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I positively ache tonight. I took a nap this afternoon but still feel so tired. It is hot hot HOT here and I have been walking with my neighbor several mornings a week, but the past two times my legs felt heavy. Hubby is sick, came down with fever and chills yesterday, and I am hoping that isn’t what is happening to me!

I should have gone to bed but I needed a little space for my head to clear. I decided to use a gaiwan tonight to really force myself to focus on the tea. I am also hoping it will blast all the pathogens to smithereens.

The dry leaves had that strong chocolate scent that blows my mind. How does green tea smell so much like chocolate? The first steep – no rinse – is chocolatey, floral, and grassy.

Steep two – I fumbled and burned my fingers. In the hoopla, this got a little oversteeped,but I didn’t want to pour it out. It literally tastes like grass and burned toast, but the most amazing super sweet aftertaste followed every swallow. I am so glad I didn’t miss out on this aspect.

Steep three – shorter, grassy and floral with a mineral taste. A little earthy. A little roasty.

Steep four – keeping this steep short and feeling like an athlete in training as I watch my hand while pouring the tea. I thought I was pouring to the middle, between the spots where I grasp the gaiwan, but I see that somehow my wrist angles the flow toward my fingers. I must concentrate on aiming more for my thumb, which will put the flow right where it needs to be. I am beginning to feel the position that I see when I watch a video of a tea master pouring. There is a lingering burnt wood taste in my mouth. I’m lovin’ it. Or… toasted walnuts! Yes! After I swallow the last sip, I feel like I am tasting confectioner’s sugar in my throat, like I have just eaten a Sweet Sixteen doughnut. (Or “donut”, as Susie Dent claims we Americans spell it.)

Steep five – Shortest steep and sweetest flavor yet. Don’t know if I am exhausted or getting a little bit tea drunk. Though sweet, the woody and grassy notes are still there with the roasted toasty flavor. Aftertaste is a little grassier.

Steep six – dogs barking. Checked outside. Oversteeped again. Toasted walnuts!

Steep seven – short again, and floral up front with grassy following. Toasted walnuts present but subtle. Aftertaste still lingering very nicely, more floral now with mineral notes.

I read the note by K S before drinking this, and miss him being on here terribly. Rest in peace, friend. Enjoy the celestial star gazing.

Then I read GMathis long ago note about the storms coming through, and here we are in the midst of terrible storms in the mid-west tonight, and I knew that not long after that note GMathis would lose her home to an F5 tornado. She and her family were safe, thank God. ETA: I had my timeline wrong. It was not long before she wrote her note on this tea that the Joplin tornado occured.

We’ve been through a lot together here on steepster. I hope we can keep meeting here.

And now we can look forward to tales of the new babies (Hi, Sil and Kittena!) and students
taking exams (thinking of you, Martin, and saying a prayer for those finals!) and all of life revolving and churning, while we sip our tea all over the world…together.

Probably tea drunk. Crying in my cup. Love you guys.