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Going down to Orlando for one day is horrible, but fun. Definitely a longer trip next time. This morning I felt like the child who was screaming bloody murder about leaving Epcot last night.

So no shop really had what I wanted, except Japan. Actually I didn’t intend on buying any tea at all but it was either this or every plate and bowl with an owl on it. My boyfriend’s brother’s friend works for Disney so he got us in free, and he got a 35% discount on shopping purchases. So this 50g pouch with a little Lucky Owl (to bring me patience) was not even $10.

Normally it’s $11. It’s in a gold foil bag that doesn’t reseal. But it’s sure immediate to tell it’s higher quality than the super cheap Gyokuro I bought in bulk. It’s obviously not as good as an even more expensive gyokuro considering the amount of dust, which I’m not sure is normal or the result of having to be carried around for like 9 hours. The leaves turned such a bright green as they steeped. Bright as grass that’s been perfectly manicured and watered.

I didn’t bother to follow the instructions since it called for boiling water and I think a 3 minute steep. I probably steeped it for half that. The liquor is the light neon color I’ve noticed in my genmaicha with matcha added. I don’t believe the cheap gyokuro did this! And it smells so good, like spring.

This is intoxicating. It seems so light, but it’s sweet and just perfectly grassy. It’s easy to sip and it’s so enjoyable. I’m glad my water temperature didn’t turn it bitter. I realized too late I probably wanted it a little cooler, but perhaps it really could stand up to boiling. I don’t think I’ll try though. It almost tastes effervescent upon taking a sip too.

I’d say I’m surprised to have gotten this at Disney but it was a Mitsukoshi store after all, I just wish I had bought one of the owl teapots there too! They were so cute and they’re so expensive on eBay!

Last tasting note until Sunday or Monday, I’m so excited to go to Florida even if it’s for not even 48 hours, ahhh! Of course, a couple orders arrive tomorrow. I hope they get put in a locker and not taken to the front office so I can’t have them till Monday, that would be sad.

This note is for the second steep of the teabag. If you want to resteep one of these, but don’t want a gallon of tea in your fridge at once because you can’t drink it all up in a couple days, it works really well to freeze the concentrated 2 cups for a couple days until you’re ready to drink more! If I had space for extra ice cube trays that would be perfect. You could just throw them in some water and be set to go pretty quickly.

But in my case I created a giant ice cube, let it melt a bit so I could just pop it into the pitcher, filled it up with water, and let it melt down to mostly all liquid for already cold tea! I’ve got one bottle to take with me on the road tomorrow and I’ve nearly had the rest to drink already today, wow.

I sweetened it before I froze it, but I think this steep actually tastes better than the first anyway. The banana is more subtle and sweetening doesn’t bring it to the point of candy. I think it makes it taste even more like real banana this time around. I will definitely get this one again!

Another day, another storm. This one sounds less intense so that’s good.

I decided to try to make this cold. I’m still not much of a fan of the taste of honeybush iced. It has a strange aftertaste to me. But since it is chocolate malt, it has to be cold! I did this a bit different. Steeped it double strength, then added coconut milk creamer to it, and a little chocolate syrup.

Honeybush when it’s cold just reminds me of wet wood. I’m hoping if I keep drinking it especially in such tasty ways, I’ll get used to it. Beyond the woody taste, this is so good. It’s like having a chocolate shake minus the heaviness of drinking one!

omg I can’t stop playing SimCity social on Facebook. It makes me wish there was a version to play on my laptop, shakes fist. I have never given my boyfriend back his SimCity Societies CD and it does not work on a Mac. Rude.

So tea time it is instead. I should probably start packing for the weekend but I would rather drink samples I haven’t gotten around to yet, like this one from brandy3392. I can’t remember if I asked for this or not but I don’t think either way I would have expected so much lemongrass in the dry leaf.

That always worries me that it’s going to be overbearing, but so far, so good. This is hardly an assam, it’s very light and not in your face like an assam should be. Though of course, this is from Teavana, so it’s more fruit than assam in the end. The lemongrass isn’t too strong, but really nothing is. I taste it and the pineapple, so I guess we can call this one sub-tropical, ha ha.

I can understand why they discontinued this one. I’ll definitely use the remainder of the sample for cold steeping.

Cherry Vanilla Cola tea soda! This is too good, it’s too bad I don’t have much of this left. I steeped a teaspoon of leaves in my gaiwan because all my measuring cups were being washed, lol and I figured it was the closest I had to 2-3oz. Steeped it for 3 minutes, poured it in a cup, paid no attention to the amount of agave going in, added ice and topped it off with seltzer water.

I have some Coke Zero in my fridge because I’ve been mixing it with a little orange juice (this is actually amazing, thanks Germany), and that soda has nothing on this tea with some carbonation. It tastes like soda, but it’s still got that black tea flavor to it.

I tried adding club soda to it before but it really needs to have a concentrated steep for it to really, really work. I can’t believe it took me until now to do this.

I love how some half-dead giant wasp found its way into my apartment. Since it could only rotate itself and not even actually move, I threw my flip flop at it and landed it on the second shot. Sorry, wasp, you were probably a jerk anyway since you’re a wasp.

I figured I’d just write a new note from yesterday. My second steep was I guess too short because it didn’t really have any flavor. But the cold steeping of the leaves overnight, I guess maybe almost 20-21 hours now, is fantastic. It’s light but still tastes like creamy pistachio. It’s rich tasting despite the fact it looks like it might not have any flavor left.

I think I will cold steep a glass from the start just to see, since this was technically the third steep of the same leaves.

Soooo, I heard from one of the local news channels about my video of the storm/hail starting, and then…I missed it being shown at the end of the 6:30 news. I’m so disappointed in myself still so I’m hoping they might show it at 11 too. The one time something I record will be viewed by thousands of people and I miss it myself.

I also went out in the pouring rain to grab hail and my hair is still wet and I’m cold, so more hot tea it is! I was feeling like an oolong, but something I wouldn’t feel bad about not resteeping a couple times. All my tea is mainly in my bedroom right now for some reason (when you don’t even know why, there’s a problem) but this one was in the very back of my cabinet, poor tea.

I just love the fruit flavor of this tea. To me it’s not purely pomegranate, there’s definitely something else in there, something sweeter, since I think it’s far too sweet to be just pomegranate. Maybe some kind of berry. Either way, the fruit flavors blend so well with the floral TGY. It’s light, but it still shines through the fruit a bit.

I just realized a couple days ago that Caribou Coffee carries H&S teas. I had to promise I’m not that obsessed, I just noticed they had the iced tea bottles and finally put 2 and 2 together. Of course, then it was like, hot cinnamon spice…DUH. I’ve had this one there a couple times, but it’s never as good as the loose leaf at home. This one really needs space to steep.

Well, me drinking this tea got madly interrupted by a huge thunderstorm. I was on my patio taking a video because it had started hailing and there was rain blowing in two directions so I freaked out and went inside. I was enjoying this tea up until then (and the power was only out for like 5 minutes so that’s cool).

It smells like those cinnamon candied nuts you find at any sort of event that requires a generic set of vendors. Except that these are the best thing ever, and it made me wish I had some.

The tea does not taste like them, though. The tea tastes like a Parisian breakfast. Buttery almond croissants, fluffy brioche, oranges, sweet cinnamon bread, I want to go back.

Fun story: one morning while we were eating our morning croissants at a bakery in the 15th arrondissement, this little sparrow came right up to our table and started chirping. My mom dropped her a little piece of croissant. She took it and flew off, and returned several times for more. She was feeding her babies! And she had no fear at all to fly right up to us and get some more. (Meanwhile here I can’t even get a sparrow to take a piece of tortilla chip from a far distance on a Chipotle patio.) This tea reminds me of all those good pastries.

I never thought I really cared about pistachio flavored things until I had a pistachio macaron from Pierre Herme. WOW. (I also had an asparagus/hazelnut one. It was weird.) While this is not toothache-inducing sweet like those, it still very much reminds me of that macaron. And most importantly, it is readily available.

The green tea is nice and subtle. It’s there, but it doesn’t take away from the flavors. Vanilla, pistachio, cream, they are all there. I get the macaron more than ice cream but it’s also hot and I usually have a hard time with typically cold flavors in hot form. It’s still incredible though.

I already made a second steep, and once it cools I will try it iced. Then I’m going to cold steep the leaves for later, I can’t wait to try this iced, clearly!

I tried.

It smells like popcorn to me, super buttery. I was excited to try it. But all I taste is metallic. I lowered the water temperature (started @ 205), I gave it a rinse, I don’t think this one and I are going to be friends and that makes me sad because it smells great. I’m also not a fan of how they fall apart, makes any sort of steeping rather difficult with little bits getting through even a strainer. I’d try a bit more (sweetening, whatever else I see from notes) but I am just so turned off it right now because metallic tastes and I will never ever be okay together.

OKAY you know how when you have something sitting there and you absolutely must conquer it? 4th try of steeping I finally got something I like. 30 seconds is far, far too long for me, but it works now. Didn’t bother to pay attention to the water temp though, but this time there isn’t a metallic taste, but delicious toasted rice.

I think it’s the herb in here giving me that metallic flavor, because I still get tinges of it in the aftertaste, and now I can tell that it has to be coming from it. Because now as it’s cooling it’s coming back. Argh.