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Backlog from last night! I want to keep track of how many times I drink each cup, even if I don’t say much so that my ultimate favorites stand out!

And that’s the last of this. It was so fantastic and rich, although a slightly shorter steep time might have been preferable.

Sipdown: achieved! I think my cupboard counts are a bit messed up, but I know my orders have gone down and so by the end of August when we move I hope to have a much leaner tea collection. (And a keener idea of what teas I enjoy the most of!)

Thanks Sil!

Wow, this is so rich and buttery and creamy and it smells exactly like buttered popcorn. So odd, but Sil had the same though so at least I’m not crazy.

Sadly I oversteeped this a bit so it’s stronger than I believe it should be: the cream is overshadowed by strong vegetal notes, but as it cools I notice the butter more and more.

Did I just steep butter? This feels very unhealthy! It’s very good though, and I’ll be sure to re-steep it at least once more, but probably twice with the last one being iced.

Thank you Sil for sending me the rest of yours – I adore that little tin too.

I have a terrible track record for this tea. I think I am under-leafing and under-steeping it because it’s mostly just water. It’s such a pretty tea to waste.

I steeped it a second time for 10 minutes!, and now I’m getting that familiar peppery marshmallow blend that I expected. Phew. At least I salvaged this one.

Ooooh, thank you Terri HarpLady. This is a very nice and rich. I’m getting lots of dark chocolatey notes, back by a bit of pu-er earthiness.

This is a deeply satisfying cup.

3rd time’s a charm? My first cup of the day was coffee because I wanted something STRONG to wake me up, but when I went to take a sip, the milk had curdled or something. It looked awful and I dumped it. Stupid fancy coffee machine. It requires so much maintenance and doesn’t really do a good job.

My second cup was a sipdown of Zen Tea’s Phoenix Pearls which are normally amazing, but was also undrinkable as I sat down in a stupor at my desk and zoned out for 15 minutes while the tea was steeping. Such horrible abuse for such brilliant leaves.

Now I’m very much in need of caffeine and so I had to keep trying. I decided to stick with the basics – a sachet of H&S’s Assam with a timer on my phone so I don’t forget.

SUCCESS.

Well…. this is a bit more tannic than I’d prefer, but… at this point I’ll take anything. And the added astringency just goes to wake me up further, right? Yeah, I’ll take it.

I pulled this out because OMGSrsly and Heather Martin wanted to try it and I figured I’d better have more before I sent half of it on. :P

It’s really pu-erhish today. There’s no hiding that. But it’s also warm and cinnamony and heavy in my stomach. I might not even need a real cinnamon bun with this around. I probably wouldn’t say no if you offered one though.

My co-worker has recently discovered Harney&Sons tea thanks to previous tea order that I hid at work to… spread my collection around a bit? Anyway we placed a joint order and grabbed this, and I jumped at the chance to try it.

It’s not something I would order as I’m not keen on green tea. (see what I did there? Bwahaha). Anyway, it’s very bright, citrusy and floral and I think it’s quite enjoyable. I over-steeped it a bit but I can see how a shorter steep would lead to a more balanced blend, and I suspect this would be even better cold-brewed.

I’m happy I was able to try it!

So I drank the last of this yesterday, and then put the used leaves in my timolino all night for cold-brewed ice tea and I think it’s even better this way. I get lots of cinnamon and sweetness and it’s fantastic.

It’s slightly smokey and sweet and just a touch astringent, and it’s just what I want this morning.

I might need to make a coffee before I jump to my next cup of tea though because I’m sleepy and I need a jolt. I stayed up too late watching Hannah and it was an awful movie that I had high hopes for. It was just weird.

I also just finished reading Neil Gaiman’s new book, and I absolutely loved this quote: “I liked myths. They weren’t adult stories and they weren’t children’s stories. They were better than that. They just were. Adult stories never made sense, and they were so slow to start. They made me feel like there were secrets, Masonic, mythic secrets, to adulthood. Why didn’t adults want to read about Narnia, about secret islands and smugglers and dangerous fairies?” It’s basically what I felt about his book.