Various Artists

yes, I’m being lazy again, hahaha…
Plus, steepster has been acting up all day, & every time I tried to log a tea, & ended up on the black page that everyone hates! Not to be a whiner, because steepster has been working really nicely for quite some time. I’m sure it’s a royal pain keeping a site like this working perfectly all the time! Thanks to the guys who keep it going!

So, I’m logging all my teas for the entire day (again…sorry), in one note. They were all from the BBBB, which is now miraculously empty! So these are all sipdowns! Yeah Me!
- Gao Shan High Mountain Tea – Yezi Tea – Yes please, & thank you TB, this was delicious! Similar to Laoshan Black in the flavor profile.
- Nan Nuo Mountain Go Shu – World of Tea – didn’t really care much for this one. It started out ok, but then my guts started hurting from it. Darjeeling anyone?
- Rizhao Green – I served this to one of my green tea loving minions, a college student. We both enjoyed it’s delicate qualities.
- Golden Monkey Paw – California Tea House – Yum Yum TastyBrew!!
- Khumbu – Joy’s Teaspoon – Another Darjeeling type, or so it seems. Not bad, but not my favorite.
- Strawberry – Fortnum & Mason – Thanks Sil! I really enjoyed this one, sweetened lightly. Just the right level of strawberry to it.
(copying this, just in case it doesn’t post)
And so my tea drinking day ends.

I’m sure I’m being lame, by not posting all these teas separately, but I think I’ve reviewed all of them at least once, & it’s been & still is a busy day. I dedicated the day to drinking from the BBBBox, & to my tea sisters Sil & TastyBrew for embarking on this awesome tea box journey with me! Here’s what I’ve been drinking:
Qing Pin – Yezi – sipdown!
Chuan Hong Gongfu – sipdown!
Murchie’s Afternoon Blend – Sipdown!
Breakfast Blend – Fortnum & Mason – Sipdown!
Assam Tanganaganon – World of Tea – Another Sipdown!
Dian Hong – World of Tea
That’s 5 sipdowns today!
I also drank a batch of my astragulus ginger lemon brew, & some Elderberry tea, because I’ve feeling a little viral again, & I don’t want to get sick!!

Yesterday I spent the day at a Bridal Show. It was a good day! My daughter Ari came with me to help work my booth, handing out my biz cards to people & extolling on my virtues as a Musician while I sat there playing a mix of classical, rock, jazz, etc on my electric harp. I booked several weddings on the spot, ran out of biz cards (& I had tons of them!), & it was a long day, but also the best bridal show I’ve done in awhile. I owe it, at least in part, to Ari, as she is a delightfully wonderful person & naturally good with people, & I admit that it’s very nice to be able to say that about your own kid!

I started the day with Zhu Rong, & I brought the following teas:
-Spring 2013 “Tong Mu Guan Jin Jun Mei” from Yunnan Sourcing, which I drank in a cup en route
-Imperial Breakfast Summer Blend from Verdant. I made 2 steepings at home, & then combined them into my insulated 16 oz cup. Sadly, someone has apparently used that cup for coffee recently. Why is it that coffee drinkers don’t get the fact that cups aren’t interchangeable? I recently bought 4 mugs & informed people (my 3 adult children that live here) that “those are coffee mugs” & then, gesturing at my special drinking vessels, explained that “these are ONLY for TEA”. I drank it, but it was laced with an undercurrent of coffee flavor.
-Vanilla Citrus Spice – I brought this, along with my to-go steeping basket, & begged some hot water from the starbucks at the convention center. They only acquiesced because I also bought Ari a cup of java. I
-By the end of the show, Ari was feeling kind of flu-like, so when I got to Tony’s, I drank 2 cups of Elderberry, as a precautionary measure. I even added a little Astraguls tincture to one cup.

That was my tea drinking day. I’m not doing individual tasting notes because I’ve already written pretty extensively about them all, & I’m basically lazy.

My son Drew (age 25) is sick with an upper respiratory thing. Tony also had the same thing over the weekend. I can feel it trying to take hold on me, & I’m pretty much saying, “F#$% O$$”. So I started with some Elderberry tea earlier. I handed Drew the last of a Respiratory Tea from Cheryl’s, which he drank, & meanwhile I started a batch of my newest concoction, which everyone in my house will be drinking for awhile (& yes, they’ve been drinking whatever I hand them since early childhood).
Here’s my formula:
In a saucepan combine 1 Qt of water with a handful each of Astragulus Root & Ginger Root. Cover & simmer for awhile (don’t ask me how long. I bring it to simmer & let it go on it’s lowest setting while I do some other stuff. 15 minutes or so?)

Turn off the heat & add a few slices of lemon & a handful of lemon verbena leaves (yes, mine are from my garden!). Cover for 5 minutes or so.

It’s fine as is, or you can add honey, stevia, or whatever.
It’s actually pretty tasty! The Astragulus (known as Huang Qi in Chinese Medicine) has a variety of uses, including as a tonic to strengthen the immune system. Ginger is good for throat & sinus irritation, & so many other things. Lemon is good for sore throats, lemon verbena is soothing & has anti candida properties.

On the topic of mints, I have been enjoying mint a little more often lately. All of the mints in my garden are grown in containers, in an effort to keep them under some semblance of control. Most of them stay outside through the winter, coming up in the spring, followed by the lemon verbena, stevia, & other perennials. I started some Chocolate Mint this past spring, & since it’s in a smaller pot, I brought it into my sunroom for the winter. Since I’m in a minty mood, I picked some & made a cup. Of course, the chocolate taste is more in the aroma than the actual tisane, & there is an odd tone to the mintiness that I can’t quite place, although it is familiar. I made a fairly strong brew, & between all the Ginger & Mint I’ve been sipping on, my gut is starting to feel better.

So…while I was going through my entire tea collection, I eventually ended up in my bedroom on the third floor with my puer boxes. I won’t go into any great deal here on my puer collection, but those cakes do tend to drop a few leaves & fragments here & there. I collected them into a bowl, & in the spirit of TeaLove (or maybe it’s addiction), I mixed them together & made a cup. So this is a mix of various Sheng & Shu bits. More Shu than sheng, so there is a nice smooth semolina & earth kind of taste, but then it is punctuated by a bright citrus mouth. Normally I wouldn’t combine the two, but whatever! I think I’ll start pouring in the final sipdowns of various teas, so it will be different everytime I drink it!
I even decorated a recycled tin & the title I put on the label is:
“Have Harp, Will Travel Caravan”
:)

Yesterday was such a wonderful Day!
Sil, we didn’t play any games, but yes!
I drank tea, lots & lots of tea! And I can’t remember what I drank! LOL
Tony drank Della Terra’s Earl Grey Creme, which was sent to me awhile back from Sil, & he really enjoyed it! After everyone left I finished cleaning up, then went to Tony’s to watch more episodes of Supernatural, hahaha, we’re in the middle of season 4 now!

So I came home & Ms Theresa conned me into starting the ‘tea organizing job’. Hours later (3am to be exact), the job was still not complete.So today has been all about updating & organizing my Stash of Tea. It’s ridiculous & I’m almost done. And I ordered more tea because I realized I was out of a few things. I’m never allowed to order tea again (Ms Theresa said that…but she has to sleep sometime…mwahahaha).

I’ve been so busy today! Not too busy to drink tea, just too busy to post about it. So here’s a brief recap, before I return to being busy!
- Fortnum & Mason’s Breakfast blend, from Sil via BBBBox. Nice & robust!
- No. 49 Assam from Steven Smith, yeah baby!
- Guang Dong Phoenix Dan Cong Oolong – Thank you Angel of Teavivre. I oversteeped, so it was a little bitter. I believe this will be much better gongfu
- Hattialli golden Lion, Butiki: I underleafed, so it was a little weak, but still tasty
- Dinjoye Estate Assam, Butiki: That’s what I’m drinking now. It’s a pretty potent assam!
Sorry to say so little about each tea, I have a student walking in, gotta go! :)

Just a quick note to log the other teas I drank. I posted them with the app, but received a notice that they didn’t post. I don’t remember the exactly what the note said, but here’s what I drank today (cuz I’m tired, & just too lazy to pull up separate pages on each one):

At the first gig from 7:30 – 9am I had Black Gold (which successfully posted) & Black Beauty (yum). Both from Mandala. I also drank a cup of Elderberry before I left the house, because I was feeling a little bit like I might be getting sick, & since I’m pretty behind on sleep, I figured it might be a good idea. I need to stop by Cheryl’s herbs & get some more.

In between gigs I stopped by the house for 15 minutes to refill my travel mugs & take a few bites of something (I can’t even remember what I ate!)
At the 2nd gig, from 11:15 – 1:15, I drank Irish Breakfast (Butiki) & Teavivre’s Superfine fragrant Keemun.

When I got home I had Hattialli Golden Lion.
I wish I would be giving more details on all of these teas, but lets just say I thoroughly enjoyed them all.

I’m using the Steepster app, while I wait for my breakfast to arrive. I played another early morning gig today, out the door at 6:30am. The teasI brought along this morning were laoshan black & laoshan black chocolate genmaicha.

Happy USA Thanksgiving & Happy Hannukah!

I spent the day making food, as did my daughters. It took 2 kitchens, 3 chefs, & 2 sous chefs (my sons), then we transported the food made at my house to my daughter’s house (1 block away), & the feast was on.

Meanwhile, I DID drink tea, several pots full, most of which I’ll have to review the next time I drink them, but I also tried a delicious experiment, which I’ve been dying to share all day. Here it is:

1.5 Tb Laoshan Black + 1.5 Tb Shui Jin Gui Oolong + 1 cinnamon stick + 1 vanilla bean (after I used the seeds in something else), chopped up.
All of these were combined in my 16oz green cash iron dragonfly teapot.
Steep 3 minutes, and Oh My God!!! I also tried adding a little maple…
And of course, there were the resteeps…sigh…

I’m grateful for tea!

I’m starting the morning with a Breakfast Assam from a local tea company that is less than 5 minutes from my front door. I’m not going to share the name of the company, lest I incur the wrath of locals who think this tea is awesome. For them it probably is. For me, it’s just ok. Every time I brag on FB about a tea company I love, I get private messages from local friends wanting to know why I’m not encouraging people to ‘buy locally’ by promoting this company. They don’t get it. I can’t explain it without sounding like the snob that I am (and if you knew me, you would know that tea & good food are the only things I’m snobby about, & I don’t mean to be. I like good quality consumables, & if I’m going to drink tea & eat food, it’s gonna be damn good, or I probably won’t bother).

Final note: I realize that not every tea company can afford to go spend weeks in China, Taiwan, India, or wherever. Thus is life. If you’re selling mostly broken leaves that are probably way past their prime, & charging premium prices, don’t expect me to buy it & brag about it.
My rant is complete. Thank you.

While I was at traveling tea, I bought several samples. I promise if I actually buy a larger amount, I will add a page for them. I already tried 2 of them:
Peachy peach is a rooibos peach blend (duh). It’s nice enough, using real peach pieces

Pumpkin chai is the bomb!! It’s also a rooibos blend, with locally grown & dehydrated super thin pumpkin slices & chai spices. I must have more!

I stopped by the Traveling Tea company, a local tea shop.
I bought several samples, & so far I tried the Golden Halo Organic. It’s a nice little yunnan. Sorry I’m too lazy to add a listing for it, I get tired of doing that sometimes.
http://www.traveling-tea.com

I’ve been packing up the BBBBox for Sil & Tasty Brew, with a couple of black teas & a sweet little trick or treat surprise (never mind that they won’t get it for awhile, lol).

I’ve also packed up my latest collection of samples for You, Sil!
And because of that, I get to count the following Sipdowns:
Coconut Milky Oolong – The Tea Spot
Smokejumper Ginger – The Tea Spot
Qu Hao Silk – The Tea Spot
Russian Caravan – The Tea Spot
Blackberry Custard – Trail Lodge Teas
I was gonna send the last of the Trail Lodge Caramel Oolong, but one of the boys drank it!

This has been a busy morning! First I dropped my car off for an oil change, then I had consultations with 2 different brides & their mothers. The first bride came at 10. She drank ‘Refresh’ by Tazo, her mother drank Republic of Tea’s Ginger Peach black tea over ice. I drank a cup of Laoshan Black.

The 2nd bride came at 11. We all drank Bergamot Rose Laoshan Black. They loved it!

A quick backtrack off yesterday, because I DID drink a lot of tea!
Crazy me, saturday night I stayed up til 3am, because I decided to redo my entire Bridal Fair display, & there were things that I needed to do at the last minute. I’m not always great at thinking very far ahead.

So yesterday I got up at 7, took a quick shower, & brewed 2 steepings of The Black Lotus. 1.5 went into my go cup, the other .5 was drank while stumbling around the house, loading the final bit of stuff into the car, etc. The go cup of tea was enjoyed while driving & unloading my gear into my booth. Then I went to breakfast. My first 2 cups of tea there were meant as a test of the water, using tbags that were in my purse. I drank a cup of Tazo Awake (pretty bitter), & a cup of Twinings English breakfast, which was acceptable. Then I pulled out the Anxi Fo Shou, had 3 cups of that (3min/4/5). Thank you Verdant Tea!
Then I poured 6 Mandala Black pearls into my portable brew basket on top of the Anxi & ran 2 more steeps (4/5), refilling my go cup, & savoring the last bit. This kept me happy for an hour at the Bridal Fair.
I was able to refill my cup with hot water at the fair one more time, dropping 2 Tazo Chai bags in there with some stevia.
Final tea of the day, once it was all over with & I was at Tony’s house in my pjs, a lovely cup of Bilbo Brew.
A long day, but luckily with some tasty teas, & hopefully profitable in the long run as well.

I’m trying to get myself to drink things that I don’t always drink, & I have this Yerba Mate sample from the Tea Spot, & it’s not in the database. And I’m tired of adding teas to the database, so here we are. I guess I’m being lazy here.
I’m also not really digging this tea, & I would hate for the first posting about it to be negative, so there’s another reason.
Anyway, it’s ok, probably good quality, but not my thing. Kind of bland & grassy.

This is my final sipdown of the day & weekend!!
‘Menta Poleo’, from La Indiana. Sil got this during her vacation in Cuba.
What can I say? It’s mint tea, with 10% Pennyroyal I think. Which makes it a little more minty & refreshing, with a little slightly bitter bite at the bottom.

I’m done drinking tea for the night, I am waterlogged. I’m also out of sipdown material! All the other small quantities I have are either black teas or puerh samples, so this is it!

Thanks Sil! This was a lot of fun. I’m not sure who the official Queen of the Sipdowns is, we can figure that out tomorrow, but this has been an awesome & crazy tea drinking weekend, & I made it through 46 teas! So my cupboard total is 216.

The 2nd of the Chang Yun tuochas was a purple bud, which I steeped in my Gaiwan, doing a series of pours in between the other teas I’ve been drinking. Sort of a palate cleanser, LOL.
I enjoyed this one more than the sticky rice one. The flavor was a little richer, in my opinion. Otherwise, neither one was particularly remarkable.

This afternoon I’ve been sipping on 2 tuochas in between various other teas. I got them both from the HHTTB. The first one is the Chang yun sticky rice tuocha. It is a Sheng that amazingly smells & tastes like sticky rice. The aroma brings back fond memories of a dessert they serve at the vietnamese restaurant that I used to frequent. It was a mound of sticky rice, topped with a mango half, & drizzled with coconut milk. Delicious, & not too sweet. This sheng, of course, tastes nothing like that, but it does have the sticky rice flavor, which is kind of amazing. Other than that, it is a sheng, a little on the bitter end.

Here’s another tea sample from Sil. This is another Beijing Wuyutai foil package, this one is cream colored. As soon as I opened it, my sinuses were assailed with the sweet aroma of Jasmine. Yup, a potent jasmine tea, this one is. Maybe too potent for me.

This one brings my count down to 227, Sil. I’m not sure how many more teas I can handle today, but we’ll see.

Another one from Sil, I couldn’t find the company, & I’m too lazy to enter it, lol.
This is a chamomile tea from La Indiana infusiones. I needed a break from all the caffeine, haha. It’s nicely sweet & appley, like chamomiles are suppose to be. Thanks Sil!
Tony & I are watching ‘7 Psychopaths’ & contemplating BBQ for dinner.