1138 Tasting Notes
Unfortunately this is the first note I’ve written on this tea, and I’m not really in the mood to actually review the tea, I am more posting this note as a tribute to the late Alan Rickman, my favorite actor, who sadly passed away today.
I’ll keep it short, but I have been a huge Harry Potter fan since about grade three. Read all the books multiple times, went to quite a few of the movies in theatres (I don’t think all of them) and have re-watched the movies countless times. And my favorite character in the movies is definitely Professor Snape. Probably mostly due to the fact that Alan Rickman did a STELLAR job portraying Snape, and I can’t even think of anyone else as Snape ever. And to this day, everytime I see the last movie at a certain part involving Alan Rickman (I won’t spoil, in case people actually haven’t seen all the movies) I break down crying my eyes out. Even after watching the movie so many times, I actually watched it over the Christmas break and broke down with my aunt and uncle there any everything lol.
And yes, Alan Rickman has done quite a few other movies, notably Die Hard and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. And he was also a great villain in those movies as well. He has an excellent voice too, unique and recognizable.
But he will always be Professor Snape to me. Always.
So here’s to you, Alan. Thank you for your wonderful contribution to the film industry and I am happy to have lived in a time where you were an actor. I will try to not be too sad today, but this is hitting me harder than I thought it would. I don’t have many favorite actors, and he was my favorite. Rest in peace.
Oh, and this tea is super gingery and spicy, I’ve drank multiple cups in the past but I will write a more detailed note later.
Belated Merry Christmas Steepster! I finally regained my sense of taste and smell on Christmas day which was awesome, but I am still fighting a hacking horrible cough as of today gahh. I ordered myself a tin of this and the white sage tea with my bfs present, and after reading about pine needle tea being helpful for colds, I thought I’d try it tonight at the lake :) very fitting setting.
The smell is so much pine trees I thought I was in the forest! Wow! Sap and bark and trees..all the smells of camping. I steeped the tea bag (wish it was loose lol) for about 3 mins. The taste is nice and fresh, pure piney goodness, a hint of sweetness and citrus. Hopefully it helps this silly cough to go away! Overall, so far pleased about the flavor and hoping it helps!
Merry Christmas Eve Eve :) i am skiing with the bf and his family this week and unfortunately have come down with a miserable cold, a very rare occurrence for me as I don’t get sick often at all, must be a powerful one. I bought some of this tea today and had a cup this afternoon that I could taste and am now unable to smell or taste anything lol so I am having another cup which I brewed for about 5 mins as compared to 2.5 mins earlier this afternoon. Hopefully it does its thing so I can ski tomo haha. Silly Christmas cold! Anyways, the cup I had earlier was nicely minty, mild citrus tang and that earthy, echinacea flavor. I imagine this cup is somewhat similar. Hope it works! Merry Christmas Steepster if I’m not back on before then!
Thank the higher powers for this tea. Again my stomach is angry this morning, feels like a bout of food poisoning from something I ate last night, and I only have 2.25 hours of work left until my vacation so I can’t leave yet :( and I found this tea in my lunch bag thank goodness. I made it at work so it is weak and it doesn’t taste like it should, but at least it is helping settle my extremely upset stomach. I seriously do not know what I will do when I run out of this, I am down to my last few cups :( :( I will have to find a different ginger stomach saving tea. See previous notes on this tea!
feel better
Feel better.
Ouch feel better soon! before your vacay I hope
Aww, I hope it isn’t food poisoning. Either way, hope you’ll feel better soon so you can enjoy your muchly earned vacation.
Thanks everyone! Finally my upset stomach passed last night and I feel a lot better today :) I will definitely enjoy the Christmas break!
This is my morning cup, surprised I haven’t reviewed this before! I picked this up on our trip to the island a year ago. It’s a nice rooibos with a good sweet flavor from the vanilla, a nice linen mouthfeel and slight flavor from the lavender, and a good rooibos base, not too scratchy! The orange isn’t really present, maybe a mild tang in the aftertaste. For a ref rooibos, this is quite enjoyable. Nice warming and richer cup today as I continue my caffeine hiatus.
I haven’t posted on Steepster in a while because I am now on a self-inflicted caffeine hiatus until further notice, hopefully at least a month. This weekend I very much over-did it with two grande tea lattes from Sbux and kept the teabag in both of them for the duration of drinking them…let’s just say the result was a massive panic attack (also from missing the bf, who has been out of town for over a week) and insomnia from 2 am until around 5:45 am that night. Worse is that I know how caffeine sensitive I am, and it just was not a great choice on my behalf to have that much in one day. Not the best time I’ve had haha, ended up skipping Monday morning from work to sleep ugh. So now I am off caffeine and on herbal teas only, cold turkey. I have also been making some lifestyle changes this week in terms of what I have been eating and it has been positive as well, not as many carbs and many more greens ftw!
This is the tea I chose for today to help me deal with caffeine withdrawal (pounding headache, general crankiness) and a weather change headache on top of that one. This tea is still quite good, I am running low in the tin and might restock at one point. It is a relaxing ginger blend with lots of spice. Now to sit and fester with my caffeine withdrawal and keep on working on a computer screen, very good for headaches. Sigh. At least it’s sunny outside. I miss actual tea :( see previous notes on this tea!
I can totally understand about the caffeine thing as well. I find I am caffeine sensitive, and my older brother has had to cut caffeine out of his life entirely for jitters/anxiety attacks as well. Personally I am down to only 8oz-OCCASIONALLY 16 oz of a caffeine tea a day (almost always a green tea), followed by herbals teas for the rest of the day (I’ve even had to cut out wine in the evenings due to stomach problems/acid reflux). Hope you get through the withdrawals quickly!
I also get acid reflux :( probably also caffeine and wine/beer related, maybe it will get better with less caffeine too! I am on day 3 of withdrawal so I’m hoping this is the last day! Hit the stage where I feel super sad so hoping that’s the final stage and it will be clear sailing after today. It’s crazy how caffeine can affect a person, I really don’t drink that much of it I didn’t think but now even pretty small amounts bother me. It’s unfortunate because I love my teas oh so much, but my health needs to come first. Thanks for the encouraging words! Happy to know I’m not the only crazy tea addict who has caffeine problems :)
Oh yes, it’s amazing how many people don’t count it as a “real” drug. I find for me by stomach can handle green tea and occasionally a mate or guayusa tea, but blacks and oolongs are a little harsh (never mind coffee…). It sucks because I have my DAVIDs tea advent calendar (also known as 24 days of tea) and many of them are black and oolong so they’ll end up going to my husband. I might be able to handle a sip or two to do a tasting note but that’s it.
Ah yes, black and oolong have more tannins too I think which I find hard on the stomach along with the caffeine. Oolong gives me the most jitters, I re-seasoned a yixing pot because I really couldn’t drink oolong anymore :( unfortunately DavidsTea seems to have a lot of black teas, but luckily a lot of herbals in store at least!
Yeah, a agree with the tannins! DAVIDs does have a lot of herbals, but I find most are fruit/hibiscus based and I’m not as big of a fan of those. I prefer more “medicinal herbals” (like peppermint, lemongrass, etc…) so I’ve been exploring more companies for my herbals
Ah yes they do have a lot of fruity ones, I also like the ginger/mint/medicinal ones too, I will keep an eye on your notes for some new options! :)
Sounds great :)
I decided to try Davidstea’s ridiculously tea wasteful latte recipe tonight as this tea is getting old and if it makes a more flavorful latte I don’t mind using this one up lol. And it did indeed make a good latte! 4 perfect spoons in about 2/3 of a 12 oz mug for 2 mins, frothed up a bunch of coconut milk and heated it, and poured the coconut milk in with the tea in a big mug. There was a bit of overflow of foam lol but it was very tasty and I’m still enjoying it (it was a big mug). One more latte like that and I will probably finish off that tea! Delicious and creamy with no sweetener added, just what I needed tonight :) see previous notes on this tea!
I know it’s wasteful, but I do use DAVIDs tea latte recipe for all of my lattes. I used to only use 2 perfect spoonfuls of tea before for lattes and they never came out tasting like the lattes I got in store. Sometimes to save a bit of leaf I will make one latte for me and resteep the leafs again to make one latte for my husband.
Also, the way I justify using that much leaf is that I did the math and the cost of buying the leaf and making the latte at home is still half the price of buying it in store for $4.50 :P. Not to mention, for me, lattes are an occasional treat for when I have time :)
Very good points Kristal, I also drink lattes so infrequently that I don’t mind doing it every once in a while, especially since I do have too many flavored teas I won’t get to drinking before they go stale on me. It did taste a lot better than any other latte I’ve made! Probably will become my new method as well :D
Yay! Good to hear!
Having this dark, woodsy shou today. It’s grey and cool out with no snow, but still has a chilly dismal air about it that makes me want to stay cozy. I am curled up in a blanket watching curling and might continue reading my book soon. I will keep steeping this in my teapot from Crimson Lotus and relax today. Wish I didn’t have to work tomo :( see previous notes on this tea!
I made a deep, rich cup of this to accompany my reading on a cold, blustery, snow/rain mix day here. It is perfect and warming me and relaxing. Delicious.
I am so pleased I got back into reading finally! Hopefully I can keep it up all winter haha. See previous notes on this tea :)
Reading and tea are so lovely during the winter!
I agree! Haha I read most of the day yesterday since the weather was not that great, just a small pitstop to go to Chapters to get the second book in my series (which I read over half of yesterday already, oops) and a new blanket! I am all set now haha
So sad. He was incredibly gifted.
Someone on my facebook shared a quote from him that he would be 80 in a chair and reading Harry Potter, and his family would ask him “still?” and he would respond “always”. Snape isn’t his most memorable role for me but that he won’t get to do that at 80 nearly had me crying. Stupid hormones. I really enjoyed him in everything I saw, possibly starting with Metatron in Dogma.
I saw that quote too, almost choked me up at work too, and every quote of his I read in his voice in my head as well. I haven’t actually seen Dogma but I feel the urge to watch all movies that he is in now. An amazing man with a true gift of getting into character. :(
There is always this to cheer us up. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eob7V_WtAVg
Hahaha @Uniquity thank you for posting that! I watched the first minute at work and will watch the rest later :) two of my favorite things in that video!
Here is another happy Alan Rickman moment I just stumbled upon. http://mashable.com/2016/01/14/alan-rickman-tortoise-strawberry-video/?utm_cid=mash-com-fb-main-link#obsss.Lf0kqA