Maddy Barone Send Message

It was crazy beautiful weather today. If this keeps up it will soon it will be iced tea weather! Tomorrow the northern plains will be hit by blizzard conditions. Except us. Fargo will miss the nasty storm that is going west, south and north of us.

I had a friend from Winnipeg stop in on her way home from Minneapolis. I brewed us a pot of this. You know what she said? She said, “Do you remember that year at Gimli when someone brought their home made peach brandy and we sat around the fire singing and telling stories?” I laughed, because that is EXACTLY what I thought of the first time I had this. My sense of smell is gone again now, so I didn’t have that same reaction, but the tea is still smooth and sweet.

This has been a MONDAY. Yes, all caps. Work has sucked today. It’s only been three hours, so maybe it can turn around. This tea helps. You know, if you like a straight, robust but mellow, smooth, yummy cuppa for the morning, this is a fantastic choice. Now go away, you stupid Operations Coordinator. You are trying to tell me how to do a job that I’ve been doing for 15 years. You’ve been here three months. You shouldn’t make a ton of changes to our policies. And if you do, you should TELL US WHAT the changes are BEFORE they go into effect. Telling me three weeks later and giving me demerits for not knowing the new policy is not going to make me happy. Moron. sips tea

I haven’t written up a note for this tea yet???

I had a bad weekend due to the autistic child upstairs. They are good neighbors. Their TV isn’t loud, I don’t hear them yelling, they rarely have parties. The only issue I have is the running and jumping from their 8 year old autistic son. The running and jumping is a daily occurrence. And every couple of days he has a melt down. This is not something that is in their control, so I try to not let myself get worked up about it. But saturday it began around 7:30. It was still going strong when I left at 10:00, and when I came home at 3:00 it was STILL going on. Sunday was just as bad. And today there was no school, so it was a bad day again.

All that is to say that I wanted to baby myself a little tonight. I made honey toast and a pot of this tea. It is nummy. Probably not going to solve any of my issues, but it is a delicious, creamy tea. Sort of chocolaty (I bet it would be more chocolaty if I could smell it and taste it) and creamy. Just a nice tea that I don’t drink often because I want to reserve it for stressful days like these so I can feel like I am pampering myself.

Last night I wanted a mint tea. I over ate at Mom’s 83rd birthday bash and I wanted something soothing for my tummy. Do I have any loose leaf mint tea? Nooooo.

But this one is quite decent. The flavor is minty but mild. The convenience of the teabag is welcome when I’m not feeling that great and don’t want to mess with measuring and then cleaning out the strainer. So I’ll call this one a win.

Sip down!

My sense of smell has diminished to almost nothing but even so I caught a hint of juicy peach as I raised the cup to my lips. I am sad this one is gone, but there are lots more great teas in the cupboard.

I have too much tea. How can I ever drink it all??? Is it better to drink one tea faithfully until it is gone? Or should I continue to drink a cup of this one here and that one there? This month is NO Spend February for me. So no more new teas! That doesn’t mean I’ll get caught up of course. But it’s got to help, right?

I decided to have a cup of this tonight after supper. I wanted something dessert-y with no fuss. I still really like this one. Rich and creamy flavor. There is a slight acidic edge at the end of the sip. I may have over-steeped, but I bet some milk would take care of that.

And now I need to decide if I love it enough to re-steep to keep this tea in the cupboard as long as possible, or if I should use a new bag for a new cup and thus sip it down all that much faster. Decisions, decisions.

Are we lucky to live at a time in which teas—delicious teas!— are available to us through the internet, or what? Just think of it, 30 years ago few of us would have had such easy access to small unique tea companies like A Quarter 2 Tea. We would still have access to well established tea companies, and that is good. There are several teas from the grocery store that I enjoy like Twinings, Stash, and Celestial Seasonings, but I love the variety available from the small tea makers.

This tea is an excellent example of something you just cannot find at the grocery store. Honeybush and Rooibos, caffeine free. Lightly sweet but not cloying. A smooth delicious flavor. I’m a happy camper tonight.

I am still loving this tea. I used to think I didn’t like smoky teas. I guess I just don’t like smoky teas from other tea makers. 52Teas got this one just right. Happy sigh.