new tea concoction

i decided to try out something new because i was getting tired of the ceylon tea's taste.

i bought this...

Lipton Russian Earl Grey Tea

and blended it with this...

Lipton Cranberry Raspberry & Strawberry Tea

the result is a sweet smelling, citrus-y type of tea.  it tastes like the sugar-coated orange jelly candies that i used to eat when i was a kid, except that this one is not that sweet.  and it's smell?  for me, it smells like the sea.  i don't know why, but it does for me.  you know, the smell of the saltiness of the sea during the early hours of the morning or late at night.  weird, because while there may be a hint of saltiness in the drink, it's not overpowering.

anyway, the label on the russian earl grey tea says it has citrus peels (blueberry and orange and something else).  knowing this, i still decided to blend it with the berries because i thought it might still be as strong as the ceylon tea (the lipton ceylon tea is supposedly mild, but there are times that it almost becomes bitter, especially when i leave the tea bag in the cup for more than a couple of minutes).  but surprisingly, the taste of the two blended teas is refreshing to the palate.  there's no after taste or anything like that.  so yeah, there, i have a new favorite.  yay!

lipton peppermit tea: a sleeping pill in disguise

oh yes.  my new found love for tea is slowly branching out.  i started with the twinings ceylon tea and lipton cranberry raspberry strawberry tea blended together then moved on to the much cheaper lipton ceylon tea and forest fruit teas.  now i'm into peppermint tea!

sleeping pill with a minty taste

i started drinking tea a few months ago because of kenneth.  whenever we had team meetings, he would bring in to the meeting room his tea blender/pitcher or whatever you call it and give each one of us a cup.  the very first tea i had was ceylon and peach blended together.  and i loved it.  i was actually surprised that i loved the taste.  i used to think that it was too bitter that's why i never tried drinking.

anyway, i decided to buy my own.   surprisingly, it was good.  the ceylon tea was a bit strong, but it was neutralized by the sweetness/tanginess of the berries.  i drank a mug (yes, a mug.  simply because we don't have cups at home.) every night, after dinner as it helped calm my stomach and relieves me the feeling of being bloated.  my bladder also "felt" better.  doing number 1 feels so much better now. :)

i'm going off-topic.  so, after i finished the box, i tried the fruit floral flavors of lipton.  i blended it with their ceylon tea too (i cannot afford to buy twinings anymore.  it just so happened that the first box i bought was on sale.), which is milder than twinings.  the fruit floral flavors felt a little weird at first as it felt like i was eating flower petals.  but the taste and the aroma grew on me.  so i went back to my habit of drinking tea after dinner.  in fact, i started loving tea so much more that i drank, at most, three mugs a day.  ross warned me that tea can cause stomach pains because of its acidity.  luckily, i never had that problem. 

so, the latest box that i bought was lipton peppermint.  last sunday, i tried one pack and blended it with ceylon again.  (i don't know why, but i love the smell and taste of ceylon tea.)  it smelled like an herbal medicine.  ross said it reminded him of lagundi (an herbal medicine for asthma).  but the taste it minty (of course, it's peppermint) and refreshing to the palate.  halfway through my mug, i started feeling sleepy.  i was playing on ross's iphone and my eyes were literally drooping.  i put the iphone down and slept for more than an hour.  when i woke up, it felt like i slept for almost half a day.  it was one of the best sleeps i've ever had.  while waiting for ross to finish speaking with his mom over skype, i drank what was left of my tea.  and yes, i started feeling sleepy again.  the same thing happened after we had dinner and i drank another half-mug full of tea.

so what's with peppermint tea?  for one, it doesn't have caffeine so it's not really an upper type of tea.  but the other teas i've tried before do not have caffeine either.  whatever it has, i like its calming effect on me.  while it makes me feel sleepy, it doesn't make me feel as if i'm tired or worn out.  it's pretty much similar to the chinese medicine that mama made me take before when i wasn't sleeping so much because of work and school. 

the only downside to this is i can't drink peppermint tea at work.  navpreet will probably kill me if she sees me sleeping :)