330 Tasting Notes
After a delightful weekend, it’s back to work. Saturday night, we drove to Dinosaur Valley State park and sat at the entrance in the dark to watch the Perseid meteor shower with a few other random star geeks who found their way there as well. The Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex is dreadfully light polluted, but out at the park (in Glen Rose) we could actually see the Milky Way, and we were able to see quite a few good meteors.
It was all quite last-minute jump-in-the-car-and-go, but if I had planned ahead, a thermos of this tea would have been perfect. Warm and cocoa-y!
There are more meteor showers to be seen this fall and winter, and for once, hubby said he’d be willing to camp with me if it means seeing meteors. Woohoo!
Preparation
I’m moving in slow motion today. Hubs and I went out to a bar for karaoke for a friend’s birthday last night. Good thing my esophagus seems to be back in fighting shape – the AR appears to have given up for now. I still need to go make a doc appointment though.
So I am letting a prince rescue me for once – Prince Wladimir that is. I love that the Kusmi labels have both English version of the names and the European/French ones.
I am out of half&half, unfortunately, so it’s not as good and frothy as I usually make my lattes. Plain old milk just doesn’t do it for me!
Preparation
After lunch, I still needed something to drink, to cool me down from lunching outside, but I wanted something tea and caffiene free due. My drawer here at work offered only this and a bag of Tazo Licorice Spice. My tummy says no to the Licorice Spice right now, though it’s not bad herbal.
So the Lock & Lock got rinsed out, and I steeped the peppermint, then added ice. Refresing and cooling. It’s exactly what I need.
Preparation
My acid reflux is still acting up, and I have been having trouble sleeping, so I’m watching my tea intake for now, in case it’s aggravating either issue. That’s not fun.
So I limited myself to 1 cup of tea today, and figured a green would be better than a black on my stomach.
Made myself drink an entire bottle of water before having my tea, and then had the Jasmine. Nursed it through lunch, when I iced it and enjoyed it outside in the 99 degree level of Hades that is north Texas at the moment.
Preparation
I found this at Bed, Bath, & Beyond; which is a household goods store in the US and Canada.
It looks like a tetsubin, but it’s enameled on the inside, which makes it a kyūsu, apparently. At least, according to Wikipedia, which we all know can never be wrong.
It’s very sturdy and retains heat well, though it can get quite warm on the outside – don’t try to open the lid until it cools down. The handle stays cool though.
It pours very, very well – better than my Brown Betty or plain white 16 oz pot. After my first pour, I figured out how it pours, and I can pour without spilling a single drop. It doesn’t run down the spout.
When filling the pot, it does go way up the spout, so do watch for that as you move it around.
The infuser basket is quite nice, and the trivet has rubbery feet to protect the table.
All in all, I’m quite happy with it!
Hubs and I were escaping the heat of the house yesterday, and ended up at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Our air conditioner had gone out, but thankfully we found a competent company to fix it within hours – and relatively cheaply. But meanwhile the house heated up, and we were waiting for it to cool back down by partaking in others’ AC. So there we were looking around, and we came across a cast iron teapot that looks a lot like the ones used at one of the sushi restaurants we go to. Hubs was a very nice man, and got it for me. It came with a trivet and a wire mesh infuser basket. On the way home I kept thinking “Tetsubin? Is that the right word for it?” I looked it up, and while it looks like a tetsubin, it’s enameled on the inside, which makes it just a kyūsu (teapot). I am pleased that I kinda remembered what a tetsubin was though!
For its first pot, I brought out my Genmai Cha. I got this awhile back when hubbylove gave me a tea-of-the-month subscription for Christmas. It’s an odd tea, and one I can’t quite decide if I like or not. If I drank it all the time, I think I might like it, but drinking it only once in awhile just makes me go “this is so strange.”
The popped rice and popcorn do give it a nutty flavor. It’s not *un*pleasant, but I think it’s just not for me. This is one I’ve been trying to use up here and there. It’s probably halfway down, and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to finish it off before it gets too old.
I gave hubby a small cup – I used my tiny handle-less Japanese teacups – because he loves popcorn. He said he was not sure he liked it, but he might get used to and start to like it. But that the thing that makes him hesitant is actually the popcorn taste, strangely enough.
The teapot is the best pouring one I have now – it pours wonderfully, and after the first pour, I can pour a cup without spilling a drop of tea. I wish the rest of my pots poured as nice!
Preparation
I managed to get half of my dirty dishes done last night, including my Lock & Lock, so this morning’s “toss in the leaves and run” is Kusmi Caramel.
Drinking it straight, slowly. It’s not really appealing to me this morning though. I wish I’d grabbed some Keemun Concerto or the black dragon pearls that I found I still had this morning.
I think the problem is that I’ve got summer fever. It’s just too darn hot for leaving the house, even in the morning. I’d rather be drinking my tea out of a teapot with some real cream and sugar than the office. I am feeling grumpy, and I want the ritual. But I can’t have it at the moment and it’s making me grumpier! Harumph!
Preparation
It was far too hot yesterday afternoon to do anything in the kitchen, so we threw in the towel and went out to eat, where someone else’s industrial air conditioner was not laboring as much as our home’s unit. So my dishes still sit unwashed on the counter – including all of my tea bottles.
So today, I went with Rhapsody in the Bodum in-mug infuser basket that a co-worker gave me two Christmases ago for a Secret Santa gift (along with a joke box of shudderingly horrible-smelling mystery “health” tea from an Asian market). I keep it my desk drawer at work, so I always have it. The mug and infuser that is. The mystery tea got tossed long ago – it was nasty!
I emptied the last of the sampler sized tin into the basket (I’ll have to take it home and refill it), and got hot water from the dispenser.
There’s not much to add on this tea that I haven’t said before. It’s my dependable default for a black tea at work.
