A Little Christmas Treat

Gentle Friends, you might remember I do like a good cup of black tea... my favourite tea is from Kusmi Tea and called "ANASTASIA"... it's an orange blossomed flavoured black tea with bergamot and lemon, really delicious.  

In the past, I've gotten Christmas teas from Lucpicia,  I do like their "White Christmas " and "Jingle Bells."  Another super Christmas tea is called "Esprit de Noel" from Mariage Freres.  But, they have closed both of the Lupicia stores here in SF and the store that carried MF has also closed.... so it's harder to get fun Christmas tea here in SF....and then I got an email from Kusmi Tea.  They have blended a tea called Tsarevna.  I placed an order a few days ago and whiz-bang it arrived last night...here some snaps...

... a pretty red christmasy box...

a nice red tin...

... and a delicious blend of tea...comprising of black tea, ginger, cardamom seeds, liquorice root orange peel and spices.  I've not made a pot yet, I was waiting for the weekend to really sit back and enjoy. So although it smells great just popping the lid, I'll let you know on Monday about how it tastes. 

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There you go sports fans... only 33 short days until Christmas!!

Good Thoughts! Good Words! Good Deeds!

edgar

A Little more Christmas 2017 - Part III........ We Have a Fun Lunch

Gentle Freinds,  as I said before it seems that I slept late, napped a bunch and even squeezed in a little stitching.... towards the end of the Christmas Holiday Rico and I headed downtown to meet up with some friends for lunch... we went to a new place to us... Samovar

... Samovar is located in a lovely setting the Yerba Buena Gardens a green oasis with a super waterfall that you can walk under...

and the gardens from the east are overlooked by the Museum of Modern Art.... 

after walking around we headed up to the restaurant...

... there is a wall of tea tins and samovars just in case you didn't realize they served tea and eats here......

... I ordered the Rusian Pairing.... the tea is served in a small French press...  this is a not very efficient wat to serve tea, as it cools off way too fast, but it looked nice... and was very good...

.... with the Russian Pairing the borscht was very good the chicken salad in the sandwich was very good, the bread was far too big and the side salad was all right, a little bitter..... but again it all looked great...

.... Rico chose the English pairing and here's what he got, the quiche he said was excellent, again with the salad a little on the bitter side and a nice scone, which was on the crumbly and dry side, but still tasty...  overall it was a fun lunch ... I would say my overall impression with Samovar is that the location and views are top notch, the food and service were just alright and a bit on the expensive side, I think for tea-time I will go back to Lovejoy's.  But, the company was excellent and it was a fun time sitting and chatting away with everyone!!!

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So that sort of wraps up the Christmas break for me, overall it went way too fast, but there were some fun times, good food super friends.  Thanks for stopping by do stop by again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Few SF Snaps......

Gentle Friends, I found that Wednesday makes a good day to show some snaps of the City I live in - and today I though I would get back to doing just that........

.... one of the Estate sales we got to on Saturday was over in Potrero Hill area of the City..... and so I knew I had to stop on the crest of one of the streets to show the great view of the City skyline..... and yes, I illegally parked the car and stood in the street for this snap....

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I've begun my annual search for Christmas tea so I thought that I should go downtown and see for myself if any has come in yet...... both places I was checking on are in the big Westfield Shopping Centre on Market Street ......  so that's were I went....

... my first stop was a Bloomingdale's, the only outlet for Kusmi tea in the city.... no Kusmi Christmas Blend .... yet.  I spoke to a very nice women working in the area of Bloomingdale's Christmas and she assured me that in a couple of weeks there would be some and to check back...... so in two weeks time I'll be back .......

....next up was Lupicia - I always love the Christmas blends they make....  but walking up to the store and still seeing Autumnal decorations my  FaLaLa was dashed.  I do love Fall, it's my favorite time of year - BUT - and this is a big butt, whoops but - I know from past years that Lupicia gets a finite amount of their Christmas teas and if I don't get some soon after it's arrival they will be start to run out - and they do not get restocked -  and then I'll be sad!!!  

Here is a snap from last years tea display.....

.... so' now I'm on their list to "call" when it comes in - and I'll make tracks to get some!!

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There you go sports fans, thanks again for stopping by dos top again!!

take care,

edgar