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I’m running out of ways to doctor this so that it’s drinkable. There’s too much licorice for my preference and the turmeric is pretty medicinal. I’ve cut it with plain black decaf, which was plausible; tonight, in an experimental whimsy, I stirred in a teaspoon of molasses. Less effective.

Life is too short and there’s far much more important things to do than drink tea you can’t groove with. I think this needs to find a new home.

One sniff and this one had us at our Spice & Tea Exchange pop-in last week. It is a lovely, liquid, creamy, semisweet, coconut haystack. Straight off the steep, it led with the coconut and cream notes, but I am noticing the floral hints from the Bao Zhong base as it cools.

It’s sunny, crisp and nippy outside; something more autumnal would’ve fit the weather better after spending some time starting to put the container garden to bed, but seasonal inappropriateness aside, this is one I’m going to enjoy as a pick-me-up all winter.

It didn’t take long for the nice cashier at Chabom to convince me to grab one more sample packet because five cost less (per sample) than four, but since we were half rung up, I grabbed this one without giving it much thought.

I’m glad I did. This is a Chabom house blend; Ceylon base with blackcurrant and cream flavors. My first sip made me think instantly of H&S Tower of London, but more forest-y, if that makes any sense. This is what they’d serve at the Teddy Bear Picnic if the bears were real.

I did steep it a little stronger than needed—next time I can back off the leaf just a little bit, but a little milk tamed the grizzly. Delicious.

Just a sample that I wanted to try while the season is upon us. Glad it was just a sample. Granted, it was an office cuppa, so that means inattentively steeped, but the pumpkin came out bitter. Honey improved it a little, but I didn’t make it all the way through the cup.

This is one of the privately labeled samples I picked up at Chabon Tea & Spice; but a double-check of ingredients confirms it’s an Adagio.

We got caught in a chilly downpour, so a little warmth and a little spice are welcome this afternoon. In this particular blend, the spice is cinnamon, which overwhelms the maple and cream flavors just a little. It’s still tasty and toothsome; just mislabeled. A more accurate title would be Cinnamon Apple Pancakes. (I did get a kick out of the review that said this would make better potpourri than tea.)

Speaking of mislabeled, I’ll throw in a story for free so you can have a laugh at my expense: lunch this afternoon was at the Lucky J; half steak and barbecue; half rodeo arena (you can sit out at the high-tops and watch ‘em barrel race). However, today, we chose a quiet, dimly-lit booth. Our server brought out my pulled pork sandwich and a hickory barbecue sauce bottle, which I applied liberally. I was halfway through the sandwich, thinking "hmm…this isn’t their usual sauce; it’s awfully sweet." And thus, I ate my first-ever pulled pork with hot fudge. (My lunch was comped and I walked out with a fresh one for later.)

My favorite stay-cation stopover was downtown Springfield, Missouri—not new downtown with the ubiquitous mall stores and everything-looks-like-everything-else strip malls, the real downtown that’s working hard on renovating historic buildings and keeping the vibe alive. A few doors down from my husband’s desired stop (The Pizza House; hand rolled crust since 1958) is a little tea and spice paradise with lots of tempting Adagio samplers as well as privately labeled bulk teas (some of which I think may also be Adagio’s).

Sorry, long intro. If you’re still here, I was really searching for some good dragonwell and missed it if Chabom had any, so this was the backup plan. It looks authentically sench-ish, and the decaffeination process hasn’t leached all the flavor out of the leaves—a trick for green teas. Mild, of course, but will be a nice autumn switch from fruity, minty tisanes.

Souvenir from our belated and much-needed 40th anniversary stay-cation run to northwest Arkansas yesterday.

The pu-erh base as good and strong, but not as minerally as I expected. In the sniffy jar at the store, the orange peel and vanilla scents were pretty mild, but at home and steeped properly, they make themselves known nicely. Rather than tasting like a creamscicle, this reminds me of a beefier version of Harney & Sons Tower of London.

My only snark is that Spice & Tea Exchange is pricey, and they recommend a crazy amount of leaf per 8 ounces. I can get a nice cuppa with about half their recommended amount and a good long steep time.

Unless they can find fresh cherries in season at the store or grow their own, few people really know what real, just-plucked-off-the-tree cherries taste like. Most cherry tea tastes like candy or cough syrup. Lupicia has this one down cold…the taste and scent transported me to the cherry tree out back with the V-branch that was just the right size for my skinny little backside, a book, and my transistor radio (message me if you’re too young to know what that is ;).

Ashmanra was the generous sponsor for the trip down Cherry Tree Memory Lane. My thanks!

The weather guy this morning said he felt like he was giving the forecast for “September 42nd” instead of mid-October. But we did have one viably autumnal day earlier in the week. Cool and deliciously damp, so I threw open the office window (old school building with windows I can control myself!) and used up some scraps of these nice leaves

It took me years to learn how I like lapsang: weak and wimpy. But this version is light enough on the smoke, I can steep it for a “grown-up” length of time without it tasting like campfire ash. The good-quality tea base is still detectible, too.