Lipton Knows Tea

I’m not above drinking a little Lipton every now and then but I still found this one pretty funny.

Ice Split Hagi

My latest TeaChat hagi special order arrived on Christmas Eve. It got here rather quickly considering how long the previous one took. The piece is glazed in seigan blue and then re-fired with a white glaze on top. The white glaze “splits” to reveal the blue underneath. The re-firing process is tricky so these can be pretty hard to come by. Pictures really do not do this piece justice. It was a chilly night so I broke it in with a testubin full of Mao Feng green tea. I find myself staring at it the whole time I am using it. In some of the splits you can see right down to the clay. Now I am definitely out of room on the teaware shelf. I cannot wait to see how this cup evolves with continued use.

Blue Hagi

After taking more than eight weeks to get here from Japan, my seigan blue hagi sencha cup finally arrived. I’ve never had one take this long and I was getting very nervous that it had been lost. This one was another TeaChat special order (of course). It is my first blue hagi and I love it :). Color can be hard to convey with flash and the variances between monitors but I did the best I could. When I drink from it, it feels like I am looking into the sky. I do think I still need to add a midnight blue hagi piece to the collection though. After the holidays I hope to get a display shelf to display all of my hagi on. Right now they are packed away in the their boxes but I’d love to be able to enjoy them even when I am not drinking tea.

Star Trek and Tea

I was a bit of a Trekie as I kid so I was excited to find that there are quite a few tea references on the show. Sip some “Earl Grey, Hot” and enjoy :).

Steepster Ultimate Holiday Tea Contest

Steepster recently announced one of the most awesome tea contests that I have ever heard of. The grand prize is a tea bundle worth more than $800, including an über cool Sorapot. To enter you can tweet about which tea in the bundle you would make first if you won or you can post on the discussion board topic. The contest ends at 8:00pm EST on December 18th so get a move on it!

Tea Palace Sencha Aloe Vera

Sencha has become one of my favorite green teas because I love the delicate flavor. This blend sounded really interesting as I had never seen aloe vera in a tea ingredient list before. The dry leaves were deep green with visible pieces of pineapple. They smelled very fruity and slightly vegetal. I brewed this tea using my Zarafina tea maker set on strong green. The tea was a deep gold color and retained the same sweet aroma that the leaves had.

This tea was much better balanced than I was expecting. It was sweet and fruity but the sencha still shone through in the background. It also stood up well to resteeping. However, midway through my second cup I started getting a strange aftertaste that was almost medicinal. I believe this is from the aloe vera. My boyfriend had some sweetened with stevia and really liked it that way. I might not buy this tea but I certainly wouldn’t turn down a cup if it were offered.

Upcoming Reviews and a Giveaway

I am running a little behind in my tea reviewing duties but soon I’ll be posting five reviews of offerings from Golden Moon Tea. Their sugar caramel oolong tea is one of my all time favorites. I’m not a huge fan of flavored teas but Golden Moon is one of the few companies that know how to do them right. You can search their catalog based on the country of origin, time of day, type of cuisine and even your mood. Keep an eye out for these posts because commenting on each of them will enter you in a drawing to win some samples for yourself.

I have decided that from now on I will bite the bullet and pay extra for EMS shipping. I shipped my last TeaChat special order SAL and it still hasn’t gotten here yet, the suspense is killing me. Lu Yu has not made his appearance yet either.