27th December 2010

Text

I might have a problem

It might be time to admit I have a problem, and it is bordering on addiction. I love tea. Sounds innocent enough till I look at how much I love having and collecting different teas. I faced this realization Christmas morning before I put the stew together. I needed to put some things in the cabinet and realized it was a mess. On cleaning it out I started putting all my teas in a pile. (I had remarked just the night before how I would like a better place to keep them and thought perhaps after seeing how much I had I could figure out where.)

Oh bother do I have a lot of tea. (Hooray!) First I organized all my various tea bags that are in individual packets and put them in a plastic bin. (A much larger one than I had been using.) Then I realized I might have gotten to the crazy point and took some pictures.

This was my entire tea stash as of Christmas Morning this year. (I have other tea at work, like almost a 1/2 pound of Harney & Sons Paris among other things.)

So let’s look at the boxed teas…

Here we have (in colums top to bottom then L-R) Twinings Black Pomegranite (bought as a quick make tea on the way out the door without needing to deal with looseleaf), a tea sent in a swap that is from Israel and Lemony, Bilbo Baggins Breakfast Blend which I bought to send to a Twitter friend HobbitWriter and had to keep one for myself (how could I not?!), Celestial Seasonings: Wild Berry Zinger (we’re heading into cold season after all), Sleepytime (I always have some of that, since I was a wee tot) and Chai (which was an accidental purchase and was supposed to be decaf). Normally I also have Tension Tamer but I brought it to work and I might have enough others at home right now. Last are a couple Yogi teas: Bedtime (with natural sleep aids) for when I am really in rough shape, and Peach Detox, which I am not entirely sold on and bought on a whim one time.

Next up: Tub-o-teabags! (and friends)

There’s a little bit of everything in here. Tim Horton swapped tea, Tazo tea, Bigelow, and countless other things. It also is where I have some of my special Chinese tea I have been rationing out from a friend’s trip to Chengdu… last Christmas! Guess I better have some of that this week!

We have my 2 standards, my go-to teas:

Tealuxe: Buckingham Palace Garden Party is my go-to tea generally. It’s basically an Earl Gray with Jasmine and it is magnificent (which is why I bought it a little tin). Decaf Earl Gray is perfect for evenings when I want something that tastes like tea but that won’t keep me up.

We have my little jars of tea

Clockwise from top left: Peach Momotaro blooming white tea (Teavana), Lady Gray (sent in a swap from Australia!!), Berry Blast (swapped from somewhere), & Jasmine Dragon Pearls (teavana). All lovely and all so wel preserved and pretty in their glass jars.

Then I have a couple single flavor herbs I like to use sometimes

I have Lemon Verbena collected from a friend’s garden and plain old Mem tea Chamomile. Sometimes I use them together, sometimes I add one or the other to supplement a tea I already have. They live in that lovely Portmerion Botanic Garden canister from 1972.

These were both gifts

The mint green isn’t really my thing and the one on the right is from someone I used to work with. A black Chinese tea from his home city in China. It is very good, but smokier than I normally like. I keep them around for guests, but may bring them to work.

Over the summer at our local farmer’s market I discovered this new local vendor: Bees Knees Teas!

A co-worker and I got various ones and split them. Schizandra Plum Oolong is good, and the Biodynamic Darjeeling is next to it. The Autum Chai I picked up in October or November and is excellent (and 1/2 rooibos), Mango Chrysanthemum is a green tea and is not too sweet, and Soul Soother is a Rooibos with hints of vanilla, caramel, and Sweet Olive. They’re little pouches and I’m using them up quick enough.

That was all my tea. Christmas morning (well really on the 17th) I got a tea from a dear friend, co-worker, and proprietress of Flower Folk Herbs as a holiday present!

She blended it herself! (And I had some last night and it was lovely. It came out a rich pinky-red color from the hibiscus & elderberry and the peppermint and lemongrass really were not too strong or too weak!)

So there is all is. A ton of tea! I was shocked, and would have been appalled if I wasn’t actually a crazed collecting addict. I decided on several that I should bring in to work and then told myself I was not allowed to buy any more tea! (At least till I used up a good portion of this stash! I have a tea stash AND a yarn stash. It’s a good thing my fella loves me!)

But it turns out, that wasn’t the end…

Mom provided my lovely sister and I with Whole Foods treasures for Christmas. A new fancy honey (for tea!) and a Republic of Tea Ginger Peach Decaf… which has always been a favorite and I almost never have! What a treat! I had a nice little pot of it last night. Mmmm.

So yeah, lots of tea. I’ll need it during this first big snow! We’re having a blizzard. The old familiar rumble of the plows came by last night for the first time this season. Now the sound of snowblowers fill the air as the storm continues to blow tiny sharp flakes.

I’ll go take some pictures later when the snow has stopped… but this is what it looked like last night… and with the wind it was really drifting.

Tags Teacrazysnow