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I really intended to resteep my Tropical Green tea by Harney and Sons, but when I ran some things out to the recycling can I was hit by the scent of jasmine. Sure enough, the vines have just started blooming enough for its perfume to envelope me on a quick jaunt out the back door. I knew I still had leaves that had only been steeped two or three times, and the scent of the vine made me want more! Plus, I really shouldn’t keep these leaves much longer! I usually only keep them for about 24 hours resteeping for as long as they will handle it and these have hit that deadline. So jasmine it is, and the Tropical Green will be for tomorrow. When I take it to my neighbor I will use fresh leaves, not a resteep.

In my quest for a decluttered tea shelf of only the very favorite teas, this is another that makes the cut.

I was pretty horrified when I realized this tin was about one year old now, so I have been drinking it more frequently. The flavor hasn’t suffered enough for me to tell. I am trying to get really, REALLY serious about my tea shelf, use up quickly the things I don’t adore, and make a neater arrangement of the teas I truly must own. This one is going in the “must own” category. It is delicious, refreshing, and inexpensive. It is great to sip on while doing yoga or just having some quiet time.

I think this is the first time hubby has tried it. He only started drinking greens and oolongs a couple of months ago. This one passed muster. he drank two cups and said it was good. Tomorrow, I will take a pot to the broken foot neighbor and see how he likes it. I think this may be a big Harney order coming up soon. I can’t believe that just ten months ago I preferred black tea, and now I drink mostly green and oolong tea.

This smelled so heavenly last night that my eyes rolled back in my head in ecstasy. I had to resteep those pearls this morning. I am usually a stay at home homeschooling mom who teaches music lessons at home, but right now I am working for three weeks for the Board of Elections, as I always do when there is an election. I made my resteep, put it in my JoeMo XL and had loveliness to sip as we began early voting. The scent of this tea is so sweet and soothing I just feel tension ebb away when I inhale and sip. This one HAS to stay on hand. Since it resteeps so well, it is well worth the modest amount they charge for it. I think the price is excellent for a tea of this high quality.

Continuing along the vein of yesterday…my neighbor has a broken foot that needed surgery. We are helping him with this and that. Yesterday I asked if he drinks tea, and he said he drinks some grocery store bagged greens for health. bwahahahahaha! A new victim!

Since he loved the Silky Green yesterday, I took this one today. He LOVED it. I mean, he LOVED it. He kept exclaiming over the aroma, and how sweet it tasted. Both days, he couldn’t get over the fact that I had added nothing at all to the tea. The jasmine really does lend a sweetness to this already smooth green base. He is already talking about ordering some loose leaf teas next time I place an order, and wants to try puerh and a few others over the next few days.

New tea converts are SOOOOO EXCITING!!!!

My neighbor who is laid up with a broken foot (this is a month now and they had to put in a screw because it wasn’t healing) is very health conscious. I asked him today if he drank tea, and he said he drinks green tea, bagged. rubs hands together gleefully

I took this back over to his house when I finished being dragged by….I mean, TRAINING his doggie. He was astounded. He wanted to know if I had put something in it. I told him, “Nope, that’s just what it tastes like.” Then his sweet doggie licked the cup out thoroughly, so I guess she liked it, too!

As always, this one is impressive, buttery, creamy, and one of the most soothing teas I have tried, right there alongside Jasmine Dragon Pearl. Ooo, I will have to take that one, too.

We had a quick teaching session about dust and fannings, resteeping, and water temps. Tomorrow, he is trying puerh! Hooray!

My girls wanted to have tea today and since I am working with a neighbor’s dog, trying to train her while he is all laid up with a broken foot that wouldn’t heal, I told them to prepare everything and I would join them when I got back. Youngest made a pot of this, as it is one of her favorites. Middle daughter fixed a plate of chocolate covered cream puffs to cool me since I had been outside trying to stop a sixty pound dog made of solid muscle from pulling on her leash! Very thoughtful…so I ate several! The tea is smoky but sweet, and has a lot of body. It is smooth and almost creamy or chewy. I haven’t ordered from Upton yet, but I will, and when I do this will be on the order.

Backlogging from last night:

I love the rich aroma of the dry leaf of this tea! It smells like strong, fresh veggies – mostly dark, leafy greens like spinach or collards.

I didn’t have a lot left so I was guessing at how much water to add. I decided to give it just a one minute steep because my oldest daughter was having tea with me and I wanted to keep it subtle. At one minute it had plenty of flavor. The taste was similar to the aroma, toned down a bit, really lovely. There was a slight sour taste after the sip, not in a bad way. We drank the whole pot, and I plan to resteep those leaves this morning.

I drank green tea this morning, but when I was cooking lunch I saw the basket of leaves from yesterday. I picked them up and sniffed them. Aaaahh! Baked sweet potatoes, holiday style, roasted until the skin burst then a little orange glaze added. I decided to try resteeping and icing this with a bit of sweetener. Not bad! And it was a great way to be thrifty with my tea.

Is it bad that I am trying to be thrifty with my tea at the same time I am trying to drink up a whole lot of tea and cull my shelves? And the main reason I am trying to clean off those shelves is so that I will feel justified ordering more tea?

Why don’t I drink this more often? I really liked it when I bought a couple of sachets to sample at Barnes and Noble so I ordered a tin of loose leaf. It was the first green tea my oldest daughter found palatable and it got her started drinking green tea. Yet my tin sits on the shelf.

I did serve it at Wednesday tea time, but I decided to make a couple of pots to sip on today. Youngest and I did yoga together for P.E. and I had this at hand to sip in the candlelight. Yoga makes me want green and oolong tea. I think it is the music that plays, and the soothing quality of the tea enhancing the whole experience.

This is a wonderfully smooth green. The pineapple aroma is enticing, and the taste of it is natural and fairly muted….it doesn’t scream at you, just nicely adds to the green tea base.

I made the first pot this morning and just resteeped those leaves. The pineapple aroma is much lighter now, and the green tea base a little more forward. For the first time, this is reminding me a little of their Pomegranate Oolong, which I noticed is now available in sachets at Barnes and Noble.

A testament to how generous the samples from Teavivre have been….I just made another pot of this and still have enough leaf left to make a generous cup, ad since this resteeps, well, who knows how much tea this could end up being?

After breakfast, hubby put Mr. Samwise in the Burley trailer and took him for a bike ride. they went to Sandy’s house to do a e bit of picking up in the yard. Hubby picked up pinecones, Sam picked up bones and sticks. I joined them and was a little peckish when we got back home after riding around a bit more and decided to have elevenses.

A hard boiled egg with this tea, out on the patio, hit the spot. Youngest joined me for tea. She added milk and sugar, I took mine plain until the final cup. JacquelineM has already given the perfect description of this tea plain, so I will just briefly repeat her….sweet potatoes with a little orange flavor! YUM!

For the final cup I decided to add a little milk and sugar. At first I thought that I didn’t like it as well as it seemed to disappear under the additions, but the more I drink, the more I like it. My first preference for this one is sans additions, though. But if you really want to add sweetener or milk to your black tea, this one is still good. I wonder if the Yun Nan Dian Hong that isn’t golden tip would be better for that, though, and perhaps would make a heartier breakfast tea to take me by the collar and get me going?