Tea Heaven

I am now, officially, in tea heaven.

I did something I probably shouldn't have done, not given the rounds of financial problems and such -- but sometimes a person needs something to cheer up. I bought myself a lovely tea maker. An expensive one, in fact:

http://www.adagio.com/gifts/holiday_triniTEA.html?SID=a47f558dcbdaaaaa8aaff8f21274027c

I got the 'Flavor' sampler plus two other samplers and some packets of tea -- in all, sixteen new teas to try out. While I waited for the tea maker to warm up, I opened a few and had a wonderful time taking in all the scents.

By the time the tea maker was ready to go, I had a plan.

I decided that I would make a tea database in Access. So far, I have these things to enter:
Company (Adagio, Tevana, etc.)
Name of tea
Link
Price
Type (Black, Green, Oolong, White, Herbal)
Scent
Taste
Degree of flavor (Strong, subtle, weak)
Color
Settings used on machine.
Review
Notes

I am having my first cup of tea made with the triniTea. I am already quite happy. I chose A County Christmas:
http://www.adagio.com/signature_blend/blend.html?blend=14453&sid=a47f558dcbdaaaaa8aaff8f21274027c&scrollTop=0

This is a special blend made by one of the customers (a nice feature, I think!) made from Christmas, Apple and Cranberry (three other Adagio teas). I brewed it for 3 minutes on setting II on the TiriniTEA and it came out perfectly. It has a lovely, subtle scent and an excellent taste that blends the fruits and spices quite nicely. The taste of spices remains after a few sips with a very pleasant aftertaste. The only problem I had with this tea was that it made me want to go start baking things!

I always need my tea sweet, and because I'm having blood sugar problems, I've turned to Splenda. This has worked nicely. Unlike other sweetners, it doesn't have a bitter aftertaste (at least for me) and one little packet make the tea quite nice.

So the first pot of tea is a success. I hope for many more!