Our new, lower, TV cabinet finally arrived - more than 3 months late. We excavated the old one, and DH spent a couple of hours reconnecting all the bits and pieces and recabling.
Hopefully it will help with the arthritis in my neck Hopefully it will cause fewer problems with the arthritis in my neck, but I do wonder about the law of unintended consequences.
We cleared the old cabinet out, and most of the stuff will fit in the new cabinet. However, the baby scales we use for the cats no longer fit underneath. And the cats' enormous ball track, which spends used to spend large periods of time standing on its side beside the TV unit, no longer fits. We have to find new homes for these pieces.
Whilst clearing up, I extended my whirlwind cleaning session to some areas of the kitchen. One of the areas was the tea shelf, which I'd cleared out a while ago but had got itself into some disarray again.
I've been drinking a lot of cold brew tea lately. I like TeaPigs' Blackcurrant and Raspberry and their Lychee and Rose. When I got the stuff off the shelf, I looked through the various trial sachets that I'd received each time I'd placed an order. Some of them sounded OK, others less so.
I've not had much success with flavoured teas, or fruit teas/infusions, I find they usually sound great but taste of little. I was tempted to put these samplesin the bin. But then I thought about the Milford Rosehip & Hibiscus, which I had been forced into trying because I didn't want to be rude, and ended up loving; and the Teapigs cold brew which I had tried in desperation because I was looking for a full flavoured cold drink with no sugar, and found it drinkable.... and I realised that I'd be silly to not at least try the samples.
So, I'm going to work my way through them over the next couple of weeks!
I was going to have one just now, but I saw that I'd gone to the trouble of putting yet another other variety of tea bags into a small vacuum pot. I got one out, and gave it, and the tub, a tentative sniff. It smelt unappetising (but that's quite normal for me). It was in one of the posh nets, so I must have bought it.
I'd helpfully cut out the back of the packet and and put in the pot along with the bags. It was a Tea Huggers tea, which contains Lemon Verbena, Chinese Oolong tea, aniseed, juniper berries and chilli. I couldn't imagine why I'd thought that was a good idea as I don't much like aniseed, I imagine that I must have bought it for its restorative features. I'd actually decanted a pack into a vacuum pot, so I must have meant to keep them.
I popped the kettle on.
While I was waiting for the kettle, I read that it could also be use in cold water (leave overnight in fridge), so I did that as well.
I then rearranged the shelf, and sat down to drink the tea.
Hmm.
It reminds me of chamomile tea (which I'd love to love but don't), but without the camomile and with a definite aniseedy flavour. I didn't find it horrible, and I could definitely taste the flavours. It's probably a good tea, for those who like Oolong, juniper, aniseed.
For me, it's not the sort of flavour where I'd find myself thinking " Ooh, I could murder a cup of that", but I could imagine drinking it because it's good for me. I imagine that's why it was promoted into a vacuum pot.
I'll see what it tastes like as a cold brew tomorrow, before I finally decide its fate. If it's delicious in cold brew I'll keep it. If it's not, I'll pass it on to my SIL, who likes a wide range of herbal teas.
I did a quick search, and it's now sold by TeaHuggers as "Body Boost", and I was interested to see that it had won a "Great Taste" award.
UPDATE:
Being in sparkling water in the fridge had an interesting effect on it. The aniseed flavour became more dominant, but in a pleasantly muted way which overall made the drink more palatable for me.
I could no longer taste lemon verbena, juniper or chilli. There was a background "grassiness", which is the flavour that reminded me of chamomile tea (even though there is no chamomile in this, perhaps it's the Oolong?).
I could easily drink this cold, but I'm not sure I'd choose it over and above some of the other cold brew teas that I have on the shelf.
