2:42 PM Tea Review: David's Tea Guayusa

One of the sample teas I received with my first tea order from David's Tea was this Guayusa tea.  I don't mind admitting I was a little reluctant to try it.  I just had never heard of it and had nothing to expect.  Except what the label said.  Here is what David's Tea has to say about the Guayusa:

We are seriously passionate about guayusa around here, and we couldn't be more excited to spread the word.  Not only does it pack an incredible burst of energy, it's also deliciously smooth, never bitter and lightly sweet.  Plus it's steeped in over 2000 years of Amazonian tradition and legend.  

It's grassy all right!  In fact, the first time I tasted it I was reminded of one of my favorite smells in the world.  Fresh cut grass clippings.  The tea is just that simple.  I haven't decided yet whether it has an energy boost.  The light grassy flavor is slightly refreshing, but I'm not sure about energy boosting.

It's inexpensive enough that I would order a bag of this to have around for when I don't want a spicy black tea.  If it was an expensive tea, I probably wouldn't give it another thought, but the price is right and the taste is comforting.  I can no longer drink chamomile tea as it upsets my allergies and I am having a heck of a time finding another perfectly balance roobios since the World Market brand I liked so much is no longer made.  I think this will fit the bill just fine to replace those two light comfort teas.

3:31 PM Tea Review: David's Tea Brazillionaire & Star Anise

I love tea.  It's one of my many cherished habits.  And I'm quite proud that I developed a taste for tea in lieu of coffee.  Coffee, at least the way we American's drink it, just seems so base.  Tea has style.  It doesn't hurt that this costuming hobby I have lends itself very well to tea parties.  Pretty dresses and pretty tea cups.  Yeah, there's definitely a correlation there!

A while back a distant friend on Facebook mentioned that she had developed a taste for tea on her visit to Europe and asked for recommendations of good tea here in the States.  Several people chimed in with their favorite teas, but a few people mentioned a Canadian company called David's Tea as a good source for loose leaf teas.  I clicked on a lot of the links given for other tea companies, but this one really piqued my interest.  You see, for every order made, they send you 3 samples of random other teas.  Well, frankly I thought that was just Brilliant!  Tea isn't cheap.  And because it can sometimes cost $8 - $15 for a package of loose leaf I tend to just pass on the ones that are pricey, yet sound really interesting.  I'd rather order from an American company, but I just really hate wasting money on something I'm never going to drink again if I don't like it.  And I'm picky, so that may very well be the case with any tea I order.  

How picky am I?  Well, I hate flowers.  Not the smell of flowers, the taste of flowers.  Flowers taste like soap to me.  I may love the smell of a good woodsy lavendar, but put it in my tea, or beer and my favorite drink will instantly be relegated to the "undrinkable" list.  There is a whole local brewery line that I can't drink because they put stinking flowers in pretty much all of their beer.  Many people like a flower taste profile in their drinks.  I do not.  I'm also picky about fruity flavors in my tea.  I can deal with fruit in cold tea, but I do not like fruit in my hot tea.  And let's face it, the whole point of me having a cup of tea is that cozy warm goodness, so I tend to stay away from fruit as well.  You can see, now, why I am wary of just buying a tea online sight unseen.

My first purchase from David's Tea was Ceylon Star.  The website has this to say about Ceylon Star:

WISH UPON A STAR

Star anise is one of the most beautiful spices around...and also one of the most delicious.  It has a sweet, subtle licorice taste that we just can't resist.  And some say it has magical properties; keeping star anise around is said to bring you good luck, happy dreams, and even clairvoyance.  Most importantly, it makes for some seriously delicious tea.  Star anise and Ceylon black tea is a classic combination, but here we sweeten the deal even more with white chocolate, cocoa nibs, and coconut.  The result is sweet and creamy, with a hint of exotic spice.  Now that's star power.

David's Teas come packaged in a resealable foil pouch for freshness.  This is great, except for the case of this tea.  Getting the tea out of the pouch is a little troublesome due to the star anise.  In addition, most of the star anise is packaged on top of the leaves.  I found myself dumping out the top layer of star anise then scooping out some tea and then placing a star anise in the strainer and replacing the rest in the pouch.  This is one of those teas where you really do need a tea tin.  I ended up buying one when I made my second tea purchase.  Measuring the tea out was So Much Easier with a tea tin!

So how did it taste?  I gave it 4 out of 5 points.  I enjoyed it.  Mostly, you are tasting the star anise, but there is just a little hint of coconut in there.  The Ceylon tea was smooth and not over powering or bitter.  I would order it again.  Is it my favorite?  No.  But I will happily add it to my tea rotation.

For my second purchase I turned to Facebook myself to help narrow things down.  I had several teas I was interested in ranging from $6 - $12.  In the end I decided to go with the lower priced Brazillionaire so I could afford to order a tea tin for that Ceylon Star.  Also because my friend Brittney told me to and sometimes it's nice to just take somebody else's suggestion and go for it.  Good thing I took that suggestion.  I really like the Brazillionaire tea.  I like it slightly more so than the Ceylon Star, so I'm giving it a 4 1/4 score.  Here's what David's Tea says about the Brazillionaire:

GET RICH QUICK

Have you heard tales of the wealthy Brazilian eccentric?  According to local stories, he was completely obsessed with Brazil nuts, the source of his fortune.  He insisted on having them in every meal - even his afternoon tea!  Was it needless decadence, or a stroke of genius?  You'll have to taste it yourself to decide.  This fabulously opulent blend combines black tea with whole Brazil nuts, raisins and coconut.  Trust us - it tastes like a million bucks.

The tea is indeed a nutty flavored tea.  In fact, it's not just flavored, there are actually Brazil nuts in the tea.  The coconut and raisins are sparse in the mix, so the flavor is hinted at.  I was a little concerned about the raisin flavor, but I was wrong to worry.  I kind of wish I had purchased two tins though.  David's Tea was nice enough to include  an extra tea label for the Brazillionare to place on the tin.  Oh well, I'll likely order this again, so I'll just order two tins the next time I order something.  One of the samples was a tea that was in my list of possibilities last time, so I may already have my next tea order decided if I like the sample.

9:59 AM This is why Fresh food is important to me

I would like to point your attention to a blog that I read this morning on My Brown Thumb. The author's blog says most everything I want to say, so I won't rehash it.

More reasons not to eat processed food, as if you needed them

One thing I pride myself upon in my home is that I cook a good 80% of my meals from Breakfast to Dinner. I do have the occassional TV dinner or fast food bite when I just don't feel like cooking, and chips and crackers are my prepared food guilty pleasures. But for the most part, when I made the commitment to live a healthy lifestyle, it was primarily commitment to prepare the vast majority of my meals myself so that I could be responsible for what I was putting in my body.

While I'm happy I made this decision, it's not exactly easy business. Between the job, cat fostering, caring for my elderly dog, costuming, and joining in making the occasional short film, I'm basically running on near empty a lot. Thus my meals need to be trouble free cooking. I can't waste time slaving over prepping 30 ingredients. I can't "stir constantly" to make that perfect risoto. I have to cook things that I can either set and come back to in 10 minutes or it has to prep and cook in 5. And that's where the TV dinners get me. I can turn on the oven, take the dog out and feed the cats, then put the food in, and do some other chore for 18-30 minutes while the dinner is cooking. That's a pretty efficient deal! I will often cook soups and casseroles in bulk on a weekend when I have a weekend to cook, but those have been few and far between lately.

As much as convenience really does rule the way we eat, we have also come to find out in recent years that eating conveniently has a price. Mostly that price is our health, but in addition, convenience foods have begun to change the places we eat as well as the manner in which we eat. Thanks to convenience foods, family meals around a dinner table are a different story if they even happen at all. But I digress, the point is that if we want to be healthy, it is up to us to take charge of our own health and the contents of the food we are putting into our bodies. As is indicated by the linked blog, food companies are now trying to wash their hands of responsibility so that they can carry on as usual and just point the finger at us. So this begs the question, if we are now being hung out to dry with no one to be our health advocates, When will we stop buying this crap? And where can a person find easy, healthy, recipes to be prepared at a decent cost, especially for a single income home?

This is always my quest. And to my surprise this month I was greeted at the grocery store with an interesting new magazine prospect. I have to admit that the first thing which caught my eye was the Beautiful chocolate cupcake on the cover. After that I noticed the name of the publication, Clean Eating. Upon seeing the name, I was Immediately intreagued. Most people I've come across who "Eat Clean" are pretty serious into exercise and nutrition, so that cupcake Must be a healthy version. Holy Crap it looked fantastic! Then I looked at the cover again and saw the point which made me actually buy the magazine.

Homemade Frozen Meals

Yup, that hooked me. I cook a lot. I collect a lot of recipes. But I've yet to come across a healthy recipe designed specifically for freezing with freezing instructions. Except soup. I know all about freezing soup. There were only a few recipes for freezing, but I'm itching to try out the quesadilla recipe and now I may have a better idea on how to freeze what and for how long, etc. An added bonus is that the rest of the magazine was fabulous as well! I found many recipes that I am excited to try out soon and most of them use readily available ingredients which don't cost an arm and a leg. This is still not discount, recession menu planning, mind you, but it does fall into the price range that a single income family can afford on occasion. And the double bonus is that because the entire magazine is based on a Clean Eating diet, the recipes are as little processed as possible. Most recipes are completely made from scratch. Hallelujia! Finally a magazine with recipes that aren't half canned!!!!!

I already have a commitment towards cutting down processed foods. It sure would be nice if I could find the nerve and the will to cut out chips too!!! For now, I think I'll call this new magazine subscription my step towards upping the ante on my commitment. Maybe one day I will be entirely processed foods free, but for now I'll just to the best I can by making myself responsible.

3:54 PM I hope this is not what people really think of us.

It was pointed out to me yesterday that the New York Times published a Travel Review on my beloved city of Dallas.

Unfortunately, I have a bone to pick with the journalist who wrote it.

While Ms. Torregrosa does shine a positive light on the new Arts District that is rising out of the ground as we speak, she makes her first fatal error in the statement that, "But when it comes to entertainment, its No. 1 attraction is still the Cowboys, especially when the new, $1.2 billion football stadium opens this year..."

Seriously? Is the sum worth of our city still considered to be The Dallas Cowboys? The stadium isn't even in the city. It hasn't been since the Cowboys left the Cotton Bowl Stadium in 1971. A person can still make the conjecture that the Cowboys are the largest entertainment attraction for the Dallas (or more correctly DFW) area, but it is sloppy journalism to not include in the piece that a tourist will have to drive to a neighboring town to actually see the Cowboys.

The review just goes down hill from there for me.

Point #2, Cheerleading Cocktails, is just flat out insulting. "Size up the city’s trend setters and assorted poseurs in their alligator boots and butter-soft tailored jackets at the Rattlesnake Bar..." Granted, I have never been to the Rattlesnake bar as I am a regular person and not one who is apt to be seen at one of these places where bar tabs of $100 + is de rigeur, but as a person who lives in Dallas and often shops and sees movies at the "rich" mall, I'm going to call BS on her description of the people that frequent that bar because I've never seen them. Not in the "beautiful people" papers or out and about. Honestly, I don't think she's ever been there either.

Point #3, Southwest Supreme, is where this reviewer really raised an eyebrow. She calls Dallas, "a culinary wasteland, save for its famous barbecue." Saved only by the fact that Nobu came in and Dean Fearing put a restaurant in the Ritz-Carlton, which by the way she's mentioned twice already and it's only point 3. I wonder if this review might simply be an advertisement for the Ritz. Granted, Ms. Torregrosa did say that Dallas Used to be a "culinary wasteland" as opposed to insinuating that it still is today, but even making that statement in the past tense makes me wonder if she knows anything about dining in Dallas at all! Although Dean Fearing is no longer manning the kitchen at The Mansion at Turtle Creek, The Mansion is Still considered one of the pillars of fine dining in Dallas. And she completely failed to mention Nana located at the Wyndham Anatole. Oh, and how about The French Room at the Hotel Adolphus? All three of those dining establishments have been mentioned in both Food & Wine and The Wine Spectator. And I dare say that by leaving any of those restaurants off of a travel review is similar to leaving Commander's Palace off of a review of New Orleans! There are many other restaurants as well which have been around for a long time and deserve much more than being relegated to yet another feed hole in "a culinary wasteland." In addition, it is unfair to the average reader to only speak of places where a family will have to mortgage their homes to afford to eat. Good food does NOT have to be expensive! And while oil money and riches is how the nation tends to stereotype the city of Dallas, it is Not the norm and thus it is Not the culinary identity of the city. The City Cafe is not cheap dining, but it is in that middle ground where normal people can go out and have a fine meal and not feel guilty. It is attainable for a vacation or birthday or anniversary, even with a bottle of wine. And the City Cafe has Long been recieving high accolades by foodie and wine lover magazines alike.

Point #4 is a lessor offender, but I do have to point out that honky tonks are a dying breed around here. Fort Worth still has the famous Billy Bob's, but Dallas just hasn't kept that many around. And while I definately agree that any visitor to Dallas should try to eat or at least have drinks in the top of Reunion Tower at least Once, I am left wondering why Ghostbar wasn't mentioned at all in this Party High section. The truth is that you can go Anywhere in Dallas and party like a rockstar. Each little pocket of the city and even the suburbs have their own niche of "it" places to go out. If you are a "see and be seen" type, then Ghostbar and Joule and Hotel ZaZa and any number of the "Beautiful People" establishments will be great for you. But if you are a normal person just wanting to go out and have a drink, well then the city has everything from fantastic pubs with live music to biker bars, also sometimes with live music, to jazz and piano bars. Narrowing down the type of bar that is supposed to define Dallas to the type of place where only about 3% of the population would feel comfortable going isn't a correct ascertation of how the city parties.

I'll now be skipping down to point 8, Retail Overload. While Ms. Torregrosa makes a great point that the Inwood Village is an interesting and dynamic shopping center, why didn't she at least mention North Park Center? Not only was North Park Center one of the first of its kind in retail establishments, but the North Park experience isn't just about shopping. The Dallas visitor can see sculpture on loan from the Nasher Sculpture Collection in the halls of the facility as well as there is often music being played by live musicians. Once I was walking along and was treated to the Beautiful sounds of a harp being played live. Another time it was a classical guitar. Each time was a chance to just stop from the hurry hurry of the day's errands and enjoy the music. There's also, of course, some Fine shopping to be had at North Park!

Now, in this whole review, there's plenty mention of places to eat and stay and spend money, but what about the biggest draw to Dallas ever? What about the Dealey Plaza and 6th Floor Museum? How are those attractions not mentioned?

And as I wrap up my critique of this ill written Travel review, I just want to end in the same manner that it ends, with hotels. I see again that the Ritz-Carlton gets top billing, then the Joule, then the Belmont. The Ritz-Carlton is new and I'm sure lives up to the standards of its name. The Belmont, well, it sounds like a Treat of a hotel, however, you'd better bring your street sense with you when you stay there because the neighborhood isn't that great. Looking for the first time at information on the Joule, it looks pretty awesome and I'm thinking that I know a few people who should throw a Steampunk party there! But again, I am disappointed in the lack of mention of hotels in the city who have long been known as ambassadors of the city. There is no mention at all of The Adolphus, The Magnolia, or the Fairmont. I think, though that I can forgive the absence of those simply for the fact that I know know about the Joule. So there is ONE bright spot about the whole review.