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I haven’t really been drinking any tea this weekend. I’ve been going through it, and tea was just the last thing on my mind. I know there are some folks that want tea reviews to just “be about the tea,” so I will focus on the tea… those that want to know more about what is going on can read the addendum below the review.

So, I’ve decided to drink this sampler of Lupicia’s Paradise Green. From the information I can get on it (from the Steepster listing since Lupicia is still transitioning to their Ala Moana website — that will be coming May 23rd, by the way!) apparently this is a tropical flavored green, but I don’t have any information on the ingredients, even the sampler packaging doesn’t include that. My sniffer isn’t working great at the moment (lots of mucus!) but I’m getting more of a peachy/apricot aroma from the dry leaf? Ah, I suppose it could be mango! And it is a bit sharply fruity.

Steeped, I believe I’m smelling a bit of peach, mango, and pineapple. I didn’t smell any pineapple in the dry leaf, but it is coming forward now, and I’m getting it in the flavor of the tea as well; it starts off mostly as a peach fuzz/mango flavor, light, juicy, and sweet, with a slightly tangier pineapple note toward the end of the sip. I’m tempted to say the green tea has a bit more bite than I usually get from a Lupicia green, and this was steeped around 170F for only two minutes, but I switched to a migraine nasal option which leaves this really awful taste down the back of my throat, which could be playing with my tastes a bit. I definitely am picking out a nice grassiness though, which I always appreciate about their flavored greens; the base is not dominated or overwhelmed by the flavorings. It is a pleasant fruity cup, and would likely be a lovely iced tea, if I had more of this to play with.

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Read no further if you are uninterested in non-tea life musings. So, my lifemate of the last twenty years, my cockatiel Kali, passed away last night. Saturday at 4 a.m. she suffered a night terror (common for cockatiels) and injured herself badly thrashing against her cage. I woke and came to her immediately, but she’d lost all her pin feathers from her tail and wings, and several in her wings were “blood feathers,” new growth feathers that receive an active blood supply, so she was bleeding badly. I did what I could to calm her and stop the bleeding, but it was obvious she’d lost a lot of blood, and living alone, it was impossible for me to remove the blood feathers and staunch up the wounds myself. I waited out until vets would be open Saturday morning, and called every one in my little Idaho town — and was turned down service by every. single. one. “We don’t do birds.” I was told there was one avian vet in town, and their vet wasn’t open Saturdays. Would not be open until Monday. I was told I could take her to Boise, two hours away, to get medical help. I did not think trying to transport an already panicked and terrified bird two hours in a car was a good idea, as her blotting wounds could reopen if she spooked and started thrashing. She was unable to climb at this point, grounded without any pin feathers to give her balance and act as “finger support” for lift up her cage, so I put blankies and food and water sources on the bottom of her cage and hoped that Monday first thing I could call that one avian vet to get the blood feathers removed. She passed at some point as I was sleeping last night. Instead I was calling the vet about their cremation services. I feel like I’ve failed her since I couldn’t get her the medical help she needed. I’m really torn up. I can’t help but feel like my situation and feelings were “belittled” because she was a bird instead of a cat or a dog, but she’s been with me since I was 16 — I’m 37 now — so 20 years of my life. Take a minute to reflect on all that has happened within two decades of a lifetime.

I chose “Paradise Green” because I know she’s in a better place now… paradise. If you have a pet, please give them love. Drink a cuppa today in memory of a pet you loved and lost. Cherish the winged, scaled, finned, and furred members of your family. <3