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Yeah, so I have been continuing my green, white, and oolong days as I continue my acupuncture and Chinese herbs treatments. Surprisingly, the transition from black teas has not been all that difficult. I am not giving them up forever, of course, just for the time being to not contradict what is happening in my treatments.

The tough thing for me has been giving up milk, as well as black tea. I find myself craving lovely sweetened chais and good strong tea lattes. I predict I will be breaking down and having one or two some time soon. I do miss them so. I only hope that, when and if, I do break down, the milky cup in front of me will be worth it.

Back from my tangent to this fine tea. Very very lovely.

My first steeping was full of lovely heavy red wine— reminds me of Mondavi vineyards— and chocolate notes. These flavours dissipated in subsequent steepings, but the cups continued to be lovely. Many many steepings later, I am still enjoying the tea.

Berries and vanilla and a bit of sweetness and a bit of something artificial. This tea is, thankfully, from before the time that DT began stevia-ing everything to death. I am drinking it hot. I like the whiff of juicy black and red berries that comes up from the steam in my tea glass. I like the tartness of the hibiscus with the mix of berry and vanilla. I save myself from the artificial flavours by underleafing somewhat: strong enough to steep up a bright red flavourful cup without much of the nonsense.

This is one of my most favourite herbal teas: a perfect balance of all the ingredients.

So, the other day, I started taking Chinese medicinal herbs. The vilest smelling and tasting things, but apparently, they work well, so I am in. You steep up the ground blend of roots and plants for ten minutes and drink the whole thing down.

This morning, I just couldn’t bear it. I needed a bribe to get through. This tea was the bribe. If I drank my herbs, I would treat myself to the generous sample of this tea, containing a whole cherry even, that Daylan R. Thomas kindly sent me some time ago.

Delicious. Thank you for helping me get through. I much enjoyed it.

The colour of the steeped tea is such a beautiful pale gold: the first sign that this is no ordinary green tea.

No. 93, Feng Ling Ming Ye makes sense of how highly prized good tea has been in Asian history. This tea is glorious: smooth, so smooth. The most delicate vegetal butter. I detect an ever so slight bit of coconut here. Perhaps that is the sesame hint mentioned though my taste buds are taking it coconut way.

Thank you, Sil, for sharing this with me. This tea is making this day infinitely better.

I think my favourite steep was number three. The oolong had mellowed out somewhat and yet a hint of the jasmine still remained.

I gave up on the leaf after steep four. Four was pleasant enough, but the flavour of the leaf and the additions were done and another one would have been flogging a dead horse.

The tea is really pretty. I’ve been steeping in a clear glass canister and watching the dark tea, jasmine blossoms, and goji berries float around. Beautiful.

It is also possible that steep one and two were good, but I was too rushed to pay much tea attention. It’s been a bit of an overwhelming week. I need to chill before I crash. Rest breaks, rest breaks. I miss being able to power through with my endless energy supply like I used to do.

Yep, this tea is exactly like DT’s All the Nuts, Crazy Nuts, Nuts for You, or whatever it is called herbal. Nothing more to say about that.

The first steep was a bit odd initially. I hadn’t read the writeup or reviews about the tea, so I didn’t really have any taste expectations. At first, it tasted like a green and mint blend. As it cooled, just the slightest bit of lemon came out followed by a pillow of marshmallow softness.

The second steep is lovely green with a bit of marshmallow surrounding the sip. I am still tasting a wee bit of mint. Odd.

Nice blending though, just perhaps not my thing.

For the past week, I’ve been drinking green, oolong, or white teas, straight and blended in order to be consistent with the yin-yang work I’ve been doing through acupuncture.

It’s all a bit of a learning curve as I am mostly unfamiliar with which teas and foods and ingredients are warming and which ones are cooling. But I am learning.

It’s all a bit like shopping in my tea stash as my preferences throughout this year have been black and black blends, so those are the ones closer to the top in my collection. This current focus gives me an opportunity to reshuffle and haul things out that have been neglected.

Green with black blends have always been a bit strange to me, not here, not there. Why would a blender even do this? That had been from my predominantly black tea drinking view.

Now that I am mostly drinking green, I find that the addition of the black to the green adds body while the green adds a bit of lightness. I like it.

I steeped quickly with water for a green. To me, the first note is cherry—-boom, cherry. There’s a bit of papaya, but vaguely in the background, and the slightest bit of tartness from the rose hips.

A very pleasant cup. Very spring-like. Perfect to drink while gazing at the trees in bloom outside the window.

I’ve been having regular acupuncture treatments lately and it’s been pretty awesome.

Currently, I seem to be needing more cooling foods and teas according to my yin-yang body balance. Black tea, my usual daytime go-to, is more warming than green, so I am zeroing in on more green teas these days. I haven’t discovered where white and yellow teas stand in this yet.

This is not all that much a green tea, more of a rooibos really, but with the small amount green tea in it, I wouldn’t drink it at night. I have a small amount of this and I may as well work my way through it.

It’s ok. The ginger in it messes up the whole cooling aspect of green tea because ginger is warming. What to do, what to do. Tea blends are a challenge when trying to follow this philosophy of body balancing.

The tea is ok. Nothing I would necessarily crave or reach for. Probably more of a cold weather tea.

Thankfully, this is one of the teas from DT’s collection before they decided to sweeten everything to death.