Various Artists

I mixed the last of the Chocolate Energy Tea by Tea Man with a little bit of Twinings loose Earl Grey. I wasn’t sure it would taste decent, but there wasn’t enough of the Chocolate to brew by itself. It’s actually not bad. The chocolate is pretty strong, so it actually muted the bergamot, if you can believe that!

So that clears out a tin in my drawer at work; I need to figure out what to bring in to replace it. Probably the Harney & Sons holiday tea. That should be fairly quick to run through since it’s a bagged tea.

Just one more day in the office this week, then a work-from-home day, and then a LONG WEEKEND! YAY!

One of the projects I want to tackle this week is to re-inventory my tea cabinet, and start making up a list of what to restock and what to look for come September.

Chocolate Energy Tea
Tea Man
http://www.etsy.com/listing/162642889/tea-chocolate-energy-loose-leaf-hand

Black tea, yerba mate, chocolate extract

Still working on polishing this off at work. The more I drink it the more I enjoy it though. I think I need to make sure I keep a chocolate tea at work. It’s soothing.

I did find the French press in the top back of the pantry, and pulled it down, intending to bring it to work today… set it on the kitchen island and promptly forgot all about it until I went to make tea at work this morning. Whoops.

Chocolate Energy Tea
Tea Man
http://www.etsy.com/listing/162642889/tea-chocolate-energy-loose-leaf-hand

Black tea, yerba mate, chocolate extract

Working on polishing this tea off, at work. I’m actually enjoying it quite a bit when drinking, but I detest cleaning out the steeping basket after it’s done. Generally, I dump the basket, and let what’s sticking to it air dry, then it pretty much knocks right out. Then I rinse the basket. This stuff though? The yerba mate CEMENTS to the side of the basket, and it takes actual effort to clean. I’m so lazy :D

Chocolate Energy Tea
Tea Man
http://www.etsy.com/listing/162642889/tea-chocolate-energy-loose-leaf-hand

Black tea, yerba mate, chocolate extract

Initially I was a little meh on this tea, but I discovered today that I needed to use less tea, not more for its flavor to really shine. I was just trying to use it up as a work tea, but now I’m actually really enjoying it. The chocolate comes through a lot more with a smaller scoop.

The tea was a gift, and I wish I knew more about what kind of black tea the base is.

Will I reorder once I’m out? I am not sure – I’ll have to experience a few more brews of it with a smaller scoop to decide. I have not ordered from an Etsy tea blender before, so I might look into it if I decide I do want more.

First, I love how the tasting note of this one say Flowers, Stonefruits, Honey, Lemon Zest, Plants, Asparagus, Mineral, Potato, Orange Zest… Yet I get none of that in my blend :)

Spring is finally here and I’m enjoying with that the possibilities of new iced tea flavors. Late this week I went to an old favorite though… the iced tea I grew up on and have always loved in the summertime. My mom used to make this and it would disappear so fast we wondered where it could have gone.

I have a 3 qt iced tea maker I picked up at a garage sale a few years ago. I didn’t know how much I would use one, so a cheapy worked for me. I use 7-8 teabags, usually orange pekoe I believe although the box I have right now just says black tea, and decaf because I tend to drink this all day and wonder why can’t sleep if I use regular. I’m not terribly picky about the brand because the base isn’t the star of the show.. although I may change my mind now that I’ve been introduced to better tea choices. Then I add a generous handful of spearmint sprigs, rinsed and then squeezed to release oils, to the steeping basket as well. 3/4 of a cup of sugar to the pitcher w/some ice and we’re good to go. I sometimes add a pinch of baking soda if I remember because it’s said to help the flavor, but I often forget.. I haven’t noticed much difference myself. After it’s done steeping, I fill the pitcher the rest of the way with water and let it chill in the fridge, if it even makes it there.

I’ve been carrying this around in my Tervis the last half of this week… Yeah for running into a factory outlet while on a road trip :). and Yeah for the memories this tea brings of mom making it in time for when dad would come in from working in the fields.

I’m looking forward to introducing more flavors and varieties to our summer tea choices but know this will always be a staple .. especially when friends & family are over, they always love it. Thinking I will hunt down some peppermint and chocolate mint plants for my garden this year so I can experiment with those as well… maybe even some verbena ?

Next up in the Summer-Use-Up-Scraps marathon: a nameless coconut-puerh blend. I am going to have to ask the work friend who gave me a couple ounces where this came from, as I like it very much. Despite its age (don’t ask, I don’t know ;) the coconut hasn’t yet gone south. Due to the strength of the coconut flavor, the puerh comes through as chocolate, not cave rocks. Final analysis: a melted Mounds candy bar.

When it get this hot and humid (when you step outside the moisture just envelops you like a hot wet fur shirt), I don’t much care what I’m drinking as long as it is cold. This causes me to be a little sloppy with my beverage concoctions. Over the past couple of days, we’ve tried refrigerator alchemy with:

Red Rose tea with mint and a splunk of sassafrass concentrate

Some embarrassingly old loose leaf pu-erh, gone halvesies with Loyd blackberry/blueberry herbal

Surprisingly, neither were terrible and would have some potential if I paid attention to the prep.

What kinds of crazy things are you schlopping together to stay cool?

Although the Current Unpleasantness has not put a stop to my workweek routine, and although my thin little slice of extroversion is acutely missing my church family, quiet Sunday mornings in the back yard have been an unexpected blessing.

While I was enjoying a few shiny moments of sunrise before it ducked back behind some clouds, I was also enjoying a cup of what is going to have to be a mystery until Eelong, the kind donor, sets me straight. The Sharpie had rubbed off the baggie, which (don’t laugh) could have said “Heicha 2018” or “Hojicha 2018,” but I’m not sure.

What I think I was sipping was a smoky and roasted green tea, which I thoroughly enjoyed, even though I’m not much of a lapsang fan. It had a nice coppery bronze color and led with the savory green flavor with a little campfire smoke in the background.

Baxter, our black cat with a white bow tie and a dumb-lovable personality like Rocky Balboa, jumped up beside me, and sniffed it with me.

I’m actually drinking a Basilur tea entitled New Year’s Gift, but as I can’t find a listing for it here or on the Basilur website, I’m assuming it was a temporary offering. A good one however—a good black tea base with sweet cherry (syrupy without being chemically artificial) and almond that is not bitter. Especially satisfying when taken in a quiet house after a day full of people.

(This concludes the tea comments. It’s OK if you move on from here.)

Day Full of People began with the memorial service for my sister. The family burying ground is three miles out on a gravel road that branches off a two-lane county highway in the little hills of Cedar County, Missouri. Floods have washed out some of the road bed, so you have to drive carefully, but the country stillness is breathtaking. We encountered a bald eagle, a wild turkey that flew over our vehicle, and a second wild turkey (so big it looked like an ostrich!) that flew in and landed on the far side of the cemetery immediately following the closing prayer, a little like a very rural Blue Angels salute. Shari would’ve loved it.

People Day Part 2 was a family reunion in the metropolis of Lockwood with cousins I haven’t seen since I was knee-high to that wild turkey. Plates laden with farm cooking—cornmeal-fried fish, homemade noodles, that cheesy hash brown casserole with sour cream and cornflakes on top that I can’t get my boys to eat…and a great deal of catching up and reminiscing.

A good day, but much to process. Glad I have a good cuppa and a few moments to do that now.

I’ve previously mentioned a pricey loose-leaf black tea that I can’t identify due to the lack of a single English character on the bag. Been saving it for mornings when I don’t have to rush (precious few of those lately). It’s been cooling next to me for quite a while, and the scent and flavor are that of a good dark wheat bread. I want my whole house to smell like this.

One of the reasons I let it cool is because I was distracted by the neighborhood anomaly—a huge white rabbit that’s bigger than my cats munching on the wild strawberries in the corner of our yard. Down the street, there’s a covey of them. Not wild rabbits; these appear to be show rabbit breeds, but they run loose in a neighbor’s yard, strangely unbothered by the dogs and cats. I counted twelve in their yard the other day.

My felines must just think he’s a very strange looking cat. I’m amused by his chutzpah—we caught the tail end of a thunderstorm last evening; iron-gray clouds and a pretty unpleasant wind; the cats went to their safe spots and Mr. B. (he really needs a better name than that) was just lounging in our back yard with his head tilted up toward the sky, watching it all roll by. Oh, my ears and whiskers …

Dagnabbit. Lost a whole tasting note. OK—rerun in 25 words or less:

Turyaga Very Berry. Valentine gift tea chest from The Enabler (hubby). Exceeded expectations. Gentle green tea and strawberry-blueberry flavor that was fruit punch, not tart. (That’s 26, but I hyphenated so I get the bonus deduction.)

To quote Scripture out of context, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Day 5 of a not-flu-but-not-fun virus that has left me a pleghmy, coughing shell of my former self. OK, I’m exaggerating a little. But mark my words, there will be no need for Kleenex in Heaven :)

All those theatrics are to explain why my tea drinking standards have lowered considerably—anything as long as it’s HOT. I’ve done blackberry/elderberry with honey.
Decaf black with honey and lemon. Green lemon with lemon. Sleepytime Vanilla.
Elderberry with turmeric and cinnamon. All temporarily comforting, but just won’t melt the goo. I think I’m about to resort to household lye.

Y’all stay healthy.

There’s tired, then there’s VBS tired. The kind of tired from hiking a mile upstairs each way from crafts to rec to music, which has choreography that would wear out a World of Dance contestant, and three more miles in additional back-and-forth trips for restroom escorts and “please, may I have some more to drink?” Oh, and did I mention rec is outside today? It’s going to be 95 with rain forest humidity.

Wouldn’t give it up for the world on a plate.

But, as I will be dragging anchor when I get home, I have a treat in the fridge: steeped a jar of good-quality spring-pickin’s green tea a friend brought home from China. Tossed in 3 fresh cucumber slices (courtesy of my sweet student VBS helper) and and a filter bag of dried honeysuckle; let it chill overnight. My first taste was tasty; I’m sure it’ll be more so with my feet up and my eyes closed and the blinds drawn later today.

(Hoping this is the beginning of a new respect for lowly cucumbers—my childhood memories are still tainted by the smell of Mom’s ice cream tub of cucumbers and onions in vinegar that was perpetually in the fridge three months of the year.)

1 quart jar. 2 large sprigs of fresh apple mint off the back porch. 3 plain ol’ Red Rose teabags. 4 lime quarters. 5 hours chilled in the fridge. Gone in two minutes. What’s wrong with the math here?

US buddies, hope your Thanksgiving was blessed and bountiful. While I was feasting Thursday, I took a 24-hour fast from social media, and do you know what? Much as I like y’all, I didn’t miss it much.

The best part of Thanksgiving weekend, at least at my house, is not hurrying and having plenty of putter time. I did a little tea puttering as well while I was messing around in the kitchen.

Experiment #1 — One part no-name bulk pu-erh from local indie grocery + 1 bag Bigelow Salted Caramel. A tasty surprise. The pu-erh lent a little muscle to the Bigelow, which has a good flavor, but not a lot of body strength.

Experiment #2 — Straight up peppermint + a sprig of rosemary from my own plant. Tasted like air freshener. (But the rosemary tasted great on the turkey.)

(Post-posting edit. I wrote the following paragraphs last night, clearly inattentively, because I didn’t actually tell you what I was drinking. ELDERBERRY. DRIED ELDERBERRIES. Good grief. )

Some travel and heavy conferencing ahead (it’s a little like Rumplestiltskin, they lock you in a room and require you to be creative until the whole kids’ curriculum is planned—straw into gold), so in prep for alien environments, I intend to be steeping a whole lot of this over the next couple weeks. Mema swore by it during cold and flu season and she lived to a very cheerful and perky 92.

These are just the bulk dried berries from local health store; they do a lot of Frontier Natural Co-op stuff, so that’s the likely candidate for brand. Steeped straight up with no additives, it tastes like raisins. I’ve had it with cinnamon before, tasty; and I suppose I could sweeten with honey. Other stir-in suggstions from the audience?

Well, we’ve hit “anything as long as it’s cold” season. I didn’t have a full tumbler’s worth of any one thing in the fridge for my Mowing Mug, so I dumped in half a pint of chilled Barry’s black tea, and half a pint of St. Dalfour’s Black Cherry in together.

Did the trick washing the dirt and sweet clover out of my throat…and then I noticed the enterprising younglings on the street corner (1st grader, 3rd grader) selling Black Cherry Kool-Ade. The Marketing Specialist had even written her prices on a markerboard and was twirling the sign like a Little Caesar’s pizza guy. So I gave up my quarter, and asked her to dash a little into my tumbler with the tea leavings that were still cool. By that time, the blend was so adulterated, it reminded me of monkey spit, but ya just gotta support your local beverage vendor.

Drink options should improve shortly. I have a jar of Red Rose with several sprigs of chocolate mint bathing in it for midafternooners.

I posted elsewhere that now that I’m a farmer (aka helping elderly father with farm paperwork and writing checks for fertilizer) I bought me a Pierce City FFA t-shirt (Future Farmers of America) at a garage sale so I am appropriately dressed when I look at the fields. Usually I look at the field and say, “Yep, that’s wheat.” That’s cause I’m an expert, y’know.

So I needed some tea to drink while I was in farm mode. Mason jar sun tea with three Barry’s tea bags, almost strong enough to strip paint, with three tablespoons of Pappy’s Sassafrass tea concentrate. Chilled extra-cold. Perfect for a humid early summer afternoon.

Maybe it’s just me, but after I go see a theater movie, I need some space and silence to clear my head from the sensory overload—more so as I…continue to no longer be twentysomething. So after a noisy and swashbuckly afternoon chasing Neptune’s trident, I’m enjoying nothing but ambient neighborhood sounds in the back yard and pondering … if I had a compass that pointed to what I truly want, would I be proud of what it pointed to? Hmm.

But you want to read about tea. Unlabeled baggie from a work friend—I have a lot of those—with some bulk blueberry green tea from our favorite local health food grocer. That would lead me to believe it’s Frontier Co-op brand. Smells like pie; tastes like it a little, too. There was only one dried blueberry in the baggie and it didn’t make this cup. If it had, this would taste like two pies.

I’m not the tea person who weighs, labels, classifies, catalogs, or scientifically approaches any of my brews…I’m the one with an unlabeled baggie of something that sort of looks like green tea with lemongrass that I might have gotten from a work friend sometime last summer, but eh, it still looks viable, so let’s give it a go….

And I’m glad I go’ed. Whatever I’m drinking, it’s a happy golden color, and with a squeeze of lime, it tastes like spring sunshine.

A little “random” never hurts :)

A teaspoon of fair-to-middlin’ bulk decaf Ceylon leaves, teaspoon of bulk chai spices, plenty of half-and-half, and a big fat blop of marshmallow cream. Liquid equivalent of a fluffy fleece blanket.