2833 Tasting Notes
The most noticeable flavors in this blend—very efficacious on a frosty morning—are orange peel and star anise, rather than the ginger. I’m not an anise fan, but a little milk beats it into submission.
Any authentic German food fans out there? This cuppa made me remember how Mom and Grandma would make pfefferneusse right after Thanksgiving. Hard little cookies, also with an unusual spice profile, including black pepper (anise shows up in a lot of recipe searches as well). The little “pepper nuts” come out of the oven hard as rocks, then get tucked into a stoneware crock with an apple to soften until just before Christmas. I was never a huge fan of the flavors, but the process fascinated me.
This treat from Michelle makes a nice little lunch dessert on a back-to-work Monday. It’s spot on with pecan scent, but maybe a little more bourbon than burnt sugar on the praline part. (I’ve never had pralines with bourbon, but the recipe-verse says its possible.) At any rate, it’s tasty and I’m thankful!
My sixth grade boys are like German Shepherd puppies—rowdy but trainable. My sixth grade girls are like Siamese cats on steroids—logic does not work, threats do not work, and they stare straight through you like you’re a glass window. Both camps were at meter-peaking hyperactivity levels today.
Which is why I’m sitting peacefully in a sunbeam watching Minnie nap close to the Christmas tree and reveling in one last cup of derk’s light, slightly buttery green tea. (I hadn’t noticed the buttery part before.) Quiet is good. Quiet is better when you’re holding a cup thoughtfully selected by a friend.
Lovely little bagged cinnamon-apple-green tea triad; well-balanced; helped me compose myself after a nerves-raked-over-a-cheese-grater kind of day. My next line was going to be “definitely worth a repeat,” but I hopped over to a new tab to source it and it looks distressingly unavailable. Rats.
I don’t go through much chamomile, although I keep some around for blending and medicinal purposes. This was a freebie sample in a little pyramid bag. Because it’s much fresher than what’s mouldering away in my pharmaceuticals section, the apple-compatible flavor is easy to detect. Usually, it doesn’t do a thing for me as a sleep inducer, although that effect would be very welcome this evening! (Cats’ nap schedules are off. I did not want to be roused by paw-alarm at 4:00 a.m.)
paw-alarm is brutal! my cat used to try to wake me up specifically by pawing at my eyes and mouth, and that’s one of the many reasons he was banned from the bedroom despite being cuddly and adorable.
We have two mostly indoor, one mostly outdoor. The other morning, I woke to find one sleeping between my bent knees and the other one (with the build and weight of a concrete block) on my feet.
Kaylee, how did banning your cat from the bedroom work for you? I had one built like a little wrestler, and she’d stick her paw under the door and rattle the door in its frame until I opened it. Then she’d stare at me, “mrowr”, and saunter off.
gmathis, oooh, free weighted blanket! =]
Yes, mine did this too! He really did not take kindly to being banned. We got a baby gate and set it up a bit away from the door. There was a bit of adjustment that needed to happen to figure out the right placement and distance, and he figured out how to squeeze between two specific bars that were wider apart than the others so we had to block off that gap, but with trial and error we eventually reached detente. He never stopped trying to sneak in when he saw an opportunity, but the early morning harassment did end.
Ah, I never tried a baby gate! I just had nightly arguments that she always won. =P
Long overdue sipdown, not because I don’t enjoy it—odd duck brew that it is—but because I tend to save it for raw, cold evenings when I’m bone tired. We’re having one and I am. First wintry cold spell of the season; a little snow yesterday; a long workday. Chicory and subtle herbal alchemy all doing a good job of warming me up and un-knotting the knots.
Did you find this at a grocery store? It sounds warming, is it available only in the winter like Cinnamon express?
It would’ve come from one of our two local health food grocery stores (Natural Grocers, possibly). You’re likely near some larger grocery chains that might carry it. Think of it as “Teeccino Lite.”
I will look for it in my travels, I am boycotting Teeccino as they jacked up the price of their advent without having a good explanation when I asked.
Yeah—I just looked; that’s a little pricey.
You have to play “Where’s Waldo?” to figure out the “Caramel” in the name of this nice oolong. It’s definitely not in the finished cup—which is comfortably toasty and cereally. Caramel it is not. But when you sit with your tired feet up beside a finally-decorated Christmas tree and close your eyes and stick your nose in the cup, the scent finally gives itself away.
Even those these leaves have been around longer than they should have, they are hanging on to their toasty, grassy personality—could be my imagination, but I’m even finding a little burnt sugar in this cup. After a heavy jag of flavored autumnal teas, it’s a nice palate cleanser.
I’m still trolling for antidotes to the tartness in this one. Tonight’s alchemic experiment was a generous spoonful of Baked Apple Rooibos (English Tea Store). We may be onto something. The roo tones down the tart and pumps up the apple pretty nicely. Now it’s light and fruity—just the ticket after a day of feasting and snacking.
(P.S. U.S.-based or not, I’m thankful for such a lovely, eccentric, creative, well-read, eclectic, geeky, cultured bunch of tea friends. Good people, you are!)
Added extra time and milk. Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride, you’ve got competition this season!
Pfefferneusse needs to include Pfeffer as it is black pepper in German. I searched them out and it seems I had them before. Store bought though.
The ones I’m seeing online are all coated in powdered sugar—Mom’s were just dark, little crescent-shaped things.
She made them healthier, without the added sugar. Afterall, powdered sugar coating I just, dislike. It gets sticky in the mouth.
I’ve never gotten the hang of the pronunciation of that cookie, but I do enjoy them this time of year. I hate the powdered sugar coating on them. It makes them unnecessarily messy, so I like the idea of a healthier version without the mess and extra sugar!