass out. Still a little variation is definitely in order. Mixed black and green to the rescue!

Can’t say much about the taste because I did that thing where I completely forget about the tea I’m steeping and left it for, like, 20 minutes. Strong! Still, the second steep was certainly passable. This also finishes up my sample of this. Hmm, to get more or not to get more. Gotta decide soon before the mega super awesome teafrog sale ends!

Busy day full of apartment hunting yesterday so backlogging now!

Mmmm, delicious morning ChocoMate. I love you so. Is this in the permanent collection yet?

Didn’t have any milk to go with this, but the pull was too strong and I drank it anyway. Also I needed more black tea to stay awake. It’s actually a lot better milk-less than I recall. Probably because I do not have the immediate memory of it with milk to fall back on anymore.

As the determined waves of jetlag begin to erode my consciousness to the point where I can’t spell “consciousness” properly until the fifth or so try, it becomes clear that there is only one tea that can help: Super Strong Assam Melody.

Here’s what satisfied customers have to say about Super Strong Assam Melody:

“Thanks, Super Strong Assam Melody, because of you, I was able to drive to the grocery store without the nagging feeling that I am going to fall asleep at the wheel!”

“You are the only reason that I managed to make it past 3pm today!”

Ask your doctor what Super Strong Assam Melody can do for you!