Tea Time: Full Moon by The Forest Witch

Today's Tea: Full Moon from The Forest Witch

What is it? From the Forest Witch website: "A lovely and light tea. Floral hints, with juicy plum and a sprinkling of fennel mingle together, bringing you a cup with gentle mugwort to help with your Full Moon endeavours."

Ingredients: organic green tea, plums, organic fennel, organic mugwort, organic jasmine

Recommendations: My sample pack didn't have brewing instructions, but generally green tea should be steeped for 1 to 3 minutes.

About the Tea: Full Moon tea is created by independent tea blender The Forest Witch Mia, located in Canada. All of her teas are inspired by Celtic deities or fantasy themes such as Harry Potter, Game of Thrones and Good Omens. Full Moon is from her spiritual collection.

The tea has a bright, straw-like flavour profile, with just a slight hint of sweetness, which comes from the fruit and jasmine flower. The version I have contains apple rather than plum, but I think it works just as well. Fennel and mugwort are classic ingredients in spiritual brews. Mugwort is the perfect herb for working with the full moon. It's other name Artemisia comes from the Greek goddess of the moon Artemis, and it's used for moon meditations and connecting with the feminine cycles that the moon also follows. Fennel adds strength and fertility, and is used for meditation and protection.

Available:
Full Moon is available online from The Forest Witch shop. I found the price (in Canadian dollars) very reasonable and the postage costs to Australia, too, especially compared with many U.S. sources. She also has an Etsy shop if you prefer. I loved dealing with Mia and look forward to making many more purchases with her. Her Instagram is here.

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Tea Time : The Norns by The Forest Witch             

My July

I know this update is a bit late, but I thought I'd do it anyway, now that I feel like it. There isn't much to report again from last month. I still have some ongoing health issues and I'm still not able to work right now. I've been doing what I can. It's the middle of Winter in this part of the world, and there have been some cold, frosty nights. I like the cold weather, wearing scarves and hats and layers, but I haven't been able to get outside much to enjoy it so far.

What I've been reading ...
I participated in the July 24 in 48 Readathon. I was busy on the actual weekend of the readathon -- the only time I've been busy for ages! -- so I decided to go easy on myself and let my personal readathon run for a week ... then a couple of weeks ... I kept track of my reading in my Hobonichi diary. As you can see, I still didn't quite reach my goal. I find reading is harder in the age of casual games within arm's reach. Each circle represents half an hour of reading:

What I've been working on ...
I've been doing some research for a new art project. There aren't many details yet, at least not that I'm willing to reveal. Sorry about that, but here's a sneaky behind-the-scenes pic. I again decided to use my Hobonichi to keep my notes in, as it has so many spare pages and I wanted to use them somehow:

What I've been drinking ...
In this cold weather, I've been drinking lots and lots of tea! I re-started my planned series of tea review blog posts. Hopefully there'll be another one soon. I also made progress on setting up my hutch with my collection of teapots and tea storage tins. Thanks to a recent donation from Mum, I now have a collection of Delftsware (Dutch blue and white ware) too, though unfortunately I doubt most of it is real. (I'm not showing the bottom shelf because it's not done yet.):

Selections from Instagram
I only posted one photo on Instagram last month. I just haven't been in the mood for sharing, not feeling like I have anything to share. Nevertheless, here is my photo of the foodie outing I went on a couple of weeks ago (photo is pre-pouring on of the delicious and generous serve of curry sauce!):

Tea Time : The Norns by The Forest Witch

Note: I have already removed the tea from its original packaging and placed it in a tin for storage, but originally it came in a resealable stand-up pouch the same as the one pictured.

Today's Tea: The Norns from The Forest Witch
What is it? From the Forest Witch website: "A black tea swirling with deep forest fruits of elderberry, currant, and blueberry. Woody clove and sweet fennel round out the flavour, all creating a deep cup of tea, dive in if you've the heart for it."
Ingredients: organic black tea, organic blueberries, organic elderberries, organic currants, organic cloves, organic fennel, flavour
Recommendations: Steep 1 teaspoon for 3-5 minutes.

The Tea and Me:
The Norns is created by independent tea blender The Forest Witch Mia, located in Canada. All of her teas are inspired by Celtic deities or fantasy themes such as Harry Potter, Game of Thrones and most recently, Good Omens. The Norns are the little-known Goddesses of fate in the Norse pantheon, deep and mysterious.

The dry tea has a very strong, earthy spice scent. I steeped it for 4 minutes, hedging my bets with the instructions. I usually try black teas both with milk and without. My preference is to drink black tea with milk, but I like to try it both ways to find the best. The black tea has a very strong fennel flavour, though not as much like liquorice as the spice itself. This is possibly due to the influence of the cloves, which come through too in a moderate way. Strong tannins made my tongue wrinkle, made even more astringent by the fennel. I found that the fruits were barely noticeable.

Adding milk punches down the tannins and allows the fruit flavour to come out. Even still, I found the berry flavours too subtle to be satisfying. My personal taste in teas is to the sweet side, so perhaps my taste buds were searching in vain for something that was never meant to be there.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed The Norns and would purchase it again. It's the perfect tea to sip deep into the night, staring into the flame of a single candle, waiting for the witching hour to arrive.

Available:
The Norns is available online from The Forest Witch shop. I found the price (in Canadian dollars) very reasonable and the postage costs to Australia, too, especially compared with many U.S. sources. She also has an Etsy shop if you prefer. I loved dealing with Mia and look forward to making many more purchases with her. Her Instagram is here.

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Tea Time : Gewürzhaus Easter Bun Tea             

Tea Haul from Adagio Teas

Adagio Teas is both a tea sales and tea blending company. As well as selling a large range of standard teas, Adagio have a service called Fandom Teas that blends custom teas according to the customer's specifications. The Fandom Teas section features teas inspired by movies and TV shows, fictional characters, or themed by events like Christmas and Halloween. They are presented in a tin decorated with artwork selected by the blender. These teas are then sold on the website with the customer receiving a commission. Blenders can choose to have their commission donated to charity instead.

I first heard about Adagio Teas from Princess Peachie, a YouTuber I've been following for a long time. One of her fans sent her a pair of Fandom Tea tins that she created, inspired by Peachie's two pet rabbits, Pumpkin and Pudding. I couldn't resist ordering them for myself, plus a few others that looked intriguing. I'll share the entire haul today, and do in-depth reviews of some of the teas soon (starting with Pumpkin and Pudding, of course!).

The teas come in various different size options: sample, medium and large pouches, a sample tin and a large tin. Some varieties are also available in tea bags, but I'm not sure why only some are and others aren't. The tins with their custom artwork are an inspired idea, as they can be given as personalised gifts. I decided to get the sample size tins for the Fandom Teas, plus one regular tea in a pouch. I also received a bonus free tea pouch and a $5 off as it was my first order. An envelope with 3 postcards that had information about Adagio Teas and inspirational quotes was also included.

The Fandom Teas I ordered were:

❤ Pumpkin by Sacha W
❤ Pudding by Sacha W
❤ Harry Potter by Allie Stanley
❤ Luna Lovegood by Allie Stanley
❤ Aries by Adagio

The regular tea pouch I ordered was Honeybush Pumpkin Chai, and the bonus pouch I received was Chocolate Chai, both by Adagio.

It was easy to place the order on the website and the teas arrived quite fast from the U.S. In the picture, the box looks like it's coming apart a little, but it was firmly sealed up before I opened it. The padding in the box wasn't enough to stop the teas from moving around a little bit, but it doesn't seem to have done them any damage. The only small concern I had was that small particles of tea had come out of the tins as they were packed on their sides in the gift box. However, the tins were stuffed so full of tea that it didn't really matter!

The smell when I opened the box was divine, and all of the teas I chose smelled unique and intriguing. I haven't tasted any yet, but I'm very much looking forward to it. There seems to be a lively fandom and reviewing community on the website, which makes drinking tea more fun. There's no doubt I'll order from Adagio Teas again. I already have a very long wishlist!

Tea Time : Gewürzhaus Easter Bun Tea

Today's Tea: Organic Easter Bun Tea from Gewürzhaus
What is it?: a black tea spiced with cinnamon and orange, blended to drink as an accompaniment to hot cross buns at Easter time.
Recommendations: 1.5 teaspoons per cup, brew for 4 minutes. Drink with or without milk.

The Tea and Me:
Gewürzhaus is a local Melbourne shop specialising in spice blends from around the world. I love to go there a couple of times a year to stock up on spices for Christmas and other festive times. I always make sure to get some of their Easter Bun tea as it's one of my favourites. This year however, the flavour is different! It's no longer a sweet, subtle floral tea, but a spicy orange blend. After some initial confusion, I decided to give it a try, and thought, why not use it as an opportunity to start a tea review series?

So here we go.

The dry tea has a very strong orange aroma, with a hint of cinnamon behind it. It was appealing enough to make me decide to purchase some, despite it being different from what I was familiar with in the past. The brewing recommendation of 1.5 teaspoons per cup seemed quite a lot for such a strong-smelling tea. As the instructions say Easter Bun Tea can be drunk with or without milk, I poured it both ways to compare.

After brewing, the orange scent draws back, leaving a spicy cinnamon scent with just a hint of fruit. This is reflected in the flavour, too. I have to admit, I was a little surprised when I read that cinnamon is the only spice in this tea. Gewürzhaus is known for its spice blends, so I would have expected a more sophisticated blend. There's a slight astringent note on the tongue along with the spice.

Once the spicy punch subsided, the tea was much sweeter than I expected. This balanced out the cinnamon quite well. Adding milk tones down the spice and compliments the sweetness nicely. I preferred the milk version. As to whether the tea goes well with Easter Buns? Unfortunately, I didn't have any buns to hand (hence the pumpkin for decoration instead!) but I think the tea would go well with them. A drink to accompany a spicy, fruity bun would need to be strong in flavour to work, and this tea fits the bill.

Ingredients: organic Ceylon and China black tea, cinnamon, orange peel, natural cinnamon flavouring, natural orange flavouring (from the Gewürzhaus website)
Available: Gewürzhaus shops in Melbourne and online, only during Easter time.

I hope you liked my first tea review! If there's anything I left out that I could include next time, please let me know. I was also trying out a new photography set-up. It isn't perfect yet (I need more lighting!) but it's something I want to work on this year.

My First Rakuten Order

A few weeks ago, I was browing Pinterest and came across some photos of Karel Capek tea tins. I'd seen them before, but I had a sudden urge to start collecting them. Aside from being whimsical and adorable, they come with tea. How could there be anything bad about that?

I soon found out that the tins aren't that easy to come by. The main seller online was Rakuten, which is a little like ebay but with only Japanese sellers. I'd heard before was only available outside Japan with a shopping service, and never bothered because it seemed quite complicated. However, I was pleased to find that Rakuten now sell worldwide! Or, I should say, individual sellers have the option of offering overseas postage. I found one seller who had a large range of tins to choose from: Tokyu Coco-Hico.

Creating an account was very easy as the website now has an English version. I did run into a hiccup when the ordering section would only accept a Japanese delivery address. I went back to the account section and entered in my address there, and that solved the problem. After that, checking out was very clear and easy.

I was not advised of the postage cost straight away, but the seller calculates the postage cost and sends an email advising of the cost and the buyer has the option of cancelling the order. I was worried that it would be very high, but the next day I received the seller's email. It was very reasonable, so I confirmed that I wanted to go ahead with the order.

The order was sent by courier and arrived from Japan to Australia in only two days. I was amazed at the speed of delivery! The order was well packed. The only drawback is that I thought I was purchasing four tins and one packet, but I received three tins and two packets. Perhaps I didn't read the description closely enough though -- I was mostly looking at the illustrations. The order came with 5 free rooibos vanilla packets, so I was pleased with that.

I haven't tasted any of the teas yet. As soon as I'd examined them and satisfied myself of their quality, I put them back in the box and gave them to Husband to give me for Christmas. I can't wait!

Of course, I'll have to clear out and re-arrange my tea cupboard so these beauties have pride of place, just like the photos I've seen on Pinterest. I'll have plenty of time to do that over the Christmas holidays. I just hope the weather doesn't get too hot so I can enjoy them properly.

I would certainly order from Rakuten and from Tokyu Coco-Hico again. It was overall a very positive experience.