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Feet finally up after a busy, crazy, and scary weekend (all three, sometimes simultaneously). The cold front that blew the ugly storms through this time yesterday is keeping a little chill in the air, so I made me a big mug of straight honeybush leaves plus a splash of Pappy’s Sassafras concentrate. Rooty-beery and rich. You could do this at home, too, easy.

3/4 straight-up unflavored honeybush; 1/4 orange spice black tea for a little zing and something to accompany the cranberry orange bread cooling in the kitchen and a little cat comedy: Tazo is rug surfing.

Rug surfing…you know, where you hunker down in the living room with your rear in the air pretending you’re a Puma, then you sprint as fast as your four legs will go until you hit the throw rug in the kitchen and slide all the way across the kitchen on it. Dare you to try it.

Was given some Celestial Seasonings True Blueberry as a gift and it has taken forever to go away because I think it’s too tart. Combined a bag of it with a bag of CS Madagascar Vanilla Rooibos—problem solved. Now it’s just a gentle cup of blueberries and cream.

So…have you tried the new Pepperidge Farms lemon/chocolate Milano cookies yet? You need to. They are the cookie equivalent of little chocolate dipped candy sticks I remember from childhood, and can occasionally find at Walgreens. (Reception candy sticks, I think.)

All that to say I decided to play with a tea equivalent. Half dried lemon verbena (some leftover leaves from our own K S) and half cocoa nibs. Long steep. A little sugar and we might have something here…

Warm enough to walk outside. No parka, gloves, or earmuffs required. Mmmmmmm.

This was my treat when I got back: 2 parts straight honeybush, 1 part aging Adagio Caramel. Enough sweetness to “dessert” it up; hopefully, not enough caffeine to affect bedtime. I think we’ll do this one again.

Junkyard tea this morning. A little like a leather shoe with cocoa on the sole, but in a good way. Figure that one out :)

Serendipity.

Little bit of elderly Bourbon Rouge from Mariage Freres.
Scant teaspoon of cacao nibs.
Cinnamon stick.
Loooooong steep.
Mmmmmmmmmmmm.

You, too, can do this at home :)

Another evening homebrew experiment—honeybush with a couple skinny teaspoons of Pappy’s Sassafras concentrate. Works. Could’ve strengthened the sassy part some.

One of you fine folks was talking up a lemon-pepper tea the other evening, so I decided to whip up a homebrew. A spoonful of some 52 Teas Lemon Drop Cooler (rooibos) with a smattering of szechuan peppercorns cheerfully smashed with a hammer after a trying and tedious workday. Results were positive; the pepper didn’t heat up the tea, but did add a little perk and zing to the smooth rooibos. Bet you could do this, too, with your favorite Cheapster Steepster lemon tea.

Two thumbfuls dried coconut, a fat pinch of lemongrass, a nubblin’ of cacao nibs. This could work. Not beachy tropical, just sweet and mildly sunshiny.

A sloppy dollop from the Junkyard Tea Jar: custom blended, changes almost daily. Lots of cocoa and keemun today. This is how great tea sommeliers and blenders get started, yes?

Came home feeling like one raw exposed nerve, so careful, measured, conscious tea-blending wasn’t in the books… not sure what proportions I used, what the actual water temp or steep time was…but the results of an unspecified amount of tulsi combined with one carelessly tossed-in bag of Celestial Seasonings sweet apple chamomile yielded … one cup of liquid Juicy Fruit gum. Not bad for an accident.

Tulsi and peppermint to un-kink the knots in the back of my neck. Maybe I need to take a bath in this :)

Little Boston Tea Co. Dragonwell left from yesterday with Pomegranate Grape Green from Savoy Tea Co. Light and fruity; good afternoon cuppa.

The Junkyard Tea jar is getting full, and the temps cold enough that “it doesn’t matter, as long as it’s warm” is the rule o’ the day. This morning’s kaleid-o-tea has a few last leaves of Laoshan Black, a little Ceylon, a little Keemun, a lot of whatever else was already in there, and a surprise in every sip.

Prompted/challenged/inspired by recent lavender experimentation, I attempted a little kitchen chemistry this evening:

1 teaspoon Mariage Freres Bourbon Rouge (rooibos)
1/4 skimpy teaspoon lavender
1/2 teaspoon cacao nibs

Ooohhooooh! The lavender gives the rooibos a fruity tinge rather than flowery, and you just can’t ruin cocoa. Did I say oooohhhhhoooo?

Made my own brew this morning—-some hopelessly old Adagio Pumpkin Pie, cocoa nibs, little milk. Not bad!

Long Sunday and I am worn out. Kid wrangling in the morning followed by a run to the nursing home to check on Mom followed by a run to the farm to do some running/fetching/carrying for tired and arthritic Dad. (Fun side note—Mom’s nursing home gets therapy miniature ponies. They bring ’em to the rooms like dogs!)

Couple all that with a really poorly-thought-out speed lunch at Long John Silver’s…ugh…I need tonickin’. So I steeped a strong infusion of chickweed and stirred in a spoonful of Pappy’s sassafras concentrate. The sassafras is a good mask for the chickweed—its pretty barky flavored, and between the two compounds, I am good for stomach ailments, arthritis, high blood pressure, and scurvy.

Chickweed (Frontier Natural Herbs) + Body & Soul (fruit/chamomile/lemongrass blend—Leland Tea co.). The fruit and lemon are a nice counterpart to the chickweed that tastes…well, weedy.

Junkyard Tea this morning. Getting a new flavor with each sip! Something cocoa-y, mostly, with a little Yunnan.

Prompted by a few of you who have done the same thing, there’s now a jar in the kitchen labeled “Junkyard Tea” to contain the not-quite-enough or a-little-too-old scraps of black tea that accumulate when you’re not looking.

The fun of this is that its personality changes regularly, it’s still reasonably drinkable in the a.m., and if it doesn’t taste right…just add something else, and it’ll change again.

At the moment, the jar is a little Keemun-heavy with some sweetness in the background from odd Assams and a Darjeeling or two. Tomorrow…who knows?

Unpredictably yours till then,
G

Continuing to see some medicinal effect of raspberry leaf (ladies, highly recommended!) and experimenting with ways to un-tree-leaf the taste. Mixed in some homegrown mint. Not an unpleasant blend, and might be nice iced.

A few years back, we bought a peppermint plant at a local farmer’s market. At any rate, it was sold to us as peppermint. It was the only living thing we were able to salvage when house and yard were destroyed. Hubby put it in a pot, coddled and cultivated it, and we now have a healthy little crop in a bed nestled next to the new place.

It’s not peppermint. It’s spearmint. I would swear to it in court. Spouse continues to defend “Patty” as peppermint and will with his dying breath. (Funny what you take defensive issues over after 28 years of marriage :)

So, to preserve the peace, it’s just mint. Mild mint at that, but I used a tablespoon of dry and crumbled leaves to make me a pint of chilled tisane last night and it was refreshing, genus and species notwithstanding.