Shmiracles

my Kusmi order arrived!
the russian tasting set and a large tin of caramel.
(my boyfriend is gonna love the russian ones i just know it)
so here i am drinking tea at 11pm!

today is the last day of my holiday vacation.
whimper.

last day of december.
last sip of this tea.

It’s actually earth.
They’re all ghosts.
He’s his own brother.
They’re all clones.

this tea smells very good.
I had a mega tea tasting with my sister yesterday. I hope to have another one soon.

Since this is almost the last day of the year there is a lot on my To Do list I’d like to get done.
Wish me luck!
Maybe I’ll just throw everything into the garbage and be done.
Do you ever wanna just move to a cabin?
Like leave everything behind and see what it’s like to start from scratch?
I’m not feeling destructive, it’s just what the beginning of a new year will do to my mind.

one of the christmas teas. i postponed drinking it for a long time because it really doesn’t seem like my thing. i don’t even really like cotton candy in it’s original form. but it was a cute tea. and fun. though it definitely doesn’t fit my winter mood.

we were drudging through historic Williamsburg. my sister and i had run out of things to say to my dad and his wife a few hours ago. we all had a beer to ease the tension. then my sis and i spotted this place! tired of looking at old buildings? go shopping for tea! the tea wasn’t super top notch or anything, but we could purchase small bags of a nice variety and it was super fun to smell all the tea.

this was a sweet little treat tea. thanks oddree for sharing as ALWAYS!

i have been drinking tea for days and not commenting or making notes.

old dear roommates visited from out of town and they got so excited when they smelled all of my teas!

i haven’t visited facebook for over a week, but within 2 min of clicking my friend notifications i registered for this http://www.7summitsrace.com
dangit.
DANGIT!
(i’m a race addict)

slightly toasty and smokey. just slightly though.
i bet my sister would appreciate this tea more than i do.
she’s a breakfast tea kind of gal.

seriously this tea smells amazing.
(i’ll write more later gotta run)

25/12/2012 gonna go see 3 movies today!

26/03/2013
popcorn balls. it smells like popcorn balls. and the scent is strong, because i had the teabag ready and just sitting here for most of the morning and even though i was drinking two other delicious teas THIS in the scent i most noticed over and over again.
once brewed, most of this tea is in the nose. over and over i smell the tea more than i taste it. though as it cools it tends to get an interesting buttery kind of flare or texture?
i don’t know about you but this tea has very little actual tea leaves in it. it’s mostly a fruit tea with a sprinkling of green tea added. which is nice when you wanna mellow out a bit. so i will try to keep that in mind. this tea is not just for the movies!
salty maple and buttery apple. nom nom nom. i should think of it more like a baked desert tea. i guess i’ve started to realize how much i like apple teas. cuz i seem to have a lot of them. and also i eat the real thing everyday.

omg i haven’t really drank tea all day! what’s with that!?
i did have a pot of peppermint tea at the museum bar after seeing the Chihuly exhibit with my sister.
but that didn’t really count in my mind.
though it did feel good in my tummy.

i don’t know what i’m doing. i made 3 pots of tea today and i let them all get cold before i could finish them.
we are painting the living room ‘honey cream’ and ‘cherry red’ with a ‘chocolate’ colored trim. i was too busy to drink them properly. i should have used my timolino.

i read in bed and then painted for almost 10 hours straight.
then suddenly i felt very sad. (probably due to exhaustion)

is it possible to own a tea for every mood?
like music?
or poetry?

what am i searching for when i continue to buy more tea. and organize it. and taste it. and smell it. and buy the cups. and saucers. and teapots. to hold. and feel. and admire. in colors. and sizes. and textures and weights.
(i have more teas than i can possibly drink in a year, and i still search for more)

i am shocked that i’ve tried this one so many times and never got around to commenting on it.

it has Orange Peel in it for heavens sake! AND ginger!! and it’s a oolong puerh blend! things i love love!

in fact i’m also surprised i didn’t choose to buy 50g of this one. (i guess i figured that Detox and North African Mint were similar enough. ?) but either way, i’m glad to have the samples i do.
the orange is brisk. the ginger is peppy but not too strong. the oolong is smooth and peeks out from under the looming puerh cloud. the puerh-ness is faint and not overpowering. but i’m also very glad it’s there, since i like it’s earthy darkness.

the most memorable review of this tea goes to CrowKettle.
you should do yourself the favor
http://steepster.com/CrowKettle/posts/145604

had a free drink on my starbucks card and it’s gonna expire in a couple days so i had to use it.

large soy chai latte with 2 shots of espresso added.

if you have never added espresso, do yourself the favor! quick before the world ends!

i don’t taste too much ginseng in this tea.
it’s a nice balance of anise and peppermint and licorice.
both refreshing and warming in the morning.
clears the gunk out of my eyes while i eat my favorite vegan burrito.

30/01/2013
I’m Sherlock Holmes, the world’s only consulting detective.
I’m not going to go into detail about how I do what I do because chances are you wouldn’t understand. If you’ve got a problem that you want me to solve, then contact me. Interesting cases only please.
This is what I do:
1. I observe everything.
2. From what I observe, I deduce everything.
3. When I’ve eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how mad it might seem, must be the truth.

20/12/2012
i brewed this in my timolino to take to the movies.
we were gonna see Lincolin and i felt like the Lapsang was properly oldtimey and candlelight toned to match.
but at the last minute we changed our mind and saw The Hobbit!!
and i’m so glad i did!
honestly had i known, i probably would have brewed my Watson tea for Martin Freeman of course.
or maybe i would have chosen Love Tea #7 for Bilbo’s endlessly endearing honesty.
but in the end, the assam gently softens the lapsang in this deeply grounding tea, and the earthiness of this blend always tastes like home to me.
i had a great evening.

03/12/2012
omg.
this tea is exactly like it’s described. exotic and mysterious and i’m not even exaggerating.

it smells and tastes like thoughts and sensations. like the air pressure dropping in the weather. or your legs hitting a pocket of cold current while swimming in a warm ocean.

this is a tea for when i am in a serious mood. which is often.
this tea is goth.

i’ve been unlucky with the 52teas i’ve been trying.
until now!
it took me maybe 4 different steeps with 4 different teas before i finally learned that i need to handle 52teas more delicately. i need to make sure the water is not too hot. and i need to steep for 2 min or less. and i need to be a bit more strict about it than i have in the past.
this is a valuable lesson!
as an enthusiastic newb i thought that being ‘close enough’ would be fine. but of course this devil-may-care attitude won’t work with tea.

i definitely like this tea.
it’s brisk.
and i especially like the creepy picture on the label.

i went to WPA bakery (Well-made Pastry Alliance) and had a piece of chocolate banana rum walnut pie and a cup of tea. they also sell pots of tea!
i was there alone and i read my book (Shade it Black) and slowly savored my pie and tea.
i can’t wait to go back.

drank at Harrison Street Cafe in Richmond Virginia.
i love this vegan cafe!! i just wish they had slightly better tea is all.

the tea is fine enough. but all the other really good places here in RVA sell the local blow your mind awesome Carytown Teas. so obviously they should too. tea is so often treated as an after thought isn’t it.

i used the http://www.jaydeee.net/pickatea.php tool to help choose this tea last night.
it was great!

and then i put my roller skates on and did spins in the living room (before we refinish the floor and move the furniture back in).
did i mention i used to competitively roller skate? like what they do on ice skates on tv.
i had some pretty rad costumes.

a local punk dive bar has this on the menu. it’s tonic and kinda bold. great for the long sip on a late evening out with friends. (i also hear it’s nice with some whiskey in it).

i just remembered that i made tea in my dream last night
i remember scooping out a teaspoon worth, inspecting it, and then putting it back in the canister repeatedly trying to get the right balance of tea elements on the spoon.
i know you know what i mean.

a local delicious lunch/dinner spot for cheap fried food and huge fresh salads and wonderful vegan burritos is a place i go to WAY TO OFTEN. they have a dozen amazing craft beers always on tap, but only bigelow tea.
yet every time i have this tea, i end up thinking ‘this is refreshing!’
‘i should drink more mint!’
so it’s nothing special, but i always like it.
it went great with the slice vegan mexican chocolate cake.