momo

OHMYGODbestestnight

So I wrote the above last night then left it because I don’t know. I drank the tea and then I wanted to roll around on the floor but I did not have enough space to do that but I wanted to. That was partially this tea and partially my favorite hockey team winning their division (which doesn’t matter, we are snobs who do not need silly division banners).

And then what makes me laugh even more is that Ysaurella found I logged it and is probably waiting to see what I have to say already!

So shmiracles being fantastic sent me some of the teas she picked up in Europe and AHHH this one, ahhh. A couple weeks ago I discovered the entire Héritage Gourmand collection on the MF site and I wanted them ALL. If I get to France next summer, that is most definitely happening now.

I had to try this one first, it’s just a fact. It smells amazing. It doesn’t smell as sweet as a macaron, but it has that same sweet almond smell. And it tastes so good! I don’t think it has the same macaron flavors as the Dammann Frères macaron tea (which has a green base not black), but I mean, I am drinking and enjoying a tea that is heavily almond. And tastes like a cookie at that, well, I do like almond cookies, but I have never had success w/teas flavored like them.

UNTIL NOW!

Oh I am in love I cannot wait to try the chocolate mousse one too, this means the one left that I really REALLY REALLY want is the financier one.

I told my boyfriend the other day that I need to buy a lottery ticket, I have never bought one. I really meant like the scratch off kind but this turned into me with $110 million and how I’d have to change my name and move to another state (Georgia does not allow you to claim anonymously). I was just like I can move to France. I’d send all of you my teas first.

Then I’d get there and buy all these. The end.

omg has it really been since last June that I tried this one?!? I know I’ve had it since then…because I know for a fact I love it.

I bought myself a celebratory growler of Woodchuck’s summer cider (which to me is tasting like iced tea right now) but I needed to get in at least one cup of tea today, so I figured the celebratory theme could continue, and what’s better than champagne?

I didn’t realize this was more of a strawberry champagne than really resembling rosé grape taste but that’s ok. Well, I guess in the past I realized it, but today it just seemed more strawberry.

I hope next year at some point I have the free use of funds to make a Lupicia order. I would prefer to have far less tea at that time because I’m pretty sure I want to spend $100 if not more there. Haha.

Oh I forgot I have no idea if I mentioned my garden at all. I kind of killed the seedlings by transplanting them so I had to buy some bigger plants, which is okay. Less work. https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/431858_4888351455633_364197505_n.jpg I have cherry tomatoes and an heirloom tomato in front there. Then there are 3 seedlings that are either cucumber or squash, I honestly have no clue. Behind them, I planted habanero seeds so I hope they work and a strawberry plant. Then moss roses, followed by the empty space where broccoli is planted. Then there’s 3 more pepper plants: purple bell, red bell, and jalapeno, and at the very back is a watermelon plant! It’s an icebox style so once it starts growing more I’m going to tie it to a trellis to grow vertically.

I shook this up in a cocktail shaker with milk and agave and counted to 100 and created a matcha latte where half my glass was foam. It was lovely. I really need to get back to drinking my matchas up so I can try moooooore. The whole 50% off a review thing is still on right? I should do that. I’m sure there’s a couple around here I didn’t review yet.

I could use a bit more chocolate to this one, though that’s easily solved with the straight chocolate matcha I have.

This is another one of those things I have been holding on to forever, but I wanted something robust and tasty to have at midnight so I didn’t fall asleep on my paper. Surprisingly this was REALLY good despite being old and in a zippered plastic bag.

So. Much. Caramel. Very malty too but in that ice cream malt kind of way. I noticed Whole Foods has some Stephen Smith tea, but in sachets, but I think I may have to try more anyway and that’s an easy way!

Collaspes on your Steepster dashboard.

As you can see from my lack of notes I have been part of an assassination plot known as an 8 page paper + test one day followed by a 38 question take home final, homework, and another test the next day. I have lived, I am not sure if my grades did. (Who am I kidding they’re probably all on life support anyway but at this point I just strive to meet the grades that make the class count.)

BUT I am now done with 1/2 my semester and I don’t think I even have to go to school tomorrow and I have one class entirely left and then a week to study for micro. And then after that test I get a week off before I’m taking environmental econ. I hope I don’t need to repeat any classes but I might have to repeat one. Which sucks but ugh this semester.

So now I can finally log my teas from the past couple of days starting with Cookie, which helped me write my paper. I got this from Azzrian forever ago and I was messing w/my teas last week and realized how many things I’ve gotten from people and held onto for ages and haven’t tried, so I’m attempting to do that over new things. I’m gonna try not to open packages now and get through these old ones.

I was pretty sure I was going to have to go grab milk and sugar to make this tasty, since it’s CTC and old. But it turned out just fine and was tasty. The flavor was more like a tea biscuit rather than a cookie, but better than your average biscuit…this has caramel.

I have enough left to give it a shot a bit stronger, I’d be curious to try it that way with milk and sugar. Just didn’t want to this particular day.

The worst thing happened last week. The tap for this flavor was busted and then to really make it annoying, they left it like it was normal. So last Friday I think it was, I stood there waiting for this girl to stop messing with coffee beans and pour me a cup and it’s, oh it’s broken.

MEH.

So I finally got some this Saturday, in a 32 oz growler!!! Just what I need. So really that’s been the only tea I’ve been drinking because I can’t be bothered right now. This paper is ruining my life and I still have 3 pages to write.

This is still the best tasting one to me. I just like that it is fruity and kind of minty, and just the right amount of tart. It kind of catches my taste buds sometimes and tastes a little too tart but that’s okay.

blahblah tl;dr
So…I completely failed at donating blood, and was given a reminder as to why I haven’t tried in years. I should have known there was going to be a problem when I woke up in a panic half an hour after I went to bed. I just get my heart racing so fast, and apparently they all have a 3 tries policy…but they wouldn’t give me enough time to calm myself down. It was incredibly rude too because NOBODY else was there and I’m trying to donate double red blood cells from my O- blood. Like SERIOUSLY give me a chance.
So instead I got to feel bad because I wanted to donate SO BADLY, and then I was made to feel like there’s something wrong with me, and I drove in the most ridiculous rain I’ve dealt with in the longest time to be able to do nothing for people.

And instead of going home to sulk in bed, which was my plan, since I drove past the mall I ended up in Sephora and spent $90. I can’t get over a stupid brush being $32 but whatever, hopefully I’ll never need one again.

So even now, it’s been like 5 hours since I left and I’m all pretty, and I’m still really angry. I just have no idea what I’m supposed to do cause “just calm down” is the least helpful thing you could tell someone?? Yeah.

So I avoided drinking actual tea for a couple days, getting caffeine withdrawal headaches, for no reason and now I don’t even want it.

I guess if I can bring myself to try again I’m not going back to them.

Okay finally this tea. It is comforting, all I wanted was something minty and sweet.

I’m glad when I kept repeatedly ordering from Davids they kept giving me samples of this, so I have enough for the time being.

It’s such a refreshing, awesome mix. The apple kind of ends up tasting like apple instead of just being sweet, but it actually does work with coconut and mint (though I think apple would be good w/either by itself, altogether can seem a bit worrying).

And it’s even so good cold! I might actually like it better cold.

And maybe eventually I will feel better. I’m going to plant stuff in my garden plot tomorrow so there’s that.

So of course this is the other one I had yesterday, like a quart of it. I actually kind of room temperature steeped it, and it worked out. I drank the green rooibos in the meantime and by the time I was ready for this one, it was almost just like how I normally steep it. This way probably makes me use less tea. I realized yesterday at max I can make 1 1/2 gallons of iced tea from 2 oz of this tea, so it’s kind of a pricey thing to use too often especially compared to how cheap one can get green rooibos.

I think though room temp or cold steeping is probably the best way to go so I don’t use as much. I also typically like to make this one so that it’s like juice. It works quite well too when not made so heavy handed.

I still have 3 more bags so hopefully that’ll last me through the summer.

Ahhh I missed having this. I tried it flash chilled yesterday instead.

I’m going to give blood tomorrow so I’m trying not to overdo it on tea, just drinking fruit ones and this so that I’m full of hemoglobin and super hydrated. I’m excited because I really want to give double red blood cells being O- and I’m just hoping I don’t freak out. My problem is the blood pressure sleeve…see, when people repeatedly use that thing on you and have issues with it working, it becomes a source of anxiety. Like in my mind the next thing that will happen is it becomes stuck while squeezing my arm. I think I can get past the whole needle in the arm thing just fine, that dumb sleeve is holding me up.

So anyway if you have not had plain green rooibos, especially as iced tea, you are missing out. I’d never drink red rooibos by itself. No way. I think it tasted better when I cold brewed it, and generally rooibos does taste better to me if you just make it and cool it off. So double strength poured over ice was going to be the least desired method but I wanted tea now!

It wasn’t so bad actually, the dominant flavor is most definitely honey. And it’s just a sort of crisp, slightly sweet drink. And supposedly good for hydration. We’ll see. I’ve been having a headache since last night which makes no sense.

Now I think I’ll make some more, but this time let it cool off on its own, and go find some of my other green rooibos blends to try out iced.

I have really not felt like writing anything which is a problem when one has a final paper due Tuesday. I finally decided on a topic last night, and it all has to do with beer. I am AMAZED at the level of data one can find out there for this stuff. I’m going by political cultures of states to see if that affects the amount of beer consumed per person, the number of DUIs and underaged drinkers (both of these I figure will be lowest in moralistic states), and if restrictive alcohol laws stifle the economic impact of beer (which I figure will be higher in traditionalistic states). I think that I can make this 8-10 pages. YAY.

So I love orchids a lot but I don’t think I’ve ever had anything orchid flavored. It seems rather unusual. I was worried it might be too perfumey, but I was going to make it iced and take it with me to class so I wasn’t too worried.

It was actually really good. The floral notes are strong, but the apple and other fruit in here adds a welcome bit of sweetness.

This is another one of those where it really doesn’t even matter if there is white tea underneath it all. Super strong flavors and so much fruit just dominates. The hibiscus though is not there at all, I feel like the only thing it did was add a pretty rosy hue to the tea.

No notes yet.

meh, it’s hibiscus with other stuff added in to pretend it’s not just hibiscus.

When I drink this, all I can remember is the crepe I had in Paris, that’s all I taste. Crepes with maple syrup and pecans (the one I had in Paris was walnuts but pecans are superior anyway). Ugh sorry I have been having bad travel bug wants to go back feelings.

I hadn’t had this one for awhile and it just seems so much more mapley to me today.

Also I am so excited right now, I got a garden plot in the community garden my city FINALLY got started.

So I didn’t go to bed until nearly 5am because of a Formula 1 race, and then I had a weird dream where you could go to McDonalds and have Adagio tea. Because if you could sit down and have tea, a fast food place is the spot to do it.

I’ve been meaning to try this sample for awhile now, it smells amazing, but the taste is…very off. It tastes like pepper. Pepper and just a little citrus. It’s so definitely the oolong that is making it taste like pepper. And it’s kind of gross. I’m hoping letting it cool off will make it better.

It’s disappointing because I just picked up a six pack of San Pellegrino’s grapefruit soda for $1.50!! I don’t understand why it’s being discontinued because it tastes so good that I am drinking a second can today while drinking grapefruit tea and now I want a legitimate grapefruit.

My jaw is absolutely killing me tonight, and I don’t know what happened. I’ve had a problem that I’m sure is TMJ since I had braces and they put some robotic looking thing in my mouth to try to pull back an overbite. I’ve complained to my dentist before and I’m “too young to have jaw problems.” So if I end up at an urgent care place tomorrow because I’m crying we’ll see how that goes. There are periods where it’s feeling like it’s trying to separate from the rest of my skull, not even kidding.

Now it’s cooled and I still get the strong pepper notes. It’s not that terrible but I’d like just a bit more grapefruit from it.

I’m not sure how I steeped this the first time I had it, but I noticed there was a lot of green tea in there so I steeped it as a green. I wanted to have it iced since I noticed when I let it cool off completely last time around, it was delicious.

Indeed it was, this definitely is a nice, fruity tea for iced tea. I still really don’t know what a jackfruit tastes like so I’m going to continue to think it is this tea. It’s definitely got that tropical fruit flavor going on.

Next step: cold brew, for sure!

I…don’t understand how one puts kombucha into a tea bag. I am pretty sure that’s some kind of ploy to get you to buy this one for medicinal benefits. Like similarly I’m not trusting anyone who claims to have yogurt probiotics in a tea bag either or something.

So no, this doesn’t taste like kombucha, and I doubt whatever is in here to pretend to be kombucha has any semblance of drinking actual kombucha because the whole point of kombucha is to have the live stuff in there. I highly doubt that stuff survives being turned into a powder or whatever’s going on in teas like this.

For what it actually is, it’s not too bad, but I think it tastes terrible hot. When I let it cool off, the plum and passionfruit flavors were stronger. Before it was just the lemongrass and mint with a little fruity aftertaste.

I wouldn’t drink this again.

I really wanted green tea and mint this morning but I wasn’t feeling like something of the Moroccan Mint variety, so I was glad I remembered I had this. My stomach was not feeling good due to the previous night’s wine celebration of the Canadiens making the playoffs. Oops. So I really wanted mint to settle things down and since it cooled off from the rain (and barely took any pollen away, gross) something a bit toasty and nutty for a base sounded great.

So now that I am over the fact this isn’t going to have chocolate despite its name, I do quite enjoy it. It’s a nice, different take on a minty green.

I’m going to have to give it a try iced too. I was actually wondering about that earlier and I wasn’t sure how it might be, but now I’m thinking it’s a must.

I have not had the best of luck with the Art of Tea samples I bought back in November. Granted it also didn’t help it took them weeks to bother to send. This is the first of them that I have actually liked and I only have one left to try…

I didn’t think the jasmine was overpowering at all in this. Granted all the other notes for this are years old so maybe Art of Tea got the balance right finally. I’ve also had it for 4 1/2 months at this point. It’s a nice mix of fruit and floral, I think the blueberry was quite a bit stronger though with jasmine notes following.

Teas Etc Persian Lime + Mahamosa Spearmint

This was AWESOME. I made a quart pitcher of iced tea, and I believe I used 1 tbsp of spearmint leaves and around 2 1/2 tbsp of Persian Lime. I don’t think I added any sweetener to it, but I do remember that I completely missed starting the timer on my phone so I had to guess at steeping.

It turned out perfect so that was fine. The lime and mint were perfectly matched, I was worried I didn’t have enough mint in there but it was just right to give a burst of mintiness at the end.

I have no idea what else to say since it took me hours to finally finish this and this tea was from yesterday. Blah.

Awwwww sipdown :( I didn’t even really have enough to make a good cup which was a problem because my intention was to have a quart hahaha. So in my slightly larger than 8 ounce cup, it was kind of watered down tasting and there really wasn’t any tequila flavor to be had.

This was definitely one of my favorite iced teas. Now to go do the email pls bring it back thing for it though I probably already did.

Do parakeets have off switches? The nicer it is outside, the goofier Sebastian acts. I feel bad because I can’t open the windows because of my allergies. The pollen count was 2607 yesterday. Today it is 4151. Thankfully it is supposed to rain tomorrow so hopefully it won’t get 9000+ like last year (seriously. http://www.atlantaallergy.com/pollencount.aspx?year=2012&month=3). It was horrible enough last night when I went to get my mail…you can just feel the large particles in the air. Ugh. And they’re not even the problematic pollen.

I had this iced last night, it was a lot more subtle than I hoped for. That might be something I can change by adding agave or sugar or something. I didn’t really get kiwi, just a tiny bit of strawberry in there.

I’ll finish it but I far prefer the 52teas kiwi strawberry margarita white tea I still have a bit of…gonna have to have some more of that today. I think these flavors may be better suited to something more delicate than black tea. This is overall a pretty good black, it tasted great iced and was really smooth.

DavidsTea Stormy Night + Chocolate Orange

A friend was curious what she could mix that was a chocolate tea to tone down the cinnamon in Stormy Night. I thought Chocolate Orange sounded like the best bet, and it’s definitely good.

Stormy Night came off as really thin-bodied the first time I had it, and the puerh gives it more of a body. The cinnamon is way less intense, as is the coconut. It doesn’t taste like slightly chocolatey cinnamon coconut water anymore.

I’m gonna try it w/cocoa canela tomorrow. I’ve only got enough Chocolate Orange for one more cup so I think I’m going to have to drink it on its own, but this was a good experiment.

When I opened this to take out some to give to JoonSusanna, it just made the entire room smell like a key lime pie. And it lingered. And finally today I couldn’t handle it anymore. Warm day? I need iced tea.

It smelled amazing again while it was brewing. I find it pretty cool they use a Nilgiri base for this.

I decided I had to have it iced, and at first it was WAY too strong, I think that was a product of the lime peel rather than the tea. Once the ice diluted it and I added a bit of agave it was really good.

I don’t think there are that many lime teas out there, but there doesn’t need to be any competition for this one. It’s awesome. It tastes just like lime with no weird aftertaste.

I may have to make a pitcher + spearmint for tomorrow, I believe it is another 80+ day :D

So there’s a reason I haven’t had this one in forever. It’s one of those where I had it once, wrote this average tasting note on it, and then tried it again, hated it, and didn’t say a thing.

So then I find it in the cupboard and I’m like, oh chocolate cake! I make it. I taste it. I absolutely despise it.

I mean, it tastes awesome. It tastes like chocolate ice cream cake. But I have a serious texture problem with teas that have so much flavoring oil in them. I can feel it and it grosses me out.

At least this means I have less work on deciding the last bunch of teas to add to a traveling tea box…and I can remove it from my spreadsheet!