momo

I can’t believe I haven’t gone back to this tea after all these months, and that I didn’t make the mistake of not getting more when my boyfriend stopped at DT for me. So this is finishing what Kittenna sent me, and then I have that.

I also got my replacement bubble teapot but I think it’s still not up to par, but now I feel like a jerk if I ask them about it again. I know it’s their job to make me happy and all but now I’m like seriously, is everyone with this gold winter tree one having paint chips and I’m just really picky? If they weren’t so obvious flaws I guess I wouldn’t be so bothered but I feel like once you notice them, they become obvious flaws.

Anyway. I remember the first time I drank this I really didn’t notice that it was so glittery (duh, name) because I used a t-sac..although I can’t remember now if I used one of my white mugs or black mugs, which could also have probably made it difficult. So I used my black mug and wowowow SO PRETTY.

The spiced orange flavor is perfect for a day like today, overcast and at the time I was drinking, it was still raining. I steeped it below the recommended time but I think it could do the 4 and not be terrible for me.

It also went perfectly with my breakfast, pumpkin pie oatmeal I cooked in a water bath in my slow cooker all night. Sooooo good. Since I used that Nutcracker Sweet tea for the water in the recipe, there were already elements of this tea in there, in addition to adding more cinnamon and cloves in there. Perfect match!

I’m trying to drink up more old teas before I open new ones (except Weeping Angel, I’m almost to the Doctor Who episode they first appear in and I’m having a cup with it), and I completely forgot about this tea so it was exciting to find it…it seems like I only drank it once, which is sad.

I’ve got the radio up pretty loud cause the guy above me was vacuuming, and for some reason this turned Sebastian into a chatterbox. So here he is: http://youtu.be/pcf0kO3vonI He’s quiet now but he was really getting into it.

I just got distracted realizing if I do well next semester, I can graduate next fall. Here I was thinking I had to go until spring 2014 because I wasn’t going to get the C in health econ. YISSSSS.

This is so tasty still. I love the nuttiness of genmaicha mixed with tart cherry and tangy cheesecake. I also like that it’s not too sweet to have right now, because I haven’t had dinner yet.

Seriously though I have to definitely try what I mentioned in my only other tasting note on this tea. Infuse this in some butter for a cheesecake crust, that would be so good. But I almost don’t want to lose out on that tea for drinking!

12 teas, day 3. Another unsuccessful guess upon opening the package. For some reason I thought orange! Weird.

I only have one tasting note on this one and it was a cold steep. I swear I may have drank it another time and not logged it but anyway, I knew I hadn’t had it hot either.

Finally getting to write this note is a pain. First this morning, the water was out. I needed to wash my clothes. I drank some of this and went back to sleep for the time being, and around 1:30, it was back on but it was lunchtime. So I ate first then loaded up the washer…only for the power to go out around 2:15 and stay out for an hour.
Miraculously at this point the washer did not grow feet and leave with all my wet clothes.

So, I do definitely like this tea hot and I want to have another cup of it later! It seemed pretty creamy when I cold steeped it but I think it’s even more marshmallowy when it’s hot. And the lemon flavor is sweet, so it really reminds me of like a lemon pound cake. I wish that would be in season…lemon pound cake, maybe with some matcha…though I am fine with a great tea equivalent to that right now!

I really have nothing to add about the yun wu because I think everything about this tea is just so well melded together it’s not easy for me even after the fact to think how this tasted as separate components. It’s a great match for lemon, perhaps the reason for the buttery type cake taste too.

This is probably better with sugar. I just really don’t want any right now. So it was probably a bad choice but I’ve been meh about trying it so I finally decided to.

I’m really not a fan so far of any of the S&V teas I’ve had. Followed the recommendations, this tastes barely like strawberry. Definitely no cake or frosting or anything like that. Not very sweet, not very tasty. As it cools the tea itself gets really astringent too.

Definitely not one to drink without additions I guess.

Onto day two, I again opened this last night and tried to guess what it was. I had completely forgotten about this one and was left wondering, bubblegum tea? Did I miss a bubblegum tea?

Ah yes, breakfast smoothie honeybush! I’d totally take a bubblegum tasting smoothie to be honest.

This time around though drinking it hot does not remind me of bubblegum. It tastes like all the fruits with a bit of creaminess. Mostly orange, then banana, not as much pineapple.

Still tasty though. This reminds me I definitely should go back to this tea. Tasty, tangy, and sweet. And not so bad after all when hot.

I keep finding myself writing about the last tea I drank while drinking a new one.

I was trying to resist this tea but I just couldn’t. I don’t like egg nog unless a) it’s filled with alcohol so you can forget the fact that it’s eggs and cream because just in case it’s filled with salmonella, you’ve now got enough alcohol in your system to possibly not be worried or b) it contains no egg or cream like so Delicious’s amazing coconut milk one.

So this tea is already up there in awesomeness, because it is another option and much, much lighter. That’s not to say though that it isn’t filled with flavor. Because it is, it’s so custardy and rich, and amazing. Definitely tastes like eggnog! I’m glad it’s not too spiced because I’ve never been a fan of heavily spiced eggnog.

The base tea is buttery and blends together with the eggnog flavors so well. I was intrigued when Stacy first mentioned on Facebook that it was going to have a green tea base. Honestly I have no idea what would really work with eggnog flavor in a tea but who even cares, this works as it is!

I need to try sweetening it next time. I also tried a second steep but did not enjoy it as much as the first.

Thanks for this, Missy and Dylan, wherever you guys are~

I like blood oranges, and I like chocolate. This seems like an odd combination though because blood oranges are like oranges on steroids. I don’t really think they match chocolate because they’re both more tart and sweeter than regular old oranges to me.

Not that it mattered, I could hardly taste chocolate in here. For the most part it was like a blood orange creamsicle in tea form.

It might be better to me as an iced tea, though it wasn’t bad hot. Still I have to say it’s pretty cool that a blood orange chocolate tea was ever even attempted, never would have thought of that myself.

Thank you for some of this tea, Ellyn! I love love love it.

Violet is probably my favorite floral flavor. This was actually not as strongly flavored as I thought it was going to be. It’s sweet and smooth, and I would not mind having a full tin of this, I have to say. Definitely tastes like violet, but not like jamming a dozen flowers in your face at once.

btw here is my Delta teacup. We’re planning to go back to their museum on one of the days they have their DC-3 open so I am totally gonna get more of these: https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/181857_4183797362221_1149167893_n.jpg

Ahhhh 12 Teas of Christmas, your time has come on such a horrible day.

I like what the White House Spokesman had to say:
‎"I think it’s important on a day like today to view this as I know the president, as a father does and I as a father and others who are parents certainly do, which is to feel enormous sympathy for families that are affected and to do everything we can to support state and local law enforcement and support those who are enduring what appears to be a very tragic event. There is, I’m sure, will be, rather, a day for discussion of the usual Washington policy debates but I don’t think today is that day."

Anyway. I needed to get that off my chest. I wish so many people would show some respect first or go write their Senators and House Rep without blathering on and on via social media and just do something right without making it about them.

I opened this at midnight and knew what it was immediately after smelling.

I’d never tried it hot since it came out at the perfect time for iced tea, so I thought I’d try that first this morning.

I figure I’ve had a lot of the teas in this box but it will be good to revisit some and hopefully be motivated to get them back out of the cabinet or wherever they are. I haven’t had this one in awhile because I think I’ve more or less been hoarding it.

It’s definitely not as amazing hot as it is iced, at least for me. It still has all the sweet, sugary flavors but I feel like they just pop more when the tea is cold. So I left the mug to cool and am enjoying the sweet, sweet tastes of pink cotton candy.

That’s about it. I can’t think of anything else to say because I’m pretty upset about the news today. I just imagine this tea would be popular with kindergarteners, because what 5 year old doesn’t love cotton candy and it breaks my heart even more. It might be kind of odd to dedicate a cup of tea, but that is how I feel right now. This is sweet just like I imagine every single one of those babies. RIP <3

AHHHH I GOT A C IN HEALTH ECONOMICS SO I DON’T NEED TO RETAKE IT. I’m pretty sure I did worse than that but I guess he realized he was terrible so everyone deserves a C. (C- = retake. BLEH)

Anyway I had this last night because I wanted to see if it would make me sleepy. I cannot tell you about the “aphrodisiac uses” but I will tell you about the 1 tbsp in 12 oz of water method of gettin’ sleepy.

It works quickly! It tastes terrible though, at least to me. Very effective, but has the flavor of cedar chips.

I’m not sure if this would taste very good if you tried to sweeten it but ugh, it made me tired but the taste was not worth it. I think I’ll try mixing it with the Schisandra berries I got just to get rid of that bitterness/woodsy flavor. I mean, it is bark so obviously there’s no way to get rid of that.

But it’s definitely a cool herbal tea, especially for falling asleep. And you feel warm and fuzzy first. If chamomile fails you, catuaba is here to back you up.

Still meh about this one. I have had it for awhile now but it’s been stored properly and everything. Given my last note from it, I think my tastebuds have just grown out of taste for this one. There’s still enough for a couple cups though, I think it might be interesting in the oatmeal experiment.

It still smells so good, but I just don’t get the sweet flavors that I used to taste. And I know I’m not the only one who was in love with it with the first cup and subsequently didn’t like it after that.

Ohhh earlier this afternoon we went to Delta’s small museum and I picked up a teacup for 50 cents and a box of prepackaged green tea sachets for $1. Seriously the gift shop was just as cool as all the planes and memorabilia. You could buy cups, mugs, plates, utensils, etc from first class. They had vintage posters, postcards, travel brochures, first flight cards, pins, models, stickers. I really want to go back just to buy utensils, they were fifty cents each! But the teacup I am really excited about. I’ll get a picture of it later.

All right, I just used this to make steel cut oatmeal. I added mint chocolate milk because I honestly have no idea, but it is actually okay. I like the combination of mint and cinnamon, and they’re both coming through. This seriously worked better than I thought. I steeped one bag in 6 oz of water for 3 minutes then cooked the oats in the microwave. I can definitely taste the cinnamon and even the vanilla and it tastes much, much better with more substance like this than it did by itself.

I wouldn’t get this tea again but I’ll definitely use the rest of the bags up this way, maybe with regular milk next time haha, this is about too rich!

Hey maybe I can finally write this note today.

Last night, I decided I was going to conduct a coconut rum Tropicalia experiment. First I put 8 or 9 tsp of the tea in a 2 cup measuring cup, then covered that with about 1 1/2 oz of coconut rum. While the water was boiling, that was soaking, though I don’t think it really mattered. Then I filled the measuring cup with boiling water and left it to cool, so it was super concentrated.

I planned to try it out last night but this whole go to Cartoon Network thing this morning ruined that. IT WAS SO COOL. The parking garage had the Powerpuff Girls all over it, and everyone’s cubicles were filled with toys and cartoon stuff. This was just the floor with the digital/marketing/research people so I’m hoping next week I can help again on the upper floor.

The thing that amused me most is since this was Turner Studios, across the courtyard was TBS. One of the windows over at Cartoon Network had 3 green pigs from Angry Birds in the window. I didn’t realize until we were getting a final tour before leaving that across the way was a red angry bird.

Anyway, back to this. So obviously it isn’t that strongly alcoholic, I was just wanting a little bit more coconut flavor without adding milk because I don’t really care for this with too much creaminess. And since it was super concentrated, I had to water it down too. This stuff gets pretty thick if you make a really concentrated steep, but it’s just so good when you use 2 – 2 1/2 tsp per cup.

It definitely helped to cut down on the sweetness and make it a bit more coconutty compared to the pineapple. I think it might actually be even better if I also added a bit of pineapple juice, which I of course don’t have.

So of course now I’m almost out of it but I think I’ll be okay until spring anyway.

So tomorrow morning I am helping my coffee friend at Cartoon Network!! by taking video of him making them better coffee. I have to wake up soooo early and now I’m all excited to do something useful during my break.

I had this earlier before going off to a yelp holiday party, and I can’t say I’m a big fan. It came out super smoky and not very blueberry tasting. Definitely didn’t get any cream at all.

I don’t remember now what the water temperature was but I think I could drop it, but the steep was only 3 minutes. I’m glad I’ve given a lot of this away in swaps because it’s not my favorite. I’d rather have Blueberry Cream Cheese Danish.

So apparently there are a couple weather models that claim it’s going to snow her last week. It was 70 for about a week. I can’t deal with this. But it is cold again now, so I am feeling a bit more wintery now and also find myself needing to try the rest of these boxes I bought. This one smells so good after its steeped, like I just baked up cinnamon rolls.

Its taste does not live up to its scent. It seems too fake for me. I find it hard to believe they need to fake cinnamon and vanilla like this, but it just doesn’t taste good. And it’s not the base tea, the black tea is not bad at all for a sachet. The flavors are just not good compared, and it brings the whole thing down. This could be sooooo good if it didn’t taste so artificial.

I added almond/coconut milk and agave and it helps round out the flavors a lot. I love this milk so much, especially in this tea because I think it’s really helping tame the vanilla. The cinnamon, not so much, but I’m not sure what I can do about that.

I’ve really been in the mood for cinnamon vanilla teas but all the ones I had disappointed. Good thing I got an ounce of Glitter & Gold, at least that’s close enough to what I’m after to not have to drink things that taste like stale bread or fake cinnamon.

I think I’ll just use this one too for oatmeal. Or it might be good as a latte with brown sugar.

Hilarious, my Art of Tea order that took them seven business days to bother to ship came a day earlier than UPS said. Well at least I can say I’d use UPS again.

So after learning that a 1 minute steep is good with this tea, I did just that, and poured it over ice. It definitely tastes like wine, but it’s a stretch to say it tastes like champagne, I think. That could easily be fixed in the future with some club soda, I suppose.

But it actually tastes to me like it’s maybe a wine with a name I forgot. Sauvignon Blanc? Something like that maybe. I’m lacking in my wines right now, oops. Pretty sure SB is the one with grassy notes, which you get in here, and then peach and pineapple fruitiness.

Not really champagne. But that’s okay. We’ll see if it gets closer if I involve club soda in some fashion. It might work best if I make a tea syrup and add it, because to me champagne always has that mouthfeel to it.

Second steep: I added agave and didn’t really notice much of a difference, but then again it was the second steep. I had it cold too, but kind of was tired of the tea for the time being.

So I ended up splitting the leaves between two jars and cold steeping them overnight for two final glasses from this bunch of leaves.

Now it reminds me of champagne, I may have to add agave to the second glass when I have it later. This first one without it has this amazing white grape background to it.

Will report back on the other cup later. I didn’t realize how cold it was outside and went out with just a fleece jacket on so hot tea is calling me.

Made this for on the way to school, except my travel mug wouldn’t open :o after messing with it while waiting for the professor to show up, I finally got to my precious mate.

I had felt pretty groggy this morning thanks to the weather. I wasn’t as bad as Sebastian, who went right back to sleep after I uncovered his cage LOL… Well I had turned off my 8:30 alarm because I woke up at 8:20, and slept until the 9:00am one. Still had plenty of time to fully come up with an answer to the exam’s essay question, check out Steepster, and make this tea.

I was so certain I was going to take a nap when I got home, but finishing off the entire mug has made that out of the question now.

This is still really tasty, though today it seemed to be more spiced elderberry than minty. Though I think I could have steeped it longer if I had enough time. I actually almost left without the tea.

Next, I really want to try it iced.

Yum! I added some chocolate mint coconut milk to this and it’s incredible. The Assam definitely comes through, and the real mint tastes even better than the flavoring of the milk on its own.

My original plan was tea hot chocolate, but I paid $3 for the quart of this milk, and it’s been extremely disappointing to drink on its own. I’m definitely finishing it up in this tea in the next couple of days because it’s so good this way.

I would also like to announce that I found my parakeet the perfect seasonal Songza station for him: http://songza.com/listen/acoustic-guitar-christmas-songza/ He is a very content feathery puffball now.

I didn’t even know the name of this one changed, I think I got it right before that happened. So let’s see which one is more applicable! Haha, judging by the ingredients, the new one is fitting.

I really do not want to study right now. I want to clean. I don’t get it because I am almost done…just this one left. I think rereading the stuff from my second exam in this class, I have no idea what I’m reading…but I got a 92 on that exam so I am wondering if I just got lucky at this point.

This is pretty funky. It definitely tastes like cider, but there is just waaaaay too much going on with the other herbs for me. It tastes fine at first, but that sweet aftertaste of fennel is too much for me.

Or is it the anise? Or a combination, I can’t do it. It smells great though, but I don’t have the tastebuds to handle it.

Hmmm…this is probably the best first flush I’ve had, but I’m still not feeling it. I don’t like how thin it tastes. It’s too light for my tastes, I guess, since it does slightly remind me of the nutty notes I like in second flushes, but way sweeter, and of course lighter with floral notes.

Other than it not being something I really go for, it is a really, really good tea. And when I looked it up to add on here, it was almost sold out for the year.

I am on a banana kick now, although I’m not sure if I like this one or not.

On one hand, it was absolutely astringent with a 5 minute steep, which is what they recommend. I can’t imagine getting the chocolate and banana flavors with any less time. But on the other, it does taste good with milk and sugar. So maybe this would be better as a latte like Pumpkin Chai.

The banana flavor is so good, but the chocolate is somewhat lacking, and I’m not getting any creaminess really, even with the added milk.

I’m thinking when I make a latte, I’ll use a little chocolate syrup instead of another sweetener.

Wow I don’t know what I was thinking, but I wasn’t going to write a note because I thought this was too old to drink because it tasted like bread.

HURR HURR Hot Buttered Banana BREAD. Totally on it today.

The banana is not as strong as I’d like it to be, but for its age this is decent. The walnut is probably why I can’t taste the banana, I’m sure I can fix that with agave or something. Walnut always seems to take away sweetness for me…not fond of them in tea, or in general actually but they always make their way into baked goods, so I accept that.

I may have to add a bit more leaf too to make it taste more banana-y, but it does taste like toasty bread, so that’s good!

A friend of mine pointed out Dryad Tea to me on Etsy a couple of weeks ago, and since they also participate in this Out of the Box Sampler program, I saw that they would be doing some Black Friday deals. So I ordered about 9 samples of the teas for $10, and am finally getting around to trying them. There are two different levels of teas with different price points, so six regular samples is $6 and six from the fancier collection is $7. And then they also have three samples you can pick. So I did 3 regular and 6 Pandora Celtica.

Each sample is supposed to make 3 cups, but I’m using my Perfect Tea Mug and didn’t even use half the bag so yay for awesome, large sizes!

I just got back from eating pho and drinking half an avocado shake. An avocado shake is as amazing as it sounds. Hooooly cow. I had to put the rest in the freezer and now I need green tea. Jasmine and lychee sound very good right about now.

I steeped it for 2 minutes, since that tends to be my preferred time for flavored greens, and it does not disappoint.

It’s very floral, but the lychee adds a nice floral/berry twist to the typical flavor of jasmine. It’s not blowing me away, but the flavor is excellent. The jasmine almost makes the lychee taste juicy in the tea itself.

This was kind of a well I don’t know what else to get but it sounds interesting choice. So I can’t wait to try the ones I really, really wanted!

Also I let it cool off completely and that makes it a lot more tolerable when you’ve had enough jasmine. It seems to mostly be lychee tasting at this point.

Jeez, this one has star anise too? Not as obvious as Ceylon Star but I think DavidsTea has a new favorite ingredient hahaha.

This one seems heavy too, I got an ounce of it but I don’t think it’s going to make much at all.

This is very, very Christmas to me! First and foremost, the flavor is cranberry with spice notes. Then the mistletoe adds a unique almost spruce-y type flavor. Not too strongly, but just enough that it reminds me a bit of a Christmas tree.

I completely forgot this is a green tea because it really seems more like an herbal. I do like it though. It’s sweet and spicy, with just a hint of earthiness.

I like it!