Maddy Barone Send Message

The first blizzard of the year hit today, October 11, 2019 in North Dakota, USA. This is a little early even for us, so I was feeling a bit grumpy. The interstate highways are closed and the state is advising no unnecessary travel, but the mail came. I was excited to see the Bird & Blend tea subscription packet. I opened it up and couldn’t wait to try something new. But I made myself wait until after work. I needed to do some cleaning and shoveling first, too (although why I bothered to shovel when I’m not going anywhere and it will continue snowing for at least 24 hours…) Anyway, by the time I was able to sit down and brew a cup it was after supper so I chose to try out the caffeine free tea first.

It was a perfect choice for this evening, warm and mildly sweet and spicy. I am not a fan of hibiscus, but it isn’t glaring here. Just a little zing that is muted by the fruit. I am glad to have gotten this one today. I won’t rush out to buy 50 grams of it, but I’ll enjoy the 20 grams I have.

Woo-hoo! I’ve been waiting for the right day to have this tea. I woke up today headache-y, sore throat-y and malaise-y. I didnt’ go to church or to my knitting group because 1) I didnt’ feel well and 2) I didn’t want to pass this around. So I slept the morning away and had two cups of this in the afternoon. It was good. Mild, almost sweet and soothing on my throat. Now it is cold and rainy, with thunder. Might have another cup of this.

I was looking for a caffeine free tea for tonight and this one fit the bill. It was the second of the three teas in my Bird & Blend subscription box. It brews up very pale. Either I didn’t add enough or that is just the way it brews. Since it is an herbal with no honeybush or rooibos I think it must just be that color.

When it was hot I didn’t really get much from it. AS it cooled it became sweeter, and almost creamy even without any cream. The spice appears to be fairly mild as I didn’t feel it. As it cooled further it became soapy. I’m not sure if that is just because of my non working nose. Sometimes I get phantom flavors. So to enjoy this one again I will need to wait for it to hit just the right temperature and then drink it quickly before it turns too cold.

This was one of the 20 gram pouches included in my tea subscription. I am not a big fan of pumpkin pie or pumpkin anything, really. I know a lot of other people who live for this time of the year so they can get their pumpkin fix. Not me.

That said, the tea was smooth, and of course I don’t taste a whole lot anyway. We’ll starting the weekly Wednesday night suppers at church next Wednesday, and the woman who coordinates them is a tea lover and always makes two big pots of tea as well as an urn of coffee. I think I’ll bring this one to share.

My Bird and Blend tea order arrived! I got 50 grams each of Wisktea and Terry Chocolate Orange, as well as my first subscription package. This was one of the samples included and I decided to brew it up right away. It’s quite cool today and rainy, so a warm caffeine free tea sounded perfect for this evening.

I liked this. I didn’t taste much, but the ginger was strong enough for me to feel on my tongue. It’s been a year since my last kenalog shot, so my sense of smell has been gone for about 8 months. In the absence of smell, I taste very little. So knowing that I was drinking something besides warm water was welcome.

It’s starting to feel a little bit like fall. I want fall so much. A nice, loooooonng fall, please! I want to feel the cool crisp air of morning followed by the warmth of sun in the afternoon, and then a warming cup of tea in the chilly evening. We’re not quite there yet, but I know it’s coming.

Tonight I resolutely ignored my overflowing tea drawer and placed a small order from Bird & Blend. I hope to get their tea advent calendar. Is anyone subscribed to get their monthly tea box? If so, what are your thoughts? Worth it?

I’m being boring with my tea choice tonight. You really can’t go wrong with an herbal peppermint tea, though. Especially when you’ve over indulged at supper.

This was my cold brew this week. It’s been really hot and muggy this week so a good cold tea was refreshing.

I haven’t been posting much the past few months. My mom had a severe stroke early in May. She held on for almost two weeks before passing away. Her funeral was a week later. I did okay with the grief for about a month, but for some reason the last two weeks have been really hard for me. I guess it takes a while for some people.

I have enough of this tea to make another 2 quarts iced. But I think I’ll go find something else to brew. Maybe that watermelon mint from Republic of Tea. It sounds refreshing.

I made this iced several weeks ago. I may have over done the leaf, because it was strong and very close to bitter. I’ve never had this one bitter before so I was surprised. Then again, it sat in the fridge for several days. I think this one is better (for me) as a hot cup on a cool morning.

Wow, I can’t believe how many fruit infusion and/or herbal teas I have. I don’t have huge amounts of any of them. but I have enough that I need to start drinking them down. I decided to have this one for my evening cup, and I really enjoyed it. Lately I’ve been reaching for old bagged standbys like peppermint or Good Earth’s Sweet and Spicy.

I have entirely lost my sense of smell again -Darned allergies- so I can’t differentiate between the flavors, but it is nicely light and sweet. I think I’ll try this one iced next time.

An excellent black tea. Smooth and rich and robust and not at all astringent. It is a glorious 62 degrees out there today, but it is breezy so I feel a little chill. This is just what I wanted today to keep me going.

There are several screaming children playing on the balcony below me. They’ve been playing out there for several hours. Not being a kid person. I dearly want to tell them to shut up. But I an’t really tell them to use their inside voices when they are technically outside, right? More tea.