My first Yixing

OMG, the teapot I ordered from eBay is finally here! It's a bit smaller than I thought but that actually makes it absolutely perfect for steeping multiple infusions of pu'erh without having to remove the leaves from the pot.....now to actually buy a pu'erh variety to try it out with. Perhaps the one I found last night, if I can convince my husband to let me spend more money on tea.

Vanilla-Berry Blossom

Today's blend: French Vanilla black tea with Monkey King Jasmine green and Strawberry black. I had to do a bit of tinkering with milk and sugar amounts to bring out the strawberry note, more sugar and less milk than I usually use, but the extra calories were worth it (not that I count calories anyway but I've been trying to cut back the amount of sugar I use with my tea).

I was surprised that my son actually liked it considering he usually doesn't like trying new foods. But he had his tea and waffles and asked for more of both!

Wishlist

I discovered two tea companies today, Old Wilmington Tea and Golden Moon Tea. So many new teas that I want to try now. From the first, Orange Pu'erh, Berries n' Cream, and, most of all, an oolong tea called Amethyst. From the second, White Persian Melon and Sinharaja.

So many teas, so little time!

An old favorite

Today I chose one of the teas that got me started, Stash's Orange Spice Black tea. It is just as wonderful now, after all the teas I have tasted, as it was when I had that first, delicious cup. The spice blend is unlike any other I have had. I'm going to have to either do another spiced Stash tea tomorrow or an un-spiced blend otherwise the memory of those richly complimenting spices will ruin any other spiced tea blend I try.

Oh yes, it went wonderfully with the waffles and syrup I had also.

Vanilla Rose

Perhaps it was the simplicity, or the way the two flavors complimented each other...or the fact that my last two pots of tea were such failures... Whatever it was, today's blend of French Vanilla black tea and Stash's Rosebud Black tea tasted absolutely delicious. Even my son thought so!

Too much of a good thing

I wanted to keep it simple today so I went with the Winey Keemum, orange peel, and my usual spice blend. I should have left out the spices or used only one instead of all three. Less milk might have helped as well.

A rose is a rose is a rose...not

I had a bit of my chocolate cereal left this morning so I decided to try a new rose blend. It didn't work out too well. I used EnjoyingTea.com's Bangalore Rose Chai as a base with a touch of Stash's Rosebud black and Monkey King Jasmine teas and my usual spice blend. The only flavor note that stood out was the jasmine, the rest was all muddled together in a rather bland mix. I blame the chai.

Orange and Spice

Today's blend: Stash's Blood Orange black tea and EnjoyingTea.com's Indian Mocha Chai with extra orange peel, cinnamon and cloves. It went well with the buttered bagels covered with cinnamon sugar. Could have used some cardamom though...I really need to get to the natural food store in town and see if they have any whole cardamom.

The same, but different

Today's blend: Chocolate Chai, Strawberry black, and French Vanilla black with some extra cloves and cinnamon. My son wanted to share my tea this morning again so I wanted to change it just a little while still keeping the base flavor the same for him. I think it might have been better if I'd added more of the Strawberry black and left out the Vanilla though. We also shared a bagel with pomegranate jelly.