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This was a sipdown of a really fabulous tea. I will very likely order it again because it is just so good and guests tend to like it even if they are not very familiar with good tea. It makes wonderful evening sipping for a quiet cup with my husband, and it is just that little bit different from Premium Jasmine Dragon Pearl to justify having both.

Our quiet cup tonight was a little louder than usual. I normally listen to soft playlists on an Amazon Echo, whether from Prime or Pandora or TuneIn. But tonight we brought home a 1954-ish Blaupunkt radio that my in-laws bought when they were stationed in Germany, and which we have now inherited on behalf of our youngest daughter, who probably won’t have a place for it for many years.

We were able to tune in an FM station with all Christmas music, which felt terribly nostalgic because when my mother-in-law was still living in her home we used to put up her tree for her and play Christmas music on this very console.

I never turned it on myself, my husband always did. I was shocked to look at the dial tonight and see the listings on it – BBC, München, Freies Berlin. Freies Berlin? Oh my!

I am having to learn how to use it, as it is labeled SW, MW, LW, and VHF instead of FM and AM. But I did manage to tune in both types of stations, although the dial doesn’t go high enough for me to listen to CommGuy’s station. Boo. I think PU is the phonograph player.
I need to check itnfor a needle soon and see if it works, but I think it will. The family always took good care of it.

My tea order finally arrived today! I thought I was ordering from the US warehouse, but I didn’t know that only zip bags are available there and I chose the tin. Tins come from China. That’s okay! It was worth the wait.

CameronB has been posting about her Bonne Maman Advent Calendar. What? A jam calendar. How cool is that? Tonight it made me really want some toast with butter and cherry preserves and a nice cuppa before bed. I indulged. Hope I don’t regret it. I need to sleep!

Right now, I am not regretting a thing. I ate the toast already and I am enjoying a second cup of smoky, raspy, tongue scrape-y goodness. This is what I am looking for when I want breakfast tea or something to pair with a really sweet snack.

There is also a bright, almost citrus flavor that I find in Ceylon teas a lot, as well as malt and smoke. Yum yum yum.

Also, I was looking forward to adding it to my online cupboard, but it is already there. I don’t know if I added it when I ordered or if I had it before and never took it off. I could have sworn I had only had samples of it, and I usually don’t add samples to my cupboard. Ah well! There it is!

A cold is making the rounds and pretty much the whole family has it. Middle daughter and I were hit pretty hard and now I am having a froggy voice (imagine Marge Simpson’s sisters) and a bit of a cough with throat irritation.

I need something hot before bed to soothe my throat and help me sleep as I hardly slept last night. I pulled my oversized jars of these and mixed them half and half. They taste like they should, and they do the trick. This is not a favorite head over heels sort of beverage but they work and they help. I regret not spending more time looking for my spearmint or peppermint stash to add to it, because that would have made it a lot more soothing as well as tastier.

Hopefully tomorrow is a better day.

I don’t know how this wasn’t listed in my cupboard. I am on my second tin! It was so good that I asked for it on my Christmas list last year (or was it the year before?) but I have been hoarding it because it is too good to have any old time. I have ancold but I can still taste my tea, so I treated myself to this at breakfast today.

This is the most genuinely chocolate tea I think I have ever had, with real chocolate aroma, rich and decadent. This is a real treat, and as I start to whittle down my flavored teas, this one makes the cut and will be re-ordered when it gets low again.

I have a pot of this tea, a piece of icebox coconut cake, a good book to read, and candles glowing on the mantel. Life is fine. Other than the fact that my nose is threatening to stuff up in a big way.

This is from Cameron B., who generously sent a bunch of samples and then sent a bunch more! Having read the other two reviews and being dreadfully afriad of astringent tea, I went with 185F and three minutes. I am glad I did.

The description is baffling. It says it is Chinese tea, even when you look at the French website. (Even I with my dreadful college French can figure out that much.) But then the ingredient list says it is 90% Ceylon tea. Tasting it, I would say it is Ceylon, which is not in China last time I looked at a map.

I am enjoying it, but I would not purchase this. It tastes a bit soapy. There is an oooo aaaah moment with some of the flavors and then the lemon goes HA and squirts you in the eye. Well, it just is puckery lemon. And that really distracts from the nice orange and jasmine I was enjoying.

Honestly, if you told me I was drinking Twinings Lady Grey I would totally believe you. I think this is my first Laduree and I was expecting something more along the lines of Dammann Freres.

Thank you, Cameron B, for the chance to try it!

I am going to put my review here because the one I am drinking isnt listed. I am having the organic version of this tea, and it is the last cup.

I have been longing for some good keemun lately but one thing or another kept me having it in the mornings. I went to take this out of my cupboard and it says I have 76 teas. Lies! All lies! I wish there were that few, even fewer, because I have too much! I want to get down to a cupboard of…..say….thirty teas, not counting puerh because it doesnt go bad and you can have as much as you wish.

This is exactly what I was looking for, a tea that screams TEA! And even though it screams TEA it is perfectly wonderful on its own and doesnt need sugar or milk. It grabs hold of my senses and makes me happy to be here. With my tea.

This one is a touch fruity, a little woodsy, a little smoky, a hint nutty on the tongue but sweet on the palate and sinuses. It is glorious Keemun.

I am so glad more keemun is on the way now because this finishes all my Keemun stash.

I saved the last of this sample to share with my youngest daughter when she is home from college, and today is the day! She has been enjoying Twinings now-discontinued Blossom Earl Grey, so I was sure she would like this. I don’t have any of the original black tea version for her to compare it with, but the flavors in the white tea version are the same.

The verdict – she likes it! Now I need to order both kinds for us to drink when she is home! Thank you, Cameron B for the Kusmi samples! (And all the others, too! We will be drinking a lot of tea over the next few days!)

I had this tea with breakfast and again with lunch. I am trying to cut the stash but I am resteeping things that resteep well, because there is no need to be wasteful, especially with something good!

I have enjoyed the Kusmi teas I have tried, and thank goodness this one is good but not one I feel I have to order, becasue I am already cringing at the tea I am wanting to buy. Anastasia, White Anastasia, and Troika are on my list and I don’t need to want another! Ha ha!

The black tea base is good, the bergamot is at a nice level for me and not sharp and overpowering, and lemon stands out in this one to me. I don’t really do lemon in tea much unless it is super softened with other things, so maybe that is why this one is a like and not a lovelovelove. But it was good! And it was a good companion for my breakfast. I definitely would prefer this one with food rather than on its own.

Another tea that I had failed to list in my cupboard….I guess I am not as far into decluttering my stash as I thought. On a happy note – someone stopped by my youngest daughter’s dorm this morning just to get their travel mug filled with the Teavivre jasmine tea I took her last weekend. Apparently it was a big hit!

This one is so delicious that I have hoarded it, saving it for only the most special occasions, and now it is past the use by date. It tastes fantastic, but I have to get serious and finish because it would be a huge waste to let it truly go bad.

It is so coconut-y and vry easy going even though it is a blend of black tea and green tea, which can sometimes be a lttle difficult to work with as the green can get “burned” or the black may not give up its best flavor at a lower temp. Nope, I really didn’t give it special treatment but it turned out awesome.

Hubby and I had his and hers teas this evening in front of the fire. He had puerh while I had this, served with garlic and herb goat cheese, crackers, and Woodstock organic bread and butter pickles.

And only AFTER I was all done handling food did I open the book that GGMathis sent for me to read – Mycroft Holmes by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar! I also got the CUTEST Thanksgiving…ahem…HENSgiving card that she made! I should show it to the chickens tomorrow. They will be so pleased! They will be so excited for Thanksgiving as they always get to enjoy some of the bounty.

I had odd dreams last night and when I woke up this morning I had that weird feeling like resembles dread in my gut. For some reason, it made me want Troika for breakfast. I know! I know! Queen Catherine is my strong lady, but I have had her for the past couple of days and Troika was on my mind.

There was a moment of panic as I pawed through my samples stash but I finally found it. And finished it.

When I tried the Kusmi teas that Cameron B. sent, I told her that Troika and both Anastasias were on my list to order. I guess this is confirmation that I need to get Troika.

It has bergamot but doesn’t come across as an Earl Grey. Too many Earls have Ceylon bases with high lemony notes that over-sour the cup for me, since bergamot is really just a sour citrus fruit already. But Troika has a little more depth, more bass notes, in the tea so it balances nicely. I only had a scant teaspoon left so I double steeped in a Kamjove and combined the two steeps for a really nice breakfast experience.

Now to shake off those bad dreams…

ETA: bad dreams shaken off and a third steep of this tea was enjoyed this evening and was absolutely delicious. Must order.