Fun and FlirTea

I recently received an offer of a sample from Raizana Teas. When I first checked out their site, I was intrigued by the array of mood-based herbal teas (technically tisanes, but that’s  neither here nor there). Each and every one listed, as part of the ingredients/flavors, some form of tropical fruit.

Uncertain what to try, I simply requested a popular blend and promptly received a generous package of the Mood: Happy Tea. (Thanks again for the free sample!) The package states it is a Mate Hibiscus Tropical blend – a mood enhancer and herbal supplement.

My first impression was, “My god, there seem to be a lot of chamomile in that sucker!”

I opened the bag and was immediately hit with a wall of aroma. It was so sweet, it nearly knocked me off my feet. Don’t get me wrong, I have quite the sweet tooth. But this was a little too much. (more…)

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So, on that note… haha. I’ve decided on a slightly new direction for Fun and FlirTea! I’m going to be a bit more focused on specific teas, reviews, etc. But in a fun way!

Sorry to keep this short just now, but it’ll be fun and we’ll get some good descriptive stuff up soon!

In day-to-day life, it’s the little things that can tip the balance. It’s always “the straw that broke the camel’s back”.

Instead, let’s focus on the little things that bring that extra bit of joy to your day to make it better.

To me, that has already been accomplished with the second to last cup of Scottish Breakfast from a tea company that has since gone out of business. Sad to see the end of the tin, but boy is it delicious!

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Just a fun little thing to share while I’m preparing some new content. Who doesn’t love an adorable 4 day old kitten in a sweet teacup?

My heart simply melts!

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*singing*

When I find myself in times of tea-rouble,
My sexy teapot comes to me,
Pouring cups of wisdom,
Let it tea…

I feel like I need to share this Woot Shirt with you all before it is no longer available for sale! If you’re a Tea-tles fan, then this shirt may just be for you.

You can find the original page for it right here. And while you’re at it… why not enjoy the Reckoning of other awesome t-shirts from Woot?

When I first heard from The Persimmon Tree, I admit I thought they would be another “tea” company that doesn’t actually carry tea, but some weird persimmon-based herbal remedies. I don’t have anything against persimmons, per se, but they aren’t my favorite fruit and I wasn’t exactly interested in soaking dried persimmons and flowers in hot water and drinking the result.

Thankfully for me, The Persimmon Tree really is a legit tea company with a pretty awesome variety available. There were more than a few teas I was interested in trying, so I provided a short list and let my contact decide which one to send out for review (thanks so much for the free sample, by the way!).

The 2 oz. sample tin of the Green Pomegranate tea is not only adorable, but will work wonders for any future refills.

I don’t always care for flavored teas. Most of the time, they are too sweet or have a weird after-taste or just have a weird flavor to begin with. When I opened this tea, the sweet pomegranate scent was pretty close to over-powering for me. On the plus side, it didn’t smell like a sugary, fake pomegranate flavor. And you can see the actual pomegranate bits mixed in with the green tea itself. So as much as I was worried, I wasn’t too concerned it would turn out to be a failure for me.

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Have you ever had those days, weeks, months where shit just gets real? The times when the stress of your life seems to simply overwhelm you and everything going on? Well, with the help of a site I recently discovered, CalmingManatee.com, these times can be made less troublesome and painful.

Please, take a moment to sit back, relax, and enjoy my personal favorite Calming Manatee.

It’s been a while. I’m aware! Shit has gotten real with my work life and even picked up in my personal life (go me!). So I’ve been distracted. However, I’m going to be doing some updating to the site over the weekend that will allow me to get more awesome stuff posted again in the near future.

Plus! The actual website design is ALMOST done and the goal is for it to go live by the end of September at the latest! So look forward to that as well!

What’s more American than boozing? And tea? Boston Tea Party, anyone?

AMIRITE!?

In honor of the U.S. rebellion against Britain, I’m combining the heart of part of that rebellion with a key factor of what it means to be an American today. Getting hammered!

So here’s a step-by-step guide to making your own tea-infused vodka!

1. Start with a fifth of nice, unflavored vodka (750 mL) and 6 teaspoons of your black tea of choice (flavored or unflavored). I used a bottle of Absolut and a very nice Yunnan black tea I picked up in Dali, China. The nicer the vodka and the tea you use, the cleaner tea flavor you’ll get in the finished product. I’m totally going to try this again in future with a flavored tea and will definitely let you know how it is.

2. Pour the tea into the bottle of vodka. If you’re like me and don’t see the point in owning a funnel, use any old piece of shit junk mail you’ve got lying around. In my case, I fucking hate Comcast and their (lack of good) customer service, so I picked up one of their adverts without regret!

3. Let that sucker sit and stew for around 18 hours.

4. Strain that shit. Like a boss.

5. Clean out the bottle and pour it back in.

6. Optional: You can keep it straight up or add some simple syrup to taste. I prefer to keep mine unsweetened, because it’s easy to sweeten each drink individually as you make them.

7. Mix it up with some lemonade and enjoy what I like to call a Drunk Golfer!

The best part about it is how straight easy and cheap it is to do this. The bottle cost under $20, and the tea, well… you know just as well as I do that the pricing can vary depending on which tea you landed on. The time it takes you to put this together (not counting the 18 hour infusion time) is super minimal and anyone can do it!

After tasting it and agreeing that it’s delicious with a clear, tasty tea flavor, Briana and I have decided that our next step will be to make “Moroccan Tea Rum” for the best mojitos ever. More on that when we’ve had a chance to make it happen! In the meantime, I’ll just enjoy my black tea vodka!

Photography
First two images by Dinah, the rest are by the fabulous Briana Morrison.
For more photos from this experiment, check out Briana’s post here.

Knock Knock / Who’s There? / Interrupting Giraffe / Interrupting Gira–

Bahaha! I’ve always loved that joke. At least I didn’t tell you the one about the interrupting starfish and smack you in the face, right?

Anyway, this is probably the single coolest Tea for Two I’ve ever seen. Once I get my hands on this set, I will have so many tea for two parties, it’ll be ridiculous. Also, thanks to Foodbeast for alerting me to the existence of this awesomeness!