So, what shall we talk about?

The weather? The fact that I'm currently listening to Josh White in a hopefully not-futile attempt to get my brain off of Sousa marches (yeah, I don't know either. Maybe too much Monty Python over Christmas)? The fact that milk chocolate, no matter how high quality, is always going to be somewhat of a disappointment when what you really want is dark chocolate?

Nah, let's talk tea. We haven't done that for a while.

Christmas having just passed, of course I have new teas. Today's was Uncle Lee's oolong with ginseng. Not bad at all, but I have to tell you that I've got so used to loose teas that it felt kind of weird to use a bag. Not in a tea snob kind of way; just a this is a little different.

Back over Christmas I was drinking a vanilla almond rooibos tea from Whispering Wind out of Alix. I'd love to tell you anything about them (the tea was pretty good), but it seems that they're not very internet-savvy. A very inactive Etsy shop was the best that I could do. Too bad, really.

So let's move on to the extremely internet-savvy. The last few days have found me trying out the teas from DAVIDsTEA Winter Collection, which overall has been a hit. The Apple Custard is, for me, saved by the coriander from being yet another apple tea (I'm becoming more and more aware that I'm a spicy tea person over a fruity tea person). Bubbie's Baklava was maybe my least favourite, but that's least out of a pretty good group and it's still a tasty tea. It just didn't seem that out of the ordinary, is all. Cocomint Cream should not work. It just shouldn't. Mint and coconut? Strange. Strange, but awfully good, and I managed to use up all of my mint-based tea remnants during this last cold (which has almost passed, thank Whomever) so the timing's right to have a new one. Sugar Plum Forest was a great surprise. With a name like that I was expecting overly fruity -- and, obviously, sweet -- but instead I got cardamom, cinnamon, clove... I'm such a clovehead... um, yeah. It's more like a mulled wine than anything, and I do like me some mulled wine. Lastly, the Vanilla Chai is a very nice tea, but as I've ranted (slightly) about before, I wish that they wouldn't call teas like this chai. Yes, I know that chai basically just means tea, but the word chai in this part of the world generally has specific (specifically Indian) connotations. Just adding cinnamon and ginger to a black tea does not a chai make.

It's still good, though. And as I said above, the whole collection is a hit. Nice job, tea people.





All of this linkage means that this took longer than I meant for it to. Back to work for me. Tealess at the moment, though. I finished my morning's mug-worth ages ago...