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April Sipdown Prompt – enjoy a Rat Lunch! Grilled cheese and black tea

Today was the day for rat lunch, enjoyed outside before doing a bit of seed planting and gardening. Sandwich was a combination of Tillamook Extra Sharp Cheddar and plain old orange grocery store cheddar for stretchiness. Bread – Dave’s Good Seed.

This tea is so good. There are so many flavors listed, but as usual the French are great at combining many elements and getting a final product that isn’t muddy. This is fresh and elegant, so when the cheese sandwich was all gone, I finished the pot with Fortnum & Mason Florentines that were a birthday gift last month. The tea goes equally well with meals, sweets, or as a stand alone cup.

April Sipdown Prompt – a tea that is close to a sipdown

This morning I had a sipdown but I wanted to do a true “close to” for this prompt. After having this at lunch there is enough left for one more pot.

This is one of my favorite gingerbread flavored teas. It does have clove but the level is nice. Every time I make it I think about what an awesome and decadent sweet latte this would be, but I continue to restrain myself and drink it plain because I already get as much sugar as is reasonable.

Would repurchase in fall as cool weather hits.

Sipdown

Da Hong Pao is a favorite oolong. I have had one that was sent by some family members to the owner of a local Chinese buffet. All writing on it was in Chinese so I don’t know what kind it was, but it was rich and chocolate-y. It smelled like a cup of cocoa. That was the exception to most DHP I have had.

This one is more like what I expect. A little woody, baked bread or grain, a hint of a ghost of soft cinnamon, minerality…rich flavors mostly on the bass side but not heavy. The mouthfeel is thin to medium.

Absolutely delicious, a favorite of Ashman, and it will be missed. Fortunately I picked up some Ting Ting at Tin Roof Teas yesterday to occupy this tin until more DHP is acquired. They have similar profiles and suit similar pairings to me.

Ashman and I had a date day in Raleigh today. Our favorite harden center moved but it is in a very busy location now instead of the charming historic one from before, and some of the items I really wanted to look at are either discontinued or not yet moved to the new location. A couple of our other favorite stores have closed. Whyyyyyyyy?

After lunch I decided that even though I have way too much tea I should support local business, especially one that has been so good to me. We went to Tin Roof Teas and I wanted to buy so many different teas but restrained myself and got three.

I bought this because hot weather is almost upon and indeed we have already had highs in the 80’s and this tea is so good in hot weather. We visited Superanna and her husband after that and she is a mint lover as well as a big green and white tea drinker. Not only did she like it but her husband liked it a lot, and he doesn’t usually care for green tea!

Naturally I left it with them to enjoy so I don’t have to add three teas to cupboard tonight! The spearmint and Egyptian mint really make this for me as I prefer it over peppermint in Moroccan Mint, and the gunpowder green base has good body and doesn’t come off super smoky as some do.

Maybe in a few months IF I manage a good number of sipdowns, I will repurchase this for the real summer heat. I wonder if it would make a good tea pop?

April Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a tea that was gifted to you

I knew this would be a favorite of the Basilur fruit teas sent to me by Martin for my birthday! Thank you, Martin!

Blackcurrant wasn’t a thing in the South when I was growing up. Since the plant was banished long ago it just isn’t that commercially available. I mainly was exposed to it when we were in Ireland and I loved it.

The berry flavors are distinct and tart in this, which made it just right for making a pitcher of cold sweet tea for our hottest days so far. (I drank this one a few days ago. We have cooled a little for now.) These fruit infusions are working out marvelously for our evening sweet tea!

Sharedown

I bought this believing I would have a soothing cup of tea before bed often and I just find that I never reach for this. I prefer plain lavender and have tons of it, so it was time to send this to a new home before it gets too old.

The aroma of this tea is absolutely delightful. Ashman has tried other pear teas and wasn’t fond of them so I drink this by myself, but I think he would like it. His complaint against pear flavor in general is that it tastes floral to him. This tea smells like sunshine.

I don’t know what the natural flavors mentioned in the ingredients might be, but something about this tea is citrusy to me – thus my impression of sunshine when smelling the dry leaves or the steeped tea. It could be just a brightness in the base but I find it delightful. It was just the thing to brighten and cheer this gray and blustery day.

April Sipdown Prompt – mix two of your teas together

I forgot about the prompt until the second time I was drinking the tea and it hit me that I had knocked out another one.

This was an attempt to make our afternoon and evening decaf a bit more interesting while saving money. I have lots of family size teabags of Harris Teeter brand decaffeinated black tea. I used one tea bag plus three teaspoons of Harney and Sons Midsummers Peach which is also a decaf blend. I double steeped and poured into a Bodum Pitcher that holds about 56 ounces. I added a little less than a half cup sugar to keep it around the one cup per gallon mark that we usually use for sweet iced tea.

I think it was a success. Naturally the peach is a little more muted but since we have to do decaf in the evening, at least it dresses it up a bit. Would totally do this again and probably will quite a bit while this tin lasts.

April Sipdown Challenge Prompt – Ching Ming Festival – drink a Chinese green tea

This note is to serve as a reminder how not to make flash chill tea.

I have been working outside most of the morning but the temperature is climbing to 90F today and I was dressed for 60F. I decided to flash chill my green tea with lunch.

Mistake 1 – I didn’t add extra leaf, which I should have done since the melting ice is going to add a lot of extra water.

Mistake 2 – I used old ice which probably had absorbed some freezer odors since we really haven’t been using ice much as hot weather is just now coming on.

Mistake 3 – since I knew I had failed to add extra leaf, I didn’t use as much ice as usual for fear of making this entirely too watery. So my tea was cooled off but not refreshingly cold and I was eating outside.

I hope I learn from my mistakes so that future flash chills this summer go better than this one. This is a stellar tea and deserves better treatment.

April Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a tea you have bought multiple times

The first pouch was a gift from Superanna last Mother’s Day, along with Kotobuki. I liked both well enough that I immediately ordered more since this one is seasonal and so good that I didn’t want to run out before ordering time rolled around again. I have already purchased it again this year as it is available right now and my pouch arrived, although I am drinking from a nearly empty pouch ordered last year.

The salted cherry leaves threw me off the very first time I ever had them in a different blend and then I began to crave them sometimes. They tasted very unique to me. This blend elevates them. The base is composed of lighter Indian teas and with the salted cherry leaves and the fruit flavors the whole is truly greater than the sum of the parts. Fantastic.