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This treat from Michelle makes a nice little lunch dessert on a back-to-work Monday. It’s spot on with pecan scent, but maybe a little more bourbon than burnt sugar on the praline part. (I’ve never had pralines with bourbon, but the recipe-verse says its possible.) At any rate, it’s tasty and I’m thankful!

My sixth grade boys are like German Shepherd puppies—rowdy but trainable. My sixth grade girls are like Siamese cats on steroids—logic does not work, threats do not work, and they stare straight through you like you’re a glass window. Both camps were at meter-peaking hyperactivity levels today.

Which is why I’m sitting peacefully in a sunbeam watching Minnie nap close to the Christmas tree and reveling in one last cup of derk’s light, slightly buttery green tea. (I hadn’t noticed the buttery part before.) Quiet is good. Quiet is better when you’re holding a cup thoughtfully selected by a friend.

Lovely little bagged cinnamon-apple-green tea triad; well-balanced; helped me compose myself after a nerves-raked-over-a-cheese-grater kind of day. My next line was going to be “definitely worth a repeat,” but I hopped over to a new tab to source it and it looks distressingly unavailable. Rats.

I don’t go through much chamomile, although I keep some around for blending and medicinal purposes. This was a freebie sample in a little pyramid bag. Because it’s much fresher than what’s mouldering away in my pharmaceuticals section, the apple-compatible flavor is easy to detect. Usually, it doesn’t do a thing for me as a sleep inducer, although that effect would be very welcome this evening! (Cats’ nap schedules are off. I did not want to be roused by paw-alarm at 4:00 a.m.)

Long overdue sipdown, not because I don’t enjoy it—odd duck brew that it is—but because I tend to save it for raw, cold evenings when I’m bone tired. We’re having one and I am. First wintry cold spell of the season; a little snow yesterday; a long workday. Chicory and subtle herbal alchemy all doing a good job of warming me up and un-knotting the knots.

You have to play “Where’s Waldo?” to figure out the “Caramel” in the name of this nice oolong. It’s definitely not in the finished cup—which is comfortably toasty and cereally. Caramel it is not. But when you sit with your tired feet up beside a finally-decorated Christmas tree and close your eyes and stick your nose in the cup, the scent finally gives itself away.

Even those these leaves have been around longer than they should have, they are hanging on to their toasty, grassy personality—could be my imagination, but I’m even finding a little burnt sugar in this cup. After a heavy jag of flavored autumnal teas, it’s a nice palate cleanser.

I’m still trolling for antidotes to the tartness in this one. Tonight’s alchemic experiment was a generous spoonful of Baked Apple Rooibos (English Tea Store). We may be onto something. The roo tones down the tart and pumps up the apple pretty nicely. Now it’s light and fruity—just the ticket after a day of feasting and snacking.

(P.S. U.S.-based or not, I’m thankful for such a lovely, eccentric, creative, well-read, eclectic, geeky, cultured bunch of tea friends. Good people, you are!)

Added extra time and milk. Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride, you’ve got competition this season!

I’ve sampled this before, and courtesy of Michelle, I’m enjoying second helpings! Today’s steep seems sweeter than I recall it, although that may be because my taste buds expected strong unflavored unleaded first thing in the a.m. I can find all the expected elements: a little mineral from the pu-erh, sweet without being too cloying, and a sprinkle of nuttiness on top. Might not open your eyes in the morning, but it’s a good lo-cal alternative to a pecan danish from the donut shop.