2904 Tasting Notes
Nothing but iced the rest of the day—carport thermometer registering at 102. It exaggerates a bit due to its placement, but hot is hot. Summer trying to burn itself out before September gets here.
At any rate, this one runs a little too mild for my breakfast preferences, but is a great cold steeper. Only a bit of sharpness.
Writing children’s activities with a farm theme. (ashmanra, you’re my muse. Lots of chicken and egg games. :) Sad to think that we’re raising a crop of kids who don’t know the pleasant smell of fresh hay, who’ve actually plucked a tomato bug off the vine, or hung out at the livestock barn at the county fair.
Put a string on a June bug and fly it around the yard. Wow, where’d that come from? Not sure I would even know what one looked like today. I grew up on a small farm, chickens, a few milk cows, a pig, a couple ponies. Weeding the garden, breaking beans, canning. Now everything comes in a white box with blue letters.
You haven’t lived until you’ve bottle fed a calf and (oh, the power!) driven a real tractor. (Doubt I could do either well these days.)
I used to ‘drive’ the tractor for our neighbors when they put up hay. I couldn’t reach the pedals. They set the speed control and I just guided. Not sure what would have happened if I suddenly needed to stop – it never came up! ha. The bigger guys would walk along side the wagon and throw the bales up to the neighbor lady who stacked them on the wagon. Afterwards we would swim in the creek. Memories.
Anyone ever work on a farm and get so dirty that you understand why the special snack was a pack of peanuts poured into a bottle of Coke? You needed the cold Coke because it was hot, the peanuts had enough protein to keep you going until supper, and pouring them in the Coke meant your filthy hands never had to touch your food. This was usually done when harvesting tobacco, but lots of people here still do this, including my kids!
I was afraid of my grandmother’s chickens when I was little, even the hens. Now I find them absolutely delightful and hysterical. Bossy caught a big cicada today and all the other hens chased her trying to take it! Last week, Buffy caught a small snake and had the same ordeal. I would love to hear about your chicken games, G!
I’d heard about the peanuts-and-coke thing but never had the pleasure personally.
Tastebuds could be off (chocolate chip cinnamon rolls do that to ya), but this isn’t nearly as Keemun-heavy as I recall from my first experience. At any rate, it’s a good, smooth morning tea. Predictably excellent—as are all the Ahmad varieties I’ve tried.
Savoy, our wonderful little regional (wish I could say local, but it’s 70 miles) tea shop does flavored green teas really well.
This one is right up to the mark: a well-rounded blend of several fruits (I’m getting lots of raspberry in this particular cup). Smells wonderful, both dry and steeped. Drinking my inaugural cup according to prep directions, but thinking the next round needs to be chilled.
It’s not often, here anyway, that the first semi-conscious thought that follows “I have got to change the stupid radio station on the alarm clock! I can’t stand those guys.” is “Oooh. Need Darjeeling.”
But it was this morning, and this was the DJ of choice. Even with an aged and none-too-carefully stored swappy bag, this is still rich and grape-juicy.
I really ADMIRE people able to bear to be awaked by any alarm clock radio. Really, first it reminds me groundhog day with Bill Murray (and the possibility of living his nightmare !), second the sound quality of an alarm clock radio is just a kind of torture for my asleeped ears and third I always fear it won’t wake me up due to a possible electricity problem.
But I need to have Margaret’s hope, really because I am thinking to this darjeeling kind since a long time now, so need to dive in this straight tea asap.
I neglect Darjeelings…and every time I make one I’m surprised at how good they are.
The one upside of the annoying radio station is that I can’t reach the alarm clock and when the two annoying and whiny local talk radio guys start their show, it forces me out of bed to turn them OFF!
ahaha so that’s a solution to surely wake up finaly.
This has made it into my permanent line-up of herbal/medicinals. First time I have tried it chilled—two parts leaf to one of peppermint. Refreshing.
Cheating is such an ugly word, so let’s just say we caught Savoy in an act of creative relabeling. You know how when you shuffle the basket of half-packets just so, sometimes one bubbles up to the top you haven’t seen for a while? And when it bubbles right next to the one labeled “Misty Morning” and you notice the ingredient lists are identical, well…
Not that it’s an issue with something this tasty. Orange, almond, peppercorns, a little sweet vanilla flavoring. It’s all good, no matter what’s on the package.
Sometimes companies will do that so their product seems fresh and exciting. It’s a marketing…ploy for want of a better word. That one doesn’t bother me much..worked retail for several years.
I guess it’s because of my background with plant pathology, but I think that a Misty Morning would taste better than Mistletoe… It sounds really good, nonetheless.
A work friend brought a bunch of Scentsy samples (those wickless wax warmer thingies) to work and I was amused at some of the scent names. Business Casual? Skinny Dippin’? Sheer Innocence? Oy.
I love Scentsy! Was dissapointed that there wasn’t a Scentsy seller at Motercity Pride this year…last year the seller was very cute ok sorry for that digress. Yeah the names for a lot of the scents are hilarious. I tend to like more woodsy smells and avoid the overly flowery ones because they make my sinuses flare up.
In all fairness, the ones in their “simply” series … like Simply Berry, etc. weren’t bad.
The real story behind this tea is that we brought it in for Christmas last year and kept selling out! It was so popular we decided to keep it year-round, but didn’t want to keep a seasonal name. We conducted an on-line contest to come up with a new name. After receiving over 120 suggestions, we put it to a vote with our customers and “Misty Meadows” won. No cheating involved or intended! Promise! Thanks for your support and reviews of our tea. Blessings.
Hi, SavoyTina! I never thought to ask, when I’ve been in, if Savoy folks hung out here. Rest assured, I don’t care what you call it, it’s wonderful. Your flavored green teas are great!
Save Golden Fleece for a slow morning. This is definitely not one to gulp quickly while a travel mug while dodging crossing turtles (some days, my short morning commute is like Frogger).
This is gentle, honey-blonde both dry and steeped, rich and thick on the tongue and lips. Taste reminds me of sweet grain, puffed wheat.
Many of you have written long and lovely reviews of this one. Understandable! My thanks to Terri Harplady for yet another subtly satisfying sample!
This one definitely is for sitting down and enjoying!
We’re the crazy people stopping and putting them on the other side, and usually taking their picture as well. We have five box turtles, two western and three eastern, in our backyard that were more or less “rescues”. They get to live a pretty normal wild turtle life.
They are mostly unreleasable because two were brought out of their normal range and the others lost their habitat. Turtles shouldn’t be released outside of their normal range because they may carry diseases that are not common there so the present turtle inhabitants could all die. They don’t get exposed to a wide range of things because of their limited range, and are slow to heal because of their low metabolic rate,
Slow healers. Makes sense ;)
Hm. This makes me wonder if there is such a thing as mock turtle tea, and, if so, what it could possibly taste like.
I googled it, and at the top was The Mock Turtle Tea Shop, in Brighton, England. lol. I do like the name.
An Ji Bai Cha Green Tea is a special green tea that contain an amount of amino acid, which is calming to the nervous system.
Some days God just looks out for you in ways you don’t expect. I closed my eyes, jammed my hand down to the bottom of the basket, and pulled this out. I need calmed :)
Furthermore, since little attention was being paid this morning, the sloppy user didn’t realize it was a green tea and dumped in just-off-boiling water and schlepped off for five minutes…and this is still fine, just fine. Grainy and toasty, like Wheat Chex.
Final pronouncement on the calming effect to be determined.
I really love this one! It is GREAT with Asian take out!
It’s a good second-steeper, too.