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Monday, July 11, 2011

A Different Type of Six Pack

(I know I live in California, but it's not what it looks like)

Happy Monday Everyone! I hope you had a relaxing and/or enjoyable weekend!

First off, I would like to thank everyone that started following my blog recently. I really appreciate the support of the book blogging community even though my blog isn't purely dedicated to book blogging. 

Secondly, I would like to personally thank Jade from Sort of Beautiful for the wonderful giveaway that she just held. Thank You Jade for providing me with a near-future coffee fix.

Lastly, I would like to thank Kristin from My Bookish Ways for providing me with a book to accompany my coffee from Jade. Thank You Kristin!

Now, moving on to the main topic of discussion today.

This past Saturday, I received in the mail this lovely package.

And in this lovely package, if you didn't already read it from the picture above, were 6 smaller boxes containing 120 days of salvation!

I LOVE TEA! 

I need to drink at least 16oz of this stuff every morning before I can wake up completely! Tea bags, loose tea leaves, flowering tea, the form doesn't matter as long as it tastes great with a good helping of sugar and milk. Tea has been my caffeine fix since I graduated college. It doesn't have the kick from coffee or frappuccinos, but daily Starbucks is beyond my budget right now.

Today, I am going to talk about the different teas I own. As you go down the list, most of the teas are different variations of black tea since I enjoy this type the most. So, without further ado, I'll start with the French Vanilla Tea from above.


Bigelow's French Vanilla Tea was a semi let down for me. I bought this tea based on the great reviews it received online. I initially wanted to only purchase a single box, but sadly the three grocery stores I went to didn't stock this variety. So, I decided to purchase it on Amazon since I didn't have to pay tax or shipping; however, Amazon only sold it in a six pack. Hoping that it would be as satisfying as most customers were saying, I decided to make the purchase. I brewed my first pot of it yesterday and knew I was in trouble when the drink smelled just like the instant french vanilla coffee that my dad use to drink when I was a kid. It was an okay coffee, but I definitely prefer fresh ground city or french roast coffee. Needless to say, I didn't think sugar and milk would save the tea and it didn't. It tasted like vanilla wafers. Not the round ones sold in a yellow box by Nabisco, but the long sort of flaky ones found in Kit Kat but instead of smoldered in chocolatey goodness there's vanilla cream between every layer. They taste okay for only so long, and then you get sick and tired of them since there's too much sugar and vanilla. Well, that's the same way I feel about this tea. I'll still drink it just to get rid of it, but I'm definitely not purchasing this ever again. It is literally not my cup of tea. Only 118 more days to go.

Teavana's Bangkok Lemongrass is actually the first tea that I ever purchased. I was looking for a tea with lemongrass in it, and the sales woman recommended me this one. It's a Rooibos tea with lemongrass, citrus, apple, and vanilla. As a plus, the tea is suppose to help you relax and help you through allergy season. It smelled heavenly, so I purchased 4 ounces. The first time I brewed it, I had no idea what I was doing and poured water directly into the tea filter, which defeated the whole purpose of the filter since the leaves scattered out into the tea pot. Still, I gave it a go and drank it anyways with the wrong kind of sugar. It tasted so off that I could barely hold down the second swallow let alone the whole pot of tea. The rest of it went down the drain and on a different day I attempted to brew it again. This time I had the right sugar and brewed the tea correctly. Still, I didn't particularly like the taste of the tea. It has too much of a citrus flavoring for my liking. I tried it a third time a few months later with a guest, and my guest felt the same way I did. I haven't tried it as an iced tea yet, but I think it'll likely taste better this way than as a hot tea for me.

The questionable photo at the beginning of this post is actually a variety of Numi's flowering tea. It came with the tea set I got as a gift for Christmas back in December 2010. I haven't tried any of them yet, so I can't tell you which ones I liked or disliked. However, most reviews online said they're good though I wouldn't trust them since your and my preferences are different from them and each others.


This tea is a loose-leaves Earl Grey purchased at Tea List, which is a tea room located in the city I used to go to school at. I prefer Tea List's mixture of Earl Grey than the bagged Twinings' version I've previously tasted at a friend's house since it has less of the citrus flavoring in it. Can't say much about it other then if you ever stop by Davis, California you should stop by this tea room and purchase some of this tea along with the tea after this.










This is Tea List's blend of organic vanilla black tea. It smells great. It tastes great. GO GET IT! 


You may be able to have it shipped to you, go on the website and look up the phone number.



Mighty Leaf Tea's Vanilla Bean is not as good as Tea List's black tea, but it goes down smoothly, may be purchased in tea bag or loose leaves format, and is readily available online.














So, Bigelow's plain black tea is the last on my list of teas in my personal stash. It's basic and it's yummy with sugar and milk.











I hope you enjoyed my odd tea post!




4 comments:

jeanette8042 said...

Wooow when you said you bought a lot of tea I didn't realize it was that much!

Kristy said...

I wish it was only half that amount. :(

Mary Kirkland said...

That's a lot of tea..lol I like tea as well as coffee.

Kristy said...

That's not exactly all the tea I have either! I have a few green and oolong teas but they were in the kitchen and I was too lazy to go retrieve them.