104 Tasting Notes

75

made this for my mother last night, and some for myself this morning; she also thought this had mint! I think the freshness comes from the elderflower, as I once had some elderflower juice at Ikea that also had this freshness
(in our defense, in Portugal we don’t use elderflower in anything, although the trees are pretty common )

Martin Bednář

We do elderflower syrups here, use it in herbal blends, but I think that’s all I can name as made from elderflower here :)

Sofia Vaz

funnily enough, yesterday was the harvest fair at my parents’ village — we went, had our fun and lo and behold: a stand selling elderflower extract! it was the only one, and the ladies were definitely selling it as something new and exciting; they gave us a tester (some extract on sparkling water) and my dad fell in love; so, now we have a bottle at home! :D

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75

sipping while working, I’m quite enjoying this brew! transitional weather means transitional tea :)

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75

we have rain!!! the fires have pretty much all been controlled now, thankfully, and it’s a matter of time for the situation to be normal again

regarding the brew: this is quite nice for this weather! warm enough for the slight cold, but fresh enough for the slight warmth! does anyone else struggle with choosing clothes and tea in this transitional weather?

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 5 min, 0 sec
gmathis

Our offices start out sweltering in the morning, then by afternoon, our noses and toes are blue from the cold. Layers and shawls!

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75

only good things today — all recommendation letters have been sent, the fires have seemingly calmed down, and even saw flamingos on the way to work
to note: we are not out of the woods yet! there’s a pretty big fire where the rest of my family lives, my “little” cousin’s school closed so it could be used as support for both firefighters and victims
the air, however, is quite breathable, and I got an additional pep in my step with the good PhD news
the fact that I’m brewing new tea is also fun! I hope that this semester I can clean out the cupboard a bit more, get it to a more manageable level

regarding the brew itself, it’s nice! there’s something fresh here — lemon? mint? that gives this floral a nice twist

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 5 min, 0 sec
ashmanra

Yay for good news! And flamingos? Cool!

Sofia Vaz

yeah! little wonders of living here, the old salt fields now harbor flamingos, black-winged stilts (we call them long legs) and a bunch of other birds! apparently it’s a protected biome because of some very special bacteria I know nothing about :D

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70

made this for work, turns out the candy orange thing going here helps a lot to distract from the smoke smell all around

yesterday night I realized the New York Times wrote about the fires, had a moment of “mom!! we’re on TV!!”
of course, the article was semi-reductive, but alas, we are a very small country and there are bigger tragedies going on all the time
supposedly, tomorrow will rain, so that should help :)

gmathis

I just read some coverage about the wildfires. Come on, rain!

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85
drank Calm Head by Lipton
104 tasting notes

Applied to the PhD!
To celebrate both yesterday’s and today’s good things, I made the very wise decision of having double dessert — a fancy twix tasting yogurt thing, and an oreo petit gateau; both were really good!

now I’m going to drink a mug of this while enjoying a childhood favourite show, with my kitty on my lap and trying to focus on the good things

I’m already pretty tired (excitement does that to me), so this will also probably knock me out, meaning I won’t be stress-checking fogos.pt at crazy hours of the night

here’s to the good things!

gmathis

What is your favorite childhood show?

Sofia Vaz

I have a bunch, but the one I’m currently re-watching Cold Case; there’s something cozy about a show where, in every episode, the “bad guy” gets caught, and the plot is not too hard to follow either! perfect to shut off my brain :)
also, considering how I watched everything out of order as a kid, I can kind of pinpoint some character arcs, but now I get to have all the details IN THE CORRECT ORDER!! and whenever an episode I already know shows up, I can see it in a more “grown up” light
i.e., in the episode about the abortion group, I can now see how they took inspiration from the Jane Collective, and it was, in fact, a real organization, not just something the writers came up with
do not get me wrong, there is a lot Cold Case does wrong; but for a show based on a weekly murder, it taught my child self a lot about the past (or, at least, the American past, which is very different from the Portuguese — thanks, Salazar! burn in hell!!)

gmathis

Bad guy gets caught, plot not hard to follow … my preferences as well!

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70

very smokey outside, so the intense orange hard candy taste is a necessity; wildfires are still going very strong, especially close-ish to where I live (I believe the closest front of fire is about 20km from my house, or 15km from work)
trying to stay positive as stuff (literally) burns around me and focusing on the application; I’d rather have my (new!!) supervisor by my side when I apply, but sadly he’s stuck at home, as most major roads were cut off to “this side” of the country

soon enough I’ll be a PhD student!!

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100

the linden tea I have at work seemingly is not here, but had it as a celebration — the meeting went well! I’m going to make my application soon !! AAAH!!!!

gmathis

That’s great news! Have a second cuppa and a slice of cake!

ashmanra

Hooray!

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70

well, the meeting ought to go well, because there’s been enough “adventures” today to add luck

basically, every time my sister had anything important going on, there was some random “adventure” on the day or night before — on the eve of her first job interview, Teca had to be rushed to the hospital, on the day she went to her postgrad interview there was so much smoke in the air we couldn’t turn on the AC or anything on the car, all of us smelled HEAVILY of smoke; and on her latest interview, it started pouring rain and none of us had umbrellas
all of those interviews ended up going well, so a kind of superstition was created

well, today I accidentally poured out my entire tea thermos when testing the bottle, and the air is so heavy from wildfires the sky is pitch black, all I smell is smoke; so I’ve probably accumulated enough bad luck for the meeting to go well
more news after 3PM!

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85
drank Calm Head by Lipton
104 tasting notes

went for this tonight, as I have a “big deal” meeting tomorrow and need to sleep well
I say it’s a “big deal” because, in fact, it’s supposed to be a casual 5-10 min chat, however, my PhD application is semi resting on it; moreover, I have to ask someone for something?? and a superior, no less??? my (new!!) advisor and all colleagues have calmed me, saying that this kind of request is very normal and not a big deal at all, but I just can’t seem to be, well, normal about any of this

As a side note, there is only one bag left on the box, meaning we’ve made our way through at least three boxes of Calm Head (or, as they say on the Portuguese box, SOS Head, which is infinitely funnier)
Lipton, if you ever start selling tins of this, or bigger boxes, know that my family will be a major client!!

ashmanra

Hoping it all goes swimmingly and easy peasy for you! You’ve got this!

Sofia Vaz

thank you RA !! <3

gmathis

Calm Head! I think I need that by the truckload.

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