The Black Cat

I have been a little quiet on here in the last couple of days and may be for a while longer. On Thursday night my beautiful baby boy Ebony passed away, he was only 1 year 3 months old. He came to me for fuss so I stroked him and then he clawed the carpet and within a few seconds he fell down onto his side and he was gone. The vet said it sounds like he was born with a heart defect that wasn’t caught in his examinations.

He leaves behind his brother who needs extra love and support as he has never been on his own before. Both me and my husband have taken some time off, for us this death is personal…I am unable to have children so my cats literally are treated like my own babies. To lose one so young and without warning is beyond shocking.

I post this message on this tea because the first post I made for this tea was me mentioning that I bought it because I had a beautiful black cat called Ebony. This was the first thing my husband could get me to drink after his death. He will always be missed and was taken much too early.

I may be on, I may not be… I just don’t know. So just to let people know I’m here from afar but just not ready to review yet. I don’t know when I will be.

http://tinypic.com/r/6gc0le/5

I used almost twice the amount of leaf I usually use with rooibos/honeybush blends – I was finishing off the remainder of this sample from my Fall Try me pack. It seems less flavourful than I remember. Maybe it’s because it’s springtime, but there’s a faint part of the sip that reminds me of the smell of freshly cut grass, but sweeter. I’m glad I got to sample this, but it’s not one I’d likely repurchase.

I was a little apprehensive about this one, because it sounds a lot like Swampwater. So I just got it in a try me pack with a couple other things I wanted to try before buying an ounce maybe.

This seemed like the perfect time to try it! Also, although he is a white cat, I finally saw the friendly cat I named Cat (he responds to it, I can’t not call him Cat) today and he required a lot of pets and scratches. He’ll wander off for a second then come back over to me, and just headbutt my leg before he rubs up against it. He also had to rub his head on my purse. He once tried it to my keys also, but his favorite remains my shoes.

This does taste a lot like Swampwater…but it’s actually drinkable, very drinkable at that. It’s a thinner tea, so the color isn’t as bold, but I think that makes it actually taste good and not like oatmeal or anything weird. Perhaps though it is just the magic listed in the ingredients.

It’s just a nice, mango-pineapple rooibos. I’m surprised how much I like it given it looks to be a red rooibos blend. But definitely, if the fruit flavors of Swampwater are what drove you to try it, and it was disappointing, this one is worth trying.

After being held hostage by my post office, my Halloween order from Della Terra is finally here! Of course even thought it’s now the Christmas season I had to try the most Halloween-y of my new teas first.

Probably the best thing about this blend is the color. It’s green! A perfect witch’s brew. In the bag it smells candy-sweet and kind of overwhelmingly fruity, but once brewed up it’s much more mellower. It reminds me of a calmer Mother of Pearl, only a bit more tropical from the passion fruit. I’m only getting a hint of pineapple, with passion fruit/mango as the dominant flavors. The rooibos is wayyy in the background which I really like, no weird medicinal taste with a slight woodiness. A nice fruity tea, and probably a great one to serve to guests just to see how they react to dark green tea!

Thanks Sil for this sample! and my apologies everyone, I know I’m filling up your dashboards. Just one more after this I swear :)
Bog town! Green swampy water, yup this is a very Halloweeny blend.
Is this green rooibos? I’m not sure, but it certainly reminds me of it. There is that particular sour note, but then that could be from the pineapple. The overall fruit flavour seems to be dominated by pineapple, with barely an edge of mango peeking out.
Overall, my cup was pleasant enough to drink down, but I won’t be buying any for myself. It just doesn’t strike me as anything overly special.
I had fun with it, so perhaps it’d be good to have around for kids during the dress up season!

i’m kinda over rooibos teas. at least for this month.
so let me tell you about some food i ate today for lunch.

i am usually vegan, but my roommates and i have part of a “cow share”, which means that we all own a part of a cow along with other local people and then we all get to drink the cow’s milk, raw with no pasteurization. so though i don’t drink milk in general cuz i just don’t really like it, i DO enjoy raw yogurt yum.

so here, if you take half a cup of plain yogurt and put like one whole chopped up gala apple in it, and then maybe a banana chopped up if you’re in the mood, and maybe even a tad of granola or cereal or something if you want texture. THEN add 1 tablespoon of peanut butter to it and mix it all up. it basically tastes like you are eating a peanut butter milkshake. or like, a bowl of peanut butter. or something.

basically i’m saying that it turns one tablespoon of peanut butter into a whole bowl of peanut butter and it is delicious.
you can also add raisins or cinnamon and nutmeg or whatever. forever.

1.1 tablespoons for 375 ml

Reminds me of “Swampwater” by David’s Tea but seems to have a better balance of flavour. Overall tastes like a pineapple-y rooibos tea with a sharp note of sweetness (maple syrup-like sweetness). Slight unpleasant immediate aftertaste which I think is associated with the sugar candies in this tisane.

Thanks to Sil for passing some of this on to me!

Another rooibos blend that I was surprised to find I like. Except this one really made me laugh! I’ve been struggling with math homework all day and thought I was seeing things. Green tea?!! Wayyy too many quadratic equations = me going crazy, haha! Once I checked some other reviews and realized that yes, this tea is in fact supposed to be green I calmed down. I like that this tea doesn’t taste like rooibos at all. I’m not getting any of that funny aftertaste at all, just a perfect, light fruitiness. I added a little milk and sweetener and it’s so nice and creamy. The main fruit flavor that I can taste is pineapple, but there’s an overall tropical fruitiness that is making me happy. Thanks KittyLovesTea for a sample of this fun tea!

-Dry blend has small pieces of brown, green and yellow rooibos with orange and black cat sprinkles.
-Dry blend smells sweet and fruity. Tea liquor aroma is tropical and fruity.
-Tea liquor is a thick dark green color with an oily sheen on top.
-Light rooibos and fruit flavor with a pineapple finish.
-Best with sweetener. Milk optional.
-Very good tea. A creamy and lightly fruity cup. No rooibos aftertaste.

I’m not sure i can get over the colour of this tea…greeny, black “swampwater.” It tastes decent enough but the colur is a little much for me i think. This is a fruity tea, and nice enough though it doesn’t knock my socks off.

I haven’t got anything new to say since my last tasting note, but I do want to memorialize that this is a sipdown. Thanks Short Sorceress!