Tea Robot

You have noticed the different labels I put on my various articles and blog entries. They range from "bacon" and "bread" to "Lego" and "vintage toys". My articles usually fall under more than one category, and are therefore given multiple labels. Let's say I write about Jetfire. As he is both a robot, and a vintage toy, it makes sense to give the article the "robot" label as well as the "Vintage" label. And since I rarely talk about contemporary robots, many of my Transformers articles usually have these two labels. Likewise with the "motuc" label, which usually is accompanied with the "rant" label. 

Today, I will need to use two labels I never expected to use together. I certainly don't mind. Tea and robots are two passions of mine. I got the tea robot from my mother, I guess she felt I needed to drink more tea, and that I don't own enough robots. I agree on both accounts. He's made of metal, like any good robot, and he clings on to the rim of the cup until he has fulfilled his purpose. 

Misc.

As I leave this world (for a few days), remember to eat healthy and open your toys. I will have an update on Wednesday and Friday, but they will be extremely simple.

Honey roasted nuts. Perfect in cakes and chocolate

Inside today is a really varied selection of pictures. Some just doesn't warrant an individual article, some can be considered teasers for future articles and some were leftovers from other articles that I still wanted to share. Enjoy.

Darjeeling 1st Flush

Admittedly, I know nothing about tea. Sure, I've made my own peppermint tea, and I'm a sucker for cute cups. But unlike with toys, baking, progressive rock, wrist watches and all the other useless knowledge I've accumulated, I've never really taken the time to seek knowledge about tea. And that's a weird thing. Because the last years, I've probably spent more time drinking tea than playing with toys.

Or is Grand Maximus the First Flush of transformable robots?

So my mother gave me a bag of something called Darjeeling First Flush. It's apparently the Grand Maximus or U.S.S Flagg of tea.
Darjeeling is a place in India. First flush is what they call the first harvest in the spring. That's all I know.

I can also tell you that it's totally worth it's ridiculous price (at least when I didn't pay for it myself).

The first flush is surprisingly light in color. Both before you steep it, and the color of the brewed tea. And as far as I know, it's supposed to be like that. I used quite a bit more than I would with the regular Ceylon black tea you can see to the left here. To the right is Japanese green tea. Darjeeling first flush in the middle, and as you can see it resembles green tea more, even though it's considered a black tea.

The taste is hard to describe, but I can try. It's fruity. But not unnecessarily so. I'd rather say it tastes a bit like flowers smell. It definitely doesn't taste like fruit tea, but rather like a sweeter and more interesting black tea. It has some tannin, and drinking more than one cup will leave you with a dry mouth. I think I enjoy it better at around 50 degrees Celsius than at higher temperatures, because it gets a certain texture I prefer. Almost like it feels a bit thicker, filling the mouth with great flavors.
I still haven't a clue what I'm doing, maybe I'm not using enough, maybe I'm steeping it the wrong way.
Either way, this is a step in the right direction. Expensive it may be, and even though many good things in life are free, truly great things also tend to cost a bit.

Does Tea Taste Better...

...When enjoyed from pretty cups?

Peppermint Tea

How to make peppermint tea.

Read on!