teasphere

Hi Dominic: You always have good information here, so I will read there too. Could not log in there so here's a comment about that flavored tea. I didn't like the one I had because it was artificially flavored.

Can just adding a drop of vanilla and some pomegranate juice to the Ceylon tea work?

I can't try this now as I'm out of black tea. Melissa

By no means is it meant to rival this or anyone else's serious websites... I just figured it would give me a place to post some photo's of my teapots and different things so that when I post here I have a place to link to that is more permanent than an image host. The info and writing will be fairly minimal, just what I'm drinking and a bit about it, what books I'm reading, and occasionally a thought or idea or a photo or two of my progress in building my "zen" garden or my bonsai. I'd also like to keep kind of a photo journal of my tea trees that I am growing from seeds because I have found it pretty enjoyable to watch myself.

As for the Monk's Blend, yeah it has been a very frustrating thing for me to find a high quality version of. I still stick to the Mlesna Brand tea bags because even though they are teabags they are all natural. I will have to experiment with a spot of grenadine and a drop of vanilla and report back, I have a feeling getting the balance right will take some trial and error. If you enjoy pomegranate (its a favorite of mine) I have found POM pomegranate juice to be an amazing (but expensive) treat.

Take care, thanks for being the one interested person ;)

- Dominic

If you want a vanilla tea, put some black tea in a tin, add in a vanilla bean or two, seal it up and leave it on the shelf for a month or so. I think a lighter Chinese black works better than a Ceylon, but lots of people would differ with me (many of them British).

--scott

USENET is good enough for me. I consider this group the Congressional Record of Tea. It has no meaning if said elsewhere unless reviewed here. I wouldn't participate if DejaVu or Google didn't care to archive what I had to say on the subject or anybody else. BLOGGING is essentially a solitary activity even with the media support. My Beta camera failed, my VHSC camera failed, my MEDIA computer failed. Otherwise I would put up some video on a TUBING site for the MTV generation.

Jim

Dom> Since many others here have some sort of website devoted to tea, from

Flint and tinder work too, so toss out that stove. I'm not sure why you have a burr lodged somewhere, but you very often have humor and insight to share... and instead stick to derisive and esoteric comments much of the time. I guess every group needs a couple of those to keep them honest, but I just don't get it.

Usenet is great for a lot of things, but posting photo's or just posting a silly or off-topic post doesn't always fit. It's the wrong tool for some jobs, and I'm not a "I have a hammer, so every problem is a nail" kinda person. A lot of people around me always want to know what I'm drinking or like to try things I like because they are not tea experts, and this was a quick easy way to post it. Same goes with books, I read a ton of books and a lot of people find some neat off-beat titles from me that would otherwise not be on their radar. I'm not looking to create a "community" or even looking for comments or feedback... I really just thought maybe one or two people would be interested to find out that my journey started not with some great revelation but with an average 1984 flick The Karate Kid on the "About Me" page. I find the background and history to how people find their way into tea to this level is generally very interesting. I just wanted to share my tale. If it isn't for you, no problem.

- Dominic

Great! Thanks for the new leads, I'll be ordering some as long as they'll ship it. I found it strange that not all "Monk's Blend" is vanilla and grenadine though, I've found many places are very different flavorings which makes it tough to find the right thing. It's funny you mention the weather because yesterday it was a cool, rainy, foggy morning here in PA and that was what I turned to as well. (Minus the milk/sugar, I wasn't ready to be wrapped up in that scandal too since I was already *enjoying* a teabag :) It has a hypnotic effect on me, I've always heard vanilla is a scent that has a good deal of power of males and it does... in fact there is a perfume called "Hypnotic Poison" that cuts right through me instantly that is very similar to the scent of the tea.

- Dominic

"You cannot use that email address to signup. We are having problems with them blocking some of our email. Please use another email provider."

So I can't leave a comment (not saying that you need my comment or anything :) Perhaps you can set it up so that people don't need to sign up for an account with Wordpress to leave a comment, much like Tess' Teadonism and Nikhil's The Simple Leaf blogs? My 2 cents.

Anyway, I'll be following your musings here and there!

Phyll

I mentioned the Karate Kid sequel and the Tea Ceremony here in 98 if that means anything. I still think it worth viewing. You can find it with Google.

Jim

Dom> I really just thought maybe one or two people would be

Done and done, I've changed it to allow anonymous comments. (I only left it the other way to minimize spam, but had no idea it was such a PITA) I'm less than enthused at Wordpress actually in the entire execution and as someone who designs CMS's (Content Management Systems) for websites I have a feeling I will be creating something custom tailored to my needs and moving it at some point to one of my own servers... but for now that issue should be fixed. Thanks for the input.

- Dominic

I wish I knew how to custom-make a blog nicely on my own. So for now, blogspot serves my tea and wine musings well. Hey, thanks, Dominic for removing that PITA. If you don't mind, I'm going to add a link of your blog on mine. It'll be my "required tea reading".

Cheers,

Phyll

Dom> > Hey Dominic,

I'm not sure why I get asked if it is OK to link to my blog, because this is the third or fourth time already... I'm not much of a blogger, but I'd think that was the point of a blog :) Sure! Of course it's OK to link to it, if anything it is an honor that you even care to! I appreciate it and also will have to find yours to link back to and read.

As for creating custom CMS systems, it is actually very simple only basic SQL/database skills and a smidge of PHP is needed to make it work. The tricky part is making it secure and extensible. I'm a big fan of open source software and if you google "LAMP Server" "PHPNuke" "PostNuke" "Drupal" or "open source CMS" you will find that you can use freely available software to run your own server with barely no knowledge at all. Or find a free/cheap web host that supports MYSQL and PHP and run one of those CMS systems on it. It gives you many more options than a blog, but might run you $3-4/month for the hosting if you don't run your own server. (OK, enough of the geek stuff... and if you are not a computer person you are probably now puzzled and thinking about kitty cats, monkeys, or pants.)

Thanks!

- Me.

So you have... I see you are a man who knows fine cinema as well ;) I hope I didn't sound too harsh above, I have no doubts we would probably see eye-to-eye in person and be pretty compatible, I just think you have a latent tendency to be "that guy" that I mentioned. I much prefer the insight and humor, and often it is hard to convey meaning in text so I may read things wrong at times too. No harm, no foul, I appologize if I seemed an ass.

- Dominic

Actually, a giant mushroom cloud and a searing flash of light entered my mind. I'm for nuke proliferation. And I wasn't asking for permission, per se. :-D

Dom> > I wish I knew how to custom-make a blog nicely on my own. So for now,

I'm not sure if it's what you're looking for, but...

Looking at your site led to a search for "Mlensa Monks Blend" which led to a site that listed it as "The Des Moines" which reminded me that the shop I used to frequent in Minneapolis has a "The Des Moines d'Amerique".

It might not be what you're looking for, but I recall it being quite tasty.

A shorter link:

I use Wordpress, but not on the Wordpress server. I have it on one that I rent annually to host several domains. It works pretty well.

But spam is a problem. So I suggest the following:

1. Install the Akismet plugin. I have found it amazingly good at catching spam.
2. Require all posters to be moderated once. That is, set it so that after the first approved post, they don't have to moderate.

The end result is that you have to do a little moderation, but spam stays off of the site.

I just saw the Star Trek episode that had the Klingon Tea ceremony, Worf had with Dr Pulaski, Anyone remember that one? Short scene but intensely nice. Jenn

She had to dose herself with a hypospray, because the tea itself was toxic and would have killed a non-Klingon.

No. No idea at all what you're talking about.

What about Talerian tea? its all over the galaxy, and the Talerians dont appear to be tea farmers, but hey their tea is requested from the replicaters alot. Jenn