Open All the Boxes and Drink Every Last Drop

The music starts.

Each note slowly intensifies.

You feel it in your soul.

And the Chorus swells!

Welcome to what will hopefully be a once in this blog's lifetime event. Today, I will commence in opening all the Sipsby boxes I have received thus far. And then finally I will be able to drink all this marvelous tea and find their true loves in book form.

In order of arrival we have first the spring time confections of April.

Again, each box comes with a list of the teas that were put together especially for me. Remember, no two boxes are meant to be the same.

Lets start with our caffeine free teas; we have two for this month.

First is Cancun Escapade from Kleff.

Hello paradise! Luscious mango, tangy apricot, and sweet passion fruit complement green rooibos, the unoxidized version of the mellow South African "red tea."

I did enjoy my fruity tea from my last box and I imagine I will experience the same results. 

Next is the Hibiscus Rooibos from Rishi.

This rejuvenating rooibos blend has fruity tropical Caribbean flavors along with sweet, creamy sarasparilla root - the secret ingredient in root beer - which adds an irresistible aroma.

Oh My Sweet Goody Gumdrops guys! A root beer tea!? I mean I doubt it will taste like a sweet Barq's Root Beer, but a girl can dream. I can't wait to try it.

We now move on to two medium caffeinated teas.

Viking Moxie from Moxtea

Give an energy boost to your body and mind without the jitters or crash of coffee! Ancient Viking herbs like rhodiola and Icelandic moss lower stress & increase mental stamina.

This sounds like a definite option for a crisp morning sitting on my porch with a book.

Jin Xuan Oolong from Terroir Tea Merchant

Commonly called milky oolong, this Jin Xuan from an award-winnning tea artisan, lives up to its name with buttery notes and underlying sweet vegetal flavors.

This one sounds interesting, definitely not something I have ever come across, though my experience is pretty limited. Still, I will be curious to try a sip of this.

April showers bring May flowers, but that really wasn't the case this year to my utter disappointment.

May did however bring a new caffeine level that is both intriguing and perhaps questionable for a tea. So lets start with that.

Pomegranate Mojito from Zest Tea is a Coffee-level Caffeine tea.

Get ready for a jolt! Zest is the tea industry's answer to a coffee-level cuppa. An amazingly refreshing blend - drink while (imagining you're) lounging on the beach!

I can't say that I don't wish the imagery of a beach were fake, but I have a pretty powerful imagination that I just might be able to pull something off when I get around to this tea. 

We move on to the Caffeine-free of which there is only one for this month.

Malian Kinkeliba Chai from Oya Tea

This healthy chai blend is formulated with Kinkeliba, an herb traditionally used in West Africa to support healthy metabolism. It's caffeine-free, so you can enjoy any time of day!

I am curious to see if this one will actually affect my metabolism in a positive way. Guess it won't hurt to try.

May also brought along two high caffeine teas.

First, Passion Berry Jolt from Tiesta Tea

This blend is light on its feet and tangos across your tongue with raspberry and passion fruit. Perfect when you need the energy of a black tea and all the flavor of a fruit tea.

The mango tea from back in March was probably one of my favorites and I am excited that I not only get another fruit tea, but that it is by the same company as the last.

And then there is Matcha by Easthill Tea Co.

Did you know matcha was popular in China during the Song Dynasty (960-1279) before it became the national tea of Japan? Keep refrigerated for freshness!

Before I even think about attempting a second matcha tea I will most assuredly be purchasing a whisk to go along with it.

Well we've made it to the second to last box that I have received, so lets go ahead and slide right into June.

Again, I am gifted with two caffeine-free teas.

First, Organic Beauty Me Tea from Full Leaf Tea Co

This organic herbal blend promotes clearer skin and stronger hair, making you feel beautiful from the inside out! 

A simple tea it seems, but if the benefits are to be believed it may be more than that. Perhaps a magic beauty potion in disguise.

The second caffeine-free is Guavalicious from Fava Tea

This tart and juicy exotic fruit blend is a summer favorite! Serve over ice for a refreshing, cooling beverage on a hot day.

The weather has thankfully cooled for the moment, but I have a feeling we are due for some more heat this summer. It will be fun to try one of these teas iced. 

We now move up a level to medium caffeine.

Chinese Flower from Harney & Sons

A joy for the eyes and palate! This is a beautiful aromatic blend of Chin Mee green tea and three types of flower petals, along with accents of citrus.

There seems to be a lot going on with this tea, but I have to admit everything that description held has me excited to brew myself a cup.

The last for June is high caffeine.

Taiwanese Wild Black Tea from Kuan Yin Teas

A fine oolong grower's take on black tea. Feel free to brew this tea like you'd brew an oolong (it can be steeped 4-5 times)! A special treat for oolong and black tea lovers alike.

I'm not aware of any love for oolong yet, but I suspect that will come shortly. As for black tea, ours is a long and beautiful relationship and I can't wait to reconnect.

The last box, but also the most recent to be received, July.

I appreciate that they sent another box with two medium caffeine teas. 

First, He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not from Oh You, Tease

The finest green tea leaves are whisked with antioxidant-rich pomegranate and soothing rose petals with an essence of hibiscus to create a remarkable blend. Great hot or cold!

I adore the name of this tea and the packaging is just as adorable. What can I say, I'm a sucker for cute things. With the summer months I am more willing to try as many iced teas as I can. Looks like this will be another winner.

Lavender Matcha from 3 Leaf Tea

Matcha is packed with antioxidants and L-theanine to help you stay alert, yet calm. To prepare, whisk 1 tsp matcha with 2 oz warm water until frothy, and add 6 0z more water!

Damn, I'm really going to need that whisk!

The last two are polar opposites, one caffeine-free and the other high caffeine.

Summer from Turmeric Teas

This refreshing blend helps you cool off on a warm day or simply unwind before bedtime. It also restores nutrients in your body and heals digestive and inflammation problems.

I guess a good nickname for this one would be the tummy ache tea. Plus, finding a nice calm tea to drink before sleep is always a plus.

Wild Wuyi Black Tea from Heirloom Tea Company

Picked from wild-grown tea trees, this Lapsang Souchung (what we normally think of as pine-smoked), is not smoked, allowing the farmers to truly show the quality of the tea.

I'm not going to pretend to know, so I will just ask the question - Is this a pine tree tea? Guess I'll have to taste it to find out.

Well, that is it I'm afraid. I have opened all boxes currently in my possession and will now proceed to brew, sip, and enjoy each and every one of them.

Next up: Book Review of Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

Coming Soon: Tea tasting and pairing

Book Review: Yes, Please by Amy Poehler

This is the fifth book I have read this year that is essentially an anecdote of an entertainer's life whom I love and admire. Amy Poehler is the latest, I have also read Iliza Shlesinger's book Girl Logic, Anna Kendrick's book Scrappy Little Nobody, Lauren Graham's book Talking As Fast As I Can and Mara Wilson's book Where Am I Now? And I plan to read many more. I've got a queue.

They were all equally entertaining, but I would have to say at this point my favorite thus far is Anna Kendrick's book, sorry Amy. I'm thinking it has something to do with where I am in my life; I just related more to 30 year old wacky Anna than I did mid-40s, mother of two, finally figuring your life out Amy.

Yes you are Anna!

This in now way made her book any less enjoyable and I look forward to perhaps picking this book up again when I enter that phase of my life. Until then I will simply explain my most recent reading experience of her book.

First off, I did enjoy it. It was clever and funny and part of why I have become obsessed with books like this is because of the ability to listen to the audio book which inevitably is narrated by the entertainer themselves. So I got to listen to Amy's entire book read to me by Amy herself.

GOOD POINT: Amy found a way of narrating her book to make it feel like a stand-up comedy routine, which was an interesting twist compared to the other books I have read in this genre. It made it where I almost forgot I was reading an actual book and not just listening to her tell her unique life story. 

Just imagine this reading to you. Epic, yes?

This book tends to go back and forth more so than the others. Meaning that it's not very linear. Where other people talk from their early days up to the present, Amy kept jumping back and forth, but it wasn't tiresome.

I was able to keep up with the jumps. It never got to the point where I was having to go back a few pages to make sure I was in the right place. It was a different way to tell the story and one that I got behind rather quickly. Everything she mentioned was relevant and it didn't feel like she was going off on some weird tangent.

GOOD POINT: I thought having various other entertainers read parts of her book would annoy me. I didn't come here for them after all, I came here for Amy. But I found those pieces were light and again added a unique feel to her story. It's one thing to write from strictly your perspective, but to have someone else come in and retell a story from there perspective is something you need to be strong enough to handle. Though I doubt she would have invited these people if they weren't going to at least say one nice thing about her. I know I wouldn't.

Seth Meyers read a chapter

There wasn't much about Parks and Recreation, which is the show I know her the most from. I'm guessing because at the time of the books publication the show was still filming albeit its final season, but I can see how it would be different if she were looking at those days through rose tinted classes of nostalgia. It just hadn't hit her yet as it did say to Lauren Graham when talking about Gilmore Girls.

I did enjoy her nods to each cast mate on the show. I thought they were very sweet and funny and very Amy. I adore that entire cast and if any of them write a book I will probably devour it as well.

Another great thing about these books is being able to learn things about the person you didn't before. While I enjoy Amy as an entertainer I never bothered to look into her personal life, mainly because duh, it's personal. I had no idea that she had been married to Will Arnett and had two kids with him. It's just a fun tidbit that I now know, not sure what I'll gain from it, but it's nice all the same.

GOOD POINT: She was very protective of her marriage, divorce, and now ex-husband. She doesn't mention him much, not even many good memories. In a way you can find this sad, but I think it shows that some things you just want to keep to yourself. As she says Divorces are hard and though no good marriage ends in divorce, you want to try and preserve those good times especially if children are involved. I applaud her for taking that route. Besides she had many other tales to tell, no need to tell that one.

BAD POINT: This is all me. I just wish my overall reaction to it hadn't been, "It was alright." I know my tune will change once I have two kids and my writing career takes off. Your words will help me then Amy, I'm sure of it.

4.5 stars out of 5

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Book Review: Ballad - A Gathering of Faerie by Maggie Stiefvater

I feel like I let my guard down with this one. I blame the fact that is started off much stronger than its predecessor and so I got overly confident in it's ability. (If you have the desire to read my review on the first book in this series you can jump back to that masterpiece HERE.) And it is because of this that my ignition in finishing this book petered out fairly quickly. It's taken me far longer to finish this thing than originally anticipated, but now that I have I can finally do this...

...and share with you this horrendous experience. Buckle up.

Summer has come and gone. We are now with James, and if you remember he is supposedly Dee's best friend. We are entering this sequel through his POV now, which honestly I was down with. It was this very thing that had me intrigued from the get go. For all his flaws, which I will happily point out in this post, he was a much more enthralling character. 

Pretty much what I initially thought of James

Both James and Dee are now attending Thornking-Ash a prestigious music academy for the musically gifted. It's revealed later that the school's sole purpose is to protect students with remarkable gifts, such as James and Dee, but they don't really seem to have their shit together when remarkable students actually attend their school, like James and Dee.

Anyway, you know how I was ecstatic that we were able to skip all the love triangle awkwardness from the first book, well it gets made up ten-fold in this sequel. From the very beginning we are told that James hasn't spoken with Dee much over the summer and it is heavily hinted that the reason is more that Dee never responded to James's "I love you" text versus her being in love and sucking face with a another dude. A Faerie dude, Luke, I mean Luke.

GOOD POINT: Luke is nonexistent in this entire novel. Even when Dee thinks she is with Luke, it turns out it's another faerie fucking with her, which honestly she kind of deserved. I mean it is presumed through these weird unsent text messages to James that she is making horrible decisions and she just assumes this Faerie is Luke and immediately begins to suck face with him. It's bizarre. This was like an even more uncomfortable version of Bella dealing with Edward running away.

Okay, maybe not this bizarre, but pretty damn close!

As I mentioned the only communication James and Dee have are these random unsent text messages from Dee to James that the reader is shown every so often at the end of a chapter. There are a few in person run-ins that show how they aren't really communicating. I will say this, Dee is hurting and needs her friend and in order to get James to realize this she goes too far and kisses him while envisioning that it's Luke. Now as other reviewers have pointed out, this is a shit thing to do to James, but lets look at what caused it shall we?

All James can think about is the fact that Dee might not feel the same about him as he does her and instead of him talking to her he blames her for not talking to him. He literally is using the old adage of, "Balls in your court," while not adding anything to the conversation to make this easier on her. In doing this he is also distancing himself from Dee at even just being her friend so she feels like she can't confide in him. Then in a desperate attempt to get him to be her friend again she tries to give him what he wants at great emotional pain to herself. And when she tries to come clean right away, because she feels like shit about it, he immediately turns his back on her. James is the worst representation of a nice guy who got friend-zoned. I'm out of fucks to give for him, but the story isn't over yet.

The James and Dee story line is really a side path, the main trail is that of James and Nuala. Yes lets talk about Nuala. She is a member of the Solitary Fey and is described as "part muse, part psychic vampire" - who came up with that crap?. The muse part is right, but vampire? really? I mean she drinks years, not blood. Basically she gives the gift of art; whatever art you're into, but she prefers musicians. In return she takes away years of your life and this is what sustains her for sixteen years. On Halloween of her sixteenth year she is burned and then starts all over. 

How the book wants you to see Nuala

As Halloween of her sixteenth year is drawing near (convenient) she has her sights on James, who we are made to believe is this pantie tossingly good bag piper. Look, I think playing an obscure instrument is interesting, but I wouldn't know the first thing about what makes a piper the best and I have a feeling 99% of these characters don't either. So their mesmerizing adoration of his abilities rang a little false for me. It all read to me like Nuala had a crazy boner for a bag piper and happened to stumble upon James and her lady bits went "JACKPOT."

Nuala tries to seal the deal by giving James a taste of what she can give him, but having only just survived a freak accident caused by Faeries over the summer James, rightfully so, turns her down hard and multiple times too. However, we are given a glimpse of Nuala's tactics when she is trying to secure a protege. These include, stalking, manipulation, invasion of privacy, and ignoring someones polite request to leave them the fuck alone. I'm not a fan of hers.

James, cool bagpiper

Nuala doesn't give up and through her weird clinging personality she begins to develop feelings for James. I really felt that the only reason for this out of nowhere infatuation is because he is the first to turn her down. Ah yes, the old chase em' till they are exhausted routine always makes the romance more sexy. Who wants someone who has their wits about them and a clear head to tell you they love you, not Nuala!

Actual Nuala

James eventually does get worn down, but not by Nuala. He is pretty clear about his feelings for her. No, he is worn down by his situation with Dee and the fact that in his selfish brain it's not going the way he wants it to, so he defaults to Nuala. Jerk move James. Now he is with Nuala and they make-out and she reads his mind so he can never have an unfiltered thought again, it's a whole bit that is not remotely healthy. 

As I said Halloween is approaching and there are stirrings in the Faerie community. There is an actual Thorn King who rules the dead and sings every night a list of people who are going to die. James along with Dee and his roommate Paul have heard this song each night since they started attending Thornking-Ash.  You're given the impression that something bad is coming, especially since all three of those characters are on the list of the dead, but to be honest it was a bit of a let down. The only person who was even a little bit threatened was Dee and we knew that was probably going to happen.

GOOD POINT: I wasn't sure if this was going to be a good point, but I've decided to add it so deal with it. The weird unsent text messages. While yes they did irk me in the beginning I found them quite useful later on. It gave just enough insight into what Dee was going through to know that James was an awful human. Now, I think it was silly that she never sent them, but the moment that the teacher pulls out Dee's phone and shows it to James because she is missing *kisses fingertips* that was great. 

Additionally, new Queen Eleanor has been hiring humans to kill Solitary Fey for some reason. It all comes back to dealing with the Thorn King, but it's not made clear or digestible from the beginning. The main crux of the story is slowly dished out and instead we have to shovel through 300+ pages of really bad teen angst to get to it.

Eventually (and I mean not until the last 10 pages or so) we are told that Eleanor wants to use Dee to create a new Thorn King. One that would rule the Dead and the Solitary Fey. As Dee is the Cloverhand she is the only logical choice. So she is kidnapped and James has to save her. 

Now I know I harped on Dee in Lament, but at least when James and Luke were kidnapped she gets her shit together and figures out what she needs to do. While she forgets about James momentarily in the heat of all the crazy she does make him a priority without question. Key thing here, she sacrifices the guy she loves to save him, as in she never sees Luke again so that James can live. That is what a best friend does.

On the other hand it takes James FOREVER to decide to help his Best Friend instead of staying with Nuala whom he is only dating because he believes he was friend-zoned when in reality his Best Friend was going through a really tough time and he chose to ignore her. Like here's the thing, Nuala had no chance of dying, none. The only fear was she would forget James after she was burned. Dee on the other hand was very much going to die. Heart cut out of her chest, never coming back from that, dying. And Fuck Boi James hesitates, really?

That is not how you treat a Best Friend and that is not how you treat someone who you said you loved up until 3/4 of the way into this book. This was the moment when I cracked and gave up entirely on this book. It didn't matter that James did go back for Dee eventually. It didn't matter that he saved her and his teacher was made the new Thorn King. I was done with him.

And to make it that much worse, Nuala is returned to him, full memory and all. Because he definitely deserved the happy ending while Dee gets to be all alone and watch him be happy after all she has done for him. Ugh! James and Nuala are the absolute worst!

GOOD POINT: Apparently there is no third installment for this series. There is a hint of a novel called Requiem that was never published and honestly I don''t know if it ever will be published. I just know I'm happy because I finished this "series" and don't have to continue reading about these characters.

BAD POINT: If you weren't going to finish the series with a third book you could have ended the second one a little better.

0.5 stars out of 5 

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Taste Pairing Two: Tiesta Tea Maui Mango

I am back with my next tea taste and pairing and I am so excited for it!

This tasting also happened to be on a week night so my next choice was pretty obvious, the only other caffeine free tea in my March box, Tiesta Tea's very own Maui Mango. I will say that this is the most potent tea in my box. I didn't even need to open the bag, just opening the box fills the space with the yummy scents of a tropical island.

Of course I used Platymus Maximus 

I seriously want to go on a tropical vacation after this tasting for sure. However, I'll just have to settle with picking a good book to read along with this tea and let me imagination take me to that tropical place in my mind.

I think the video came out better than my first pairing so expect it to be along the lines shown here. Of course it may be slightly different once I move. (Only three weeks and counting)

When I took the first sip I was overpowered with the flavor of mango. This is one of my favorite fruits so you can imagine that I sipped that tea right up, but of course I made my pairing first.

I couldn't get over how tropical it not only tasted but made me feel. I had to pair it with Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson.

This book is a re-imagining of Peter Pan told from the POV of Tiger Lily with Tinker Bell as the narrator. I read this book last year using my Audible account.  

Even when I'm in my car I'm probably listening to a book.

I can't really think of a better pairing to go with this tea. 

Read up, Sip up, and Enjoy Life!