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Ah, I’d forgotten how lovely this tastes. As usual, absence made the heart grow fonder.

I am finally getting to the end of the tin of this, which I have now had for (mumble) months. While in Japan, since it and the almond biscotti were the only teas I brought with me, I was able to get over my aversion to it, which is great – and I basically lived off the stuff – especially during the week that I was STRUCK DOWN by delicious greasy ramen. Omg, it was SO GOOD (this is real ramen noodle soup we are talking about, not instant noodles) but it was SO full of fat that my stomach – and the rest of me, rebelled. Then it was Foxtrot to the rescue! Honestly, between the mint and chamomile it is very nearly the perfect belly soothing tea. It just needs some ginger to round out the belly soothing herb trifecta.

Today, I had a pretty heavy meal (accompanied by pretty heavy beer :D ) for dinner and was craving some foxtrot to clean out my system a bit. Now I come to think of it, someone else was talking about using something for detox – matcha I think? I should try that. But not in the evening.

Tried this with my new almond milk tonight and it was quite tasty! No weird clumpy almond milk and no weird aftertaste. This almond milk gets an A plus from me! (it’s Silk almond milk) I think it’s thicker as well, which is interesting. The only gripe I have is that the cheesecake taste was a little overpowered by the vanilla, but that just means I need to put less in.

So, when I moved, I moved a lot closer to the mountains, which means that I am now getting a lesson in how crazy California’s weather can be. Where I lived earlier, there were a few days in August where the cold in the evening had me turning on the heat (because I am a wuss, but still.) Up here, even though it is NOT really that much farther away, I am hot hot hot! Not as hot as I was in Japan, thank god, but hot enough that I am really really appreciating the ability to make iced tea.

This batch is building on the older batch – when that first batch was at about 1/4 (and had been brewing for a couple of days) I added more water and a bit more leaves and left it. The result is much more black curranty, but still definitely has that white tea personality. Win!

Attempt at matcha smoothie number 2!

This one went much better. Longer blending + moar yoghurt is clearly the way! Still a bit runny though. I’m not sure I mentioned it yesterday, but these are actually my first attempts at smoothies, period, so…bit of a learning curve. Per advice received from someone whose smoothies I have tasted and found delicious, I will try adding banana to it to act as a thickener. I also have strawberries (2 packs for $3! I love sales), so I should probably use those up.

Ah well, that’s for tomorrow.

So I realize I’m not saying much about the smoothie itself. It tastes pretty good! Like kinda watery matcha ice cream. There’s an odd aftertaste which I’m not sure what to attribute to. Is it the almond milk? Or should I use different yogurt? I’m trying out a new brand of almond milk, so I’ll have to try it with some other teas to see if I’m still getting a weird aftertaste.

Also, even with matcha smoothie, I can’t seem to wake up! Have I grown immune to matcha!?!? …or should I just start going to bed earlier?

Starting off my bday with a celebratory cup of malted chocomate! How is it different then my normal morning cup of malted chocomate…it’s not! MWAHAHAHAHA
Ah, malted chocomate, truly you are the best morning tea. I am going to be so sad when I run out of you in…oh…two days or so :(

The other tea that my brother got me for my birfday.

I noticed the comparisons to Golden Monkey in other notes, so that is pretty much what I was expecting. The leaves are not particularly similar. Darker and not as crazy curly. Like Golden Monkey, it brews up pretty light, and it certainly does have something of the sweet, malty taste that characterizes GM, but it is still, very much it’s own tea. It has a very interesting spicy note to it, cinnamony perhaps? It’s neat because although overall it is a lighter tea than the Yunnan Noir, it is more complicated. The yunnan was quite uniform throughout, whereas this one has layers of taste and not even a hint of astringency – so big props for that.

A very nice afternoon tea, I’d say. Not enough kick in the morning for me, though.

Tried out making a matcha smoothie today. I do not have much experience with smoothies so the result, while undeniably tasty was not really smoothie-like as such, but I will get better, I’m sure!

I think the yoghurt I used didn’t really go well with the matcha taste, I will have to experiment with different kinds. Sadly, I am almost out of this tin :( Need moar matcha!

So, the biggest obstacle to my enjoyment of homemade iced tea was the fact that due to my living situation, my fridge smelled like kimchee. (I can’t really blame my roommates for it, when 4 people share 1 refrigerator, some stuff is bound to get forgotten) BUT! Now I have a refrigerator ALL to myself (yay!) and am free to begin enjoying delicious black currant white tea iced tea. Which I have done.

I cold brewed this, letting it sit overnight. And I kind of fudged the amount because I was lazy and also my mum was yelling for me to hurry up because she was hungry. The result was still quite delicious, although it definitely could have used more leaves. The currant taste was quite faint but still presentso it was mostly tasty cold white tea with a smidge of black currant. I’m not complaining, though! If at first you don’t succeed, try try again and all that.

Although looking at the amount I have left in my pouch, I probably should have included another bag of this stuff with the 52teas order I just placed. SIGH. Ain’t it always the way.

Resteep from last night because I am lazy.

A much more malty flavor has come out with this with a very very light hint of smoke in the aftertaste. Sadly, the astringency has also heightened, no doubt due to the longer steeping time I inflicted on it. Still tasty, but doesn’t really do it for me as a morning tea. I think it will work out much better as a nice smooth afternoon tea.