762 Tasting Notes
I received this sample in the mail today. It was a complete surprise, and a lovely lift to my spirits. Thank you!
I brewed up a cup after the annual business meeting at my church this evening. It was a dark amber in the cup, almost the color of cherry amber. I let it cool slightly and sipped. Very nice. Definitely spicy, but not overwhelming. A bit sweet, naturally so as I didn’t add any sugar or honey. This may become my favorite evening chai. It is absolutely perfect to sip on a chilly winter evening. I look forward to having this while I snuggle under and afghan with a good book. We are expecting snow on Friday night, and after I get home from taking my mom to the hairdresser’s I know what I’ll be doing.
Flavors: Cardamom, Spicy, Sweet
Preparation
I’m sick! Or getting there. I think that might be why I felt so down and lethargic yesterday. Now everything hurts. I feel like an over ripe tomato whose skin will split at the merest touch. My finger knuckles hurt. My head hurts, my throat is sore. So I did what I usually do when I’m sick: I dug out my DAVID’s Cold 911 tea and brewed a cup. What I wouldn’t give to be done with work. Sadly, we are behind, and I’m not really sick. However, since I work from home, I am going to pull on a big old flannel nightie (the hideous one that makes me look like an old granny but somehow gives me comfort) and put in a full day at Medicare. If I feel worse tomorrow I might call in.
Meanwhile, more tea.
Today was not one of those days. I slept late, went to church, did some grocery shopping, worked on a quilted table topper for a Christmas present… It was a nice day. I have no reason to be grumpy or blue.
But I am. Grumpy AND blue. I tried to trace the cause of this disagreeable mood, and I think it might have been my weekly budget planning. Christmas is killing me, and my expected income is severely less that I’d hoped.
Amelia Peabody, heroine of the mystery series by the same name, calls tea ‘the genial beverage’. It was too late for regular black tea (caffeine, you know) so I brewed up a cup of this honeybush tea. It didn’t make me magically perky, but it was soothing. Tea might not cure all ills, but it doesn’t hurt either. :)
I love Amelia and her parasol! May you be surprised today by a little peace, joy, and Christmas serendipity.
Thanks, gmathis I think I’ll pull out a book from that series and do a little re-reading.
I think I like the earlier ones better, when Ramses was a precocious little toot :) Have you ever read the Irene Adler series by Carole Nelson Douglas? They’re Sherlock Holmes spinoffs but they have that same mischievous-Victorian tone.
It’s cold in my apartment tonight and it’s been snowing off and on for about 6 hours. It’s all pretty and white out there. Definitely a night for tea.
This is one I haven’t had for several weeks. I forgot that I prefer it steeped with twice as much tea. My cup tonight was weak. Still drinkable, but next time I’ll need to remind myself to use more. It’s a very pale and delicate color in the cup, with a mild and slightly sweet flavor. Maybe i’ll have it tomorrow night again and brew it up properly.
Preparation
Oh man… Snow! It’s spitting ice rain outside here. Boring. :/
It’s our first real snow this year. And last year we got only 16 inches the entire year. We broke a record! So I guess we’ve kind of forgotten how to drive in it. Lots of accidents and cars in the ditch. Glad I didn’t have to go out.
I’m still hoping for a snow day, since this is my last week of work and the last chance I’ll have for a paid day off!
I work from home so unless my power goes out I don’t get snow days. How’s it looking out your way, OMGsrsly? Snow in the forcast?
I really over ate at Mom’s Thanksgiving dinner. It’s been hours and my tummy is still uncomfortable, so Peppermint tea to the rescue!
This was my last tea bag of this. I’m not supposed to buy any tea until after Christmas but I may make and exception for this. I mean, everyone ought to have some peppermint tea on hand, right?
Aw, last cup of this. I suppose that makes it a sip down? sad face
It’s pretty nippy here today. The temp is 27F or -3C. I guess that rates as nippy, right? So I decided to make tea instead of drinking soda pop. After an extremely unseasonably warm fall, the weather is deciding to act like winter may actually come. We are not prepared for it. I had to dig my winter coat out of the closet to take my car to the shop this morning. (Some kind person knocked my side mirror off. The mechanic said he could tell by the scrapes that it didn’t just fall off by itself.)
Anyway, I am home now, with a load of laundry going, and my tea. Time to write!
What a great tea for a Sunday morning. So warm, mild, and sweet.
This morning when I first got up it was cool. Cool enough to enjoy hot tea. This afternoon, however, it’s getting ridiculously warm. The average high today is 39 degrees F. It is now 59, and will probably top out at 65 or so. I have the windows open and I’m wearing a Tshirt, and I’m sweating. This weather, wonderful as it is, is not conducive to writing a Christmas story
I brewed my first “winter writing pot” of tea tonight! In years past, when I was working hard on a writing deadline I would brew pot after pot of black tea. The contract on my first book ran out and I requested the rights back so I can publish it myself. Rights revert to me on December 1. I am going through the manuscript to find any little typos or errors. I know there are some. Even after I went through it, the editor went through, and the final line editor went through it, there are still little but annoying errors. And I plan to add a couple of scenes to built interest in the other books in the series.
Anyway, I brewed a pot of this tea in my DAVID’S bubble clear glass teapot. I don’t know why that makes it better, but I like this tea more now than when I first got it. There’s enough bite of spice to make it interesting. And my handmade quilted teapot cozy works great. I brewed the pot at 5:00, and at 5:30 the tea was still hot enough that I had to wait to drink it. I poured the last cup at 7:00 and it was still warm. Score!
With detail work like that, you may just need to take your tea intravenously :) May all the little pesky invisible errors glow in the dark so you can find them!
I do this too! I call it writer juice, and I usually require pots and pots of the stuff. Good luck with the revisions.
Yay books! Here’s to successful sales. :)
Thanks, all! Time is flying! And now it’s the weekend! Woot!
Since I’m back to no smelling (again, gosh darn it. I think it’s really gone now.) I decided on a straight black tea for my midmorning cup. I remember that this one was a favorite. It’s mild, mellow and smooth. I don’t have to pout over not catching some luscious fruit flavor or subtle caramel sweetness. This tea is just fine on it’s own.
Sounds so yummy. I just wish their stuff weren’t so pricey, especially with the dollar exchange.
It is! But I understand how you feel. That’s exactly how I feel about ordering from DAVID’s. The last time I was going to order they slapped on a $25 Over The Border Shipping fee, so I cancelled the order. I just couldn’t see paying that for a $15.00 order that weighed less than 100 grams.
That’s crazy! Wouldn’t it be fantastic if USA and Canada at least had some shipping agreement with each other.
Yes, they certainly should. I’m only a 3 hour drive from Winnipeg. When I head up there at the end of January I’ll try to stop in at Polo Park and pick up the teas I wanted.
Make sure you’re on the US site when you try to order. There was a discussion about it a while back I think. When you go to the site you should be able to choose “US”, and then shipping is more reasonable. The shipping from Canada would include a brokerage fee… There are a lot of places in the States I’d like to order from that have a $35 brokerage fee. So frustrating.
Ooooh, maybe that was the issue. A lot of my friends in ?Winnipeg use what we call SCA mail". They order an item and have it shipped to me or another US friend, and when we go north we bring it with us. Or they collect it when they come down. It means more of a wait but at these prices it’s worth it.
I actually had a post box in the States, but don’t have a passport anymore. :D Once I do, I’ll be getting one again. Just have to arrange with friends for a ride.