3294 Tasting Notes
First sip down of the day, first sip down of my FL trip.
This is one of the teas included in the BBBB box on the most recent round, & I brought most of those remaining teas with me to drink up before the next box shows up (no rush, however). Earthy, with elements of chocolate, wood, & floral.
I brought several shu Tuocha with me to FL, so this is the Daily Tuocha, * its not bad!
It features a decent tasting shu, tasting of whole wheat bread crust, leather, & wood. The rose is noticeable in the dry aroma, but very light in the flavor.
After my folks picked me up at the airport, we went to lunch at a place called TooJays.
Now I’m chillin’ out with my Parental Units, & having my first cup of tea here.
Halleluia! They got a new water purifier on the kitchen sink! Yay!!
No sulphur, no horrible water. I’ll enjoy drinking teas during my visit, Yay!
And it’s a good thing, because I brought a bunch of teas. I thought about bringing my fancy teas, but instead I brought teas that I need to polish off, so my visit with my folks might be a mini ship down extravaganza.
This one is not a sip down, at least not yet, but I’m getting close. It’s not one of my favorites from YS, but it’s not bad. The main flavor features, at least today, are leather & malt.
Worst Starbucks experience ever
I’m at the St. Louis airport, & I have a routine when I fly of getting a Starbucks soy chai.
So… They’re out of soy milk…
So…can I have a hot black tea?
As I’m walking away with my cup, I catch a whiff & she gave me earl grey.
So…I return the tea, the girl starts saying, “well, you didn’t specify…blah blah”
Are you kidding me?
Turns out they are out of Awake, except as iced tea.
Then another chick who works there starts bitching at me….
They were all glaring at me, like I was wrong.
I hope she didn’t spit in my tea…
Customer “service” :( I’m sorry Terri. Being at the airport sucks badly enough all on it’s own with this Starbuxholes experience. But I’m assuming that you are now happily and safely arrived in Florida and drinking the good tea. What tea did you end up bringing? If I could, I would teleport you a big fat Dark Beauty to make up for your airport experience.
Sorry that happened to you! Safe travels, though!
Wow ugh!
People must never order tea there, considering they don’t know the difference between black tea and earl grey… Or they’re just poop faces!
Most people aren’t actually aware that EG is flavoured and the leaf is black tea, and since flavoured is default for many anyway, I’m sorry, but I can’t really see how they were supposed to know you didn’t want EG…
Didn’t specify? It’s their job to ask. If it were your regular stop, I’d say complain. Since it is not, let it go and move on. Just found out last week that despite my telling them every week to use Splenda and not to add the syrup to my green tea frap, they have been doing it anyway. When I caught them I was told you can’t make it without the syrup. I said yes you can, just don’t put it in. When she handed me the drink she commented how she thought it was going to break her blender. Good grief, give me a break. All the syrup is, is sugar water anyway. Knuckleheads. Look now you have me wound up. Why should we expect different from coffee people? Oh, wait, because it is their job!
oh well…
The main thing that pissed me off wasn’t the mistake, nobody is perfect.
I was polite when I returned & asked them to redo my tea & explained why.
I couldn’t believe the blatant rudeness & defensiveness I was met with.
When I was in food service, the customer was always right.
Anyway, yes, I AM in FL now.
Priss, I brought way too much tea, LOL! More will be revealed ;)
Yeah, the rudeness is definitely the problem. Especially considering that redoing a hot tea is nothing, it’s just hot water and a tea bag that costs them basically nothing. It’s a little ridiculous that they got so defensive about it with you…
I know!
That’s for letting me bitch, you guys. I know I’ve been a grumpus lately…
I decided to try the ‘Dark Beauty’ combo again this afternoon, MsPriss’ special recipe. It really is yummy! Bold, thick, sweet, a perfect mix!
I got a lot done today! I still have to pack, & I just realized I still haven’t braided the garlic yet…lol. Oh well, I’ll pack first cuz Tony is picking me up in an hour, & I guess if I don’t get the garlic braided it will be ok. I’m only gonna 5 days, after all.
The hardest decision: What teas to take…
Woooo! I’m so glad you like it
Laoshan Black Chocolate Genmaicha and Golden Orchid and Special Dark
Have safe trip terri :-)
(And I will try this this Prissy cocktail someday!! )
I second MzPriss suggestion but you are missing a strong bad ass Black, like Tiger Assam maybe?
LTF – do you have any Black Beauty?
Lol, i had some before I found out about that cocktail of yours…and I keep forgetting to order it!!
I will put some in your package
(MzPriss, You did not answer me about SB)
(oh – I think very close to the time it would get here from Oh Canada, it should b time for Brendenol to have some for me)
(Lol, yeah, damn borders..)
Have a great trip!
green oolong, roasted oolong, black tea
We pounded out a huge pot of the blend here at the shop with a customer the other day. It was pretty special. Not just for energy, but flavor. I was able to pound through a whole lotta bagging of the tea after that Dark Beauty session!
One of the pleasures of having adult children who live with you (if you’ve raised them right) is getting them to cook breakfast, & knowing that it will be tasty! In my house, everybody knows how to cook! So while I’ve been balancing checkbooks, cleaning off my desk, printing out my boarding pass, paying bills, etc, my 2 sons have been fixing breakfast.
Pretty sweet deal, eh?
Now I’m enjoying a short break, with brekkie & a pot of Tiger, which is a tasty go-to for when I want something robust, and don’t want to fuss with things. Quick, easy, & satisfying. That’s my mode right now. I’d like to spend the day in gongfu sessions, but there’s too much to do. Next stop: The boys (they are actually men, at this point) & I are heading out into the garden for the pop-quiz: making sure they know what to pick, where & how to water, & some weeding would be nice to, eh?
What did they make for breakfast? I’m partial to omelets myself, when I have the time.
LOL @ giving them a pop quiz. <3
They cooked crispy potato cubes (I don’t eat white potatoes often, but when I do, they’d better be crispy!), sausage crumbles (ground locally raised pork, they added the spices). Layer in a bowl & top with eggs. :)
^^ american breakfast sounds good!
Dag, it’s the way I roll!
I woke up early & immediately started getting ready for my trip. Last night I stayed up & started 2 crocks of cultured cucumbers (think “awesome garlic dills, the old sour kind”), & a crock of cultured dilly beans (same recipe, using green beans instead of cucumbers).
Today I have a lot to do, & so far I’ve lined up my clothes for packing, watered all of the houseplants, & enjoyed 2 steepings of this tea! It’s time to get back to work, & to pick out another tea to drink :)
I love lacto-fermented pickles and kraut :)
I’m so sad, most of our cucumber harvest this year has been super bitter! Jerks!!!
Have a good trip!
:p
I hate when that happens!
I want the beans recipe! it never occurred to me and I have a fair amount of beans (the ducks eat some but I got the rest) no cucumbers I think the rabbits ate those.
Recipe pls! I’ll get them from farmers market.
First you need some kind of crock or jar. I use this one, which I like because is glass, so I can see what’s going on in there, & it holds a lot, & it’s reasonably priced, & it lets the air bubbles out, but no bugs or bad stuff can get in because there is a water lock:
https://www.cherylsherbs.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=24_29&products_id=981&zenid=bd3e44a4e3ea576f77e605a67fdbffb1
You can use a large mouthed Qt or gallon jar, if you can find a smaller jar that fits in the opening, which you would fill partially with water to hold the green beans beneath the surface. Another way to hold the beans down is with a ziplock baggie, filled with salt water & laid in the jar on top of the veggies.
So you’re going to fill your jar with green beans. You can cut them up, or leave them whole. Layered in with the green beans (preferably a tender variety) you can include any of the following:
- fresh dill seed heads and/or fronds, OR dried dill leaf or seed – I don’t really have a quantity, LOL, I just layer in seed heads from my garden.
- 2 to 3 or more heads of garlic, separated into cloves & peeled. These will be delicious!
- chili flakes if you like, peppercorns, or any other flavorings you’d like to try. You can make it asian by going with strips of ginger, small chili peppers, etc, or you can give it any flair you like: Italian, Mexican, Indian. Just include some of the spices from the region you like. Any herbs & spices can be included, as long as they don’t contain preservatives, :p
Once your crock or Jar is within a couple of inches of the top, mix up your brine.
Start with a QT/liter of water & dissolve in 3 Tb of seasalt (make sure there is no iodine or anti caking agents in it). Or if you think you’ll need more water, go with
2 liters + 6Tb salt. If you use kosher salt, you’ll need 1.5 Tb instead of 1TB.
Make sure the veggies are submerged completely!
Leave it on the counter for a month or so, checking the water level from time to time, to keep the veggies beneath the surface. Sample as desired until they taste perfect, then jar them up & put them in the frig, to enjoy as desired!
Occasionally mold grows on the surface of the water. Just scrape it off. It won’t hurt anything.
This sounds delicious . I should try. The recipe copied, I don’t want to go nuts looking for it. Thank you so much
There is something comforting about this tea, & it felt good to relax with it this afternoon.
I’m in the middle of 2 things from my to do list:
1 – start a batch of cultured green beans, loaded with garlic & dill. This is slow food at it’s finest, as it will take a month or so before they are ready to eat
2 – start a batch of cultured cucumbers, with pretty much the same flavor profile
I also need to braid a ton of garlic & hang it up in the basement to cure!
AND weed my garden…
AND And and….
