Saturday, 7/05/08, TeaDay

[chamekke]

Everyone else knows me well enough to understand that I usually prefer to choose my own teas and tea wares

You said that just in time. I had already shipped you a kuro raku replica of chojuro's shunkan, but don't worry- I was able to recall it before UPS delivered it to you!:D

Cheeky!

britt, your taste is always impeccable and I would be happy with any of your hand-me-downs

By "everyone", I meant all my non-TeaChat friends. The people on this forum are inspiring in their teaware choices - and you're all miles beyond me on the tea front!

[olivierco]

Sorry, Olivierco, if you already told us somewhere, but where do you get your Darjeelings from? Do you drink any other South Asian tea, like Ceylon or Nepal?

Mariage frères and Palais des thés.

I could surely buy Darjeeling of the same quality from other less expensive shops directly from India but I am quite satisfied by the Darjeelings they sell (at least their best ones) so I don't mind spending some extra money.

I had some Himalaya teas also, but not this year yet. The Gold Himalaya from Mariage frères is very tempting, even at 80$ per 100 gr, but I have already spent my tea budget for july and august. Maybe I should put it on my gift list.

[Victoria]

Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm People!!

Iron Goddess King - New Century Tea Gallery

Sneak Peek from the:

Oolong Box Pass

Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!

[Chip]

So far today, I had O-Cha Hatsumi which was really great. Currently finishing up Shincha Sencha Tradtional Hibiki-an. 2 very different shincha...and both really outstanding.

[auggy]

Well, after an hour of bush trimming, I had to stop. I cut the power cord. That makes 2 for 2. I apparently have the kiss of death when it comes to hedge trimmer power cords.

I'm just glad you didn't get hurt - that's the main thing.

Sounds like it's time to stop and have a nice relaxing cup (or bowl) of tea!

Yep, DH's response both times (after laughing) has been "Well, at least you didn't cut off your finger!" So true!

That just means hubby needs to trim the hedges instead of you!

I'm thinking that might happen soon. I probably have one more shot after hubby fixes the cord.

As an apology to DH, I made a nice lunch of sausage, cheese bread, and salad with apples and grapes and then a big ole glass of iced green tea to wash it all down.

Yep, I might destroy electrical cords, but I'll feed you to make up for it!

[Victoria]

Here is a pic of my new Hibiki-an cup with today's
Iron Goddess King



Look delicious? It is!!

[Chip]

Thanx Auggy for the pouchong!

[bi lew chun]

Here is a pic of my new Hibiki-an cup with today's
Iron Goddess King



Look delicious? It is!!

Love-a-ly!

[kymidwife]

I've only received a small few teagifts. My nephew got me a glass teapot with the flowering presentation teas for Christmas last year. It took me 5 months to get it out and use it, because I expected the flowering teas to taste blechhh. I still haven't tried those teas, but the pot has gotten loads of use!

The other neat tea gift I got was a big sampler box from Mighty Leaf tea. I got a chance to try their tea pouches at a medical conference in Atlanta a few years ago, and they were the highest quality teabags I'd ever seen. I mentioned it to my then-boyfriend at the time, and he ordered me a huge sampler box for Christmas. That was when he was still being Mr. Nice Guy.

My tea day today has been odd. I had some good Irish Breakfast from Adagio this morning. My sister and I went out shopping for the day. We visited a kitchen store in the mall to look at teapots and there were free samples of coffee and tea... so I tried some tea... RoT quince and pomegranete... OMG it was awful, I threw it away. Yuckkkk. I went to a new sushi restaurant and was excited to see they had "Japanese Oolong" on the menu which I wanted to try, but alas, they were out, so I had a little pot of nice hot green tea... typical restaurant stuff, not amazing but not bad. Then I had some sweet tea from McDonald's... blechhhh, just tastes like sugar-water to me now, hardly any tea flavor at all. I got home and tried out some new loose leaf I got from a 2nd kitchen store we'd visited, and it's VERY mediocre.

Time to go to some good gold standard stuff... I'm sick of this mediocre crap. I'm turning into such a snob.

Have a great tea day all.

Sarah

[RussianSoul]

I'm sick of this mediocre crap. I'm turning into such a snob.

"Just you wait, Mr. Higgins! Just you wait!" <sung with a heavy Cockney accent>

I have only been at this for a few months, but am already unable to drink tea anywhere but at home. With a very rare exception most places carry stuff that is unacceptable to me. What is a girl to do?!

[laran7]

Well, after an hour of bush trimming, I had to stop. I cut the power cord. That makes 2 for 2. I apparently have the kiss of death when it comes to hedge trimmer power cords.

I'm also glad you did not hurt yourself. I once had a close encounter with a staple
gun that still haunts me. (Both the incident and staple guns in general).

I reinstalled my digital camera to the computer today to add a picture here and there. My pictures and teaware are pretty humble at the moment - but I drank green matcha, outdoors, with green grass and forest and included my new green teapot with the green infuser (that is too small) and took a picture. (at least 11 of the pictures did not make it )

I just wish I'd been able to get a quick picture of the bright red cardinal that stopped by very very briefly.

The best thing about living near the woods is the wildlife.

How do I upload a picture?

[tenuki]

How do I upload a picture?

Most of us use either photobucket.com or flickr.com. You upload the picture there and then link it here using the img tag.

[Salsero]

I had some Himalaya teas also, but not this year yet.

Thanks for the reply even if it was not what I wanted to hear. I think you did mention previously that your Darjeeling came from those two illustrious shops.

Does Himalaya normally mean tea from Nepal, or is it a more general term? I think some of the puerh, yunnan gold, and a few other southwestern Chinese teas are almost Himilayan, maybe grown in the foothills of the Himilayas, but my understanding of geography in that part of the world is fuzzy. And of course, Darjeeling is in a lower range of the Himilayas. What a romantic mountain range!

[Cinnamon Kitty]

I've had some good and bad experiences with tea gifts. My first roommate in college gave me an incredible tea gift. She found this Spiced Christmas loose black tea that came with a Christmas tree shaped infuser ball. I didn't care for the infuser since it was a pain to clean, but the tea was great. She knew that I loved tea so it was very thoughtful, appropriate, and something that I enjoyed. I also received a nice mug at my high school graduation from a good friend that was my favorite tea mug until it got a crack in it. My boyfriend's mother gave me a travel mug one Christmas on which she had written "Ali's Tea" on one side in silver permanent marker. It was an awesome useful gift, especially since she is a die-hard coffee drinker and wanted to make sure that I had an official tea mug.

On the flip side, I have received countless boxes of bagged tea from people that were down right undrinkable. Those were gifts that I considered to be thoughtful since they knew I liked tea, but didn't quite hit the mark. It really was the thought that counted.

I had a great teaday today so far. I dragged my boyfriend to a tea shop and enjoyed tea with him. I had a pot of sencha while he enjoyed a strawberry bubble tea. The sencha was deliciously sweet and grassy. It was served in a small pot with an infuser basket inside, poured into the serving pitcher, and then into a small sencha cup. I was thrilled. The tea room itself was a little hole in the wall in the middle of the city with some couches, a few actual tables, and a separate room where you could sit on the floor at a small table Japanese style. I will definitely go back there when I need to escape, relax, and just enjoy a cup of tea.

[henley]

I'm sick of this mediocre crap. I'm turning into such a snob.

I have only been at this for a few months, but am already unable to drink tea anywhere but at home. With a very rare exception most places carry stuff that is unacceptable to me. What is a girl to do?!

I've been here almost a year & I'm in the same boat as you two. It's almost scary to think what I've spent in the 9 mths I've been drinking loose leaf tea. Never imagined I would spend what I do on tea!

Finishing the day w/Adagio's White Tropics from Elchai. It's got a nice flavor to it & can see it being good over ice.