Sunday, May 29, 2011

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Tea Journal

Well.  Here's a different kind of tea journaling:

Level Up!


Haha, she RT'd me. Fancrush +500. <3 <3

Maybe I should start a series "Awesome Ladies Who Drink Tea."

And by "maybe" I mean "undoubtedly".  Watch for it! :D

Like I didn't love her enough already

Fancrush +100 right now. <3

Could it be...?

After a while of eating the same thing every day, I get sick of it.  Except for honey nut cheerios, apparently, but for the longest time my mother would have to ask every couple of weeks if I was sick of my breakfast cereal yet.  Sometimes I would be, sometimes I wouldn't be.  Sometimes I'd get sick of it half way through the week, which I'm sure frustrated my mom to no end.

I think I'm beginning to get sick of chai in the morning.  I understand why this might be happening, but I just didn't think it would happen.
But now what else am I going to start my day with?  What else has the kick I need to get started, but with such flavor?

I should probably figure this out really soon, since I have to leave in about ten minutes...

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Schemes and Tea.

Because all good schemes are thought up over tea.

Before I describe my schemes though, I should talk about yesterday.  I manged to forget my tea, BUT, that was kind of made up for by a)actually getting enough sleep the night before b)actually getting a lunch break and getting time to grab some tea c)friends who share tea.

For lunch I went up and got a pot of Vanilla Black at World Tea House.  I felt like something black, but smooth.  This fits both of those requirements beautifully.

On my way out I noticed that the special of the week was a Blueberry Cheesecake latte.  Holy crap, this is delicious.  You don't need to add any sugar to it or anything.  So good! (Not quite as delicious as the coconut cream latte in my opinion, but I am a sucker for coconut.)

Later I decided to meet up with BAD for supper, but we ended up meeting at WTH first, and I finished off the second half of her pot of Russian Caravan.  We went to go have a delicious dinner at E-Pin a Korean, but the setup there is a little different: You grill the food yourself.  It's a cool idea, and I think I'm great a grilling up some chicken. XD  For desert you can choose from some different ice creams, mouses, and a cheesecake.  All of which contained dairy, and thus, couldn't be eaten by BAD.  So she let me have her ice cream instead.





Strawberry ice cream on the left, green tea ice cream on the right. I love ice cream!


I felt like a bit of a pig, but it was delicious.  I had a scoop of strawberry ice cream and a scoop of green tea ice cream.  I liked this one.  It wasn't too sweet and it didn't taste like powder.

Then we wandered back up to WTH, to meet up with our friend again (who had been there before, but was working, and didn't join us for supper) and we shared a pitcher of iced kawai cocktail.  I hadn't tried it iced before, and I just looove it.  It's like juice.

Finally, today before heading into work I felt like something lighter, so I had a cup of white coconut cream instead.  I let it steep for way too long though.  Oh well.

For my lunch break I wandered up and ran into BAD again.  I wasn't actually expecting that, but she practically lives there now, so I don't know why I was surprised.  Another friend of hers was there as well.  We chatted and drank tea.  I decided to try something new, so I had a pot of Kukicha Twig Tea.  I really, really liked this, but I also like earthy flavors.  It was almost dark chocolate, but still, ya know, twiggy.  Not that I eat twigs very often, but it's what I imagine twigs would taste like if I just ate them.  I got my travel mug re-filled on my way out, and now here I am.





All of our teas all together.


But finally, on to the scheming.  Here are the tea-related things that I am planning:

Recording and eventually sharing the insane conversations me and BAD have.  It'll be us bitching with tea.
More cooking with tea.  I want to make a Russian Caravan soup soooo baaaad.

That's all for now.  When I know more about how I'm going to do either of those things, I will, of course, blog it later. XD

That's all for now. 

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

This is kind of a motherfucking emergency.

I forgot my tea at home.  I forgot my freaking tea at home.  Because of the now-fixed mugs that mom kept, plus the extra try-out parts I got from Phil (they work just fine, btw), I now have three travel mugs.  Three.  All lined up on the counter.  And yet I still forgot to make myself tea this morning.  How did this happen?!?!

Thank goodness I get a lunch break today.  If not, I might still just run up to the tea house and get something anyway.  I am that desperate.  Or at least, I will be if I have to go too long without any tea.  The only tea behind the desk here is my co-worker's box of Tension Tamer by Celestial Seasonings, which sounds nice, but has chamomile, and I like to avoid that during work since it basically knocks me right out.

Cry. T_T

In slightly better news, I came across this kickass pic of a teapot:






Is this awesome, or is this awesome!?

Not quite awesome enough to make up for my current lack of tea though. :(

Monday, May 23, 2011

Masala Chai. It's been a while.

So, Sipped on more Electric Lemon tea yesterday, and got that latte that I talked about yesterday, and life was good.

Except I miss mah chai.

So, this morning to start things off I decided to go with Tali's Masala Chai from World Tea House instead of more Electric Lemon.

Really, I should just bring some tea to work.  It would make things easier than trying to decide what tea I want to drink for the rest of the day while I'm still half asleep.  But for optimal laziness, I'd have to buy another tin or split one of the tins I have up so that I can just leave one at work.

Maybe next time I go up to the shop, I'll get an extra little tin or something.  That won't be today, because they're closed for Victoria Day.  Like everything else.  Except us.  Not that I'm complaining about working, it just makes for a slow day.

Oh well.  Meanwhile, at my other blog of shit I want.  I posted a pic of this lazy tea pot:

Fun, huh? :D


Sunday, May 22, 2011

I love you, BAD

My friend BAD came and gave me a Coconut Cream Latte from World Tea House just because she happened to be in the area.

I love you.  I love you as much as I love this latte.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Boil em' Mash em' Stick em' In a Stew!

I nearly forgot to mention the lovely adventure that was last night's meal with my friend BAD.
Now, before I explain what we did, I need to mention that my ultimate comfort food is corn and mashed potatoes. Mixed together.  I would happily eat just corn and mashed potatoes together for a meal every now and then.  Usually I don't because a)mom cooks and b)I'm pretty sure you can't actually live off of just corn and potatoes.

But mom is away on vacation, and I'm the one in charge of what food goes in my mouth at the moment, so I promised myself that I would treat myself to some corn and mashed potatoes before she came back....

'Cept BAD is vegan, so I couldn't really add all the butter I wanted too, and the only milk I had to add was vanilla almond milk (didn't really feel like having vanilla potatoes.)

So we added Electric Lemon (green tea with ginger and lemon, from DavidsTea) instead.

Step one:  Boil the crap out of potatoes.  Too lazy to peel them first.  Not too lazy to wash them first, luckily.
Step two: cook corn.  I've got a double steamer thing, so potatoes just went in the bottom, corn went up top.
Step three: Remove corn before they get steamed to hell. Keep boiling the crap out of the potatoes.
Step four: Get bored and decide that potatoes are done when you're sick of waiting.
Step five: Hulk Smash potatoes.  Add some olive oil.  Keep Hulk Smashing.
Step six: Add tea. (We made it extra strength).  Hulk Smash.
Step seven: Add corn.  Stir in corn.
Step eight: nom the nommy noms.

They were interesting.  The more you ate, the more you could taste the tea.  There was really just a hint of green tea and lemon.  I wasn't really expecting tea potatoes to taste very good at all.  It was more of a "Hey, want to try this silly thing?" sort of experiment.  Except I actually really liked it.  A lot.  I might have to go to Davids and see if they have any more electric lemon, since it was a seasonal tea and they aren't sending any more to the different stores around town.

Next time:  Tea and rice.  We were thinking of something actually normal, like Jasmine rice, but I think I'd like to try something a little crazier.  I'll post it when I think of something.

Till next time, bon appeTea

Wait, what?

Over 1000 page views?  And most of them (probably) aren't my own?

Who the hell are you people?

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that people are actually reading this. I'm just a bit puzzled, is all.  I didn't think anyone would actually be interested in reading about what tea I drink every day, especially since I have a habit of drinking the same thing for long stretches of time.

But hey, if you want to read it, I'll happily keep on bitching. :D

This is why I need timers

Because I'm a crazy ADD riddled person who can't remember what I'm doing for more than three seconds at a time in the morning on a good day.
Today wasn't exactly an ideal day either, distraction-wise.  I had a friend stay over the night before, and so I was talking with her and looking at things online a lot more than I should have been.

Given that I had more distractions than usual, I don't know why I thought I could make myself some of my Electric Lemon from Davids Tea while getting ready in the morning.  It's a lovely little blend, it's zingy, and it wakes you up.
Unless you let it steep for too long.  It's gets really, really bitter, really quickly.

Which is why I'm now drinking lemon-ginger flavored sugar water.  It's alright, but I would have preferred just the tea.

Oh well.  And I don't get a break today, so this is the tea that I'll be drinking all day.  I hope it re-steeps well.

This is why I need timers for everything.

Friday, May 20, 2011

This is why I keep going back

Alright, I realize that this blog mostly reads like a World Tea House commercial, but that's only because I a)like the place a lot and b) happen to work so close by.  If I worked in, say, the land of soul-sucking boredom Burnside industrial park, it probably wouldn't have so much WTH news.
Speaking of getting tea elsewhere though, a plan is currently in the works to check out Formosa in Dartmouth.  That'll have to happen sometime after next week though, since from my day starting yesterday up until the 29th, I only have one day off, and they close too early for me to go after work.
Oh well.

So yeah, I talk about World Tea House a lot.  But hey, guess who won The Coast's Best Tea in Halifax?
So maybe I'm on to something here.

Anyway, I wandered up there again for lunch today and decided to try something new.  I tried the Dragon Crisp Gen Mai Cha.  I've had Gen Mai Cha before, just not there.  I was feeling like something greeney anyway.

I also had a cheese tea biscuit, because I was absolutely starving today, and I figured it was a bit better than the cupcake that I really wanted to get.

Now, if I had been thinking I would have gotten the chai biscuit.  I don't think the cheese really went with the green tea, but oh well.  I ate it all, and now I feel full, so I'm happy.

As for the tea itself, it was definitely green, but not as light as other blends, and more earthy.  Just like what I would expect from Gen Mai Cha. :3

Now, there are other little reasons why I keep going back.  I can always have a little chat with whoever is working, (as long as it's not busy) even the new person who's only been there a week and a bit (I think), and everyone always seems to know their stuff about tea without completely overwhelming me with a geography and history lesson about each type of tea.

I think, more than anything, they actually seem to care when I talk about what I do with tea.  I can mention that I've just tried iced chai and disaronno and that it is delicious and get a response of "awesome!" or I can go give my tale of woe over having broken yet another travel mug and not only do I know that the person behind the counter will care, but I might just get tips on how to fix them.

Also, Phil lent me an umbrella that's been there for a while because I got caught in the rain, as long as I a)promised to bring it back and b)picked up some McDonald's cups that some people had left behind on a newspaper stand. Anyone who lends me umbrellas gets extra points in my book.

In short, I'm going to be totally biased, because this is basically my favorite hang out spot ever, plus they've got some good tea.  The best in Halifax, in fact.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Tea, then tea, then more tea, followed by tea.

Every Thursday, I tell myself that I will get to Halifax a little early, grab a cup of tea, and wander down to work so that I'm actually on time.

Well, today, I actually did it.  I never actually manage to get myself out the door in time to do this, but I did today.  Got showered, got makeup, got my tea in my mug (Rooibos Chai, World Tea House), got a cute outfit all picked out, shuffled around like a sleepy turtle, and I still managed to get out the door in time.

Go me!

So, just as I had planned, I wandered up to World Tea House and grabbed a cup of tea (Rooibos Peach), finished that, and then went to work.

For supper I treated myself to the chicken teriyaki from Momoya.  It's cheap, and it's also conveniently between my work and World Tea House.

Once I was there (again) for my break, I had me a pot of white ginger guava.  I haven't felt like trying many new teas lately, but mostly I didn't really feel like having too much caffeine today.  No Hot Rod for me tonight.

I finished my pot quickly and got it re-steeped.  It's not as gingery the second time around, but it's still very light and sweet.  I couldn't quite finish, so I poured the rest in my mug, and went on my way.

I also got to run up and re-steep the tea that was still in the tea basket in the top of my mug.  But silly me, I forgot that I had already re-steeped it once.  It's Rooibos Chai from World Tea House.  You can get two good steeps out of it, but the third is just flavored water.
Oh well.  I'm now just cradling a hot mug of water.  It's still warm, so I might not even get to drink it before I leave for home.

I should really just leave some of my tea behind the desk here... >.>.....<.<.....>.>

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Why's the rum gone?

I had lots of tea yesterday, yessiree.
Met with a super cool co-worker for lunch, and we stopped in to World Tea House to grab some tea.  I had a rooibos vanilla (smooth with an extra bit of smooth!) and I think she had the rooibos chai.  I decided to take the day to just poke around town and buy a few things in some of my favorite shops on my day off, so I did just that.
I also happened to run into Kate again, but that wasn't really surprising since she works in the comic book shop that I went to.  So, I wouldn't really count that as part of her invasion.  At least, not yet anyway.
I picked me up a copy of the first book of the Losers.  I've been dying to get it for the longest time anyway, and I love the movie, so why not?  I'm really happy with it.  I would say I like it more than the movie, 'cept the graphic novel version doesn't have Chris Evans pantsless in an elevator. XD

I have a thing.  I especially have a thing for him in various states of undress.

Anyway, eventually after all my shopping and poking around I decided to come back for more tea (pot of rooibos chai) and read my new shiny graphic novel.  I'm pretty sure I only re-steeped it once.  It doesn't really do more than a couple steeps very well.
And while reading, a new employee came into the shop, and started talking about graphic novels with the people sitting at the table beside mine.  And suddenly I was included in the conversation.  And then we talked about fairly geeky things.  It was pretty awesome, since I've seen them there at the tea house before, and it always sounded like they were having interesting conversations.  It was nice to actually talk to them after hanging out in the same tea house for a while.

It was the magic of the Tea House crowd.

Oh, but that's not the end of the tea drinking.  My friend came over and then we started drinking.

No really, we were drinking, and we were drinking tea.  We had some of my DavidsTea Buttered Rum tea, but it was with, ya know, rum.  And Disaronno.
It was epicly delicious.  I may have gotten drunk.  I'm a pretty cuddly drunk. :3

In short, yesterday was awesome.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Angry tea.

So, I've been keeping an eye on kateordie ever since I noticed that she has been invading everything.  I mean, I knew her in HS, so running into her around town isn't that strange an occurrence, since it's a fairly small city.
Her showing up at the same shows, in my dreams (I have often odd dreams that involve people that I don't really know personally, so this really isn't as creepy as it sounds), and in the twitter feeds of my favorite author kinda is though.  So yes, she's been invading everything.

Anyway, she asked for requests for things to doodle, so I requested "an angry fancy teacup."


 Isn't that just fancy-dancy? :o


Here be her blog.  You should check it out! She's awesome!


PS:  Fixed tea mug still working just fine.  Had Rooibos Chai this morning, from World Tea House.  Cuz, you know, I'm fancy like that.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Happy Day!

K, so I have some new tea to talk about, like the (surprisingly good) Creamsicle latte I had, or the the Sencha I just had this morning, but more importantly, I have happy news to report:

I have a new mug.

Actually, it's a fixed mug.  Turns out the reason I couldn't pop the cup part of my travel mug back into the lining was because of the seal that (I would assume) keeps any liquid from getting in between the two also kept any of the air between them from escaping.  I could push as hard as I wanted, I just couldn't get it to pop back into place.

All Phil did was take out the seal and pop it back.  He happened to have a "faulty" one that had already popped out, but hadn't been used, so he popped it back in and let me try it out.

The top is able to screw into the bottom just fine, and I haven't had any problem with leaking at all, even though it says specifically that it's not spill proof on the pamphlet that comes with it.

I haz a T agen! YAAAAAAAAY!

Also, today I tried the plain Sencha at World Tea House.  It was exaaactly what I needed today. Something nice and plain comforting, but light and soothing.  This was all of those things.

 :3

Despite the clouds, I am in a much better mood today than I was the past few days.  All I needed was a working mug o' tea. :)

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Super behind, and super sad

Well, I'm behind.  Again.  Between work, spreadsheets, having days that where everything is going wrong, and cleaning all the things, I haven't had time to blog.
First off, the only new tea I tried from World Tea House was the Breakfast Blend.  I've had the Irish Breakfast before, but not just Breakfast.
I liked it, quite a bit. :D  Perfect to go with something sweet.

Oh right, and I broke another mug.  You know the one I JUST bought to replace the last one I dropped?  Yeah, I dropped it and the inside half popped out of the lining.  I've still kept it because a)I'm broke and b) it kinda still fits.  Except now that I've tried to use it a few more times, I can't actually screw or unscrew it closed, because the inside just keeps spinning.

The thought of another broken mug kinda makes me want to cry.  Maybe instead of asking for the  UtiliTea kettle, I'll just ask for a stockpile of travel mugs instead. :(

Friday, May 6, 2011

No new teas, but lots of love anyway.

Ok, I haven't been very good with my exploration of new teas lately.
I started off my day (which really only started in the afternoon) with some more of my buttered rum tea from Davidstea.  I like to add some milk to it, but since I'm trying to cut back on so much dairy, it's vanilla almond milk instead.  I really like adding a splash of it to some teas.

For my afternoon break I had some more Hot Rod.  I knew I had a long shift ahead of me, so I figured that something to wake me up was a good idea.  Plus, I just really, really like the taste of the tea.
Oh, I can see this being the beginning of a horrible addictive relationship.

Finally, I got my mug refilled on my way out, and that was my tea yesterday.  Right now I'm still sipping my chai (Tali's Masala Chai, World Tea House).  It is a nice, comforting way to start the morning.  Especially since I didn't get enough sleep and could really use some comfort right now.  In fact, a bed would be pretty comforting right now...

Oh well.  My next day off is Tuesday.  I'll survive not being able to sleep in until then, I think.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Tea Catchup!

There's no new teas to report, I don't think...
I mean, I had tea, but there's no new tea.

In fact, instead of talking about teas I've had, (my usual chai, and Spring Jasmine from world tea house) I'm going to talk about the tea I didn't have yesterday.  Mostly because I kept forgetting my new travel mug.

Oh, what's that?  New you say?  Why yes, new mug.  The last one just couldn't take it any more.  I dropped it once, and it only had a few chips and scratches, but the second time I dropped it, it came apart.  The lining separated from the rest of the mug.

So I got a new one.  This would be travel mug #4.  I'm considering asking if I can get a bulk discount. :/

But yes, I forgot to bring my mug before heading over to meet BAD at World Tea House again, so I just got a London Fog on my way out the door.

And forgot that you can't bring disposable cups on the bus.

I tried to drink as much as I could before the bus came, but it was really, really hot. :(

The bits I did get to taste weren't my favorite though.  Just Us still has the best London Fog, I'm afraid.  Oh, but that Coconut Cream still has to be my favorite latte ever...

Oh, speaking of Lattes, On Tuesday I went out to meet BAD and another friend for sushi, and I decided to get a matcha latte.

Meh.  Once I got past the frothy layer of straight matcha powder, it wasn't that bad, but it just wasn't that great either.  The chai latte I later had later was much better.  Probably made with syrup though.
If only I could remember the name of that place.  I do remember playing tic tac toe though.  Hopefully BAD will comment and refresh my memory. (She did.  It was cafe sospresso plus.  Here's the pic:)





My latte and friends trying their hardest to make sure that their elbows were in my shot.

My matcha latte from b-wells:




Finally, yesterday I went off to my French Class without my mug again.  How am I supposed to learn anything without tea?
Despite this enormous handicap, I still managed to have a good class.  I feel like I'm starting to learn something, which is great.

Now, to go make some tea.  I really, really need tea, like right now. I have to make up for lost tea.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Tired, but still drinking

Still drinking tea anyway.

I have no idea why, but I have been dead tired all day.  I didn't even stay out that late last night.  I was home by midnight.  I am so, so tired.

To try and combat this, I headed over to World Tea House to hang out with BAD again.
I was super happy to find out that they've got licorice root now.  Straight licorice root.  I was so excited I got a pot, even though I really should have gotten something with caffeine.  About half way through the pot I realized that this probably wasn't the best idea, since the strong flavour was kind of kicking my ass.  I love licorice to bits, but this was a bit much even for me.  I added a bit of cinnamon to it, and that was enough for me to happily finish my pot.
Or at least, it would have been if I hadn't been falling asleep.  So before I even finished my tea, I went and got more tea.  I was complaining about needing a pick-me-up when Phil mentioned another new tea:  Hot Rod!
I guess it's a blend of green tea, ginsing, yerba mate, and matcha.  It is certainly a boost, but I don't think a hundred pots would keep me awake right now.
After that BAD went to check out an apartment, and I went to go deliver a cup of ginger mint to my co-worker.  She was really happy to get it.  The blend seems to be a hit with my friends.
After coming back, I was still feeling sleepy, so I had another pot of Hot Rod.  Then we went out and ate far too much food, so I got a cup of ginger mint to help settle my abused tummy.
I'm still finishing that one up now actually.

So, two new teas! Yay!  I'd say today was a success!
Now to head home and go to bed.  Oh, I am so tired....