Burning and burn out..both suck

Hi again
I think I'm basically talking to myself..but its all good..I'm starting to think that's probably the main point of a blog?
Alrighty.. today I am sitting in front of my lap top, and until I started typing my lovely blogeroo, I was staring a the little blinky line that is in the place of where my words are supposed to be in my assignment. It blinked at me for a very very long time.. until I was convinced it was trying to tell me some secret message in morse code.. ok so I'm a little crazy. Anyway..as I mentioned in my wonderful post yesterday, its the end of term and there are 500000 things to do.. I usually pride myself on being UBER motivated and SUPER organized. The student that gets shit done like a week before its due.. not an hour after the deadline. However, in the lovely world of social work, we have this thing called burn out. Its the point where you've taken on too much and you crash (just in case people didn't know).

So...since I have to relate all of my babbling to tea somehow...I would like to let everyone know that you are probably drinking burnt tea RIGHT NOW. Don't freak out! well.. ok maybe freak out a little bit.. after all you are killing all of the hard work that went into fermenting or processing or drying the little hand picked tea leaves that are trying so hard to make you a delicious cup of tea but failing because you are boiling the water to the point of hell-hot temperatures and burning the shit out of those delicate little leaves of love.

time for a DID YOU KNOW THAT??
Green tea is NOT actually bitter? When you have a big ol' cup of bitter green tea the most likely cause is that the leaves were burnt. Green tea should taste earthy, but earthy doesn't mean bitter and disgusting. Another little fun fact: Tim Horton's sweetens their green tea leaves so that when they burn the flying fuck outta those babies you can't taste it...again.. back to my point.. There IS a way that you can save your tea from this horrible fate. 1) Don't use boiling water.. 2) don't over steep! The recommended water temperatures and timings(kind of) are not just guidelines like the pirate code. They are an art..a LAW that has been made to prevent you from committing tea crimes. As Mr.Leaf-Man will attest to (yes I did JUST make up Mr.Leaf-Man and YES I will be using him in future blogs..and YES he does need a better name)

So:

Green Tea/White Tea/ Light Oolongs: Water temp should be 170-180F (just under boiling) the best way to do this is to actually take the temperature of your water.. if you don't have the time to do that..as soon as you start seeing or hearing little bubbles form in your tea kettle its ready!

Black tea/Lapacho/Yerba Mate/Dark Oolongs: Water temp should be 205-212F (which is pretty much a full boil)

Herbal/Rooibos/Fruit Tisanes: 205-212 F (again..a full boil)

Why do green/white/light oolong teas need a lower temp water? BECAUSE I SAID SO...no really.. the leaves are much more delicate because they aren't processed nearly as much as other tea leaves. ALSO these lovely delicious delicate teas only take MAXIMUM 4 minutes to steep. I recommend a 3 minute steep so you aren't over-steeping, which is probably the 2nd most likely cause of biterness. Just a little side note:when I say processed I'm not referring to adding chemicals or turning the leaves into a cheese slice or anything.. but I feel like that's probably another blog entry all together...

To sum everything up: I am burnt out and don't want to do anymore school work.. but that doesn't mean that you have to burn your tea and make life miserable for yourself..

Now that I have thoroughly procrastinated from completing my project.. and thoroughly entertained myself by drawing a tea-leaf wearing pirate swag..I feel like its time for a cup of tea..and maybe some cheese slices mmm..

Cheers!