T Stands For Eight Days of Tea

 

I want to begin by apologizing for the length of this post.  It has taken a long time just to go through the over 150 photos I took in order to remove over 2/3s of them. I also apologize that I have not been online.  In fact, this is a scheduled post, so if you haven't heard from me for at least a day, it means I am having trouble getting online.  First of all, three times in the past four days I have hit either one key, or a combination of keys that took my modem offline.  The first time was scary.  Now that I know what to do, I still have to be a contortionist with FLAT fingers (I WISH) to reach and hold the reset button for two minutes.   I get close, then my finger cramps and I let go of the teeny, tiny button that some ATT engineer managed to place in the most obscure and unusual place.   My modem controls my internet and phone, so I couldn't call my friend Scott to bring his strong fingers (that go flat) to my aid.  The man who installed my modem didn't leave enough cord for me to move it to a place I can actually work with or on it, thus causing my contortions.  Sorry, but there will be NO PHOTOS of that (grin).  And just in case, please be aware I'll be by to thank you for your patience as soon as I get back online.

Some of you were here on Friday when you saw a sneak peek I created in Photoshop using various filters.  I also decided Gifts by Leslie might not want her address splashed all over my blog, so I smudged it out.  I'm getting almost good with that smudge tool.

A sweet apologetic note from Leslie

produced this.

The design is on both sides.  From what I can tell, it's exactly like the original.

I knew I was going to start my seven day tea and that mug would have been perfect for T Tuesday.   However, after I washed and dried it, I worried all those teas might stain the inside of my new mug.

In years past, I have used this cup and saucer.  They worked well for me.  Also in years past, I have placed the bag holders/envelopes directly on the writing area of the desk.  I thought my new mug would be a great place to store them until the end of the tasting.

I started with Yogi honey Chai.  I fell in love with the taste.  It turned out to be my favorite of all of the teas I tasted.  It's too bad it is caffeine free.

It even looked good in the cup, and I always love that their brand always has little sayings or words of encouragement on the tag.

While the tea was brewing, I added the tea bag sleeve/envelope to the mug where it won't get lost.  Then I was off to get paper to hold the spent teabags.

Once the tea had brewed, I placed the bag on a sheet of watercolor paper.  I placed parchment paper under the watercolor paper in case there was leakage.

I had grabbed 20 tea bags to try.  I didn't want to play favorites, so I grabbed the top one in the bag.

Imagine my surprise when I opened the envelope to discover the tea had been made by Lipton. 

It may be considered the world's most consumed tea (by some), but it does nothing for my taste buds.

It has their famous "flow through" tea bag design they invented in the 1950s (I think that's the decade, but please correct me if I'm wrong). To be honest, even though I was still reeling from the first tea I drank, this wasn't too bad.

Tazo "Zen" tea was my next choice.  This green tea contained lemongrass and spearmint.  

This smelled fresh and minty.  My entire room smelled that way for awhile.

It tasted so fresh, I almost forgot to show a photo of it.  At least I remembered to get a photo of the tea bag.

There's a reason that Crabtree and Evelyn are in my bag of choices.

I purchased a large box of this and enjoy drinking English Breakfast tea.  This black tea blend really gets you going in the morning.  I also like that the envelope opens, rather than must be torn as I've had to do on past days.

Even the tag makes me happy.

I know most people prefer drinking it with milk and sugar, but I like it just the way it comes from the bag.

Suddenly I was on a black tea binge.  Not that I prefer Lipton.

I did appreciate the opening and enjoyed reading about their obvious sales pitch.  So different from their green organic tea from Day 2.

This tea started steeping the instant it hit the boiling water.

Another full bodied tea to which most would add milk and sugar.  Personally, it was my least favorite, because it had very little taste.

It's been awhile since I showed the contents of my new mug.  It's filling up nicely.

I was attracted to the shiny silver back of this Therapeutic brand mint tea.

Technically, mint is not a tea, but a tisane.  Tisanes are herbs (like mint) and often drunk for their medicinal purposes. 

I have no idea what the material was that made up the teabag, but I tore it when I added it to the cup.  That worries me, because good teabags are made of cotton fabric, and do not tear easily.

I was really glad I picked this gifted tea.

It came all the way from Peru.

The leaves were decent sized in this bag.

It had a nice light taste, too.

Normally I would have stopped after seven days as I have in the past, but I wanted to continue since I was on a roll.  And I wanted to end with another Chai tea.

Stash brand has a reputation that no matter which type of tea you drink, from green to black and anything in between, their teas are all decaffeinated.  I'm sure those of you who can't have caffeine will approve, but I need my drug of choice.

Luckily my drug of choice is legal and sold anywhere teas and coffees are sold.

The Chai was good, but I preferred the Chai from the first day.  I was hoping for a few more square teabags, but only picked two: Metro and Therapeutic Tea brands.

That's when I made green tea sun tea in my pot dedicated to crafts.  Sun tea without the sun.  That was OK, because I didn't buy this green tea to drink, anyway.  These came without envelopes in a box of 100 for $1.00 (USD).

Now you have seen all my teas I drank this week and my new mug.

It's now your turn to share your drink related post.  It can be gifts you received, photos, a place you visited, movies, postcards, mail art, junk mail, catalogs, books, sketches, mixed media, drawings, paintings, tags, scrapbooking, or other art that is digital, hybrid, or traditional, as long as it in some way relates back to a drink, any drink.  Yes, teabags count!  Please share below and Bleubeard and I, along with the rest of the T gang will be by to visit.   Please link only your T post and not your blog in general.  Bleubeard would like to remind you that old photos are acceptable because they may be taken any time, not just on Tuesday and not just this year.   

I would also be remiss if I didn't remind you to dig up your Second on the 2nd post.  It can be any post you have shared before.  The only rule is, it must have been published sometime in the past.

Also please be sure to stop by beginning on the 1st and continuing for 22 days where I share something I recycle, reuse, reduce, rethink, re-invent, redesign, re-craft, recover, restore, rebuild, revamp, reclaim, and/or re-purpose to keep it out of the landfill or the recycle center.  I hope you will stop by and see what I have planned.  It all ends on what others call Earth Day, but I call bEARTHday.