Maddy Barone Send Message

It has been too freaking hot for hot tea this summer! The air conditioning doesn’t get to my office, where I spend about 10 hours a day, so I haven’t had much hot tea. Right now it is 82 degrees outside, and it is 79 in here. :( I always mean to drink more iced tea, but I … just don’t.

That said, I enjoy a nice peppermint tea in the evenings. I like the convenience of bagged tea for this, and I usually have a box of Twinings or Stash peppermint tea on hand. A friend gave me a tin of this, 30 bags, as a get well gift. It is nothing spectacular, but herbal peppermint tea isn’t, generally, spectacular. This has a nice light flavor that I enjoyed a lot. I look forward to drinking this over the fall and winter (which cannot come soon enough for me!)

Absolutely my favorite cold brew. This is light and refreshing without any sweetener, and no bitterness. Absolutely my fave for iced tea. The can is a little old. I keep saying I’m not buying any more tea. But this is almost gone and it looks like this is going to be a hot summer. The heat continues, although tomorrow is expected to be down to 82!!! Back up to the 90s Saturday through the next Friday, with some possible high 80s. I don’t know how y’all in the south deal with this. I tell you, I am ready for fall. And it’s not even officially summer yet!

Cold Brew

I may have over leafed this. I added some to a jug with another tea, and since this was open, I decided to make a jug of it on its own.

Kind of underwhelming. I mean, it was a bit bitter, and I didn’t really savor the flavor, because I didn’t get much flavor. Maybe this is a tea that does better hot. I did add a bit of sugar, which helped, but I generally prefer to not add sweetener to my iced teas. I know, all y’all from the south just shuddered. LOL But that is just me. Just the right tea can stand on its own.

COLD BREW

Finished this off. Didn’t have enough to make a full half gallon, so I added some Sichuan Black from Tea Runners. With the weather up in the upper 90s and low 100s (35-40 Celsius) I have been sucking down iced tea like crazy. I am not sure when this hot spell will end, but not for the next 7 days at least. :O I hate hot weather!

The addition of the straight black tea altered this enough that I added a teensy bit of sugar to it. It might be that overnight in the fridge was too long, or maybe that black tea is a bit bitter. Whatever, I was still able to enjoy this.

It’s been a long time since I posted on here, but I am still drinking tea, I promise!

I made a jug of this in the fridge overnight. I had had a cup of it hot a couple of months ago, and it was nice, but not outstanding. But I really enjoyed it iced. It has a light, slightly sweet, bright vibe to it. Our weather has been all over the place. Upper 80s, then a couple nights below freezing, then back up to the 80s… Ya gotta love North Dakota! Fortunately, I an adjust my tea temperature to suit the weather. I really liked this one iced and I am looking forward to enjoying more iced teas this summer.

Due to having an MRI today I wasn’t allowed coffee this morning. They said nothing about tea, so I grabbed this one (Those philistines have probably never considered drinking anything but coffee in the morning)

Anyway, I see that last year I gave this a rating of 60. What was I thinking??!! I quite enjoyed this one today. It was a little sweeet on its own, and had a distinct coconut flavor. It was faint, but definitely there. I got no bitterness or astringency in the sip. Possibly, if I drink enough of my stash, I will order this one next winter.

Ah, this is such a nice tea. It is exactly like the name: sweet and spicy. I had this one before bed last night and enjoyed it greatly. Re-steeped for a second cup but a lot of the flavor had gone. This is a pretty inexpensive grocery store tea. I think I paid $3.49 for 20 bags. What a great deal for a tea I really enjoy. I decided to bump my rating because reaaly, this tea is great.

The weather is really turning around here. It was 17 yesterday -ABOVE zero!- and I heard we could hit 40 next Tuesday. Weird, just weird. Not complaining though!

I decided to try another herbal tea from Plum Deluxe. I got back from my Sunday drive to charge the battery in this cold weather and picked this one out. I liked the last one from Plum Deluxe and Candy Cane sounded good. I did not enjoy nearly as much as last night’s tea. This one was a green rooibos base. In don’t always love rooibos, but green rooibos is usually less woody.

/i guess it was less woody, but it also tasted a bit grassy. I do not like grassy either. The mint was pleasant, but it did not make up for the rooibos. Sadly, this one was a miss for me.

Ugh! Last night aaround 10:00 the fire alarm in my building went off. In my PJs, I went to the door to see what wqs happening. The hallway was a little hazy. FIRE!!!

I hustled around trying to catch the cats, but I could not find them. I rushed to get dressed, bundled up, and hurried outside. AS I went I passed police and firemen pounding on doors telling people to evacuate.

Scary. Very scary. I huddled outside with other resdents, including a family with four children recently arrived from Syria. They did not have hats or heavy coats. The temperature was -21F with a windchill of -44. WE all stood out there for a little over 20 minutes before we were allowed back in. The fire was small, isolated to one apartment, started by a space heater too close to the carpet. Nobody hurt.

It took me over an hour to warm up again. I brewed my sample of this tea. It helped. I liked it. Not enough to order 4 ounces, but enough to re-steep. Sometimes rooibos can be very woody tasting. I didn’t get that here. Maybe the honeybush covered it. It was mildly sweet on its own so I did not add any sweetener. I have enough left for another small cup, and I will be glad to have that.