Is it a Hoax? And Zhena's Raspberry Earl Grey

So I am getting a tea post done in time. Or almost on time, depending on when I finish typing and hit publish.

Am I the only one who thinks this story about a woman drinking 100 cups of tea a day for 17 years is just a hoax? Those who have not read the story a woman supposedly drank 100 cups of tea a day for 17 years and now has high bone density. The story is usually under the headline about how tea is actually bad for you. There are a few things about this story that make me think it's a joke.

• The story came out shortly before April Fools Day. Tea being healthy is being exaggerated all over the place, someone overdoing tea drinking until her bones got messed up is something of a joke.
• How can this woman afford 100 bags of tea a day? I understand that not everyone drinks fancy expensive teas but even so that much tea adds up.
• How can anyone drink 100 cups of anything a day and not die of water poisoning? Was she working out hard and sweating it out? Unless she kept the tea near the toilet she would not have enough time to drink half that much a day- the human bladder can only hold so much for so long and tea is a diuretic. Did she just stay home all day drinking tea? That's what I do most days but even I don't have enough time to drink that much.
• Another story says she did not drink 100 cups but actually made a pitcher of tea every day with 100-150 tea bags and drank it. I go through about 100 cups wit ha tea in a month. That tea had to be strong enough to float a horse shoe. I drink a lot of tea but if I drink more than 4 cups too closely together at regular strength I get the caffeine jitters. Unless it was decaf or a caffeine free herbal she had to be getting way too much caffeine. The average 8 oz cup of tea (how much you get with the average teabag) has 15-70 mg of caffeine, if she used 100-150 teabags she was consuming 1.5-10.5 grams of caffeine a day from tea alone, even more if she just left the teabags in the pitcher all day. She probably stretched out her tea drinking all day but she had to be close to caffeine toxicity. I can only imagine the insomnia and anxiety she would suffer.
• Then the article ends with this: "she is now hooked on another beverage: Diet Coke". Diet Coke is another drink that people think is healthy because it does not have sugar, but it's not healthy at all. Diet Coke and other sodas are said to lower bone density and contribute to osteoporosis. Another reason why I think this whole story is a joke. Or at least is being treated as one.

 If the story is true of course I wish this woman well.

Now how about a tea review?

Zhena's Gypsy Tea Raspberry EG

I had been wanting to try a raspberry Earl Grey ever since I heard about Ovation Teas Raspberry EG. Ovation Tea is no more but I googled up another raspberry Earl Grey, this one by Zhena's Gypsy Tea. I thought the price on the website seemed a little high, especially for a bagged tea so I never ordered it. But last week I was browsing the teas at Ocean State Job Lot (a store almost identical to Big Lots) and was shocked to find tins of Zhena's Raspberry Earl Grey for only $2! I can afford that, though I was afraid that the tea would not be very good. Most of the tea I buy cheap at Ocean State tends to be dried up, stale, weak and not very good tasting. But I was curious and bought it. The tin had a small dent on the lid, I think the other tins may have also been dented, so maybe they were at Ocean State and on sale for so cheap because of the lightly damaged cans being unsuitable for sale at full price?
I steeped it for about 3 minutes with freshly boiled water. Here's my Steepster review:

Zhena's Gypsy Tea Raspberry EG

 It's been so long since I last posted a tasting note. Class has me so busy lately. *sigh*

I have been wanting to try this tea for a while, and was surprised to find a tin of it at Ocean State Job Lot. Ocean State's teas aren't always the best (Ocean State is a lot like Big Lots) they tend to be old and dried up. So I was worried that I would not be getting the best possible first impression of Zhena's Gypsy Tea. However the tin must have been well sealed, or the tea fresher than most tea I have found at this store, because it did not taste the least bit stale and has a nice aroma dry.

I steeped it for only 3 minutes but found it on the bitter side. Not too bitter but still a little more bitter than I would prefer my Earl Grey. A shorter steep time might improve the bitterness. I added a little sugar and it was better, bitterness-wise. Also a little milk does not hurt it.

Overall it is a good bagged Earl Grey, a lot of bergamot flavor and a good hint of raspberry. Most flavored Earl Greys do not have enough bergamot to satisfy me but this tea does. I usually wind up not liking raspberry teas but am happy to report that this is one of the raspberry teas I like.

I think this tin was like two bucks, I will have to get back to Ocean State and get some more.

Zhena's Gypsy Tea Raspberry EG

I really liked the tea but I probably will not be buying more of it anytime soon, I have so much tea I have not even tried yet. I got in an order from NM Tea Company and Butiki Teas just today, and I am planning on putting in another small order with Upton Teas in the near future (I need small tins... and to try their chocolate Earl Grey) so getting more of a tea I already have is something I am going to avoid.

In other news I bought a glass mug because I thought it would look better on my blog. Unfortunately the mouth of this new mug has a 3.5" diameter and my widest tea strainer has a 3" diameter meaning the tea strainer will fall into the mug. So I am looking into other tea strainers or figuring out a way to hold up the strainer, besides standing there holding the handle.

Ah, it's after midnight so I am not getting this post published before midnight after all. But it's not my fault, I think my computer is updating and the photo uploader does not want to work. And the ^#*@ pictures do not want to go where I want them to and it is seriously ticking me off. Maybe I should just give up on photos and make everyone just read.

If I get the #^@&* uploader to work here's a hint at what brand of tea I plan on reviewing next week:

Going Grey

I have a couple Earl Grey variations to review this week.



I got some Harney & Sons Earl of Harlem tea in sachets. The sachets are meant for 16 ounces of water so I used the biggest mug I could find, literally a soup bowl with a handle. I steeped it for about 4 minutes in boiled water and added a little sugar.

My Steepster tasting notes:

Used one of the sachets with about 16 oz of water. The dry tea smelled like a strong Earl Grey. However after I steeped it the smokiness overpowered the bergamot. I added some sugar and as the tea cooled I could taste a hint of bergamot. Next time I might try this mixed with another Earl Grey to help fight the smoke.

Not a bad tea but not one I would buy. Glad I got to sample it. 

Baroness Grey by Culinary Teas is an Earl Grey with orange and lemon peel, rose and cornflower petals, cinnamon pieces. I steeped it for about 4 minutes in boiled water. My Steepster tasting notes:

At first sip maybe a little too strong, I will have to decrease the steep time next time, and maybe have the water be below boiling.

It's a pretty powerful Earl Grey, it reminds me of Russian Earl Grey, only more floral. Very citrus, I can still taste the bergamot but I can also taste lemon and I think orange rind. It is a good blend. 

I managed to get some of Ovation Tea's Blueberry Earl Grey. It is a very different Earl Grey, as I was looking at the leaves I realized that it actually has dried blueberries in it. Not those tiny wild blueberries that you sometimes get in cereals, but great big ones. It also has orange peel, marigold petals and cornflowers. My Steepster tasting notes:

The first time I tried making this tea I got distracted and oversteeped it by 7+ minutes. Needless to say it was bitter.

A while later I tried it again with fresh leaves for about 4 minutes. It was very blueberry-ish. It could use more bergamot but still a good Earl Grey. I am thinking of mixing with with some double bergamot for MORE bergamot, or some EG cream because a creamy blueberry EG has to be awesome.

It is good with milk and some sugar helps bring out the blueberry. I might try an even shorter steep time to see if that keeps the bergamot from being overwhelmed by the blueberry. 

Sadly if you want some of Ovation Tea's Blueberry Earl Grey it will be hard to find since they're out of business now. :-/ Ovation also has a raspberry Earl Grey I would like to try but it will not be easy to find.

52 Teas has been selling the Earl Black at half price so I gave into temptation and ordered an ounce. The Earl Black is actually a white tea flavored with bergamot and blackcurrant. My Steepster tasting notes:
It could use more bergamot, but I say that about almost every Earl Grey tea (the exception being ETS double bergamot, and maybe a few regular Earl Greys) I can't seem to get enough bergamot.

Very fruity, the blackcurrant comes through clear. Next time I think I will steep it longer because it seemed a little weak at 2 and a half minutes (Or it could be the white tea, I'm not used to white tea and am still developing a taste for it). And maybe add a little double bergamot.

Glad I got this tea. Working on tasting every Earl Grey there is and I think this is my first EG made with white tea. 

I did the unthinkable and steeped this white tea for over five minutes. It did not turn bitter at all, and I liked it a lot better 'oversteeped'. The bergamot was more noticeable. 

52 Teas has a few other Earl Greys (Earl Pink) that I'd like to try.

Adagio - Earl Grey - Bravo and Moonlight

So I set down to do a post about some more of the Adagio teas I have tried in the past week. I go to draw up the tasting notes on Steepster and realize I had been too busy to do a Steepster review. But I did make some short reviews on the adagio site.

EG Bravo

First the Earl Grey Bravo. It's Adagio's version of Earl Grey, it's black tea with bergamot oil, but it also has orange rind and cornflowers. I steeped it for about 2 minutes with boiled water. My short Adagio review:

It tastes more of orange citrus than bergamot. A little harsh, very strong. I would not drink this without sugar. 

Earl Grey Bravo is not my favorite Earl Grey. It's cheap and will do if there's nothing else, but I do not plan on ordering more.

The Earl Grey Moonlight is supposed to be a creamy Earl Grey. Like the Bravo it's black tea, bergamot, orange rind and cornflowers but it also has vanilla and creme flavoring. I steeped it for about 3 minutes.

EG Moonlight, sans milk

Not as harsh as the Earl Grey Bravo but I still would not take this tea without a little sugar and some milk. 

If you want to try a creamy Earl Grey, Moonlight is not too bad. Not as good as NM Tea Company's Earl Grey Creme, but it's cheap and drinkable.

And while I am reviewing Adagio teas here's a $5 gift certificate at Adagios: 2680945299. The code is good for 24 hours for new Adagio customers.

Nature's Leaf Tea - Green Tea with Bergamot and Chocolate Midnight

Nature's Leaf Tea sent me some free samples, all I have to do in return is review their teas. It's a good deal, and if you get a chance to get free samples of their tea go for it.

Samples

First off I'll say Nature's Leaf is not at all stingy with their free samples. I was expecting enough for 2-3 cups in a baggy, what I got was an ounce of each sample in nifty resealable pouches. They also have good customer service, when they could not send my free samples right away due to a shortage of bags they let me know via Steepster. Even then it did not take long for the teas to get to me, less than 2 weeks between requesting and their arrival in the mail.

Bergamot Green Tea

The first tea I tried was the Bergamot Green Tea. This tea is literally Sencha green tea with pieces of bergamot rind mixed in it. With green tea you must be careful to not let the water get too hot, a lot of people think they don't like green tea because it's 'bitter' when they're just brewing it wrong, if you add boiling water to green tea of course it will be bitter, you scalded the leaves! And you can not use color to determine when green tea is done steeping, green tea has a much lighter color than black tea, by the time green tea gets half as dark as black tea you have oversteeped it. For this particular tea the suggested temp is 175 degrees and one minute steep time. I need to get a proper tea thermometer but for now I'm using a digital meat thermometer.

Here is my Bergamot Green Tea Steepster review:

What a cup of green tea should look like

This is not Earl Grey but I still love my bergamot. This tea is more vegetal than citrusy, a nice break from all the dessert teas I'm usually drinking. The bergamot becomes more noticeable as the tea cools, and a pinch of sugar may help bring out the bergamot even more but this tea is fine alone. Has a slight peppery taste too, must be the sencha.

In the second steeping the bergamot was stronger, the tea slightly bitter from the bergamot, but still good. This Earl Grey with Bergamot tea is really strong and good for multiple steepings, I've already steeped the same leaves four times and it still has not weakened.

I cannot resist a good chocolate tea so I also tried the Chocolate Midnight black tea. Here is my Steepster review:

Chocolate

I think I've found my new favorite chocolate tea. This is the most chocolatey tea I've had. I really like the creamy texture it has. I was going to add milk but once again we're out, but this tea is fine without it.

The caffeine level in this tea is really high so I don't think I'll be sleeping well tonight...

Very dark tea

The directions on the packaging said 2 teaspoons to 8oz 195 degree water, I think 1 teaspoon would have been enough. Chocolate Midnight is made with Yunnan black tea, and Yunnan is a very strong dark tea, a lot stronger than I am used to and I did get a slight caffeine headache afterwards so I will be using less tea leaves per cup in the future. Chocolate Midnight is also infused with vanilla has large shavings of Belgium dark chocolate, it's tempting to pick the chocolate out of the leaves and eat the chips as they are.

I had also gotten a sample of their Soothing Charm Throat tea but have been so busy this week I have not even gotten a chance to try it, much less give a review.

Earl Grey Hot Chocolate

I like variety in my hot chocolate, and I love Earl Grey. So this week's hot chocolate is Earl Grey cocoa. 

So I made a cup of Earl Grey tea using English Tea Store's Earl Grey decaf. The ETS's Earl Grey tends to be more flowery than I like my Earl Grey. For cocoa mix I had Stop & Shop's brand hot chocolate in a canister. I was very generous with the cocoa and stirred in a bit of milk.

Earl Grey Hot Chocolate

It still made a decent cup of hot chocolate, though it too came out flowery. Very creamy, the bergamot flavor was still there while being chocolatey. Next time I might try making it with Bigelow's Earl Grey or a Cream Earl Grey.

Regina's Only Friend

I'm a fan of the TV show Once Upon a Time, so how about a post about Once Upon a Time?

Maleficent is really hurt right now

This is something that has been bothering me since the season one finale. Regina sends Emma under the library to see "an old friend" which turns out to be Maleficent trapped in her dragon form. Emma winds up having to blow her up with a well thrown sword, rumor has it Maleficent is still alive but usually when someone gets blown to ash they're pretty dead, or at least really hurt.

What I want to know is why Maleficent wound up getting the short end of the stick.

Regina was at her most evil right before she set the Dark Curse. For whatever reason Maleficent had traded her sleeping curse with Regina for the Dark Curse, probably to go after Sleeping Beauty (Aurora and/or Aurora's mother) But Regina is the sort of customer who would expect to get a full refund for any product that does not completely meet her every expectation. Because Snow was freed from the sleeping curse Regina uses that as a reason to get the Dark Curse back from Regina. Maleficent and Regina have a magic fight with lots of CGI, a miniature unicorn almost gets killed, and in the end Regina traps Maleficent with a bunch of chandelier loop things from the ceiling. Maleficent expects Regina to kill her but Regina does not because Maleficent is her only friend, and shows uncharacteristic mercy by leaving Maleficent to awkwardly squirm out of that stupid hoop thing but alive.

I killed my horse for nothing?! I look like such an idiot right now.

An undetermined amount of time later Regina first kills her horse, then her father (both things she loves the most) in order to enact the Dark Curse.

So Regina would not kill Maleficent because she was her only friend but cursed her worse than most. Even Mary Margaret got to be human, interact with other people, go places around town. But Maleficent got stuck in her dragon form, trapped in some underground caves, completely alone, with nothing to do but move Snow White's glass coffin around (The coffin was under the abandoned mines in "Still Small Voice" but was under the library/town in "Land without Magic". Some people wonder why some of the glass was broken, I'm surprised the dragon didn't smash it completely.) as her only piece of furniture, for 28 years.

Why (and how) Maleficent was trapped in dragon form is something I would like to know. Maleficent was not the only shape shifter; Regina herself shifted into a mouse to visit Rumpelstiltskin. Red was a werewolf but Ruby would not change in Storybrooke because there was no magic. Isn't a dragon a magical creature and impossible to exist, fly and breathe fire in Storybrooke? It is possible that Maleficent was in her dragon form when the Dark Curse hit and so she stayed in that form. But Billy was never human in the Enchanted Forest, he was a mouse, Gus, and possibly was briefly a horse if they want to borrow from the Cinderella story. For some odd reason Gus got turned into a human when he was brought to Storybrooke. So even dragon Maleficent should have been turned back into a human when she was brought to Storybrooke.

Could Maleficent get pregnant from this?

Maleficent being a dragon in Storybrooke could not have been unintentional, what Regina said to Emma about Maleficent being trapped in a different form suggested that Regina did it on purpose. Why did Regina do that to her? Did Maleficent remember her previous life, or did she get her memory erased like everyone else? And how emotionally scarred was Maleficent after having Charming shove that egg in her gills? Or is her dragon form like Red's Wolf form before she learned to embrace the Wolf, in blacked out dragon rage?




In honor of Maleficent I blended a tea on Adagio called Regina's Only Friend, a mostly green tea with bergamot (Earl Grey Green) and spearmint with a little cinnamon flavored black tea with ginger accent. I've paired it with my other OUAT fandom tea Evil Queen.If you get it use code 8581843594 to save $5, the code expires in 24 hours.

Casablanca Tea

I like New Mexico Tea Company's Casablanca, as you can see in my post on Steepster:

I love my bergamot.
I got this as a free sample from the NM Tea Company and I wish I had a couple ounces of it, this is good stuff. I’m usually not too crazy about mint teas because the mint tends to get overpowering, but in this tea I can also taste the tea and more importantly the bergamot. The mint blends well with it.
I only meant to steep this tea for 2 minutes but got distracted, I think it would be better with a shorter steeping time but it was still good. Added just a little sugar and drink it like I drink my regular Earl Grey – enjoying and trying to make it last instead of gulping it down too fast.

NM Tea Co Casablanca

It is a very attractive tea, one of the best smelling I've ever sniffed. I'd like to get a shower gel that smells like this.

Like Dorian Grey there are several teas with this name but are different, a lot of them are actually tisanes. 

• Pekko Teas Casablanca is a fruity herbal; Luxury natural dried apple pieces, Hibiscus, Rosehip, Elderberries, Maracuja pieces, Sunflower petals, Passion flowers, Rose petals, Raspberry pieces, Strawberry pieces, Kiwi pieces, Cornflower petals, Natural flavors.
• Culinary Teas Casablanca is also herbal; Hibiscus petals, Rosehip chips, Dried apple pieces, Dried strawberries, Dried currants, Cornflower petals, Calendula petals, Natural Flavors 
• The Tea Table Casablanca herbal, dried apple pieces, hibiscus, rose hip peels, elderberries, raspberry, strawberry, kiwi, and passion fruit pieces, sunflower, cornflower, and rose petals, and natural flavors.
• Special Tea Casablanca Is a fruity black tea, ceylon black tea, safflower, rose petals, natural flavor. Special Tea also has roobios Casablanca.
• Mariage Freres Casablanca is similar to NM Tea Casablanca, green tea with Moroccan mint and bergamot-flavoured tea
•  Leland Tea Co Casablanca is a white tea with Mediterranean fig.

I plan on putting in another order with NM Tea Co in a couple weeks, it's a little more expensive per ounce than ETS but you have the option of buying as little as 1 oz at a time, free shipping on any order and free samples so it's still a good deal. NM Tea Co is also the cheapest I've seen this version of Casablanca tea.