Celestial Seasonings
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Tea of the evening – drinking out of my new mug that just arrived today:
http://www.cafepress.com/+buddha_large_mug,330850275
Hope everyone is doing well out there!!!
I love this one for a cheap, easy relaxation tea. Nice mug! :)
I saw a similar quote from Lao Tzu that made me assess whether I am really listening to my hubby and kids each t e they speak to me:
In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.
@Kwinter – thanks!
@ashmanra – that’s a great quote. :)
The "be completely present part was a real slap in the face to wake me up to the fact that I was tuning people out and not really laying attention! And that is disrespectful! Of course, home all day for all these years homeschooling four kids, you seldom get an uninterrupted thought! But I realized I had to plan for time to “just think”, measure out my personal reading time, and teach them when it is time not to disturb someone while at the same time keeping myself open and available to them. It was humbling…and helpful.
I hope you are doing well too. I just bought a tea brick of Hunan black that is supposed to be from Pre-Mao China circa 1940s….
ashmanra – being in the present moment and paying attention is VERY difficult, you’re not the only one who has problems with that. We get so caught up in our own crazy thinking!
@Charles – Where did you get that?
I hate to say EBay. The seller was highly rated and I did my investigating before making an offer.
That’s ok, I bought a sheng on EBay recently myself. It was only $10 though, not much of a risk.
I like that mug. :D
That is a great mug!
Hello Steepster, I am back for a bit, haven’t been drinking much tea lately, trying to avoid the caffeine. I got this at Whole Foods along with a bevy of vitamins and some green juice. It’s been years since I have had this blend but I like it, the peppermint is not too strong and the other herbs make this a nice relaxing tisane. Tonight I go to meditation, hope all are having a nice weekend.
Preparation
I’m not sure if you know this or not but if you really want a cup of tea that does have caffeine in it, like green or black, if you steep the leaves for 30 seconds in warm water, then drain the water, then steep your leaves as you would normally, the caffeine content is cut down by 90%.
good to know – thank you!
I don’t think that 90% reduction number is anywhere close to accurate. People used to think that almost all the caffeine was released in the first 30 seconds or so, but that appears to not be true. Arbor Teas reports on research by Nigel Melican that says it’s closer to about 20% removed: http://www.arborteas.com/pages/decaffeination-at-home.html
Thanks Noordelijk & Scott B. One thing I’ve always assumed [you know what they say about assuming], is that no matter how much caffeine is removed, hotter water extracts the caffeine at a much faster rate. :))
Interesting article Scott. Thanks for posting that!
Scott B: I have seen articles stating everything from 20% to 40% to 90%! Don’t “they” know how important this is to us? With all the government grants out there, you would think someone could get some funding to study decaffeinating our tea. Look what happened last time the government messed around with our tea…there was a revolution! :)
This is my late-night everynight tea. 2 bags cold-brewed in the Mason Jar. It truly eases the mind and body….
Easy peasy iced tea while I’m away from home. Even as I branch out to more and more loose tea I still go back to these for something simple that I know I can’t mess up.
True Blueberry is true to it’s name. I don’t pick up a huge amount of the hibiscus or other ingredients, and it’s not too tart.
Preparation
I love Chai tea so on my last order of Keurig k-cups, I figured I’d add in a nice Chai for those mornings I’m a bit rushed. When I opened the shipping box, I felt a little twinge of guilt – tea in a Keurig. Oh boy.
I tried it right away and I was disappointed. Bitter and flavorless – how on earth do you do that to a Chai? HOW?
Now, I’ve got a whole box of k-cups I need to do something with, right? So the next one I tried, I mixed in a healthy dose of International Delights French Vanilla and crossed my fingers.
I’ve never, ever added International Delights to any tea prior to this experiment. I never thought I would. Seriously.
The tea was saved. Definitely drinkable, which also raised the rating of the tea significantly.
I will not be buying this tea again.
I quite enjoyed this tea because of it’s aroma and because I didn’t need to add any sugar. All I added was two spoons of milk and it lessened overbearing taste of cinnamon. I wish it had more of an apple taste to it and wished that the cinnamon wasn’t so strong, but for the price, it’s not so bad and is actually quite alright. Perfect tea for the winter holidays!
Preparation
I really wanted to enjoy this tea. I like Yerba Mate and this seemed to combine Black tea with Mate. However, i was a bit disappointed. The Yerba Mate or Black Tea wasn’t strong. I’ll try another cup and see what went wrong. Also, I’m not really a Celestial Seasonings fan. I like my teabags with staples, individually wrapped and hermetically sealed in foil because I brew my tea’s on the road and like playing with the tea strings until they break. I brought it to work but I think its going to be shoved in a desk drawer for awhile until I can unload it at the steepster meetup on 8/8/12. The bison and box artwork are catchy.
7/2 – I put two bags into my cup of hot water. I am awake, and the tea has a slight smokey flavor.
To add more flavor, I added loose mate to it.
7/31 – I finished the box!! Overall, there is caffeine in the tea, and as mentioned before, I mixed Yerba Mate and sometimes sugar to it. I drank it hot and cold at work as the first cup of the day and sometimes as an afternoon tea.
Just brewed my first cup of this using the Keurig for a cup of hot water. No sweeteners added. It tastes kind of like real raspberries to me, which is surprising. It’s a little watery but I think a small amount of honey would bring out more flavor. I’m liking it just the way it is though. Tart and raspberry like.
Preparation
I love this one iced on a hot day! Sweetened or unsweetened. I The strawberry and coconut flavors were present, and it tasted somewhat of bananas to me as well. I tried it hot and it was good, but this to me is a tea for a hot day, sipped over ice. The color was pretty on top of it all.
This one is definitely heavy on the cherry flavor. I’m not a huge fan but I’ve made two huge pitchers of it iced and drank quite a bit so it can’t be that bad. My boyfriend seems to love it iced and unsweetened as well. I tried it hot but it was too heavy on the cherry. I liked it better with some lemon in it to cut the sticky sweet-ness of it.
The hops make this tea slightly bitter to me, but I love peppermint, cinnamon, ginger, and lemon. I’ve had pure hops tea and those four ingredients I listed definitely mellow out the hops. I love the earthy, grassy taste to this tea and it’s definitely mellowing me out a little bit, though nowhere near what Rx medication would do. It’s subtle and tasty. I love it with a spoonful of raw/unfiltered local honey and a splash of hazelnut milk.
Preparation
Not individually wrapped, no string or tag. Night time tea. Willing to trade this away. I would rather drink a green tea before I go to bed.
Green tea has caffeine. Hope that doesn’t bother you!
The lack of string or tag is intentional – for years I thought it indicated lower quality too, but I was impressed to read an in-depth sustainability report from them a couple years ago that suggests quite the contrary…
Here’s a summary: “We’ve always felt that strings and tags on tea bags only do one thing – produce unnecessary waste. So we choose to use a unique pillow-style tea bag that doesn’t need a string, tag, staple or individual wrapper – and as a result, we save 3.5 million pounds of waste from entering landfills every year!”
That’s 1750 tons of landfill saved just from leaving off a tiny string and tag!!
I never reviewed this? Hmm… Well I’m drinking it now, and it is almost the last bag. I don’t like this too much. It’s much like drinking potporri to me. ew. It seems like there is less of a plum taste and more of a hibiscus taste. And the plum that is there is bitter. I don’t think I would buy this one again, but the sugar plum idea is nice.
