Isaila Send Message

Holy Camellia. I cold steeped this while I was at school/rehearsal, and I just finally got to drink it. I think I owe Moraiwe my first-born for giving me the sample. There are so many different layers of taste to this tea, it was a enlightening experience. I can taste fruitiness, and some deep dark layers of mystery darjeeling-ness. I love that taste. Someone needs to find a name for it.

This was especially perfect cold today. My school had service day with an all-boys school, probably to try to get us to be social (?). We were packing meals to send to Africa, and we actually did 20,000 meals, each feeding 6 people! It was great. However, I succumbed to my feminism and my need to show off. At the same time. When the leader called for “Boys to carry the bags of rice and soy around and refill the bins. Well, maybe girls too. I mean, anyone is fine.” I knew had to carry these bags around, just because I knew I could do it. It also meant that I wouldn’t be bagging meals with some random group of people for 1.5 hours. But my arms are SO TIRED. I did however get to see 4 boys lift a bag of soy that I managed to carry around by myself. So that was nice. However, after calling “line” about 50 times during rehearsal and then practicing sword fighting (ugh hand-to-hand on the floor why do you do that.) this tea was really nice to have.

OoOoOoOoooOOOh. This is nice. It’s so calming and tasty. The coconut isn’t overly present, but melds nicely with the tea itself, and with the vanilla. I think the tea base gives it enough depth so that it’s not simply coconut and vanilla, which can get kind of boring. I’m quite glad that I bought this on a whim.

I haven’t posted anything in quite a while. I must apologize. I had thought that I would be able to drink lots of tea over spring vacation. Maybe I could have a new tea every day, and then post a lovely poetical tea note! Also, I would manage to get out all my internship apps! And also maybe leave my house once in a while! Well, as it turns out, internship applications are more important than tea (what???). And I had to memorize lines, and fret over my future, and then visit schools, and I BARELY HAD ANY TEA. IT WAS HARD. Apparently there wasn’t enough room in my bag for a tea steeper. And you can’t skip college tours to go to tea shops. Well, now I’m back in the game. I want to post more! Because my number of posts is shamefully low! Also, I’m going to do a large joint order with my friend Emily at some point… super excited. We already do mini-trades. People get suspicious in school when we bring in bags of tea, but we pay them no mind.

Well that was nice. And this tea is nice. It makes me feel really, super duper calm and happy. Not to mention that it smells absa-freakin-lutely gorgeous. Now I’ve got to go write an application for an internship at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan. It asked me what museum I would create if I could create any museum.

Needless to say, I have planned out a Museum of Tea.

Hmmm, this was interesting. The guy at Davids said it was good, and i just wanted to buy something because #examtherapy and I’m bad at decisions. I’m not upset at my decision actually; I really, really love ginger, and there’s quite a lot of that in here (also, it helps with period <3). What I don’t love, however, is the cinnamon, which I always find tastes weird in Davids blends. Also, just a pet peeve of mine: when chai does not have cardamom. I love cardomom. I wish it was used everywhere, in everything.
Despite the fact that this one gets kind of bitter easily, it didn’t taste too bad, and was pretty energizing. A pretty okay break from my study oolong tea.

I can’t taste any oolong. Help! Where’s the oolong? I love oolong, so the lack of it kind of makes me mad. Grrr. This smells fantastic dry, but when steeped it really lacks flavor of any sort. I had to add two tablespoons to make it taste like anything.
The olympics are interesting. Slopestyle is perhaps the most exciting of any of the sports. It’s just really fun! Also, women’s curling gets super intense. Canada is winning everything, as usual. Go Canada!

I was down at the Bleecker street Davids today, and my friend bought a cup of something. Today is my friends birthday, so we went down to The Village to get some lunch, and afterwards got some ABSAFUCKINLUTELY amazing hot chocolate at a place called Grom. After basically drinking melted chocolate, I kind of wanted something light. So I got a cup of this.

I haven’t had much of Davids Rooibos blends since I had Super Ginger and found the rooibos flavor rather weak. Therefore, I was a bit hesitant to try this, and was in fact gravitating towards Brazillionaire or Buttered Rum, two that I had tried before and like, but definitely not loved. I was very pleasantly surprised. I had this with agave, because, like, sweetness is good. Then I didn’t drink any until after I got out of the D train – the walk up sixth ave, from Bleecker to 8th, and then a 6 minute train ride, after saying goodbye to one of my friends. So I guess it was in there for about 20 minutes. When I finally took a sip on the walk to Grand Central Terminal, my first reaction was “oh wow.” Because it was strong and flavorful and wondrous, and I started kicking myself for not having tried it before. The lavender is present but not perfumey, and the berry-ish flavour really pops. The rooibos itself seems to be good quality and strong, something I love. I can’t wait to get some of this for my home!

Vanilla. This is very vanilla. And I find that lovely. This is a great before bed comfort tea; the scent and taste is so gentle, with rooibos and that gorgeous vanilla, that I can’t help but feel like it’s okay to sleep before finishing Latin homework…
It didn’t have any cough syrup overly sweet disgusting aftertaste to it at all. The cold dregs at the bottom of my mug do taste slightly chemical, but that was not at all present earlier. I’m sad that this is just a sample now. I really need more good rooibos blends, even though I have an ungodly amount of unflavored red rooibos in my cabinet. It’s just a very comforting tea to me, something I crave before bed.

In other news, I’m thinking of actually counting my teas. Maybe I’ll save that for the weekend though…. Also, I’m writing a ruminative paper on tea. The paper is about something we Need in life, for any reason; the idea came from a scene in King Lear where Lear describes how badly he needs his company of 100 knights. I think that I can easily wax rhapsodic about tea. The ease of writing is especially important as I also have a Physics lab due and a report on Lesbia (of Catullus) for Latin. And then the ACT on Saturday. But then I’m babysitting, and that means money, and that means tea. So, it all comes back to tea. Basically.

Wohoo! Thanks to Moraiwe for this lovely sample! I really like this. The black base does not seem bitter, as has happened before with Adagio. The strawberry is definitely there for me, but not overpowering, and not much too sweet. The chocolate is also present, but not overwhelmingly, and it’s definitely deep, I think due to the cocoa nibs in the mix. This is a gorgeous tea because of the rose petals, and I have enjoyed my cup.

In other news, here’s a poem for you, on a related subject:

At Last the Secret Is Out, by W.H. Auden
At last the secret is out,
as it always must come in the end,
the delicious story is ripe to tell
to tell to the intimate friend;
over the tea-cups and into the square
the tongues has its desire;
still waters run deep, my dear,
there’s never smoke without fire.

Behind the corpse in the reservoir,
behind the ghost on the links,
behind the lady who dances
and the man who madly drinks,
under the look of fatigue
the attack of migraine and the sigh
there is always another story,
there is more than meets the eye.

For the clear voice suddenly singing,
high up in the convent wall,
the scent of the elder bushes,
the sporting prints in the hall,
the croquet matches in summer,
the handshake, the cough, the kiss,
there is always a wicked secret,
a private reason for this.