Baycon and Trope Tea
Jul. 5th, 2022 03:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrjHad a great time at the revived in-person BayCon. Smallish, as expected, but high quality and with good Covid controls. I enjoyed all the panels I was on, especially two on fairy tale themes that let me sneak in plugs for The Language of Roses.
I got invited to participate in a cooperative book-selling table in the dealers room and, as an experiment, took some selected Queen of Swords titles as well as my own books. Sales were good, and the combination of spreading out the table fee and table-sitting duties among multiple authors, as well as having an extensive selection of titles seems to work fairly well. I'd never bother with being a vendor on my own at a con, but this was a good balance.
* * *
Today's tea is "Immortality blew until you", one of the "trope tea" blends from The Ripped Bodice bookstore. Green rooibos, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, clove, black pepper, brewed at 212F for ca 5 minutes. I used a strainer (primarily because this has a fairly small particle size and wouldn't be caught by the filter in my teapot) so it didn't continue steeping after the initial time.
The loose tea smells quite spicy, with the pepper being most prominent (not a favorite of mine, but...). Brewed, the aroma is more mild, with ginger predominating. Since it's a chai-type, I went ahead and drank it sweetened.
Milder than what I think of as a "true chai" and the pepper is noticeable. It's ok, but I'm not fond of black pepper except in specific circumstances and it overpowers the other spices for me. Very "warming" to the mouth, overall.
I got invited to participate in a cooperative book-selling table in the dealers room and, as an experiment, took some selected Queen of Swords titles as well as my own books. Sales were good, and the combination of spreading out the table fee and table-sitting duties among multiple authors, as well as having an extensive selection of titles seems to work fairly well. I'd never bother with being a vendor on my own at a con, but this was a good balance.
* * *
Today's tea is "Immortality blew until you", one of the "trope tea" blends from The Ripped Bodice bookstore. Green rooibos, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, clove, black pepper, brewed at 212F for ca 5 minutes. I used a strainer (primarily because this has a fairly small particle size and wouldn't be caught by the filter in my teapot) so it didn't continue steeping after the initial time.
The loose tea smells quite spicy, with the pepper being most prominent (not a favorite of mine, but...). Brewed, the aroma is more mild, with ginger predominating. Since it's a chai-type, I went ahead and drank it sweetened.
Milder than what I think of as a "true chai" and the pepper is noticeable. It's ok, but I'm not fond of black pepper except in specific circumstances and it overpowers the other spices for me. Very "warming" to the mouth, overall.
