Fix Me

Iced Tea Vanilla Soy Latte

When I drank coffee, I loved soy lattes. I would always order them with half a shot more of espresso because I didn’t want them sweet.

Since emerging myself into the world of tea, I’ve leaned away from the sweet even more and rarely add anything to my teas. I don’t drink black tea regularly as it gives me a similar caffeine effect as coffee. When I do drink black tea, I like a little more flavor in my cup then just the tannin tea. But I don’t want an overly sweet flavor, killing the natural tea taste. This could be partly because I don’t spend too much time hunting out high quality black teas, unlike the oolong and green teas I drink.

When I received the Steepster survey prize, this creamy vanilla black tea showed up. I needed to figure out a way to consume it in a form that I would enjoy. When I was first warming up to Matcha I would steam Matcha soy lattes. So I thought I’d try the same with this black tea. Since it was a particularly warm day, I decided to make it iced instead of steamed.

This iced tea latte produces similar flavors to iced coffee lattes. Hints of chocolate and burnt wood seep through the soy milk, complimenting the tea’s tannins nicely.

If you’re trying to break your coffee habit, I’d recommend this drink to ween you off the intense flavors and effects coffee has.

Iced Tea Vanilla Soy Latte

In this blend, I like to use:

• a tall glass tea pot w/ glass infuser
• filtered boiling hot water
• Earl Grey Creme from Art of Tea  or Vanilla Bean Black from Mighty Leaf
• 5-6 ice cubes (from filtered water)
• Westsoy Unsweetened Vanilla soy milk

You want to use more tea then you’d normally use for just having a normal pot of tea. I compare this to using espresso coffee instead of standard ground house coffee. You want this as strong as you can make it since you’ll be adding soy milk and ice to it later.

When brewing, make sure you are using filtered water and not just crummy tap water. Cover the leaves in boiling hot water and let steep for 5 minutes. You don’t want it so strong that the tannins are overwhelming, but you also don’t want it light and watery. Keep in mind that ice and soy milk will be added to this, as said before, so make sure you brew this on the strong side.

Once your tea has been brewed, take the infuser out and chill the tea in it’s tea pot. If you want your tea latte sooner rather than later, put it in the freezer for 20 minutes or so. I like to always store a pot of chilled tea in the fridge for instant iced options. So I’ll brew a pot the night before and store it in the fridge for later.

If you put your tea in the freezer and it’s not quite ‘chilled’, use more ice. This will water down the tea a little, but no big deal. The best results are when the tea is completely chilled and less ice is used.

Fill the glass with the chilled tea, leaving enough room to add a couple counts of soy milk.

Add a few counts of soy milk, or until desired. I like to pour until the milk starts to blend nicely with the tea on it’s own. I don’t usually stir, and just enjoy as is!

Cheers!

Revisiting my "New Years Resolutions"

Almost 9 months have past since the beginning of 2009. 2010 is swifty approaching and I don’t feel entirely different. I’m still sluggish in the early mornings, making me late to work almost every day. On the weekends I’d rather just sit and do nothing than something. And I’m almost always looking ahead, never looking at the current moment in time. Now that my vacation has come and gone, I’m searching for something else to look forward to. Always searching and always looking forward.

With my recent investment of a ‘smart phone’, the MyTouch 3g w/ Google, I’ve taken an obvious notice how much of my time is wasted social networking. This realization has sparked a new kind of motivation in me, which leads me to this question. How can I use social networks and media to better myself and my career?

Let’s take a look at my expectations for myself this year and what I have achieved so far.

New Year’s Resolutions 2009

-Climb at least 3x a week
[I cancelled my membership due to budget and was going barely once a month]

-Less useless internet
[I got a smart phone, which means my connection has gone up about 200%]

-Learn the phsyics of sound
[I have barely thought about this]

-Read a book a month
[Ha! I started reading Saint Augustine’s readings as I started searching for answers. But I barely got through the intro. During my Hawaii vacation I started reading a book Rachel gave to me, “Eat, Pray, Love” and I’m about halfway through it now. It’s a really good book and I’m very much involved in it. I hope I can keep up the reading!]

-Expand daily Yoga routine
[Well, this has been a year of disappointments it seems. I can’t do Yoga anymore. I need to take a class or something because I think I might be doing something really wrong. Everytime I attempt to do the sun salute or triangle or downward dog… my lower right back hurts and hurts and hurts afterward. Like I keep re-injuring a muscle. I’ve seeked help. But all I’ve gotten was one doctor saying “stretch and take muscle relaxers and IB profin” and an acupuncturist saying “Don’t stretch. Drink more water. Eat these herbs.” This breaks my heart because I really enjoy morning stretches and this just creates another part of my life that is seeking for an answer.]

-Wake earlier
[I believe this has gotten worse]

-Be ontime to work more often than not
[I am now chronically one hour late almost every day]

-Stay frequently in touch with friends and family
[Now this has been a no brainer since most everyone I care about is in my social networking world. Somethings need to change tho. I haven’t seen my dad for over a year. And I still haven’t called my Grandmother. But emails with my parents and cousins have been good. This is improving. How about I keep working on this one]

-Build Website
[creativelyimpulsive.com has been shut down by my hosting due to spam and neglect. And I can’t log into dessireegreen.com to upload or change anything. These two things are HUGE road blocks for me. If there’s one thing on this list that should get done this year, it is my website. These road blocks I need to conquer right now. This has turned into weights on my shoulders.]

-Expand time and space
[not sure what I was thinking here, but I’ll interpret it as meditation, which I have dabbled in a little bit this year. I’ll work on this one too.]

-Video Blog
[my video blog isn’t back into full swing or anything. I don’t think I have the same kind of time I had back in school. But I have managed to squeeze out a few videos this year and I hope to continue this trend]

-Seek new full time work
[I haven’t even thought of this. Though I have been taking little sound gigs that come my way. Some have worked out while most of them haven’t. I need more confidence in my work.]

-Become a master of… (fill in blank here)
[Currently it seems I’m trying to become a master of myself as I feel like I’m all over the place constantly seeking for answers.]

So, it seems I have much work to do. Where should I start?