White Tea

In which I review another tea from the outlet...

The only other white tea I've tried before this was an Earl Grey variant which overpowered the tea a little. So this is my first time properly trying white tea.

It's a delicate tea and so only needs a quick brew of 2-3 minutes. This tea tastes as if it falls between green tea and black tea. It's very enjoyable :)

It's nice to have something to break up my green tea-black tea-green tea rotation I have at work :)

Web-link

http://www.whittard.co.uk/tea/teabags_1/white_tea_50_teabags.htm

Interesting Tea Uses

I might start putting interesting links at the bottom of the reviews :) Here's the first one courtesy of Alex:

http://www.teamuse.com/article_040301.html

Green Earl Grey

In which I restock my work tea...

Teat for the Tea God! Mugs for the Mug Throne!

I was down to my last few tea bags at work and so decided to head the the Lowry Outlet Mall where there is a Whittard's outlet shop with a few friends.

There were some good discounts available:

• Buy one get one half price on all tea/coffee
• Ridiculous discounts on all Christmas packaged products (up to 80% off)

And now I have a large stock of new tea for work and for reviewing!

I will endeavour to review other tea brands in between all these Whittard ones too!

Green Earl Grey

"Stop what you are doing and savour!"

Regular readers will now I am a big fan of Earl Grey. With the aforementioned offers I just had to risk it and get hold of some green Earl Grey. This tea is essentially just green tea with bergamot added.

It's a lovely brew and means I can enjoy Earl Grey at work without the need for milk or lemon*. It's lighter than the black tea equivalent and very refreshing. I would heartily recommend it!

*Yes I drink Earl Grey with milk - I like it that way!

Web-link

Lowry Outlet Mall: http://www.lowryoutlet.co.uk

Tea: http://www.whittard.co.uk/tea/green/green_earl_grey/green_earl_grey_50_teabags.htm

Tom Out!

Ginger Tea

In which I review a ginger flavoured tea...

While at a conference (a little while ago) I had the opportunity to visit Cambridge's lovely market. There I purchased a ginger flavoured black tea to try.

This is a lovely cup of tea with or without milk. There is a hint of ginger in the aroma but you can definitely taste it. I love ginger and this is a very pleasant tea experience. With milk in the tea it would be the perfect accompaniment to dessert. Perhaps some gingerbread :) Without milk the black tea flavour is stronger and I might even consider having it as a regular tea.

Conclusion

Lovely gingery black tea. Perfect with milk!

Tom Out!

P.S. Once I find a link for the tea seller I'll update this post with it.

P.P.S. I hope people are enjoying the slightly different review style :)

A busy few weeks

In which I reassure you that I'm still here...

Apologies all I've been rushed off my feet these past few weeks :/ Normal service will resume next week (with maybe some bonus posts too!).

Tom Out!

2012 in Review & New Year's Resolutions

In which I look back on a year (ish) of blogging and look ahead to 2013...

That Was The Year That Was!

Firstly WordPress have provided this nice summary of my year in blogging: http://tinkertailorsoldiersponge.com/2012/annual-report

So this is my first proper year of blogging (I posted a few things before but wasn't really regular at all). It's been a lot of fun and I'm definitely here to stay :) I've managed the majority of my 3,000 odd views this year :)

Let the summarising commence!

Tinker

I've messed about with Linux and Windows. I upgraded to Windows 8 and enjoyed it (it hasn't pissed me off yet!). I've also spent a fair amount of time learning $latex LaTeX$.

Tailor

The main event was Project Thor which was a lot of fun and helped keep me in shape.

Soldier

I didn't do much in the way of Airsoft this year :(

Sponge

Due to foolishly agreeing to bake a cake for every CAOS rehearsal in order to become Social Secretary I have baked a lot of cakes this year. Also there was the annual Pudding Party!

PhD

I've had a placement at AstraZeneca which has been very useful and is still on going. I've also started looking into PostDoc options.

Reviews

I reviewed a board game based on a TV show you might just have heard of. I also made an advent calendar full of alternative Christmas songs :)

Tea

I drank lots of tea and so it was a good year :)

I got featured on http://www.reddit.com/r/tea/ which was awesome! This is thanks to the Great British Tea Test 2012 :)

On to 2013!

Having survived the apocalypse let's have a few New Year's Resolutions:

Tinker

I'll keep tinkering. No particular promises here but expect some more $latex LaTeX$ and Linux stuff along with anything interesting I find out :)

Tailor

• There will be some cryptic updates to Project 0 soon!
• ManSSAGO is hosting the Manchester 2013 Cartoon Rally in February which I intend to have a costume for (I'm thinking Inspector Gadget).
• Project Reynolds has a slight delay due to the party being moved back. This Project will be finished by mid-February.
• I intend to get down to 13 stone for Project Reynolds and then down to 12½ stone by October.
• There will be more sotumes later in the year :)

Soldier

• I will definitely airsoft more next year!
• There will be some site reviews!

Sponge

I'm 'contractually obliged' to make cakes until March sometime once a week so expect more cake making. It'll give me an excuse to use my new Mason Cash mixing bowl and silicon utensils :D

PhD

• I'll finish my placement at AZ.
• I will get a paper written (and hopefully published).
• I will collect all of the data!
• I will probably decide on PostDocs/future plans.

Reviews

I'm expecting to get the following things* to review next year:

• OGRE Designer's edition
• Evil Baby Orphanage
• OUYA
• The Banner Saga
• Defense Grid: Containment
• Wasteland 2

*I should go on KickStarter less!

Tea

Armed with my trusty new leaf tea, teapot and a new review style I will continue to drink lots of tea!

Tom Out!