Tag Archive | tea

sugar is sweet

Nov1

As I type this, Halloween night is coming to a close (and there’s freaking snow on the ground). Finally the night where everyone celebrates my little guy and his relatives!

happy halloween! (mr. sc took this pic)

You may not know this, but black cats are usually pretty sweet. The black cats I’ve gotten to know have been “lovers,” and strivingcynic cat is no exception.

And you may not know this either, but black cats, or at least my black cat, likes sweets!

thanks to the shadows, I look like I have an abnormally long index finger

For some reason, over the last few months, sc cat has decided he likes ice cream. So, when I’m eating a bowl (which happens pretty frequently), first he’ll come over and look at me plaintively…then he’ll jump/climb onto my lap and stand there trying to get his head in my bowl. As a compromise, I dip a finger in and then let him lick a little off. Then I send him on his way (ice cream is not good for cats).

Sc cat is just following in his “mom’s” foot steps. I’m a sugar fiend myself. Cookies, cake, candy, ice cream, pies, cereals…it’s all good. In fact, it’s too good, so I try to not follow my instincts to eat sugar all the time (remember, I’m the woman who became anemic in college thanks to a steady diet of Lucky Charms and bagels…). In fact there have even been a few places where I’ve managed to cut it down.

I used to drink coffee and tea with sugar…actually first I drank it with artificial sweetener. Then I wondered what the artificial sweetener was doing to my body and switched to sugar. Then I thought that I should probably not be adding several teaspoons of sugar to multiple coffees and teas every day and cut that out (I do use vanilla soymilk in my morning coffee for a hit of added sweetness…). So, I’m used to lightly sweet at best when it comes to these.

The other week, my mother was visiting and I made us both a cup of tea. Mine had nothing in it, but hers had sweetener (aspartame I think). She had gone to look at my computer. I put my tea down somewhere, went by the computer to talk to her, saw the tea cup, thought it was mine, took a sip and said something like “BLAAAAH.” I just got bowled over by the unexpected jolt of bitter/sweet aspartame-y taste and I proceeded to make various “yuck” faces at at my mom, which I think she didn’t appreciate.

When it comes to foods, I have a theory that nothing is too sweet. Every once in a while I will actually find a food that I acknowledge is too sweet. I had this experience the other week.  When it comes to ice cream, my policy is the more goo, the better. I almost never like fruit ice creams (mr. strivingcynic and his daughter love strawberry ice cream; I won’t go near it). I want to see fudge stripes, malt balls, cookie pieces, chocolate-covered peanut-butter filled pretzels, you name it. Last week, they got a carton of strawberry. I got a carton of “Chips Ahoy” flavor, with chips and chocolate chip cookie pieces. And it was and is great….but I do have that nagging…this might taste a bit *too* sweet for me thoughts. I got curious and looked on the carton and noticed something interesting/peculiar.

it's not exactly ice cream . . .

Frozen dairy dessert? It’s somehow frozen dairy dessert, but it isn’t ice cream? I’m guessing it isn’t frozen yogurt or ice milk (is that made anymore?). Isn’t ice cream a frozen dairy dessert? It’s frozen. It’s dairy. It’s dessert…but somehow…

The strawberry ice cream (same brand, Breyers), that’s ice cream.

it even says "ice cream"

Wow. It does look almost wholesome doesn’t it? Although my taste may be moving away from certain types of sweet, I suspect it’s not going to venture into strawberry ice cream territory.

Enough rambling for Halloween night. November goals coming soon!

What is your relationship with sugar? What flavors of ice cream do you like? If you have a pet, what kind of human food do they want to eat?

grocery bill wreckers, part 3 (cabinet of shame edition)

Apr6

Once again, the weather is playing games with my heart! We took a blanket off our bed one night…only to put it back the next. And then, there’s been rain.

pretty gloomy

Bad weather is in part responsible for the item featured in today’s post. You see, the particular grocery bill wrecker I will investigate today differs from the previous two (my eyes and my cat), in that this particular item I spend too much money on is something that I could buy a lot less of. Except I can’t…because a) I’m addicted and b) I’m always looking for new ones to try! and c) it’s a good cold/yucky weather item.

So, what is it that I have in my cabinet(s) that I just can’t stop buying…..well…..

a cute miniature tea set hints at my addiction (photo by mr. strivingcynic)

Yep….it’s tea. More specifically flavored tea. In the evening, I like herbal teas (chamomiles, herbal chais) and flavored rooibos teas….during the day, I drink a lot of decaf green tea (well, it IS supposed to be good for you….). I actually don’t drink that much black tea, but when I do, I usually add milk (the same goes with some of the herbals and the rooibos’s..the greens I drink straight…in fact that’s one reason why they’re my work drink…easier to not have to deal with finding milk).

Now, in the morning, I’m a coffee girl. I am your classic “Please don’t speak to me (HA! Like I say “please” then) because I can’t think without my coffee.” But for the rest of the day and into the evening….I’m all about the tea. My evening relaxation ritual centers around tea.

How much tea? Well, here’s a quick tour of the home stash(es).

there are boxes of tea *behind* the boxes of tea

Okay. . . one of those is an “international” coffee.

my loose tea collection for when I feel "fancy"

another cabinet is taken over!

The blue basket on the left also contains tea. Mr. sc needed to make room so he took the time to cut the label out of some boxes and put that and the teabags in plastic bags. He’s my enabler.

So….how many varieties of tea are there? I’m going to count AND time how long the count takes.

Wow. It took me two minutes and I have…..50 different types of tea (and another 5 at work!). 50….holy crap! I didn’t even know the extent of it!

Now..in my defense…Stop and Shop ran a sale of Celestial Seasonings, so I stocked up. I got a bunch of Bigelow on sale. There are some “souvenir” teas from England and Canada. Some of them are free samples that came with teas I ordered. I got some as gifts (because people are somehow under the impression that I like tea)!

So, the cheapest of the teas was probably a dollar for a box…but they certainly weren’t all a dollar. I bought one variety of tea for about $14 for two ounces. So, even if I’d gotten all these teas at $2 a box…that’s $100 right there. Of course, tea also lasts quite a while so some of these have been with me for a little while (I am so justifying my addiction now…).

Verdict: Okay…so it isn’t so much that tea is a grocery bill wrecker…but my addiction to it clearly costs me some $$$$$$

Probability that I’ll stop buying it: Doubtful!

that's right, a pumpkin theme miniature tea set! (photo by mr. sc)

Do you like tea? What type do you drink and when? What do you buy waaaaaaaaaayyyyyy too much of?

 

bringing a little whimsy to the mundane

Apr4

Spring seems to really be here! Some photos from my day….

getting close to blossoming!

a hint of green!

loving the daffodils!

The other day, I decided to use a 50 dollar gift card to Whole Foods. Mr. strivingcynic came with me. He’d never been there before…and I pretty much only go when I have a gift card or need something there that I don’t think I’ll find anywhere else. Mr. sc was pretty shocked at the prices, so I told him how in blogworld (and beyond), it’s referred to as “Whole Paycheck.” So, we actually only spent 42 (I’ll have to make another trip to spend the final 8). We bought crackers, refried beans, popchips, and tea. I also bought some single serve packets of different varieties of Justin’s Nut Butter (the ones I bought were discontinued, so they were discounted). Funny how paying 60 cents for one serving of peanut butter seems like a deal when a jar has 14 servings and costs maybe 4 dollars! But people seem to like it and I have to know for myself (I sense a future review!). We bought some grape tomatoes…..looked at the cheese but couldn’t make the commitment.

Eventually, we decided to go to the counters and pick up lunch. I had a dal wrap (I loved how when I asked for it, they had white wraps, wheat wraps, and sun-dried tomato wraps). Mr. sc went for an artichoke/crab sandwich. Then it was time to choose a drink. After 12 bucks on sandwiches, we decided to split a drink and chose……

Tazo berryblossom white tea

[I didn't get a picture of the actual label! Didn't envision using it....and of course, now I wish I had...].

I liked the tea more than mr. sc did….and as I was playing with the bottle, I noticed the tea’s notices…

good karma and dancing leaves!

[You may have to click on the photo to read the messages....it definitely tested my eyesight].

I liked how rather than “Please Recycle” and “Shake Well,” there was a little whimsy to these messages! It would be fun to think about how to transform messages we see every day with the same brand of humor. I like things that coax a smile out of me when I didn’t even realize I needed a laugh. So, if I get more gift cards, I’ll be picking up more Tazo iced tea (or maybe on a special occasion….) to see what it has to tell me!

Have you ever bought small amounts of something that would cost much less if you bought a larger amount?  Do you want to hear about good karma and dancing when you buy a beverage? Has there been any whimsy in your life lately?

in search of . . .

Jan22

I have to admit, I was so proud of the pictures I put in my last post, that I decided to not post anything new for a few days (is there such a condition as “post vanity?” I am learning there is such a thing as “post anxiety!”). I get a kick out of seeing strivingcynic cat on the Internet. But, time moves on (and I’m sure he’ll be a featured post subject as long as he insists on being cute).

Not to mention that this was just one of those weeks where I wanted to take it easy/rest on my Monday activity laurels. I’ve definitely had it with the cold, nasty weather. It seems like every time we get through one storm, the next one is looming (I’ve already heard about another “big storm” midweek. Enough!).

At least the winter is helping me work my way through my tea collection. I like to drink some sort of herbal/noncaffeinated tea in the evening. I used to have a sane amount of tea (5 to 7 boxes), but then last year Celestial Seasonings discontinued its “Almond Sunset” tea and I decided to make it my mission in life to find a replacement. So, I started looking at more teas and buying almost any noncaffeinated tea with almonds in it . . . none were Almond Sunset (although I have found some new teas that I like). From what I’ve seen, I’m not the only person hugely upset with CS for discontinuing it (along with their other dessert teas . . . heaven help them if they ever take away Bengal Spice) I would hazard a guess that I probably have more than 20 types of tea in my cupboard. . . mostly herbals/roiboos, although some black, some green, and some white. But, if that isn’t enough already, I find myself looking at tea review sites (like Teaviews) and tea company sites, making note of other teas I want to  try.

It does seem like products get discontinued more and more often these days. I know someone who has decided that if she likes something, to buy as  many as possible, because it could disappear like *that* (in fact, she feels that her liking a product curses it, I’m starting to feel the same).  I’m trying to decide whether or not I’m a fan of the “limited edition”/seasonal products companies put out, because at least you know they’ll be gone, (but hopefully, back again some day . . .).