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Last sample pack. This was golden-toasty, bready, and basic this morning … a perfect accompaniment to what’s going to be a day of small celebrations: assembling furniture, putting our socks in the proper drawers, hanging curtains, making beds. I haven’t comparison-tasted other golden monkeys, but I’m thinking that this or a similar one needs to be part of my permanent menagerie.

Shared a few Thanksgiving thoughts elsewhere, but you’re welcome to take a moment and celebrate with us: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=676601907#!/notes/gg-mathis/home-with-thanksgiving/10150468282005219

I hope today you are home for Thanksgiving and home with thanksgiving.

Lots of sweet vanilla, some chamomile, barely detectible white. (But that’s the order it should be in as far as I’m concerned.) Pretty tasty for a happenstance bag that came my way this week.

Took ashmanra’s advice and backed off the steep time a little to 2:40 ish…strawberry perfection!

First, big news: last night we slept at HOME. New House, yet to be christened with an official name.

Carpets cleaned in preparation for furniture move tomorow, laundry in the machine, knees sore from kneeling and peeling out 30-year-old contact paper from kitchen cabinets, so I am sitting in my rocker and enjoying a celebratory afternoon cuppa. This tin, a much appreciated gift from ashmanra, I’ve been waiting to open until a special occasion.

So much going on and I haven’t found the timer yet, I let this first pot go a little past due. Base is bitter-ish. Even so, I am enamored with the fruit blend—there has to be a ton of strawberry—that stays in the mouth after each sip.

Now off to wash bird poop off the walls. (Former owners had parakeets.)

Light rooibos, but a clean light, not a lack-of-flavor light. Pretty good for a grocery store brand.

Among the odds and ends available at a conference I’m attending this week. Rooms are so cold I’ve had to chug so much hot liquid I switched to decaf. Reminded me a little of Constant Comment with less spicy bite.

C.S. Lewis lovers, doesn’t the lion on the box remind you of Aslan? (You can never get a book long enough or a cup of tea large enough to suit me.)

My cups of tea at Shabby House are numbered. Hallelujah and Jehovah Jireh (with a little bit of the hora thrown in), we have a house waiting for us. Modest and humble, but OURS. Keys should be in our hand tomorrow and moving process should take about a week. I’m finally letting myself believe it and PACKED the loose tea filter.

So I’m down to whatever I can drink out of a bag, and this crumpled box looked like it needed me.

Vanilla Comoro fans, this is really, really close on the super vanilla pastry-like sweetness; just a rooibos base instead of the black. Great for tea and cookie break on a raw, windy afternoon.

Best bagged (sacheted) Darjeeling I’ve tried. I see lots of “woody” in previous tasting notes, but not fruity, which I thought it was. Lip-chappingly dry, too.

Tail ends of samples tend to be a little lopsided…lots of dust and whatever the “small” ingredient is; not as much of the big, good lumpy things that tend to give a blend its flavor. Definitely the case here; whole and new, it’s a nice, slightly fruity herbal, but this last cup tasted more like dandelions and that’s about it.

Oh, well.