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So exhausted today. I was up until 3 finishing a paper for class… probably wrote some things I shouldn’t have, but it was a “letter to my future self” so if I want to be honest/make jokes to future me, then I will. Whatever. I’m done with it.

I bought this tea over spring break but haven’t tried it yet because the smell turned me off… it smells like a Ricola cough drop – herbal and minty. Ricolas work wonders, and I force myself to eat them, but I really like the way they taste. They’re edible, obviously, but I wouldn’t take them if I didn’t like them.

But today is one of those days where I’m just so tired, my body is aching, I have a headache… I decided why not, I’ll try it.

It’s actually really really good. The citrus is there, but it’s not overpowering. The mint supports it without clashing. There’s a apple-and-mallow center to the flavor that balances it out and makes it really smooth.

I rarely add honey to teas (too much honey upsets my stomach) but I added about a teaspoon and a half (MUCH more than I’d usually add, if I did add any) of Savannah Bee Company’s Tea Honey, and it’s actually amazing. I know I’ll refill my tin of this when I go home for the summer.

…also, don’t know why everyone thinks this is Vampire Diaries related?

This is amazing. I’m brewing it gong fu style, and each steep just gets sweeter and sweeter. The dry leaves are dusty and brittle, and rolled tightly into balls. When they soak into the water, they unfurl into large, rubbery leaves which have a typical sort of “oolong” scent to them. The flavor starts out roasty and a little nutty, and the third infusion is where it really starts to get going and the sweetness comes out. Fantastic. I’ll definitely order more of this!

Thanks to Ian for a generous sample of this!

Buttery and sweet and fresh. This is the perfect tea for today. It’s a light yellow with lots of butter in the scent, and the taste is just /barely/ a little vegetal. It’s not overwhelmingly seaweed-ish or spinach-y, but it’s there. I’m also getting notes of almond towards the end of the sip. Thank God for good tea. Today has just been… awful. And it’s not even 2pm.

I’ve mixed this with a bit of spearmint and it’s delicious! Not quite as flavorful as I’d like, but I’m blaming the tiny infuser on this pot. Definitely want to try in the ingenuiTEA.

Received a lovely sample of this from Ian! Thanks!

I haven’t had rooibos in a while, as it’s not my favorite, but I was craving it tonight so I decided to brew this. It’s okay. I really like coconut, but I don’t do well with spice, so I wish there wasn’t such a strong ginger taste. It’s decent, but not something I’d buy.

Teavivre sent me a huge sample of this… so exciting!

I opened up the little foil-sealed package, and the leaves on this are HUGE. At least two inches, and fairly wide, and very very thin. I’ve never seen leaves this big! They’re beautiful, and very bright green.

The liquor is one of those radioactive greens – very bright, very light, very yellow. But it tastes delicious. Sweet and a little vegetal, and there’s definitely a lingering smoky aftertaste. I definitely want to drink more of this :)

So first off, unrelated to this tea… I came home from work today, after a really difficult day, to find that Teavana is now following me on Twitter and I’ve also won tea from them. They have this “tweet a photo of your cup and win!” and I won! It was the first time I’ve ever played, so that was exciting. And also a good end to a not so good day.

On to this tea. It’s not my favorite. It doesn’t have the sweetness I’ve come to associate with gunpowders, though it’s plenty smoky. And I’m getting a strange sort of toasted note from it – I’m wondering if some of the rice from the genmaicha I tried earlier today got caught in my steeper, or something. I didn’t notice it when I brewed an Earl Grey blend before class, but that was a three-black-teas-and-milk kind of thing, whereas this is just a plain green… I don’t know.

Anyway, this is a decent tea. Not the best, not the worst. I’ll drink what I have, but I’m not going to hoard it – I’ll definitely give samples away to friends and stuff.

Thanks to Ian for the sample of this!

It’s interesting. I’ve had Gyokuro green tea before, but never a genmaicha. It’s different. I didn’t think I would taste the puffed rice as much as I do. The aroma is toasty and a little bit nutty. It’s bright, bright yellow-green – the exact same color as the grass outside! The flavor starts off with the toasty notes and then ends a lot more vegetal from the tea itself. I don’t dislike this, but I’m not sure I’d buy it… not really my thing. I can definitly see why other people like it though, and I’m glad I got to try it!

Backlogging from yesterday. This came as a free sample when I placed my last order.

I really don’t like it. It’s beautiful to look at – all different colors and shapes and textures. But when it’s brewed, it smells odd. I get the spice from the ginger, but that’s not the whole of it, and it made me a bit sick trying to figure out what it was. I tasted the ginger, but I didn’t taste the strawberry. It tasted fruity and spicy, which are two things, in my opinion, that don’t mix well together. I’m glad it was only a sample, and I didn’t spend money on it.

First off, I’m going to say that it’s weird to be listening to myself.
I bought GarageBand for the iPad so I could record a few instrumental themes for a theatre class, and then I spent all of last night playing with it. Let’s just say that my piano at 3 in the morning is far superior to my voice…. haha. I did have a good voice day yesterday though, and I’m really excited to be singing a recital on Sunday night :)

Tea!
I’ve mixed this with a bit of Cream of Earl Grey from DAVIDsTea, and it’s great. The nuttiness of it really mixes well with the vanilla, and it really does taste like hazelnut – it doesn’t taste too fake or artificial, which is good, since I don’t really go for flavoreds too much. But they’re good for mixing in with other things.