The Devotea

I figured I should try one more of the teas from my devotea sampler. This is nicely bold, with a very smooth & shiny (the only word I can think of to describe it) feeling. Very shiny! I don’t eat sugar, but next sampling I’ll try a little sweetening, just to see how it changes.

I love ginger,and I’m ok with lemongrass, which I grow every summer in my garden, along with lemon balm, lemon thyme, & lemon verbena (& several other herbs). Plain, this cup was so-so, with a little sweetening added it’s a nice little herbal cup. Warm, a little lemony, & the white tea adds a little thickness to the mouth of this.

Anybody who knows me by now knows that I’m not a fan of the Earl. Most Earl Grey’s feel acidic to my stomach, & on a general rule I don’t really care for them. Tony, on the other hand adores them. So I made him a cup of this one, & after a few sips, he said, “Where did you get this?”.
:)
I love it when Tony is impressed with a tea! I even took a few sips, & actually, it’s a pretty nice. one. Very drinkable.

In addition to getting the 15 tea sampler, I also picked up sample packs of some of the other teas the Devotea has to offer, including this one.
Sometimes it’s good to take a break from strong black teas & try something a little lighter, & this qualifies. This is very different from the other oolongs I’ve tried. It’s not particularly floral, it’s not roasty, it’s not even very fruity. I’m getting a little of an apricot aftertaste, a little of a ‘green’ taste, a hint of an herb I’ve had before, although I can’t quite pinpoint it yet, & a malty thick mouth.
It’s not the bold type of tea I usually go for, & not like the oolongs I usually drink. It kind of reminds me of cream of wheat.

I woke up this morning & headed straight out to my poor neglected garden. No tea, no nothing, just me out there looking at the devastation, the crazy overgrowth, the need for trellising & weeding…sigh…how did it come to this? I watered & watered, picked tomatoes, peppers, kale, & zucchini, watered more, pulled some weeds, dug up a bed a carrots (I’ll probably post my annual sexy carrot contest winner later), watered some more…
My garden is a wretch, but there is always hope…hope for more time for gardening :)
By 9am it was already sweltering hot, so I came in & made a pot of this one, mainly because it was in the front of the ‘breakfast blends’ box. It’s still great with breakfast, & I’m starting the morning with a sip down!

Oh Pajama Day!
Feeling grateful for a full day off with Tony, for my sinuses clearing, for a tasty breakfast, & for tea. My lungs & kidneys are still messed up, but improving (I absolutely hate Florida, I’m never going there again), but I’m feeling a lot better otherwise, & I think another week of going to the salt room & drinking straight cranberry juice & I’ll be back to normal.
Meanwhile, I’m grateful to be able to taste things again, especially tea.
This is one of my favorite EBs.

Tony became a gramps last night! His daughter & her wife had their first baby, a little boy, & of course, he is adorable!

On another note, Leif (my son, age 21) & I made an awesome breakfast frittata this morning, & I enjoyed my half with a pot of 1910, the quintessential English Breakfast. Next up: Bubble Bath.

We went out to breakfast @ this southwest themed diner nearby. Then we went to Global Foods, a place that sells food from everywhere in the world. The kids & I used to shop there a lot. It’s such a fun place to walk through. I’d let each kid pick out something, & they had every kind of produce you could imagine. My son Drew & I used to go there after we dropped his sisters at school & load up on frozen samosas & banana cakes (made with sticky rice & banana, wrapped in a banana leaf – you steam them & they’re especially nice drizzled with a little coconut milk).

Why did Tony & I go there? He was out of his beloved Ahmad Earl Grey. The last time he ordered some, his debit card became compromised, so I did a search & found out they have his favorite tea. Better yet, they have it in a larger size, twice the size of what he usually orders, for roughly the same price, without the shipping. He’s in heaven. They have other teas, & I might have try out some of them. But for today, I came back to Tony’s, made him a cup of his EG, & I enjoyed a cup of this, a lovely breakfast blend.

I’m giving the sipdown extravaganza a rest, at least for this morning.
All I really wanted is one delicious pot of tea, something bold & bright to enhance my breakfast & sustain me for a few hours. This suited my fancy nicely, & it’s the only tea I’m having this morning, as I have to leave in half an hour to go play a wedding at the botanical garden, & I wouldn’t want to walk out in the garden tea-logged.

I drank a pot of this while Jess & I were having breakfast, & I really do believe it is the quintessential English Breakfast. Such a beautifully balanced blend!

I’ve now gone through 3 out of 4 drawers! I have all of my tax returns in one file folder together, from 2000 to 2012! I’m talking about the 1040, plus schedules A & C. The rest of the various pages, receipts, 1099s, etc are stored in shelves elsewhere.
So drawer #1 contains all of my personal stuff: tax returns, everybody’s birth cert, etc, plus my monthly Tea Collection print outs, with all my comments, markings, etc., LOL. Do I really need to keep those? NO! But for some dumb reason I have a year’s worth of them, plus a few tea journals. I’m whack! Someday my kids/grandkids will have fun looking through my junk…or maybe just pitch it all? :)

While I’ve been working on that drawer, I drank a pot of this tasty tea, & I have to admit, I’m feeling it. I’m not the sleepy grump I was earlier. Physically I’m still tired, but I’m feeling motivated, energized, & inspired to get this job done.

I’m pretty sure this is my favorite ‘English Breakfast’. It really is well blended, & today it is just right. I enjoyed it so much that I made a 2nd cup (using fresh leaf). I might make a 3rd.

Also having a mini-cup (4oz) of this one, just to get a little more of a taste before I put it in Sil’s box. This may be my favorite English Breakfast out there! It’s really very good! The essence of the individual teas each make their presence known, but they also really balance the cup out nicely. I’ll probably have to add a little of this to my shopping cart for when I’m in the mood for a classic blend.

Wow! This blend combines all the features of chinese, Indian, & Ceylon teas beautifully. It’s bold, rich, & very bright. I wouldn’t be able to drink it on an empty stomach, but it definitely qualifies as a tasty and substantial breakfast tea.

I drank a satisfying cup of this when I woke up. Then we went to breakfast, where I was stuck drinking bitter swill. Now I’m back at Tony’s, watching a movie (Runner Runner) & enjoying another cup. Some Assams are just a cup of black, all brute strength. This one has a nice strip of sweetness up the center. Thank you :)

Oh, & today is day 15 of little terri’s Sipdown Extravaganza!
Let’s drink some tea!

A lovely Assam tea that I served to my friend Willem, the Bass player. He’s a big guy, a little gruff looking if you don’t know him, but once you do know him you’ll find that he is a teddy bear, AND an excellent musician! He’s been playing jazz most of his life, & is amazing. Of course, he also studied classical, & although bass IS his instrument, he occasionally pulls out a cello, a Bass Ukulele (who knew there was such a thing?), & can also play a few other things. He plays all over town with pretty much everyone that plays jazz in St. Louis, & although we don’t get to play together much, we’ve both agreed we want to book more gigs together. His wife gave me a big hug the first time we played a gig & whispered in my ear, “Don’t tell Willem I told you, but it’s always been his fantasy to play jazz in a trio with a harpist”.

Yet another dream to come true! Now we need someone on percussion.

Rich, dark, a little bright, & very Assam!
I accidentally over-tea-ed the first cup, making it a little rough on my tummy, but the resteep was really good too! Not a tea I should drink before brekkie probably, but very tasty!

I bought myself the 15 tea sampler from the Devotea. I was gonna just order some Lord Petersham, then I started looking around at the website, & decided to try everything out first. This is the first one I’m trying. The aroma of the leaf is very vanilla, & a blush of rose. The cup of tea was nice, especially for late afternoon. The flavor is more of a vanilla black tea, not a lot of rose, & I’ll need to use more leaf next time, as it could have been stronger (but that was due to my underleafing). Luckily, the sample is generous enough that I’ll be able to try again. Meanwhile, it was a lovely tea to enjoy with scones.

Yawn…
My sweetie is back in town, but last night he was having problems sleeping and kept waking me up. I’m tired! I might need to pull out the big guns and go get some coffee later.

I’m officially out of 1910, although it looks like I never added it to my virtual Steepster cupboard anyway. It’s a very tasty breakfast blend, and one that isn’t brisk, which is my idea of a good breakfast tea. I did make it a little strong today and it’s still tasty. Malty, dense, almost chewy. Very good with soymilk and sugar.

God morning Steepster!
I am off to Minneapolis today, don’t know how much tea I will be drinking on vacation, but I hope to pop in on Verdant tea and maybe Mandala if I have the time.

This 1910 is still a fabulous breakfast tea and I hope it wakes me up soon because I still need to pack!

have a greeeeat week :)

Tea of the morning here, I am trying to keep my spirits up, this is a great one for waking up. Hope everyone has a good day!

I’m still on a quest to reduce my caffeine consumption at least temporarily… it isn’t helping my sleep and it might also be aggravating some of my muscle tension so I will focus on lower caffeine options today BUT…

I wanted to start the morning off with a bang and this is one of my favorite breakfast blends currently. Thanks Devotea for making a blend that is worth waking up for!

I’m up early and finishing off the rest of my 1910 sample. This is good stuff and I know I will be buying more soon! See previous notes for more info.

In full disclosure I should say that I got this as a free sample but I don’t really think that’s coloring my experience of the tea. I am really impressed with how smooth and dark this is. When I was brewing it, I detected a fruity aroma. Some English breakfasts I’ve had in the past seem like they have a lot of tannins but this is lovely, I can even drink it plain which is good. There’s a tiny bit of keemun in the aftertaste which I don’t mind at all. Also good with a bit of soymilk and some sweetener. Might have to pick some of this up for the permanent collection. It’s so nice, smooth like velvet. YUM