Day 16 - Another Breakfast of Champions

So this time last year we went from England to The Netherlands on the train through the Chunnel and it was time to move onto my next breakfast of champions - Hagelslag!  Heck, I could eat this for breakfast, lunch and dinner!  I remember eating this every single time we went to visit my Dad's family in Holland.

I literally squealed when we went to breakfast at the hotel in Amsterdam and I saw the little boxes of chocolate flakes.  In my opinion, the flakes are far superior to the chocolate sprinkles.

I thought the little boxes were so cute, that I saved one of them to bring home.  I decided to turn it into an ornament for our travel tree.  My daughter and I will be going back to Holland this spring, and I can guarantee I'll be eating this every morning for breakfast and bringing home as many boxes as I can fit in my suitcase.

A good cup of tea pairs beautifully with this breakfast.

My first tea today was the Chocolate Caramel Black Tea.  I had high expectations for this one after how yummy the chocolate one was.  Welp, they should stick to one flavor at a time because this one was meh at best.  You really couldn't taste the chocolate or the caramel.

I give it a rating of:

My second tea of the day was Winterapeel, which translates to Winter Apple.  This is a winter seasonal tea with apple, cinammon and hibiscus has made another appearance.  This was a cozy flavored tea with a subtle taste.  It was nice but nothing to write home about.  I give this tea a rating of:

Toodles until tomorrow....

 

Brrrrr...Day 15 was perfect tea weather

A very chilly start this morning!  My friend and I normally walk first thing in the morning but not today - it was 18 degrees when I woke up this morning.  I decided that today would be a great day to hibernate and bake cookies.  A poundcake and 5 dozen gingerbread moose cookies later, I would say that plan was a success.

A perfect time for a good cup of tea.  I started the day with the Earl Grey Honey Black tea.  I'm a big fan of Earl Grey tea - I always thought this was a very bougee tea when I was a little girl.  To me, this was the kind of tea you had when you went to Harrods or Fortnum & Mason for afternoon tea.

This tea was delicious and I googled to see where I could buy this flavor of tea.  I give this tea a rating of:

After all my baking was finished, I tried the Lavender & Verbenen Tee.  This translates to Lavendar and Verbena tea.  This was a very floral tea with a light and refreshing taste.  I liked it but I wouldn't say I was blown away by the taste.  I give it a rating of:

Toodles until tomorrow....

 

Day 14 - this time last year

This time last year we were in England and my sweet hubby got to experience his very first Reading Football Club game.  My brother has been a life long fan and even pays to stream the games over here.  It was a great experience and brought back a lot of childhood memories for me.

In my hallway, I have a travel Christmas tree.  I love to buy ornaments when we travel and thought it would be good idea to put them all on one tree.  Once I got back from this trip, I realized that I hadn't bought a club ornament.  No to worry, I came up with another idea.

Do you recognize the scarf on the tree? - made a great and interesting ornament!

Now onto to today's teas.  Well I can now say that I'm becoming quite a fan of hot green tea.  Today's flavor was mulled apple.  It had a strong and tart apple flavor that really hit the spot this morning!

I give this tea a rating of:

My afternoon pick me up tea was the Chai Tee Schoko from my German advent calendar.  This translates to chocolate chai tea.  Yes please!  While I'm a HUGE lover of both tea and chocolate, putting those two flavors together doesn't always work.  I've tried some teas that were just plain nasty 😑. They got the combination just right with this tea - the chocolate flavor was spot on and the chai flavoring just made it even better.  I would definitely buy this tea if it was available.  I give it a rating of:

 

Day 13- counting down the days in style

It's lucky day 13!  I've never quite understood the whole legend about the number 13 being an unlucky number.  The 5th grade math teacher in me thinks of it as odd and prime!  The house I grew up in England was #13 and I never thought anything of it.  Talking of houses, I wanted to show you the advent calendar that I am using to hold all of my extra teabags.  The Aldi tea advent calendar actually comes with two teabags of the same flavor each day.

I feel in love with this advent calendar when I saw it in a quilt store in Koblenz, Germany.  Sadly, they were sold out of this design.  However, my crafty friends know that does not stop us from finding fabric when we have fallen in love with it!  Google image search and a third party seller to the rescue.

This calendar was fairly easy to put together. ironing all the fabric to put on top of the windows to make the pockets was probably the most time consuming part of the process.  I'm very pleased with how it turned out.  It's made by a German fabric company called Acutactum.  Their fabric is just gorgeous!

Now to today's teas.  I started the day with the Chocolate Covered Strawberry Roobios Red Tea.  I had liked the Roobios tea I had a couple of days ago but I am not a huge fan of strawberries - I know, I know another thing that picky eater Jakki doesn't like.  Actually, they and a lot of other fruit don't like me!  I have an "adverse reaction" and I am straight up allergic to most citric fruit.  Anywho, the show must go on.  I figured at this price point, it was artificial strawberry flavoring, so I would be fine.  I was and the tea wasn't bad, just not something I would be looking for to purchase again.  I give it a rating of:

My afternoon tea was Gruner tea.  This literally translate to green tea.  Yet again, something that I have not been a big fan of in the past.  Now I like it!  This blend also had some mint in it, which made it even tastier.  I nice refreshing pick me up and caffience free to boot!

I give this tea a rating of:

Tea you tomorrow!

 

A walk down tea memory lane

Woo Hoo!  It's Friday!  Even though I am now retired, Fridays are still one of my favorite days of the week!

I realized that this time last year we were in England - my childhood home and the beginning of my love of a good cup of tea.  My mum always said there wasn't anything a good cup of tea couldn't fix!  Growing up we were a PG Tips family.  My mum always used to make tea with loose leaf tea and a teapot.  I haven't done that in so many years - I'm a tea "heathen" who just throws a teabag in a mug most of the time.

 I remember the collector cards that came in the boxes.  We had stacks of them.  I remember using them with a clothes pin to put on the spokes of my bike wheels to make it sound like a motorbike - today's kids have no idea what they are missing!!

As soon as we arrived in Windsor, my brother and I had to hit Marks and Spencer's for all the necessary goodies!  The photo below on the left was 4:30 in the afternoon.  I had forgotten how early it gets dark this time of year.  This is Peascod Street, the main shopping area.  It was literally and figuratively a walk down memory lane.

This was my breakfast every morning, a cup of tea and a mince pie from Greggs.  Soooooo good.

Now to the tea that I had today from my advent calendars.

The first one was Candied Almonds Black Tea - I had high hopes for this one as I am a HUGE almond fan.  It smelled divine when the hot water hit the teabag.  Well, good news, it also tasted delish.  I would definitely buy this tea if they sold it separately.  It gets a rating of:

My afternoon tea today was Bergkrauter tea- this translates to mountain herb tea that originates from Switzerland.  It's caffeine free and is good for relaxation and immune support.  Perfect after a busy morning of running errands.  I am learning to steep these teas for quite a bit longer than I normally do.  The extra time definitely improves the taste.  I give this tea:

Toodles until tomorrow's tea....

 

Combo post - Days 10 and 11 - with a Christmas tree hunt!

Hello everyone!  Yes I am behind again - shocker!  I pulled myself into getting a craft project finished up for the school where I volunteer and totally forgot to finish up yesterday's post.  So today you get a two for one!

It would seem that my tastebuds have decided to mix things up on me and/or I just need to be a little more open minded about trying things again that I have not liked in the past.  Case in point being the Eggnog tea from yesterday.  I have to admit that I was strongly tempted to just throw this bag away when I first pulled it out of my calendar.  I am so NOT a fan of eggnog (yes, I know, I'm weird - been told that for a long time!)

I gave myself a pep talk about expanding my culinary horizons and into the mug the teabag went.  When I took the first sip, I'm sure that my face looked like a kid having to take medicine that they don't like.  Well, wouldn't you know - I ACTUALLY LIKED IT!!  Maybe my tastebuds are finally maturing and I'm getting rid of some of my "infantile palate" 😉

I give this tea a rating of:

The tea from my German advent calendar was Roobios Vanille tea - did some research and found out that this is a caffiene free herbal tea mix originally from South Africa.  It reminded me a lot of some Celestial Seasonings tea that I have drunk in the past.  A nice way to wind down at the end of the day.

I give this tea a rating of:

I was dragging this morning so I thought the Jolly Jasmine Orange Green Tea might give me the kick in the pants that I needed.  It did with a flavor that was punchy but not too strong.  It truly hit the spot along with the breakfast of champions - a Little Debbie chocolate Christmas tree cake.  I don't normally eat breakfast but today my stomach just needed a little something to get my engine started.  I'm going to give this tea a rating of:

While the white Christmas tree cakes are everywhere, the chocolate ones are not as easy to find.  My sweet husband had never tried the chocolate ones and is now a confirmed convert.  So much so that he has made it his mission to go to almost every Dollar General in our local area to find more.

My afternoon tea break was the Wintertee - I was expecting a spicy blend but this tea was very bland.  A complete meh!  I have to admit I was rather looking forward to this flavor and the disappointment was real.  Oh well, total first world problem....

This tea gets a rating of:

Happy Hunting if you are a fellow Christmas tree snack cake lover.  Toodles until tomorrow...

Day Nine with my quilt gang

Short post today - it's been a busy one.  Volunteering this morning and then a long lunch with my quilting gang.  I love those ladies and we always have such a good time 😆

I decided to switch things up this morning and try the tea from my Aldi advent calendar.  The flavor was Elf's Maple Herbal Tea.  I knew that this tea was going to be sweet the minute the hot water hit the teabag.  The smell was very strong.  Ugh! So was the taste.  It was like hot maple syrup.  Far too sweet for my tastebuds.  I find it funny because I do have a sweet tooth, but not when it comes to my tea.

I give this tea a rating of:

Late this afternoon I tried the Wurzelwunder tea from the German advent calendar.  Full transparency, I did research this tea before I tried it because I wanted to see if it had caffeine in it.  I'm very sensitive to caffeine and can't drink it too late in the day.  Luckily, this tea is caffeine free.  The translation for this tea was "Root Miracle Tea" and contains ginger, turmeric and licorice.  I'm a big licorice fan.  I loved it and would definitely drink it again.  I give this tea a rating of:

Toodles until tomorrow....

 

Day Eight - a Terrific Tea Field Trip

Welcome to week two of the tea advent calendars.  I decided to start the day with the Weisser tea from the German calendar.  This tea had a very mild taste that wasn't bad but wasn't necessarily that good.  After going to Google for some deep tea research, I found out that this is a white tea. A white tea gets is name form the white-silvery hairs that surround the tea bud before it opens.  This tea gets a rating of:

This type of detail reminded me of a local field trip that Tom and I took earlier this year to the Table Rock Tea Plantation.  This fascinating place is only 30 minutes from where we live and if you are ever in the area, I highly recommend you stop here.  It was the best tea related tour that I've been on.  That really is saying something because I've been to the Charleston tea plantation on Wadamaw Island and the Celestial Seasonings tour in Boulder, Colorado.

Such beautiful scenery.

We did buy a tea plant to grow at our house.  

They even have a tea quilt!  This is part of the Upstate Quilt Trail.

Who knew that tea seeds could be that large.  This is the top part of the tea plant that is picked at harvest time.

Imagine getting to see that view everyday at work.

The owner told me that wasn't him in the logo, just a stunt double!

My afternoon tea break tea was a Vanilla Chai Black Tea.  My son introduced me to chai tea several years ago and I love it both hot and cold.  This tea had a good steady chai taste with strong notes of vanilla and it reminded me of the Tazo tea brand which I am a big fan of.  It made for a lovely afternoon pick me up and I give this tea a rating of:

Toodles until tomorrow...