Fleur Tea house

this one came to me via keychange who knew that i wouldn’t likely enjoy this one but i WAS curious about a black jasmine versus a green jasmine, which seems to be the worst of everything for me. Soooo this one. yeah, i still don’t like it, and i couldn’t drink much of it…BUT! BUT! i actually DID prefer this to a green jasmine. Something about the black muted the floral blaaaaaaaah and made it close to tolerable…almost hahahaha. So thank you for sharing Keychange… it was a fun experiment :) Still a success for me!

So before going to bed last night, I downed a few Advil in an attempt to at least dull my joint pain. Woke up in the middle of the night (but uncomfortably close to morning) and realized that my joints actually do feel a bit better if I dare say so myself, but I had, like, raging cramps. And I was very wtfy about the whole thing because seriously? cramps? who gets cramps at my age? (I’m 28). And as I lay there remembering my teen-aged years, I felt so juvenile. Like I didn’t want to go into work only to sit in my office doubled over and have my boss ask what the matter was and have to tell her I have cramps of all things! anyway, after a cup of this tea, I’m actually feeling a bit better. Moving around a bit helped, plus this tea is quite gentle and unobtrusive at the best of times, and despite overzealously getting like 200 g of it back in November, I’m kind of glad I had it. We complain about it from time to time, but it’s just so wonderful to have a real tea collection isn’t it? And it’s funny how intrinsically bound up with memory it all is—as I was sipping my tea, I remembered the first time I had it. I was in Ottawa, and had just finished my last licensing exam, and it felt so wonderful to sit in the warm, cozy teahouse with my best friend and drink lots of tea with breakfast.

No breakfast for me this morning though—just this tea. Now off to go to work. David’s tea after work today!!

My my, it’s already been a bit of a hectic morning. I am really, really sick of this weather. But in good news, we’re meeting with our wedding planner this evening, so that’s kind of exciting. But I also have cramps that are fairly distracting, so that kind of puts a damper on things.

This tea shines its brightest with milk and sugar, I feel, as it did this morning. It’s still a great combination of jasmine and a nice malty base, which you wouldn’t necessarily imagine going well together except that it works wonderfully. I’m starting to think I have a bit too much of this tea left, but it’s also a fairly solid breakfast tea, so I imagine it’ll get used up sooner or later. I also just placed my second h and s order, and ordering tea pretty much always makes my day.

I needed a gentle tea this morning. It’s a good tea to drink when all you want to do is hide. Unfortunately, there’s no hiding to be done today, but the good news is that I can hide all weekend once the day is over.

I’m really liking the black base with jasmine. I tend to like black bases in general, and perhaps I may not have yet tried the “right” green jasmine. Admittedly I’ve just had the pearls from David’s tea, and although I liked them, I found the underlying grassiness or plant taste to be far too intrusive for me to really enjoy the taste of the jasmine. The hunt, however, continues, because I imagine there’s a nice, gentle jasmine green out there in this world. I also like white jasmine teas, so I should probably explore that a bit, too. I hope you guys are all as glad as I am that it’s Friday!

I was actually hoping to have The Queen this morning, but as I rummaged around in my still packed suitcase, this tin was all I could find. I know I packed the rest in there though, so unearthing it is only a matter of time and greater organization on my part. I swear, if I didn’t have tea and perfume to unpack, I’d probably just live out of that stuffed duffle for weeks or months. In fact, I’m sure I have a few semi-packed duffels lying around LOL.

This tea, though not what i’d planned for the morning, still managed to hit the spot. It’s gentle but flavourful, and helped me transition smoothly into the world of awake people. I had a really tough time sleeping last night, so this gentle, heavily fragrant and creamy tea was perfect this morning.

So I had this for breakfast this morning, and could not have picked better. I’m so glad that every time I revisit this tea, I love it all over again. I far prefer jasmine black to jasmine green, but that’s mostly because I generally don’t like green tea. I’ve figured that my magic steep with this tea is for four minutes, with a generous amount of cream and a normal amount of sugar. I think this is one of the teas I’ll be bringing with me to Toronto.
Oh, tea is so comforting, especially on a morning like this when I seriously had to threaten and bribe myself to even get out of bed. I had a nightmare last night that involved my being suspected of killing someone, only the authorities hadn’t caught onto it somehow, and so I was just, like, living in constant fear and it was awful. Then i woke up, took forever to feel relieved and convince myself it was indeed a dream, and then fell back asleep into the same dream again! Anyway, so because I spent the night participating in terrifying dreams, I don’t feel as rested as I probably actually am. Thankfully we only work a half day today (although everyone is so giddy and full of holiday cheer that I wonder if we’ll get much done haha).

Well, I dare say that I’m pretty proud to have a really decent breakfast tea rotation going on. There are so far about four teas that I can happily rotate between: Parris, The Queen (obviously), this tea (black jasmine), and the biodynamic darj from the tea merchant. I’ll be happy once I add a few more into the mix. I would include Butiki’s Taiwanese Wild Mountain, although I tend to save that for more ‘special’ breakfasts, when I can carefully pair it with something, or linger over it to appreciate its beauty (so it’s great that I’ve ordered more!).

This tea was perfect this morning: 4.5 minute steep, a generous helping of cream, and my usual amount of sugar. The only possible drawback is that for a Breakfast tea, it’s quite calming/soothing (I suspect because of the jasmine), and so I don’t know that I quite feel like charging around being a responsible person (not that I really feel inclined to be that way at the best of times LOL), but it’s also a great way to ease myself gently into the week, which is what I needed.

As I sipped my tea, I read Amy Hatvany’s “Best Kept Secret”. I’ve finished ‘we are Water’, and really enjoyed it. I’ve enjoyed all of Lamb’s work, though, so I wasn’t altogether surprised. his writing is very raw, very accurate in its portrayal of the spectrum of the human experience, and you could very, very easily imagine yourself identifying with many of the characters.

Ok, I’ll shut up now LOL.

Do you guys want to know something? I had absolutely no tea yesterday. None. And I thought to myself, you know what, self? Sometimes I’m just not in the mood for tea, you know? Sometimes I just want something else.

And when I took my first few sips of my tea this morning, I could almost feel its warmth reach way, way down deep into my soul and say “it’s ok, my dear. I’ve been an idiot before too, but you can learn from your mistakes.” and all was well with the world again.

I mean, I know there are legitimately times when I’m not in the mood for tea; when I need a break, or when it somehow never tastes the way it should. But yesterday I was plain lazy. Didn’t want to make, you know, the long drive to the kitchen from the living room to get a pot started. Actually, what was preoccupying me so much yesterday was the anticipation of receiving my h and s order. The UPS site said it was supposed to be delivered on Wednesday, but when I got home on Wednesday, Mr. Keychange gave me the devastating news that it hadn’t yet arrived. Sleeping with a heavy heart that night (is this dramatic enough?), I constantly dreamt that the UPS guy was ringing our doorbell, but that my limbs were too leaden to do anything but stay put (kind of like how you can’t run when you’re being chased in your dreams); that I got a call from the UPS woman telling me that they couldn’t deliver my package because it required a signature and no one was home. It was awful, not just because it reaffirmed that I obviously have a problem, but because I slept so fitfully as a result of it, and i’d already not been getting enough sleep. So anyway, I sat in my living room yesterday, making sure the volume on my speakers was turned way down so that I could hear a UPS truck rumble down the road. 3:00, 3:30, 4:00…I had a work Christmas party to attend, but so help me God I was not going to hop in the shower and risk missing the delivery. Then i heard it. The sweet, low rumble of a truck. Oh let it be him!
And I stood in the vestibule of our building, one hand hovering over the door knob in case he did ring the bell and want a signature, and the other poised just above my mail box slot, ready to either get my package or that sneaky slip saying they tried to deliver it but I wasn’t there (because yes, yes I was there!). Sure enough, this huge box comes sliding through, and like a good delivering doctor, I wrapped my hands around that precious baby and pulled it into my arms! I think the UPS guy must have been a little weirded out by the fact that he literally fed the package through the mailbox only to have it yanked clear out of his hands, but whatever. Package is mine now, baby! oh yeah!
I haven’t opened it yet. I want to savour this moment. Make it last. Think of a really, really good time to open it.

Please, please reply and tell me you’re this crazy, too? Maybe? Just a little?

I’m actually glad I have 200 g of this tea, although I suppose it’s always possible that I’ll be tired of it in a scant few weeks, days even. I hate the fact that I keep scampering from tea to tea, always guzzling down what’s new and shiny, and neglecting old favourites only to rediscover them and fall in love all over again. Actually, that isn’t so bad, come to think of it. But I think I’ll be approaching, like, fifty teas by the time my Black Friday purchases roll in, and that’s simultaneously exciting and disconcerting. Mostly because I don’t think I’ll be slowing down anytime soon, and i’m definitely going to need a new cupboard or something. Ahh.

Anyway, this tea, as usual, was perfect. I used a tsp and a half of sugar instead of my usual two this morning though, and actually found that I liked it. The tea became more “serious” to me somehow, and gave me the appropriate kick I needed. But a soothing kick, if such a thing exists. You know, a loving shove in the right direction: gentle, kind, but firm. Because jasmine will never ever fall into the “hardcore” category for me.

And now i’m at work. With more tea!

I had this tea again with breakfast this morning, and actually contemplated having a second cup before heading to work. I could have used the caffeine kick, as I’m currently exhausted enough to lie down on my office floor and go right to sleep, but alas that won’t happen. And I’m going to be in a meeting all morning so I didn’t even bring any new tea with me since I tend to wrestle with the lid of my timolino in a rather distracting manner, and this meeting isn’t the watch key change labour over teaware meeting, so yup. Great tea though!

I actually got this tea while I was in Ottawa last week writing…wait for it…that test. This little teahouse has been open for about a year now, and I’m sad that I only got into loose-leaf tea after leaving Ottawa, because I would have liked to spend more time there if I could. The menu is excellent over all, and there’s a large variety of tea. I wouldn’t necessarily suggest this as a good place for beginners, because I think it’s a lot less overwhelming when you have a fairly solid understanding of tea, or at least your preferences. The owner is a delightful man, and i’m happy to support him.

Anyway, I’ve always been after a jasmine black, because despite loving the flavour of it in green tea, I can’t say I’m much of a fan of most green tea: I find it to taste…well, green, for lack of a better term, more like grass, or vegetables, and I just don’t think I like that taste in my tea. It’s too bad, too, because green tea has been “all the rage” these past years, but whatever—can’t please ’em all, right? I like my teas strong and black.

This tea tastes lovely. So lovely, in fact, that I ended up with, um, 200 g of it. So yes, I am willing to share.

This is not an incredibly complex tea. It has a fairly solid black base, and a mild jasmine flavour as well—the jasmine certainly doesn’t boll you over with its intensity or perfume or anything, but it’s certainly present, and did an excellent job at calming my wrangled nerves this morning. Despite the fact that it’s flavoured, I think it’s an excellent breakfast tea, and am actually reasonably confident that I’ll at least make a healthy dent in this bag. And of course, it’s excellent with cream and sugar. Mmm, creamy jasmine!