Brewing the Perfect Cup of Tea?

Why, I've come to a surprising realization about modern trendy tea!  

You might have noticed how popular tea is lately.  Tea online, tea in the mall, tea is the new coffee, back when coffee was en vogue.  But I'm an old school herbalist.  When I say herbal tea, I'm thinking you get some hibiscus leaves or rose hips for zing (remember Red Zinger, back when it was good?) and flowers for color, maybe some dried lemon rind, or a hint of peppermint. Herbal tea was made from herbs.  Tea had tea leaves in it.

So I've been ordering tea online because where do you get good Earl Grey?  Well not around here, that's for sure.  But I noticed that some of my teas are...kinda fake tasting.  Specifically the Hazelnut vanilla.  But, silly me, I thought maybe they're using that fake vanilla flavoring?  Right?  Tea, right?

Now there's a tea place in the mall and I bought some and I've discovered...well, they're in lovely shades like fuchsia and the flavors are wonderful, but this is all fake!  I've got a couple that don't even actually have leaves of any kind in it!  It's like...like...bits of bark soaked in colorants and flavoroids!  And it's even sweetened! 

The modern tea is really just Kool-Aid for adults.  It's not tea.  The tea part is there to con you into feeling snooty and giving them the excuse to be charging exclusive prices because only exclusive people drink tea.  Pinky out!  It's not tea!  It's not tea!

You should have seen the people rushing in and out of that shop to get free samples!  You want to know something else?  Their free sample of green tea was bitter.  That right there is a major tea fail.  Anytime a tea place serves you bitter green tea, run.  Why?  Green tea is steeped at 175F.  Go with hotter water like for black teas or for coffee  (I'm looking at you, Starbucks)  and it's bitter.  Steep it too long and it's bitter.  You want to explain to me how a genuine tea place doesn't know about temps and steep times?  Because this is how tea is made.  It's the basics.

You ever get served bitter green tea at an Asian restaurant?  No, you don't.  Because they know what they're doing.  

FYI-if you're looking for REAL tea, with genuine tea leaves actually IN it, try an Asian market.  They still sell tea.

Lordy, going to the basement in the mall in Japan with the barrels and barrels of variations of green tea, THAT was heaven.  You could smell it as you came down the escalators and it's the entire basement level, one big open room, FULL of barrels.  Genuine big wooden barrels.  It was amazing!  You ever go to Japan and manage to stop by a mall, get to the basement.

You want to know how deep it's getting in the world of tea snobbery?  They claim that they can taste the difference between water boiled in a proper kettle versus water boiled in a microwave.  I'm totally not kidding!  How about never use a metal mesh ball for tea leaves because your tea will taste metallic?  Yup, that's a thing now.  Hey, doesn't matter that all the tea in the world has, for decades, been served using some form of metal mesh in some form or another.  Tea-snobs have special tea powers.  Sure they do.  Even if you have antique porcelain tea pots like I do with the holes built into the spigot, you pour the tea through a metal sieve over the cup to catch the tea leaves, or you better learn to read tea leaves like a boss to cover your faux pas.   

And, hey old-school tea drinkers, you know what's all the rage in Europe (yes, even Paris)?  Those electric kettles that you set the temp for whatever tea you're drinking.  Very handy if you don't have a cooking thermometer and a good memory to remember how long for each water temp for each kind of tea you have.  And I DO encourage you to try different teas, just be aware of what you're drinking. 

You'll notice Lipton isn't even mentioned?  Right.  Now, granted, when I was growing up, it used to have a flavor.  It did!  I swear!  Now, it pretty much just tastes like water.  Brown water.  Yum!  You want unflavored black tea, no bells and whistles, go to your local Asian market.  Discover what tea is suppose to taste like.  Change your life. 

I used to have a tea tree at our first house. Tea is a Camellia. Camellia sinensis .  Little plain white flowers.  I grew it as a novelty.  I also had a cinnamon tree. 

New Kittens

Eyes are just now changing from baby blue to their real color.

I've got a boy and a girl, so I named them Cupid and Valentina!

The day after we took them, we got another call needing a foster home for 3 more.  Poor kittens, not enough fosters for everyone.

Pick of the Litter

This is the part I dread, when my foster kittens get adopted by people who shouldn't have them.  But I have no say.
Which is one of the reasons why I don't stick around for adoption day.  I mean, I've seen some kittens get adopted and when the kitten and human find each other and pick each other, it's really beautiful.  YOUR kitten, that you fostered and thought loved you, the one who hides in the back of the cage and hisses and growls at everyone who passes by, suddenly runs to the front, reaches out a paw and touches someone, purring, meowing, it's beautiful.  What would happen if this person wasn't in the market for a pet?  What if this person didn't come today?  But here they are, together at last.

Then there's last Saturday.  Churchill gets adopted within seconds, he's scooped up and gone.  Magellan, the sweetest boy, the pick of the litter, the one that runs out of the bathroom in the morning (if you want to sleep, you lock kittens in a room overnight.  Trust me on this), sees that it's you, runs back to YOU instead of freedom, and lifts his paw for you to pick him up.  I mean, seriously, how precious is THAT?
We noticed that his works were a little swollen since the surgery.  They called the vet, with a photo (kitten porn!!) and the vet said the incision looks fine, he's just playing too hard with his brother.  Try warm compresses and keep him calm.  Ok, problem solved, his brother is adopted.

So some dingleberry adopts Magellan.  But wait.  She demands that he go to the vet.  Good.  Every new pet owner should take their newly adopted pet to their vet.  I'm not sure I got them entirely dewormed, we didn't have them long enough for the 3rd treatment.

Oh no, she doesn't want to take him to HER vet, she wants the rescue group to look at him.  Ok, whatever, it's free and included.  I guess it's better than nothing.

Oh no, she doesn't want to take him.  She wants US to take him back for the week and WE take him to the vet.

The volunteers called me to come get him and I laughed and laughed.  Did she pay?  Oh, well you have 2 choices.  You tear up the adoption form and give her her money back and let that kitten get adopted by a sane person (which is what I would have done) or you tell her that he's HER kitten and if she wants me to take him for a week, she can pay my normal boarding and transport fee.

Right.  I have no idea how that shook out.  I just have this feeling that Magellan will come back bigger and older and less adoptable for rehoming.  She's not a good choice, she should have never been allowed to adopt a kitten!  If we didn't already have 4 of our own, I would have said, "nevermind, I'll keep him."


New kittens to arrive tonight.  Tabbys, I hear.  Professor Fuzzywinkle will be glad to see them.  He ADORES playing with kittens (he was raised with kittens of all sizes and played with so many kits when he was just a kit) and since the 2 left, he's been chasing his spinster older sisters.  And they don't appreciate his shenanigans.  Ok, Mei Mei does, but she likes to pretend that she hates it, while goading him into chasing her around the house.  Calia and Ceilidh threaten to cut him if he comes near them again and have been muttering about a future black and white rug if he doesn't stop. 

Pink Weights!

Ok, so for years, yup, YEARS, the weights have bothered me.  There's so much writing on the damn things and the 5s are the same size as the 10s.  I finally got fed up with hunting down the correct number.

 

Not just pink  but pink glitter.  Spouse is horrified but he hasn't worked out since the 80s.  MY gym, MY weights, MY choice.  

Random photo of me working out with, my hero, Anja Langer, back in the day.  Oh yes.

My Telephoto Lens Sucks So Hard

THIS is why I rarely use my telephoto:

Detail?  What detail.  Might as well be a point-n-shoot cell phone. 

Would I use a better telephoto?  Well, I sure hate the idea of lugging around a lens in it's own case because it's so big but...this, this is worse than useless.

I Hate Dentists!

Dentists suck!  I hate my dentist.  I hate all the dentists in the area and after today, that's it.  I'm done.  

Mouth history-haven't had a cavity since high school and THAT is questionable.  See, I had been using Looney Tunes toothpaste.  This was 1983 so having ANYTHING besides mint was AMAZING!  It was bubblegum flavor.  Ok, so are teenagers real big on noticing if things have fluoride or not?  To this day, I have no idea.  I don't even know if it was in the water or not at that time.
On top of that, I have some grooves and pits in my teeth.  Everyone does, but dentists love to stick that pick in there and say, "This is deep, but not sticky.  We need to watch this," ever since I had teeth.

So, did THAT dentist decide he could make a little money on the sly and created cavities out of normal pits?  Because I had no pain, no problems, it was just a cleaning/check-up.  Or did I really have cavities?  Don't know.  But I have 3 fillings from that day and not one since, which also proves my point of, I think the guy took advantage.
______________________________________________________________________

Over the last few years, dentists have changed in my area.  Cleanings aren't making them enough money.  Now it's the hard-sell when you walk in by the secretary ("Are you ready to make your teeth last a lifetime?") and questionnaires upselling everything from sleep apnea gear ("Join today to see if you have sleep apnea!  Fill out this form!") to braces (already had 'em).  The whitening is out of vogue.  I used to get the hard-sell for THAT constantly.  Look, a simple google look-see will explain to any dentist (who should know better, which means they DO know better, they're just hoping that I don't know better) that if you have stained teeth from tetracycline, teeth whitening doesn't work.  Want to know something cool?  My BONES are stained too!  Yeah, went through a glass table-top once.  The skin is thin there.  
But I digress.
Yeah, dentists totally lie to make money.  I had one tell me my fillings needed replacements because they silver was wearing dangerously thin and if I did nothing, I was going to be in a lot of pain.  That was 25 years ago.  Ya get me?  I don't trust these lying damn dentists.  
________________________________________________________________________


So today I try a new dentist, spouse's dentist and it's in the paperwork, "Rate how important it is to you to keep your teeth."  "Do you want teeth or dentures in your future?"  "How committed are you to your dental health?"  Along with wanting my Driver's License number (didn't give it) and my email (didn't give it).  I also told him I didn't appreciate the upsell techniques and it's insulting.  Basically, I refused to play.  
Now, when I made this appointment, I said, "no xrays, just a cleaning."  Of course, when I show up, they demand I have xrays.  Nope.  Not going to do it.
Why?  Ok, first of all, the ADA (American Dental Association) and the FDA have said, since 1987, that, "adults who aren't at high risk should get them every two to three years."
CNN Article
Economist Article
So why do I have to fight them on this every single time?  Follow the money.  Xrays make them money, cleanings do not.
So, to teach me a lesson, they had me wait for 20 minutes in the waiting room after I refused.  Then they took me back to the room and I waited another 10.  When the dentist came in, he had a lot of body language, trying to get the upper hand, trying to make me recline in the seat by moving his chair where my legs were, and I wouldn't play along.  Trying to tell me that he, by law, had to treat me, which I laughed off.  Then told me he called my insurance and I was a month early so I had to pay for today out of pocket.  I also laughed because that's nonsense.  I cancelled my other dentist (new dentist bought out the place, wasn't up to standards.  The overhead light wasn't clean and had no plastic on the handles.  I'm not getting AIDS from the dentist) so I had an appt this month, 6 months from my last appt.  And then he made comments about how nice that I came with my spouse, one car.  I didn't know what he was up to until later, it's so petty that he should be embarrassed.
So then he asked, "So, you don't want xrays for philosophical reasons?"
Yes, asshole.  I'm a fucking tree-hugger who doesn't believe in vaccines or global warming, you jackass.  Instead of asking, he just decides I'm totally unreasonable and crazy and he'll humor me.  Fuck you.
"No, I'm not doing xrays for MEDICAL reasons.  1st, the ADA clearly states that normal healthy people do not require xrays more than once every 3 years.  Also, if you check my chart, I've had more skin cancers than cavities.  Cancer, as in squamous AND melanoma, the deadliest cancer you can get.  Technically, I'm in remission for the next 3 years.  If I don't die, I'm considered cured of THAT outbreak but my odds are more than doubled for another.  If I'm really lucky, I'll see it in time and it won't be under my hair or down my throat or in my intestines.  On top of that, 1 year and 2 weeks ago, my cousin on my mother's side, died of a brain tumor.  On my father's side, both grandparents died of cancer, my father's cousin died of a rare cancer, and my uncle has had multiple cancers.  I'm the last person in the world who needs extra cumulative radiation."
Stick that in your xray and smoke it, fuckwad.
He got all huffy, even though I didn't actually call him a fuckwad.  Maybe I should have?


Remember how you'd go for your cleaning and the tech would look in your mouth, move your tongue around and that would take 2 minutes?  Now the dentist measures every single gum line and calls out numbers.  I'm 2s and 3s.  Yeah, I could have told you that my gums are tip top.  Then he moves my tongue around.  Yup, I could have told you, no mouth sores.  That was about half an hour.  Then dick-head said I have to come back and schedule an actual cleaning.  EVEN THOUGH I DID!  And this was suppose to be it!  No, the new scam is you get a precleaning screening.  Just in case they need to do a $1000.00 deep cleaning.  Do you BELIEVE this shit?

And the petty nonsense?  He kept spouse back there for his cleaning for 2 hours.  He made sure that I got to wait, as punishment for thwarting him.  What a fucker!

And he made his point.  Clearly, he doesn't want me back there wasting his time because he doesn't make any money on cleaning teeth.  He wants xrays and CPAP machines, and invisalign.

So I ask myself, "Self?  What do visits to the dentists DO for you?"  I can and DO floss at home.  I don't have problems.  I don't have cavities.  Why am I bothering?  So, unless I have a problem, I'm done with this nonsense. 

So why do I hate dentists?  You live long enough, you see through everyone's bullshit.  Dentists are failed doctors.  Sorry you aren't raking in the big bucks like real doctors but lying and cheating makes everyone distrust you and, in the end, costs you customers/money. 

Kitten Thump

Want to know something funny about these kittens?  They haven't purred, not even once.  They cuddle, they snuggle, they play, they're even lap kittens, and meow for attention BUT they have never purred!