Ewa

This was my green tea for the day. (Well, technically my Jade Lemonade was, but this was my, I dunno, “normal” green tea for the day) I used less hot water this time but my impression remains the same “there’s spices other than mint in this? REALLY?”

Mmmm Czar Nikolas is so delicious. It’s the perfect tea for when I’m in the mood for tea but can’t figure out which one, because it can’t quite decide whether it’s flavored or not. It is all trying to fake you out. “Oooh, strong tea base! Wait, I sense light spices! But the tea base is so noticeable! but but, other flavors!”

I am not gonna lie, Jade Lemonade has basically become my favorite cool drink. After making the arduous trek to the liquor store (3 blocks) I was totally in need of a cool drink. BAM! Thirst quenched! Healthy matcha consumed. Win!

I actually tried adding gin to it earlier this week as per DoMatcha’s suggestion but was too lazy to document it. I definitely approved though.

Another of the previously dismissed Upton samples…and the verdict is…I continue to dismiss it! Didn’t have an infusion fail like last time, but even when it infuses fine it just doesn’t move me. It needs to pop! have ZING! or something.

Had to cleanse my palate after the…interesting experiment with the spiced plum. In Polish there is a similar expression except it literally translates to “fix my taste” which, my terribleness at translation aside, I think may apply even better than the whole cleansing palate thing. I don’t want to just get back to neutral! I want to cross the boundary into tasty!

Anyway, went back to an old staple for my mission. Whereupon I realized that the teas from the art of tea dessert sampler and foxtrot are my only rooiboses – and I believe I already mentioned that I have…issues with foxtrot. (which will hopefully go away some day >.<) Thankfully, I think the majority of my teafrog samples are rooiboses so I will soon be saved from a lack of rooibos choice existence. (at least until the samples run out) Hurray!

Um yes. The tea. Continues to be tasty! mmm, pear.

So I was reading on here earlier today (I think it was someone’s note? or maybe it was in the comments?) about how they usually use more than 1 tsp of tea when they are making herbal tea so I decided to try that and see if that would get rid of the weird texture that I experienced on my first go around. (yay fiber powder!)

Well, it did THAT yes. AND it brought out the plum taste really nicely. But it also strengthened the cinnamon to almost unbearable levels. So as I drink it I am mostly thinking “I should try other teas with plum in them, this definitely has potential,” but I’ve basically already dismissed this tea.

So I have recently (like five minutes ago) decided to take a modified page out of TeaEqualsBliss’s book by promising myself that I will definitely have one cup of green tea a day. I am not gonna lie, I love black tea best and that means that some days I will just keep drinking it and never drink any other kind of tea. That means I am missing out on health benefits! UNACCEPTABLE. Actually, I should probably make this at least one cup of green tea AND one cup of rooibos, but I’m just gonna start with the green tea thing and see how that goes.

Part of the problem here is that I have never really met a green that got me all that excited. Most of them I would classify more as “eh, it’s all right.” Tokyo pretty much fits that. It was nice enough on the first try, but with each succeeding cup, I’ve gotten more and more meh on it. Perhaps I should go more fruity…

Bah! Almond milk fail again! I will not be buying this brand again.
You know what I feel like I’m drinking when I look at this? Egg drop soup. Not that I mind egg drop soup necessarily, but…that’s not how I want my tea to look!

At least it still tastes all right.

Finally remembered to restock my teabags so I could have this with lunch. Mmmmm, tea flavored tea.

Going back through some of the Upton samples that I’d previously dismissed just to make sure I didn’t do it wrong the first time around or something.

My description of this tea is pretty spot on though. Highly aromatic, weirdly floral, and kind of acidic in the back of the throat. I think I don’t mind the acidity as much this time around, either that or it’s lighter. Since this was my morning tea and I was running late as usual, I’m pretty sure it steeped for a maximum of three minutes. Apparently shorter steeping time is the secret to me enjoying this tea, although I’m not a huge fan of it’s over-floweriness.

I’ve been thinking of getting some of the frou-frou Rosy Earl Grey because Rabs’ notes have made it sound really nice, but considering my reaction to this stuff perhaps that is not a good idea.

You know, when I think about it, I really can’t tell that there’s darjeeling in this unless I concentrate really hard. You can’t even really see it in the tea, so I can only assume that the percentage is pretty tiny. Either that or it’s all drifted to the bottom of the tin….

I’ll be right back.

Ok yeah, there’s just not that much of it in there. Not that this is a bad thing! I like the mintyness and just the smallest hints of something else. Considering my lukewarm reaction to Golden Moon’s Moroccan Mint, I guess I just like this kind of mint tea better. There’s also the possibility (I may have mentioned this in my Moroccan Mint review) that I just feel a sense of loyalty to the one I tried first, which, despite expectations, given that Moroccan Mint is a pretty established form of tea, was this stuff. It’s kind of like how if you read a book first and then watch the movie of the book you generally like the book more, but if you watch the movie first and then read the book you like the movie more? Although now that I come to think of it, I usually like the book more anyway. Yay for print! Stay in school, kids.

Cold foggy day not really suitable to jade lemonade, but I need something to wake up, so I made an almond milk latte instead. Hopefully the matcha will counteract the sleep inducing tendencies of warm milk! Recalling my almond milk fail from earlier this week, I decided it might have been a temperature issue and heated up the milk prior to pouring it in. Success! We have blendyness instead of weird clumping!

This is a much more subdued latte than those made with the latte mix. I like it though since it feels more like I’m just drinking a drink rather than a dessert.

Now that it is no longer Geek Pride Day, my inner geek is safely back in its box. (don’t worry, there’s wifi! oh yeah, air holes, too)

I’m glad people enjoyed yesterday’s themed posts – they were fun to write, although they required a bit more brain power than I really want to put in the average tea note. Shout out to my pals in S Crew (yes we are very immature) who, although they do not read Steepster, deserve credit for the Star Trek technobabble which I could not have managed without their input :D (I knew I had to reverse the polarity of SOMETHING, but was kind of lost as to what).

And now, for your regularly scheduled morning tea note:

Decided to try this again since it’s been a while since the regrettable papery soap earl grey incident. While I didn’t have the negative reaction to it that I had last time, I still have to say I like the Earl Grey blue flower more – it just seems more balanced.

I still miss having a morning breakfast blend, though.

On the plus side, got notification of my Teafrog order shipping! Can’t wait!

All right, last note of Geek Pride Day…gotta go out with a bang!

Character Name: Almond Biscotti
Class: Dessert Tea
Race: Black Tea
STR: 18 (yeah, forgot about it and brewed it too long)
CON: 12 (lots of stuff in it!)
DEX: 0 (it was able to perform exactly 0 backflips)
INT: 0 (It’s tea.)
WIS: 8 (tea —> asia —> asian stereotypes about wisdom….close enough!)
CHA: 18 (so delicious!)

At-Will Powers:
Sitting There: Almond Biscotti sits there until you drink it.
Cooling: Employing amazing powers of thermodynamics, Almond Biscotti decreases in temperature alongside use of At-Will Sitting There power.

Encounter Powers:
Scalding Your Throat: If drunk prior to having used the At-Will Sitting There power for (insert heat resistance modifier) hours, Almond Biscotti will scald the throat.

Daily Powers:
Being Consumed: Once drunk, Almond Biscotti will Be Consumed.

Appearance and Personality: Sweet, fragrant, delicious, forgiving

Background: While seemingly carefree on the outside, Almond Biscotti is, in fact, haunted by…A MYSTERIOUS, TRAGIC PAST. Almond Biscotti is in fact the half-elf, half-unicorn, half-dragon, half-vampire, half-mermaid, half-ent (why not?) child of Gandalf and Anita Blake (that’s right, it’s three separate people!). Sent forward, or possibly back, in time, it has joined the X-men in the hopes of finding clues about it’s unknown parentage. It also went to Hogwarts when it was young, interspersed with trips to Narnia. Also, it’s an Aes Sedai. And a member of the Bene Gesserit. It’s SEEN THINGS you people wouldn’t believe! Worlds resting atop elephents themselves standing on a giant ass turtle! Travels through time and space in a police box! Really unpleasant lepers! Series that go on for way too long and I no longer remember what happened in them! And you just want to DRINK IT?

Well yes, because it is gosh darn tasty :D

These are the voyages of the Starship Ewaprise

Dooooo doo doo doo doo doo DOOOOOOOOOOOOO dootiddy doo doo doo doo dootiddy doo, etc.

Captains Log, Stardate I have no idea.

While traveling through some kind of nebula, the ship’s supply of teabags, mysteriously disappeared. Since the ship was already low on energy, this resulted in a complete loss of power to the bridge. The ship floated aimlessly for a while, but when the crew began exhibiting signs of irritability, I decided to take action. By creating a singularity by reversing the polarity of the impulse thrusters we were able to achieve orbit around the planet Kaw Pheekart. An away team, consisting of myself, my first officer and Ensign Sodead (my sister’s boyfriend’s second cousin – I felt the lad could use some away team experience), took a shuttle down to the surface.

We landed in the country of Numi, where we learned that it’s sovereign, the Earl of Grey was temporarily out of the country, so we talked to his majordomo, Barry Black, who while a somewhat sour individual, was able to provide us with the energy we needed by converting excess rations to a cyclical nitrogenous liquid compatible with our systems. Unfortunately, Ensign Sodead was killed by a freak landslide on our way back to the shuttle.

As we left orbit, we ejected the warp core, just for giggles.

/Accept Quest: Unimaginably Stinky Travel Mug

/Receive: (item)unimaginably_stinky_mug

/Travel: Campus Grocery Store

/Defeat Cash Register Mob (weak against: cash, credit cards, checks)

/Loot: (item)bleach, (item)banking_soda, (item)vinegar.

/Use (item)bleach On (item)unimaginably_stinky_mug For (time)8_hours

/Receive: (item)slightly_less_stinky_mug

/Use (item)baking_soda On (item)slightly_less_stinky_mug For (time)overnight

/Receive: (item)non_stinky_mug

/Complete Quest: Unimaginably Stinky Travel Mug

/Receive Quest Reward: 10 XP, (item)non_stinky_mug_full_of_delicious_breakfast_blend

/Rejoice!

(This was the last of my Bond Street blend, which means I am out of breakfast tea! Noooooooooooooes! My main feelings upon drinking it were: “this is nice, I miss Scottish Breakfast, though.” So…guess I’ll order more of that!)

Happy Geek Pride Day all! Today, I celebrate by unleashing my inner geek. This may mean that my posts become incomprehensible to some (ok, most). They’ll be back to my normal levels of incoherence by tomorrow though!

Post Title: OMG NERF MORNINGZ ! ! 1 ! ! one ! ! 1 1 1 ! !
Poster: Ewa, Level 26 Grad Student
omg gaiz mornings are so totally op this morning i had to blow all my cooldowns AND have pre-morning tea matcha just so i wouldn’t be one-shot by stupid op morning plz nerf mornings they are totally unfair and op i get pwned by them everyday plz nerf them

Replies(2)

Poster: Morning, Level 4,500,000,000 Time of Day
LOLOLOLOL QQ MOAR

Poster: Morning_Person, Level X Archetype
lrn2rl n00b

(damn you steepster autoformat for making me put spaces in my brilliant totally meta mockery of people who abuse exclamation points!)

I tried this with vanilla almond milk today to see if I could get the same effect as with the latte mix, since I ended up not being able to drink all of that before it went bad. Weirdly the almond milk decided to clump up a bunch. I’ve never had that happen before. At first I thought maybe the milk had gone bad, but no expiration date is next year so…dunno! My roommate says it happens to her coffee every so often as well, so must be some weird milk thing.

No notes yet.

Went to the czar for comfort after my sad experience with Irish Breakfast this morning. The czar, being royalty, was unsympathetic, but tasty.

So in my Monday morning haze, I had this made and in my travel mug before I realized that my travel mug smelled like the armpit of hell because I’d forgotten to clean it after having a tea latte over the weekend. So…last bit of breakfast blend ruined, and mug set to soak in a variety of things that the intarwebs tell me will get rid of the terrible terrible smell.

Mondays!

(In case you are wondering, the intarwebs is mostly saying bleach, baking soda, and vinegar – not all at once – so nothing earth-shattering there)

Tried the Jade Lemonade again with more matcha (because sleep is for losers!) and adding soda water so: 3/4 tsp matcha, 6 oz lemonade, 4 oz soda water.

NOM NOM NOM, Houston, we have delicious! So cool and refreshing with just the right amount of tang! It’s like a lighter, sippier version of the Odwalla juice thing I made a bit ago. Of course, now I have the problem of convincing myself that I don’t want to keep drinking this all day. What with wanting to get to sleep SOME time and all.

Today’s Maxsperimentcha: Jade Lemonade, also from the DoMatcha website.

8 oz lemonade and 1/2 a teaspoon of matcha.

I’ve gotta say, I love turning things green by sticking matcha in them. It’s so much fun! The lemonade I used (minute maid) is naturally light in color so the drink is just slightly lighter than normal matcha. Hmmm, I can definitely SMELL the matcha, but I can’t really taste it that much. Looks like some experimentation with amounts is in order! On the other hand, I haven’t had lemonade in a while, so perhaps I just need to get used to the flavor before I can start looking for additions to it.

Yeah, the longer I drink the more noticeable the matcha gets, although that may also be because it’s collected at the bottom. This is a nice combination! Matcha smoothness + lemonade tang. I like it. The lemonade in question is a bit too sweet for me though. Perhaps I should try a different brand? (I made the decision to get the minute maid through the highly scientific process of what was cheapest) Or maybe I could add some soda water.

Got to write 12 pages of a paper today. Need 8 more. Matcha is the only reason I got past page 6. The end.