Wednesday, February 15, 2017

A Tastebud Adventure

One of the many reasons why I love my best friend Marie is that she always knows how to surprise me.  Letters, postcards, "just because" gifts, the list goes on.  She must have had fun putting together my birthday box, which arrived at my house the 2 days after my birthday.  It all came from Amazon and the variety & quirkiness made my day.  I had this image of her, sitting at her computer, giggling to herself every time she found a unique item to throw into the cart.

One of these items was a variety box of tea.  I love a nice cup of hot tea sweetened with honey (never with sugar).  Each box has 4 flavors (5 bags each).


So here is the taste review for all you tea lovers out there

Fruit Tea Selection
Apple Refresh - This one was pretty good.  It smelled like apples, but not tart like most apple flavored items.  It was like it was a combo of black tea and apple juice.

Peach & Passion Fruit - Not quite sure how I felt about this one.  It had a faint taste of peach but couldn't tell the passion fruit.  I could taste more of the fruit flavor when it got lukewarm. (Got distracted and forgot about it)

Strawberry Sensation - The tea bag smelled really good & the tea wasn't bad.  it is hard to get a good strawberry flavor in a lot of things but they did a pretty good job with this one.

Lemon & Lime Twist - This had a very refreshing taste.  I think it would be great to have on those days that you are under the weather and need a little pick me up.

Green Tea Selection
Green Tea Pure - This one was very nice.  I don't normally like straight green tea due to the after taste but this one was light and not bitter.

Lemon Vitality - This would be another good one if you were sick.  The lemon  flavor was strong enough to make you think that you had put fresh lemon into your tea.  I could tasted it over the honey I had put into it.

Jasmine Romance -I was rather looking forward to this one.  Sadly, there wasn't a lot of the taste of the flower, just a hint of the smell of jasmine.

Mint Mystique - Wow, this one smelled great as it brewed.  It was very similar to the smell of Doublemint gum.  But the funny thing was that it didn't have a really minty taste to it.  You could taste more of the green tea than the mint.

Classic Black Tea Selection
Earl Gray - This is a tea that I have always liked and this one was no exception.  The bergamont flavor wasn't super strong, which is always a plus.

English Tea No. 1 - Not sure how to feel about this one.  There really wasn't much of a flavor difference between this tea and just straight black tea.  I may have to make it again in an actual tea cup rather than in my travel mug to get a more in-depth experience.

English Breakfast - I have to say I was disappointed with this one.  I've heard that it was pretty good but after I tried it, I really don't think that it lived up to the hype.  It was rather bland.

Darjeeling Tea - Wow!  Talk about some strong black tea.  I needed a bit more honey in this one since it was so strong.  With a tea like this, I can see how people functioned before coffee became mainstream.


Friday, February 10, 2017

No You Can't Eat That Many

The Valentine's day holiday is almost upon us with all of it's chocolatey temptations.  This means that the Easter candy time is coming and in many cases, has already started to appear on store shelves.  It is during this time period that one of my biggest candy temptations appears.

This particular candy is on the small side, made of chocolate, and has a liquid center of sugar that is guaranteed to add to your waistline.  This evil temptation is know by many, disliked by some, but is a well known staple in any Easter basket.  Give up?  The candy I am referring to is the Cadbury Cream Egg.

Now I am well aware of how bad this particular treat it for me, but I just can't seem to help myself.  It is a defiant test of will power to walk by a display of these egg-shaped chocolatey delights without grabbing at least one.  Heaven forbid that I actually buy more than one of these because I can assure you that I will eat more than one in a sitting, whether I mean to or not.  I'm not even sure why I like them but I have to admit that I look forward when they arrive and I am slightly saddened & happy when they go.

Then they came out with ones for Halloween. Dang nabbit!!!