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I had this last night in my new gaiwan from Butiki, which is gorgeous! This tea really made me scratch my head for awhile. I kept thinking it’s really a black tea…no, it’s an oolong…but it tastes kind of like black tea…

This was like a tippy black tea and a fruity oolong. The flavor was unfamiliar, but that made it really fascinating (as you can probably tell from my ellipses brain wanderings). The first steep tasted almost exclusively like black tea to me, and in later steepings it got more and more raisin-like, and sweet. I think I need to drink this one a lot more so I can figure it out. ;)

More on this tea later, but for right now this is exactly what the doctor ordered. I have a feeling this ounce of tea is going to go bye bye very fast. Malty, rich, toasty, and cocoa like. Sooo good. This warms my soul.

Darjeeling Second Flush, I hardly knew ye. Drank the last of this today in my to go mug. It’s still pretty tasty but I miss my malt monster black tea. Thankfully my friend Becky and I are tea swapping and she’s sending me nearly a pound of Malachi McCormick! Am I lucky or what?

Some news for my Steepster pals: my hearing test resulted in good news and bad news. The good news is that while I do have some hearing loss, the audiologist said it’s not too severe and she did not think that I need a hearing aid at this time. The bad news is she does think I have some nerve damage inside my ear, and said I should see an ENT as soon as I can afford it.

In other news, I am now an official member of the Letter Writers Alliance! If you would like some snail mail, feel free to send me a message with your address. :) One caveat is that I am a pretty busy person, and it may take me awhile to get something cool out in the mail to you.

Only one teaspoon of this left! Thankfully Rayn gifted me some iron goddess from Samovar, and I have lots of oolong coming in from Butiki. :)

I haven’t been drinking much oolong lately, but it remains one of my comfort teas. When the day is long and I am tired the act of measuring out the rolled green leaves, watching them unfold, and inhaling the scent of orchids as it wafts up from the cup contents me. There is so much in that little cup of pale yellow liquid.

I am going to be doing something soon that I’ve resisted for a long time: getting my hearing tested. About 8 years ago my left eardrum was damaged in an accident, and my hearing never fully recovered. I think I have known for awhile now that it was getting worse and not better, but did not really want to admit it to myself. Today my doctor referred me to an audiologist for testing, and I called them and left a message. Baby steps. I can do this!

Yummmm. For some reason I hadn’t opened my sample of this yet, and decided tonight was a good night for it.

I can taste similarities between this and the laoshan green, but this is far sweeter, creamier, and slightly nutty. It feels thick on the tongue instead of sparkling. I taste a little of the laoshan green bean/asparagus flavor but it’s a lot more understated in this tea. The sweetness in this almost reminds me of a spring oolong.

Another fantastic tea from the He family. :)

I’ve had this the last couple days in the travel mug. It’s not the greatest darjeeling I’ve ever had, but certainly not bad either, especially for the price! A little bit of fruity sweetness and mild astringency.

I think I’ve either finally been spoiled by loose leaf, or this box of tea was stale. I’ve tried a couple of cups now and it tastes like dust and paper. Or maybe I’m just working in the library too much…

I am still in love with this. Not much more to say about it except I wish it was available FOREVER and I am almost out. But, I do have what I think is a funny story for my fellow steepsters about me, my tea thermos, and OMG GERMS.

We can’t have any food or drinks inside the department of the library where I work. The materials we have are too old/valuable and it’s one of those things where no one ever thinks they will spill but then they do, and holy crap that 400 year old copy of Dante’s Inferno is ruined. So right outside our double doors we have a little table where people can set their drinks or snacks. Last Friday I was working on foldering old newspaper clippings when I spotted a man lurking just outside the door. I looked up from my work and realized that he was touching my tea thermos. And not just touching it, but unscrewing the lid, looking inside, etc.
I should note at this point that I can be a real neat freak, and I am most definitely not okay with random strangers touching things that go near my mouth. So basically I was screaming on the inside at this point, but I managed to compose myself, got up and opened the door. I asked him, “Can I help you?”
He looked at me, then back to our various thermoses and drinks on the little table and said “Is all this trash?”
I said something like “No, it’s not trash, these belong to the people who work here. That is my thermos.”
Now I THOUGHT at that point he would buy a clue and put it down. But nooo. Instead he says “Oh”, and continues playing with the lid and looking inside. “Is this a tea thermos or something?”
I said “Yes. It’s MINE,” in my most notsubtle-ohmygosh-stoptouchingmystuff voice.
At that point he finally put the lid back on, set it back down and said “Oh okay. Have a good night.”
Steepsters. I had to soak that thermos in so much hot water you would not even believe it. DEFILED.

Sipping a cup of this hot tonight. I’ve had it cold and hot now – cold is definitely better. When it’s cold steeped it’s like drinking sweet and juicy mangoes and peaches. Hot I can still taste the fruit but it’s understated, a little subtle. The fruit is there but not hogging the show.

I just finished grading 22 papers and I feel exhausted. There’s something about assigning points to a real and important subject matter that’s just draining. I feel like commenting, this matters to someone in real life. If I do badly on a Shakespeare paper, it doesn’t mess up Shakespeare’s life, after all.

Lately I feel very grateful for all the amazing things I have going on in my life, and deeply sad that so many wonderful people are having a hard time right now.