Random Steepings

So the Tea Party was a wonderful time!
Roughly 25 people came, a mix of professionals & students. I made a couple dozen deviled eggs, a batch of humus, sliced up veggies, & set out olives & the chocolates that 2 of my students gave me over the holidays. I can’t eat them, so I saved them for the tea party. Everyone brought finger foods to share. It was a pretty nice spread!

I set up my electric kettle on one counter with all the bagged teas, so people could serve themselves, then I manned the other kettle on the stove, brewing pots/Gaiwans of tea for those who wished to sample things. We sampled:
Golden Fleece (Which I also drank all morning)
Anxi Fo Shou
Taiwanese Dong Ding Oolong
Handpicked Summer Laoshan Green
These were all enjoyed. One gal said, “This is the best green tea I’ve ever tasted!”

There were chai drinkers, so over the course of the afternoon, I also made 3 pots of Chai (adagio) in my big green dragon cast iron pot for them (each pot holds about a Qt & a half).

While we were all hanging out, eating, sipping, & visiting, each harpist took turns playing for awhile. That way we had Harp music for our party!

I’ve been practicing like a crazy woman all evening!
First it was the first harp part for Schelomo, the cello concerto by Bloch. Then there’s another piece for that concert, which is on Monday.
Next I worked on Clair de Lune (Debussy) because I have to play it at a gig in a few weeks & it’s been awhile…I also worked on my arrangement of Girl From Ipanima.
Finally, I’m playing a meditation concert at a church this friday, as part of their Lent series & since St Pats is this weekend, I came up with a set that includes a mix of Irish tunes, & some classical stuff to, like the Swan, such a beautiful piece…sigh…

When I finished practicing, I wanted a cup of tea to help me unwind, & here’s what I threw together:
Chamomile – purported sleep aid
Oat straw & nettle – good source of calcium’ for relaxing
Double shot of valerian tincture – nature’s version of Valium
Orange peel, lemon verbena (homegrown!) & vanilla for flavor
A few drops of stevia for flavor enhancement

I think that’s everything. Add hot water, steep, & enjoy!

I hate allergies! My head’s been throbbing all day, my eyes are watering, ears itching, sneezing…ghaaa!
This evening I’ve been sitting around, making adjustments to the list of my tea collection on my computer. There were several sipdowns, so those items were removed, & I added all the teas I purchased recently. I now have a total of 260 teas! This includes samples, bags, tins, everything.
While I’ve been doing this, I’ve been sipping on cups of Nettles tea, as it is rumored to be helpful for allergies. I used to take massive doses of Shaklee Alfalfa tablets for allergies, & it really helped, but these days I just can’t swallow that many tablets (20 tablets, 4 times a day, that’s what it took to keep my allergies away). So I’m drinking Nettles, & I’m using BioAllers Homeopathic Sinus & Allergy spray.

Nettles tea is a natural anti-inflammatory & anti-histamine, & isn’t unpleasant. It just tastes green, with a bit of a minty sensation to it. For years I’ve drank a mix of Nettles, Oatstraw, & a pinch of Horsetail (herb), which is a good tonic for women, high in bone building minerals (according to Susun Weed, herbalist).

The gig I played today went very nicely, then I returned home & took my Harley out for a spin. It was such a nice day, 70 degrees, & Ruby (1200 custom sportster, lava sunglow red) has been stuck in the garage forever. It always seems like the days when it’s beautiful weather I’m playing a gig or teaching, & the days I’m free to ride it rains.

So we buzzed around town, it felt so good to feel the wind! When I got home I went on a crazy tea frenzy! I pulled out the Nov TOMC selections, & actually followed the suggestions for once.
First I Steeped Mt Banzang’s Sheng. If I could buy a whole cake of this, I would, but at $300 the answer is no.
Then I made some Autumn picked laoshan green. It really is a lovely contrast. The Banzang is rustic, smoky, tangy, tongue numbing & 3rd eye opening, then the laoshan green is so fresh tasting, buttery greens. I sipped back & forth between 2 Gaiwans, & then did a few more steeps on yesterday’s Big Leaf Sheng too. The next part of the suggested instructions was to mix the sheng & green together, 3G green to 1G Sheng. So I had 4 Gaiwans going. Finally, “add a pinch of the toasted rice to each one”. That took them all over the top!
That was the end of my tea drinking for today :)

I have a fancy gig tonight, a very profitable gig. The kind of gig that requires my Barbie wardrobe. The problem is my Barbie clothes (long sequence gown & other fancy pants blouses, skirts, & pants, all in black) are all getting old. I wanted the awesome crochet tunic with the chiffon palazzo pants. Sadly, it’s coming uncrocheted. I settled for the beaded blouse, whose beads are starting to fall off. Nobody will get close enough to notice.

Next irritation: a water main broke, so the water is suddenly off. No shower, no tea!
I packed my go cup & strainer & tea, grabbing my duffle bag with my outfit, etc.
Drove through Starbucks & got a Venti soy chai, 9 pumps in my insulated sippy cup.

Now I’m sitting at PF chang’s, sipping dragon eye oolong, & waiting for my food.
It’s gonna be a great night!

Part II

I’m at home, getting ready to leave for my second gig of the day, I’ve eaten lunch, and refilled all of my tea containers, LOL. Oh, and (one of) my Verdant orders arrived!! Here’s what I’m taking:
1. a travel cup (just regular size) of (dreamy expression on face) Golden Fleece (It’s so beautiful, and tasty too!) I’ll drink that while I’m driving
2. My thermos type cup, I’m going with more of the Aquarius, with stevia. That Hazelnut flavor is kind of nice, and something sweet to sip on between songs sounds good.

Oh yeah, I sample the Yu Lu Yan Cha Black with lunch. No comments at this time, I’ll come back to it when I have time to contemplate…
Now I’m off to entertain the masses!

Have a great evening everyone! Tomorrow is my Pajama Day!!

So apparently the virus that’s been spreading around Steepster finally made it to my house. I started feeling yucko last night & have cancelled students for today. I’m sitting in my sun room, surrounded by a variety of plants, including a meyer lemon tree with 7 almost ripe lemons, a key lime tree loaded with limes of all sizes & blossoming, & a kumquat tree with lots of baby kumquats on it. I’m soaking up the sun, & dosing myself fairly heavily with the following teas, which I’ve already reviewed & which all have healing medicinal qualities:
Cheryl’s Tea (Cheryls Herbs)
8 treasures winter yabao (verdant)
sichuan caravan (verdant)
& a brew I make from Astragulus root, lemon, ginger, lemon balm, & honey

I plan to spend the day out here, rotating through various steepings of those, plus homemade chicken stock that’s loaded with garlic & herbs.
Look out virus, I’ve got you in my sights, & it ain’t pretty!

Leif asked me to log 2 teas for him from TTB-A:
Candy Cane – 52 teas – steeped for 3 minutes – nice peppermint flavor!
Ice Cream Cake – David’s – very sweet on it’s own, as might be expected. The bits of freeze dried ice cream & rainbow sprinkles dissolved to sweeten the whole cup. No sweetener needed. He added creamer, which brought out the flavors even more.

The rehearsal went great!
I found out my guitar player/composer friend is a tea drinker, although his tea experience is not particularly esoteric: put a bag in the cup & steep 3 minutes. But I think most of us started there, I know I did.
So I started a Gaiwan of Autumn Laoshan Green, as he said he liked green tea. He was blown away (of course!), saying something like, “I’ve never had green tea that tastes like this! Where did you get this?”
We rehearsed for awhile on one of the pieces, then a tea break. I went with Golden Fleece, & he was floored! After a few cups of that, we returned to rehearsing. Our next break we had some Ms Li’s Dragonwell.
Again, he was like, “Where do you get this stuff??? I’ll never be able to drink bagged tea again!”. LOL, I love sharing tea with people!
I gave him the URL for Verdant tea, & I’m pretty sure he’s hooked!
The addiction spreads like a virus… ;)

I haven’t posted alot lately, mainly because I’ve been drinking alot of the same teas that I’ve already reviewed, and/or due to business. So I have to confess, getting a little bored with all the teas I have, for some reason, I guess because our senses always want novelty (the grass is always greener…). I mean, I have tons of teas here to drink, & nothing to drink, LOL.

Normally I start the morning with a robust black tea. I’m changing it up, at least a little. Because of BoxerMama’s Chai post yesterday, & also because I’ve been craving Chai, Leif & I started the morning with Adagio Chai, which is actually a pretty tasty Chai! We drank 2 pots with our breakfast, both sweetened with Stevia, no milk of any kind.

Then I was loitering on the Adagio site, looking at various blends. I wanted to order the Tardis Blend, I’ve wanted to try it for awhile, & they are out! Bummer! So I’m looking around, and I see Tony Stark’s blend: Lapsang, Tiger eye, and ginger! MMMMMmmmm! I have all those things! So the lab experiment begins: first cup was heaping half tsp of each plus several thin slices of ginger, add stevia. Ohhhh… ahhhhh…. yummm! 2nd cup = 1 tsp Tiger eye (SipDown, gonna have to get some more of that), 1/2 tsp Lapsang, slices of ginger & a little vanilla extract, & stevia. To die for. Off to my bubble bath…

It’s been a LONG day!
I started the morning with Anxi Fo Shou again, simply because I was at Tony’s & it’s so convenient to take there, & it’s tasty! Western style.
Since it’s St. Patricks day I had a cup of Irish breakfast (Adagio…uninspiring) with breakfast.
Then it was “Road Trip”. I had a concert out of town, so I brewed up 2 things to drink on the road:
1. a 12 oz mug with Irish Breakfast & Cream (both by Adagio), adding stevia & french vanilla coconut milk creamer. It was my attempt to create an Irish cream flavor, but lacked the whiskey. None the less, it was ok…
2. A 16 oz insulated mug with Bilbo Brew, also from Adagio. It features Irish Breakfast (are we picking up on the theme yet?), sweet potato, vanilla, & cinnamon. I added stevia & creamer to that too. I like to drink sweet stuff while I’m driving. I’d like to report that Colin Farrell magically appeared in the passenger’s seat while I was drinking all the Irish themed teas, but the teas weren’t entirely worthy of his appearing & saying something like, “pass me a sip, then, lass”

I drove 1.5 hours, set up, was fed, drank a cup of ‘bagged’ english breakfast. My gig was fun, I sold some CDs, made some money, & then loaded up, refilled my mug with a double dose of english breakfast tea bags, & hit the road. It was a long horrible drive. I don’t really like to travel much at night, & I hate driving on the highway when it’s raining crazily, with intermittent hail & lots of wind. This is one of the only times in life when I become a woose. Gratefully I finally got home, unloaded my gear, had a strong chamomile concoction with extra valerian extract added. Checked my FB, checked here.
Now I’m going to bed. Hopefully I won’t have nightmares about driving in storms…

I survived the wedding! As a reward, when I got home I brewed a cup each of Aquarius & Harvest Moon, both by Adagio. Sadly, I could barely tell the difference between them, with the exception of the chocolate & buttery carmel mouth-feel of the Harvest Moon. Oh well, I had to try!

It’s actually a beautiful day, & it was an outdoor wedding under a pavilion, over looking the Mississippi river. The views, in all directions, were stunning, as the leaves are changing & there was still a lot of green, with highlights of burnt red & orange everywhere. Absolutely beautiful!

The highlight for me (other than playing my harp, of course) was after the wedding when I was packing up my gear. A couple came up & started talking with me. He is the son of a lovely lady by the name of Doris, who I dearly love & haven’t seen for some time. I first met Doris about 20 or so years ago. I played a brunch at a local hotel for about 15 years, & Doris used to come to brunch with her other son & his wife. I would see them there every sunday (along with several other regulars) & after a awhile I started spending one of my breaks with them. Doris was probably about 65 then, always dressed colorfully, always wore a flower pinned on somewhere. She was a delight! Over the years they came to my other gigs as well, Tony & I had dinner with the 3 of them, they even came to my daughter’s wedding reception. I played at her 80th birthday party, & attended her 85th a few years ago.

What has always impressed me is the way her family cares for her. Her son & his wife live across the street from her, & have always invited her to go with them pretty much everywhere. In recent years, she no longer gets out, & the son I saw today said she sleeps about 18 hours a day. She still lives in the home her children were raised in, they take turns staying with her (grandchildren included), & she will most likely pass quietly from our world in her sleep, which is the way she intends to go. Her family has cherished her all of their lives, & I love that. That is how it is suppose to be.

Crawling out of my cave because I have a gig today. I have to leave the house in a little over 3 hours, & being a musician means you show up, no matter what. I started the day with 2 cups of tea: Elder Berry, & a re-steeping of Sichuan Caravan (saved the leaves from a couple days ago). Just to illustrate the state of my tastebuds, I thought I was drinking the caravan first, which tasted like nothing, basically. Then I went to drink the elderberry, & only knew it was actually the caravan because of the ginger! I can’t really taste it, but I can feel it on my tongue!

My Adagio order arrived yesterday, which was really exciting until I tried to smell some of the teas: nothing. I guess I shouldn’t complain, this is the first time I’ve been sick in a year (other than some allergies). This too shall pass!

Call me a wierdo, but I actually like roasted chicory root. I always have.
I’m probably the only person on steepster that likes chicory.
I hadn’t drank it in awhile though, because I like black tea better.
So a few weeks ago I was drinking a cup of Adagios Rooibos Vanilla Chai, & the whole time I’m drinking it, I’m thinking, “This would be better if I added a little chicory to it…”, but I didn’t have any laying around. I think that’s one of the reasons I’m just not a huge rooibos fan, it always seems like it needs something more.

So last week when I was checking out the Frontier bulk tea display at the health food store, I noticed that they had roasted chicory (and rosebuds, & hibiscus flowers & other fun stuff). So I nabbed some, & in my quest to minimize my caffeine in the evening, I just enjoyed a cup.
If I wanted it to taste like coffee or black tea, I’d be sorely disappointed, but I don’t, so I’m not. It’s bold enough to feel like I’m really drinking something, & I like it!

I have a dry spot in my throat. I hate that!
It started yesterday evening. I drank lots of fluids, it was still there.
I sucked on a Ricola, still there.
I drank hot tea with honey…
I gargled salt water several times.
I suspect that some viral is trying to take hold, & I hate that!

I also have my final gig of the year this afternoon. It’s a 2 hour wedding reception, & it snowed, which I love, but moving a Harp in the snow is never fun. Luckily, it didn’t really stick to the sidewalks & roads much, so the only tricky place will be the stairs on the front of my house.

I don’t have to leave the house until noon, so I’m headed for the bubble bath with 2 teas, both of which I’ve reviewed before:
*Elder Berry (Cheryl’s Herbs), a wonderful antiviral, my favorite.
*Ginger Sage Winter Spa Blend (Verdant), which has a lot of good stuff in it.
I wish I would find my 2 oz of Sichuan Caravan, I never did figure out what happened to it! This would be a good time for drinking it (not to say that there is ever a bad time!)

To the tub…

I’m at a gig. It’s a combo craft show & tea. I have a 1 hour break between sets, while they have a presentation from a lady that makes amazing vintage hats.

I had to leave my house at 7:30 this morning & drive an hour to get here, & I needed tea. I left with a 12 oz mug of wild picked Jin Jun Mai (verdant), a 16 oz thermos of black dragon pearls (Teavana), & a 20 oz thermos of Aquarius (adagio, & yes, that is my sign). All I have left is the Aquarius!

I’m gonna play another hour, then load up & head back to St Louis, grab lunch, refill all of my tea containers, & drive an hour & a half south to play another gig from 6:30 – 8:30. A full day!

Tony & I went to breakfast at our usual haunt. They have the Numi box of teas that they bring to the table, which is ok for bagged tea, but there wasn’t much of a selection today (or last weekend). I ended up foraging through the selections in my purse.

Tony got the 2 Mighty Leaf Earl Grey bags, since EG is his thing. He said that it was good. I drank:
The mighty leaf English Breakfast – 1 bag…it was ok…
The Numi Magnolia Puer – earthy puer with a hint of floral…better
Harrod’s Earl Grey – not much bergamot flavor, ok.

Glad to be back at Tony’s, where I’m drinking the 3rd re-steep of this morning’s cup of Anxi Fo Shou & getting ready to join the Sample Sipdown Saturday!

I woke up with a headache, & so spring begins. I love spring, but my allergies tend to make it a rough time for me. I know other people that are also already having allergies, so at least I’m not alone. Anyway, the only thing on my mind was getting some caffeine in my sys, in hopes that the headache would pass. I drank, in succession, not all at once:
Keemun (London Tea Room)
Kenyan (also LTR)
Bolder Breakfast (Tea Spot)
Three Gardens Breakfast Blend (Rep of Tea, in bags)
I still have a headache, & inspite of my caffeine buzz, I’m not feeling particularly awake or alert. Gonna go practice for an hour, then I have to leave for a orch rehearsal.
Onward through the fog….

I’ve had quite a bit of tea this morning, most of it not particularly great. I started with Anxi Fo Shou Black, which I DO deem worthy & worthwhile, & it lent a very nice start to my day. So there is that!

Then we went to our fav breakfast haunt, where the house tea is Numi.
a cup of china breakfast, a cup of aged earl grey, a cup of decaf vanilla…none are particularly inspiring to me this morning, but the breakfast was great! It always is!

Yesterday my youngest sister, Ginger, came for a visit. Some of you know my other sister, Liz, known on Steepster as MsWhatsit. Liz & I have shared a love for tea for awhile now, while Gin hasn’t really been bit by the tea-bug as much.

So we were hanging out all afternoon & evening, talking, laughing, etc. We share a variety of interests, including Reiki. She gave me my level 4 atunement, & the energy level was pretty high!
I shared some Shui Xang Wuyi Oolong with her, which I’d been sipping on during the afternoon.
I started telling her about the mind-blowing effects of Puer, & so we drank some. It just seemed like the right thing to do.

We started with Mt Banzang Farmer’s Coop ’03 Sheng
As the evening wore on, we moved on to Xingyang 1998 Golden Leaf Shu.
Finally, I did some steepings of Lao Tong Zhi 2012.
It was really fun to share all of these, & to see her reactions to them. We had such a good time, sipping, laughing, & just being sisters!

I’d like to apologize for being such a whiner last night. My head was throbbing & my allergies were so bad that we had to turn on the air conditioning, which I’d rather not do this soon in the season. I also started drinking Nettles, which I should have been drinking for a few weeks at least. After 24 hours, I feel so much better!

1 cup dried Nettles (yes, that is a lot, but it’s not a pricey herb)

Put the nettles in a quart jar, fill with boiling water, put the lid on & leave it sitting over night. Strain it in the morning & enjoy a cup. Refrigerate & drink throughout the day, either a cup at a time, or sipping occasionally. Make another quart before you go to bed.
Drink a quart everyday! Once your symptoms are alleviated, you can probably drink it less often, & it will keep in the frig for about 36 hours or so. It’s high in Querticin, & other good stuff!

Places to order Nettles:
www.cherylsherbs.com (a st louis herb company)
www.frontiercoop.com

You can also probably pick it up at the health food store.

I was totally absent from Steepster yesterday. I spent the entire morning running errands with my sons, then lunch at PF Changs to commemorate Drew’s 24th birthday (a week late), then finally I came home & worked in the garden for the rest of the day until I could no longer see. My Gazebo area is finally fully planted with a variety things: various peas, radishes, lettuces, beets, turnips, parsnips, dill, leeks, red scallions, etc. Some were planted a few weeks ago, some during this past week.

So during all this, I did actually drink quite a bit of tea! I started with #49 Assam from Smith tea, which is wonderful! Then I made a 16 oz of Foxy Roxy’s, very lightly sweetened with stevia, & sipped on that all morning while I was driving around. It amazes me how long teas stay hot in that thermal cup!

While I was gardening I sipped on the rest of the ginger peach ice tea from Monday. And that my friends is all the tea I drank yesterday.

This is turning out to be a slow moving morning. I have so much I need to do, & am not feeling motivated to do anything. My kids & grandkids are coming over this evening for our annual New Year’s Day Brunch, which we’re having tonight, LOL. Normally it’s on New Year’s day, more like noon-ish, going all afternoon, but my oldest daughter & her clan were out of town, so it’s tonight. We all love breakfast for dinner.

That entails a certain amount of cleaning… although mostly it’s just clearing off the table & things like that. My food prep will not be too intensive…we have a spiral ham from whole foods (egads, the price we pay for nitrate free!), I’m making a bunch of deviled eggs this afternoon, Ari’s coming over to make fruit salad & help make (paleo) scones, cookies, & whatever else we decide to make. Per my son-in-law’s request, I’m also making my special brussels sprouts.

ALSO, my sister Ginger (Not MsWhatsit, my other sis) is flying back in tonight @ 9:30 & spending the night, which would be great, except she’s sick. So there will be a Reiki intensive upon her arrival, & I’m drinking a melange of teas to protect myself, as I can’t afford to get sick! That leads to the Random steepings, this morning. So far I’ve had:
- Elderberry
- Astragulus, ginger, lemon, & honey brew
- A bottle of Ginger Lemon Kombucha
- Khongea’s Golden Tippy Assam (gotta have some caffeine too)
- I also drank re-steeps from yesterday’s Gaiwans: The experimental pressing Yue Guang Bai & Mt Banzang Farmer’s Coop Sheng.

I’m gonna make one more caffeinated tea, crawl in the tub, Reiki myself, & then I have to actually start doing stuff! Onward…

Holy Red Zinger! This is some tart stuff!!
So I know most everybody on steepster dislikes Hibiscus. It’s been a long time since I drank anything with hibiscus in it, & they had it in the bulk section, so I figured, what the heck? I brewed up some, sweetened it with stevia, iced it down, & it is Tart! It’s like cranberry juice, which I actually like unsweetened (real cranberry, not the cocktail kind). Anyway, it’s not something I’ll drink often, but I’m gardening today (& yesterday & the day before, things are starting to take shape out there!), & I thought it might be refreshing. It is, but I think I need to dilute it more & add more ice. It’s pretty intense stuff!

I’m having an awesome day! Here’s the teas I drank so far, but don’t really have time to write full on reviews, as I was on the go:
Zhen Qu (butiki)- a little malt, a slightly floral bouquet, next time I think I’ll make it a little stronger.
Mi Xian Black (butiki) – sweet notes of honey!
Imperial Breakfast blend (verdant) I can’t believe I still have some of this! That was the tea in my ‘go’ cup this morning, as I rushed out the door to UMSL, to attend my Harp student’s Jury.
Matcha – with lunch, another stir fry, accompanied by a heaping serving of my newest home made Kimchi! This is a really potent batch too!!

Now I’m home, I’ve eaten, my students will start coming. Time for some serious steeping!

Part II
More teas I’m drinking today that I’ve already reviewed plenty of times, I think…

Jubilee from The London Tea Room – This is Tony’s #1 favorite tea, & interestingly, I’m actually starting to develop a liking for it, provided I sweeten it up with some Stevia. So this was my 2nd bubble bath tea today.

Laoshan Black: Getting down to the bottom of the barrel on this one. Luckily I still have a $25 Tea Cash from Verdant (from the ridiculously large order I made in December), & it expires tomorrow. So tonight I’m ordering more Laoshan Black! The hoarding of it can end for awhile!

STACY!!! the tea that shall not be named and or described very well, needs to be available for purchase… like now. I’ve been saving it for a very good no bad kinda of day and today is that day. I am digging this tea a whole lot. Even if my eyes are closing and getting sleepy.

Just saying.

SIPDOWN! of the secret tea that Stacy’s been working on lately. I actually did a cold brew of this one a few days ago and it was delicious. Tonight’s steeping is hot with the last of it. I’m looking forward to this one eventually being up on her website. It’s a fruity lighter tea that i quite enjoy,

I decided to make up a big batch of lemon-sage tea, for deliciousness. Have I mentioned I really like medicinal/herbal teas? Because I do!

1 tbsp fine sage leaves (not powder!)
2 tbsp honey (or to taste)
zest of one lemon
juice of half a lemon
4 cups boiling water

Cover and steep 10-30 minutes, then drink! I like it both hot and cold, so the extras go into the fridge for another time. It doesn’t taste like something that goes on chicken, even though sage is, well, sage. Think of it as an herbal lemonade. I need to do this with lavender. Yum!

Have you ever made a cup of a tea you really liked, but this particular cup sucks? I just did. I made some of that dragonwell tea from some unknown tea plantation in China, and it tasted awful. Perhaps my steeper still had residual from my steeping of Aztec Spice, even though I washed it? Perhaps my mug had residual, even though I rinsed it? Maybe my honey is getting too old? Maybe my taste buds are off? OR, maybe I subconsciously didn’t want that tea at the moment? Anyway, it was gross. So sad.

In other news, I created a spreadsheet of my tea inventory! Yay! I was worried that I was starting to lose track of some teas, and I was right! I have A LOT of little amounts of different teas. So, it’s pretty cool because I can sort by company, by type of tea (black, oolong, etc), by amount, and by a rating. I created a new rating system for the spreadsheet: Favorite, Good, Okay, and Yuck! Lol! Favorite and Yuck pretty much speak for themselves. The difference between Good and Okay is whether I might buy it again. Now I just need to organize my physical cupboard better!

I am perpetually using this for my dragonwell tea from an unknown plantation in China. So good with honey! I think I tend to prefer roasty toasty green teas to the grassy type. I’ve noticed this one has a bit of a lemon note as well….goes well with the honey! Mmmmmm.

I REALLY love this dragonwell tea from China that I got from my husband’s friend. Stinks that I don’t know where he got it, but I have a lot of it! It is extra yummy with honey. Funny how my tastes have been changing. Lately, I’ve been developing a better appreciation for green tea!

I went to Alice’s Tea Cup on the Upper East Side with a friend and ordered their “Sassa” tea which is an assam. The only other plain Assam I’ve had is Butiki’s Premiem Taiwanese Assam. This one is less buttery, but more fruity and tannic. I did not taste as many things going on in this cup although it was strong. I didn’t feel it was as smooth either. I think I can taste that they are related to each other, but I definitely like Butiki’s better. Also this one left me with an unpleasantly dry mouth.

So I can’t add teas yet, so I’m adding my review of Om (Sound of the Universe) by Joy’s Teaspoon here. Frankly I didn’t like it. It smelled like soapy potpourri in the dry leaf and as a liquor. The rose was very overpowering and in a bad way. I didn’t taste much of any of the other spices except for maybe a little bit of licorice root. Not really my cup of tea. I think I like my floral teas a little more subtle.

Ingredients according to Joy’s Teaspoon website are: cardamom, saffron, licorice root, fennel, ginger root, cinnamon, rosebuds, lemongrass, rose scen

I decided to do a comparison between two supermarket earl greys.

Twinings and Ahmad Special Blend.

Cost Twinings between 5.49-6.99 CAD for 100g tin.
Ahmad 6.99 454g box

Dry Leaf
Twinings The bergamot smells more of baked lemon with soft powder floral accent, bop leafs are larger and coarser than Ahmads with a light baked goods smell to leaf.

Ahmad The bergamot is slightly lighter and smells of fresh lemon rind with a floral accent(lavender and rose), and ginger, dry leaf bop ceylon blended with other black teas.

The teas both brew to the colour of maple wood.

Scent of brewed tea

Twinings bergamot(lemon foral) over slightly woody, slightly orange scented black tea smell including rind with a hint of ginger and a cinnamon like scent.

Ahmad strong scent, of malty lemony tea with deeper lemon scent with a hint of ginger, and floral notes.

Taste Twinings Tea is slightly vegetal, with slightly malty tone underneath a citrusy top note. Hint of lavender present, mixed with lemon rind taste, It brews lighter than I remember with less of a rich tea taste. This tin tastes like it is using the same base as Lady Grey.
It is thin bodied with a spicier bergamot. I like the spiciness but I wish there was more citrus. It is a light tea. Relatively smooth and relatively insensitive to steep time. It leaves a spicy floral with hint of citrus aftertaste.

Ahmad This tea has a malty undertone, with hints of red fruit mixed with orange (almost a shirley temple cocktail note), not quite as spicy on the tongue as twinings, with a hint of cooked lemon mixed with orange and rind, rose, and lavender. This tea is more tannic. The tea has more depth than twinings. I would like more spice. It benefits from a shorter steep time as it risks getting bitter and astringent. It leaves a citrus aftertaste.

Both of these teas lack either the rich sweetness of the tea base in the cjay earl grey http://steepster.com/teas/cjay-tea/36148-earl-grey or the bright citrus of the big active tea http://steepster.com/teas/big-active/35256-essence-earl-grey-superior-with-rose-petals.

I’ve been a little under the weather today so I’ve been experimenting with various versions of Chai.

So far I’ve done one with Bai Mudan, one with a cheap darjeeling and two versions of Kashmiri Chai made with Samovar green tea, next I’ll probably make ginger tea with an assam.

The white chai included bai mudan 3 pods of cardamon, 1/2 inch of cinnamon stick, white pepper cracked, 1 arm of star anise, and ginger. I added two much cardamon this time, but otherwise it was pleasant, but mild and smells of baking.

The darjeeling chai had similar spicing but tasted of lemony mild ginger and pepper with gentle spice, the tea base underneath left hints of almond and peach, lemon and a bit of malt and was faintly floral.

The Kashmiri Chai was spiced with cardamon and cinnamon, I added a pinch of baking soda and salt to experiment with pink tea. I made it two ways, steeped to which I added crushed almond and boiled.

The steeped tea brewed to a peachy green colour and tasted of crushed
almond, bitter spinach ,a faint hint of sweetness from the tea base, cardamon and cinnamon. It tastes light on the tongue, especially at the front of the mouth. It does not taste of salt and soda.

For the boiled tea I added the tea, spices and water appropriate to amount of servings, and a pinch soda and salt. I boiled the tea so that 1/4 to 1/3 of the liquid was lost, I then added back the
lost water and boiled it 2-4 minutes. The boiled tea is a dark, opaque, browny red. Taken of heat if you add milk, it goes pink. The tea is smooth and looses the heavy tanic feeling of the steeped tea. I was surprised how dark and red the tea goes considering this is
made with green tea.

Sometimes when I’m craving something sweet but not too sweet I like to mix Teaopia/Teavana Caramelissimo with a light to medium bergamot earl grey(this time CJay teas option). This time I blended them 2 parts earl grey to 1 part Caramelissimo. What you get is citrus caramel blended with a hint of nut from the hazlenut brittle in Caramelissimo, over a ceylon/assam blend base which is both citrusy and bitter/earthy. It’s really nice, but add some sugar or increase the proportion of the caramel tea if you prefer a sweet tea. As it is this blend has an aftertaste that is a little like eating an earl grey dark chocolate truffle.