Tower of London

I have had no tea for two days! It feels so nice to sit and have some tea, and it will feel even better to get home to my tea stash and drink some of my new Fauchon teas that I haven’t even tasted yet. However, Tower of London is certainly a lovely thing to have right now.

This is one of my favorite Harney and Sons blends. I loved drinking Paris, and when I tried this it was very similar but something about it made me want more, more, MORE!

I just finished my tin of sachets and I am well on my way through the one pound bag. I decided to give it the slow cold steep that was mentioned on here a day or two ago.

I put one tablespoon per eight ounces of water in my carafe and left it for three days. I know it is supposed to be four but I couldn’t wait!

And I was SO PROUD! My friend who drinks tea with me took one sip and asked if it was iced Tower of London! My tea proselyte, getting all grown up!

This is definitely delicious, and we drank it sans sweetener. I do want to try it with a hint of sugar next.

My dog Spike died yesterday. It was such a hard day that I didnt even want to drink any tea.
Today is going to be hard as well. Its going to be hard for a while.
For today, anyway, nothing but my favorite teas. I need all the happy I can have.

I am in deep danger of turning into Elliott Loudermilk (Scrooged. Bobcat Goldthwait.)Therefore, I am turning to comfort teas; gentle, reliable, sweet, no-stress prep. A little respite from the blizzardy, horizontal wind outside and from the blizzard of paper dumped on my desk by those who don’t have to do a thing with it but dump. Shovel, shovel, shovel.

This is highly recommended. It takes sloppy steeping without complaining and yields soft, sweet candied fruit flavor along with the good black tea.

Tea of the afternoon…..

I can’t believe how long it has been since I last had this….. I seem to be gravitating more toward unflavored teas these days. However, this is a lovely honeyed berry flavored tea. Truly lovely with the holiday cookies my neighbor just brought over!

Usual parameters for the new mug! (2 tsp tea, boiling water, 4 minutes. Lightly sweet.)

Yum. This was another of my tagalong tin purchases from my recent order. Sweet and jammy, plus gooooood tea flavor. I thoroughly enjoyed two nice steeps. It makes me wonder if I should add honey instead of sugar to Paris…and also makes me wonder if I should order this instead of Paris when I run out, as it’s absolute perfection in its natural state.

P.S. – Tasting note number 1000 here!

THIS is what I needed today. It’s sorta been a Monday to end all Mondays:

(tl:dr approved)

I left the house at 6:30 because it’s my day to take the baby to daycare, and by the time I hit the end of the block I was completely drenched. IT was crazy tropical-rainstorm time over here. So, being cold and wet for the next hour+ sucks, but at least the rain stopped when I got to my next bus transfer and I didn’t have to wait in the rain (wait – because my bus left early and I missed it).

Then I dropped her off at daycare, only to get a call half an hour after that I’d better pick her up because she’s sick. All that cold air or whatever just made her sinuses go into overload. So… back I go. And the bus website keeps saying my “bus is unavailable” when I try to find out when the next bus coming is, and then I end up getting flustered because I know I have to hurry up and get her because they can’t give her lots of extra attention when there’s 7 other toddler/babies there. So I’m flustered and I hop on the wrong bus, and realize my error and then just say eff it and walk 1.5 km back to the daycare. And I’m carrying my heavy purse full of tea (ha!) and my laptop because I worked from home Friday.

I get her, and take her home and it’s 10:30 by the time we get in and I get my laptop up and running so I can work from home. So… 4 hours to get Nowhere today. :P

The good news is that I saw a coyote in the rainstorm – he looked lost and confused by all this rain, but it was cool as I haven’t seen anything like that in our neighbourhood!

And this tea makes it all better!

The base is very smooth and rich. So very pleasant, and then there’s fruit and bergamot swirling around too. It’s not juicy fruity either – just notes of sweetness and fruit with honey. It’s very comforting on a cold frustrating day like today.

I guess I’d better try my Paris sample again and compare it with this one to see what I like better. I’m afraid I will want tins of both.

I have a feeling that 90% of my tea orders will now consist of Butiki, H&S, Della Terra and Verdant (maybe in that order?) as these companies all have niche areas for tea and I have been really happy with their offerings.

ETA: Now that it’s cooled, I’m getting creamy lemon notes too!

Mastress Alita’s Sipdown Challenge Friday, March 5th: National Day of Unplugging Tea #2

Another comforting flavor profile for me.  Sweet fruits!   But to be honest, Harney’s Vieux Paris is probably a better choice for a comforting tea.  Maybe one day I’ll have that around. This is a short tea note sooo…  With unplugging/favorite tea day I feel like I should mention some other things that have helped during these crazy times: 
Comedies and especially watching any Marx Bros movies I haven’t seen yet.
Cheez-Its!  I am president of the Cheez-It fanclub, if there is one, and that Covid commercial with that guy eating Cheez-Its in the empty bathtub?  YUP. I get it.  I eat them almost every day.  Also, POPTARTS. 

edited: and “comedies” also includes The Guild reuniting to online game (check it on Youtube)… they are all a hilarious group of people together.

Yesterday I was meeting my grandparents for an early lunch near where they live (about 20 minutes away). I didn’t have any breakfast nor had I had any caffeine yet so I made TOL in a car tumbler and took it with me to drink on the drive.

And omg, something about making TOL this way really worked. I mean, I like TOL, don’t get me wrong, I’ve just never loved it – something about the black tea being too overpowering or the flavor of the flavors becoming overwhelming, maybe as it cooled.

But oh my did it come out good this way. I don’t know if it was the larger tumbler size or the extra 30 seconds I gave it because of the larger size, but it was good. I’m going to have to try making it in a larger cup next time and see if I can replicate this.

Also, I only have two more bagged of this left. =(

Bath and Body Works has all these extra Paris things now and one is a candle called Sweet Macaron. I’m burning it while drinking this and it’s kind of bizarre how it matches so well. Candle + tea pairings!

I have been wanting to try Tower of London forever. I finally caved when buying Fruits d’Alsace. This does remind me a lot of Paris but more like an Earl Grey, at least in the after taste. I think the black tea is a bit more robust or at least it seems that way. The fruit doesn’t taste much different. That’s why it reminds me of the candle, because the candle has raspberry. Stone fruits not so much…apricot, no. Peach, no. Plum, not too much. I guess maybe you could even call it a cross between Paris and Fruits d’Alsace?

It definitely tastes like something I’d expect from France, but the name throws it off. Who cares though, it’s still delicious. I don’t think I’d buy it again at this point because I’d prefer Paris. But for simplicity, this is not a bad choice!