Tea. Earl Grey. Hot

In the spirit of the Calgary Comic Expo starting this Thursday...
I'm NERDING IT UP with a classic.

CLICK TO PAUSE
or it won't. stop.

I also suck at vine

Earl Grey from Davids Tea!

Ingredients: Black tea, cornflower petals, Bergamot oil

 (Duh! It's Earl grey. What did you expect?!)

I steeped for 4 minutes because when you take a sniff of the leaves, WOW - Bergamot!

And after you steep it, it's still WOW - Bergamot!

This is your classic Earl Grey... with a punch! The bergamot is incredibly powerful. But it's kind of rekindling my old love of earl grey tea. It could do with some lemon, perhaps... Or a little cream. It's not common for me to drink this without something in it, and the bergamot is just so strong in this one that a little bit of cream would do it some good. But ALWAYS TRY FIRST!

I bought some super powerful vanilla flavoured rooibos to see if I can make my own cream of earl grey with the plain one I have. We shall have to see how that goes.

But for now...

Live long and prosper,

~K

Bergamot - warp TWELVE!

Tea and Hair: Day 1

What's this? I'm mixing tea and hair? Whaaaaaaaaaaat?!

So, my plan is to make a daily, after shampooing spray for my hair, using a tea mixture. I've been doing some reading, and many people find a tea rinse helpful, and some people use them as a spray. And, because it is tea related I am bringing you along for the ride.

My goal of this is to 1) see the prospective uses for tea, and 2) help my hair using something I'm passionate about. I also need some sort of hobby to make sure I stay motivated.

I'll post updates once a week, on Wednesdays, ending March 5th (or 12th, I'm unsure)!

If you don't want any information on my hair type or regular routine, then skip to under my selfie.

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I have a 3a hair-type, my hair has a low-porosity when it is not being negatively affected by the weather, and medium when it gets too dry, mostly from winter dryness. Even my skin is drier during the winter. Medium width and a little longer than shoulder length. I have a little over a medium density hair during the summer, in the winter, it drops to a medium. If I'm stressed, I shed much, much more.

I am blessed with the genetics for having dandruff on both sides. So using Head & Shoulders as a shampoo is basically a need. Otherwise I get an itchy, dry, flaky scalp. Seriously. If I shampoo with a different one, my scalp is like NO. and gets itchy. So, to combat it's drying effect, I make sure to use their 2 in 1 shampoo, AND  conditioner for curly hair. I can't seem to find the PERFECT conditioner though, SO IF ANY OF YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE. Currently, I use a Strictly Curls by Marc Anthony.

I wish I could wash my hair every other day, but because I'm a massage therapist, and my bangs are still growing out (thus at a very awkward length, and the curls make it so that not all of it is controlled by a bobby pin), I manage to get massage oil on it.

My selfie game is weak after
getting my hair all oiled up

So, the night before I did a major moisturizing treatment, like I do probably once every other week. Sometimes more like once a week, sometimes more than once a week if the weather gets cold and dry, but not less unless I can't help it. My hair gets straighter when I do, because, well, I'm stroking it a little and getting my quasi-treatment all over it. Also, I do it at the end of the day. Sadly, I do have to give my hair a comb out with a wider tooth comb to do it, otherwise my fingers get caught in the curls.

I use:

• A quarter size amount of a Macadamia Nourishing Leave-in Cream
• A dime sized amount of a extra-virgin cold pressed coconut oil/jojoba oil mixture
• Maybe a dime sized amount of Moroccan Oil
• One drop of peppermint oil
• One drop of lavender oil

My Mother-in-law-to-be found the coconut oil at Costco of all places! And let me tell you, it's in a huge ass tub and super high quality, yummy as well!

It smells nice and serves its purpose. But our horrible winter weather, and the fact I wash my hair every day (not good for hair and scalp care!), dries it out.






For the spray leave in I'm:

• 1 scoop chamomile tea
• 1 scoop Indonesian Green Tea
• 1 sprig of fresh rosemary
• 1 pot of boiling water
• 1 drop tea tree oil
• one drop peppermint oil
• 1 spray bottle, washed and dried

I started by cutting and crushing the rosemary. Then boiled the rosemary, and its stem, and the tea for a minute at a rolling boil, then let it steep until cool. Then, obviously, I strained it. I actually did this twice, to make sure I didn't get any floaties.
Then I put it in the spray bottle, and lightly spritzed my hair (it was towel dried, but still wet). I tried to get all of it.
Then, I put that shit in the fridge, to make sure it keeps.

Look at this massive ringlet

It smelled fresh, kind of minty. Just light, and fresh is the only word I can think of! Not bad in the least
My hair felt pretty damn smooth and soft after it dried.
My hair looked shiney as fuuuuck after it dried.
The peppermint oil left a bit of a tingly cooking sensation. Because it's so watered down, it was only a small one.

Day one overall happiness level pretty damn happy. Smooth ringlets!

LOOK AT THE SHINE

By the end of the day my hair was frizzier, and my curls weren't as tight. I still have ringlets hanging out though. I did go for a walk today, and it was cold and dry out.

Hair raisingly yours,

Laura

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Benefits of rosemary for hair [1] [2] [3] [4]

Benefits of chamomile for hair [1] [2]

Benefits of green tea for hair [1] [2]

Benefits of tea tree oil for hair [1] [2] [3]

Benefits of peppermint for hair [1] [2]

Organic Japanese Sencha

Japanese Sencha from DavidsTea

Fine organic steamed Japanese green tea from Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan

OI OCHA!
(tea, please! apparently...)

"Japan's most popular tea"! And for good reason. This is a lovely light green tea.
The directions said to steep for 2-3 minutes, but three minutes was just too watered down for me, so I gave it another two in what was technically a second steep!

Is this tea ever smooth. The flavour lingers on your tongue, but not like your average green. It's very vegetal, almost grassy... in a good way. (Saying something tastes like grass doesn't really make it sound delicious, does it?) It's really nice, and I hope the other sencha that I have a lot of (and not just a sample size) is just as good. I could drink this ALL the time.

Aaaaand I just spilled a bunch on myself trying to take a drink. Because I'm about as graceful as a brick in the wind... yeah.

Yoshi likes it as well. Unfortunately, he is too afraid of the cup to take a drink so I can capture it on camera. Last time he attacked my tea a little too soon after being steeped and burned his little toes, poor baby. He wants it from my mouth, birds are gross.

It is also just as nice cold! Yum

This is the corner of my desk, where I write my blogs. This is not staged (besides the picture of me as a child with my dad that I moved out of frame). This is actually my desk with a -working- 115+ year old typewriter and that lump in the back is a chunk of fossilised dinosaur jaw. The rest of my desk is no less nerdy. The other corner has a ton of crystals, a crystal lamp and candle holder, and an ammonite. I will take a picture some time of my whole office when it isn't so bloody messy. (I'm such a slob!) And when I get better lighting, I had to point a lamp at my tea because the light fixtures in our bedrooms are on one side of the room, and my desk is on the opposite side.


WELL! Enough rambling about myself.

Go take a cheap trip to Japan (ie: in your mind, for us poor folk) with a cup -or several- of sencha!



Happy Steepping!
~K

Santa's Secret

The weather today

So I'm going to start with how I like to make this tea, because it's my review, and I'm an adult who can do what I want!

Today's tea is Santa's Secret.

I steeped the tea with 2 tablespoons PER FOUR CUP POT, and steep it 5 minutes. So it's pretty strong. I also stir the leaves while it steeps so all of the candy cane sprinkles dissolve.



Then I add 1/3 cup skim milk (use whatever milk you have), heat that fucker up. I microwaved it on high I think for 54 seconds. Specifically 54 because I stopped it when it started to bubble.

To that, I add 2 teaspoons of vanilla agave, stirred it around.


Then  poured that awesome hot milk and agave mixture directly into my pot of hot freshly brewed tea, gave it a quick stir.






Then I drank it. All of it. Because it was yummy and I put effort into making it  however little effort is actually was I don't know because I am lazy today

It tasted creamy, vanilla-y, with tiny peppermint afternote. If I had plain peppermint tea, I'd add just a sprinkle more. Like a literal pinch. Just so the afternote becomes a bit stronger.
It inspired me to try this with a bunch of my other black teas, but switch to my maple agave when appropriate.

SO IT WAS DELIGHTFUL. Which actually made it taste a lot like White Chocolate Frost shhhhhhhhhh

But, having it plain...it didn't really make me go "this is a delight yum yum" it made me more think of "did someone add Pure Vanilla to Orange Pekoe?

Kayla's post describes it pretty good actually. So...read that, and take this as evidence that this tea needs extra to taste special so you may as well just get White Chocolate Frost

I can't go to the gym today like I wanted to because of the first blizzard of the year and all the lights need to be on otherwise it's dark inside, so I ARE GRUMP.


Keep on drinking* and stay warm,
Love your grump,

L

*Whether or not you turn it into a Hot Toddy is up to you. Wiki defines it not how I was taught; tea with booze. Not this. Ignore wiki.

I Met Our Mayor!

If you live in Calgary, AB Canada, you'll know that the mayor of Calgary, AB is pretty much like a celebrity. He was well liked before the Alberta Floods of 2013, but after his popularity soared. Mostly because of how amazingly he handled the entire situation; and how...well..let's call it honest, he was about certain things.

During the flood

Other reasons he's liked?

He supports the LGBT community, and goes to the PRIDE parade, and he's a total nerd.

"Mayor Who"

On Friday, October 4th (yesterday) I got to meet him! I was super excited! I admit, I fangirled a lot just a little bit.

Yes someone taped a picture of his face over Superman.

I'm not the only person in his fanbase though.









If you guys read our Facebook group, you'll have seen the picture I posted from when I tweeted Nenshi asking if he liked tea, and the fact he took time to respond to a question that was quite random and completely irrelevant to him being the Mayor of Calgary.

Well, when I met him he asked my name. After I told him, I was like "Do you happen to remember that tweet about whether or not you like tea?"

He said yes.

This picture is of that mini-conversation. (A shout out to my mom for capturing that moment)

I basically was fangirling on the inside

When the city celebrity says they remember a random tweet from a month ago, you get pretty hyped!

Afterwards my dad asked me if I asked him about tea.
My dad knew what I would do...my addiction may be obvious to others now!

But honestly, he's super nice and funny and a great speaker.

My one regret? I fangirled so hard I forgot to ask him what his favorite tea was! Which is something I really wanted to know!

If you're wondering about the hard hat, it's because he was at a ground breaking for my moms work. They are building a new building and he was invited and he came. 

-Laura