Wow, it's been a while since I last posted. I'd like to say that I've been too busy to post but that's not really true. The fact of the matter is, I just haven't been inspired to write anything lately. I'm worried that it's because I'm becoming a little bit Californian. The fact that there are 6 volkswagen bugs circa 1963 on my block alone (pictures soon!) no longer phases me. Today however, I was finally shaken.
I was feeling under the weather today and decided that a warm cup of tea would be just the thing I needed to get better. My roommate had told me a little while ago that she had been in the mood for tea and had been buying it lately and that I could help myself if I liked. I decided to indulge and went to pick out a good blend. As we saw with the great salt collection (which has since grown by two varieties), my roommate enjoys having a few different selections of all her comestibles just to keep things interesting.

I pulled out one of the 5 cans of tea that I saw on the shelf to discover another can hidden behind it.
I took that can out to find yet another.

And after that another.....

14 tea containers later, when I thought I was finished, I decided that this discovery would be the type of thing my loyal blog readers would enjoy hearing about and grabbed my camera to snap the picture below.
(editors note: These are not cans of liquid tea. Each one of these tins contains a unique blend of tea leaves and usually some dried flowers, fruits and nuts and many other things you'd find on the forest floor. There aren't any repeat cans. They're about 16 oz. and most are filled to the top.)

After taking the picture and pictures of the reenactment of the discovery, I found two more tea containers and was certain I could find more elsewhere if I kept looking but I was suddenly struck with a more pressing issue. In my search for more tea, I found hot chocolate and a hot chocolate maker.

I suppose I'll have to explain the hot chocolate maker for my less sophisticated readers. A hot chocolate maker, is a plaster container too large to fit in the microwave and too heavy to hold with one hand, with a plastic top that conveniently holds a beverage frother.


The process for using the hot chocolate maker is very similar to the traditional method of making hot chocolate:
1. poor milk into a mug
2. heat the mug for 3 minutes in the microwave
3. add powdered hot chocolate mix
4. stir
5. try to break up the little nuggets of powdered hot chocolate floating on the top that simply won't mix in
6. give up on breaking up the choco-nuggets
7. poor hot chocolate into hot chocolate maker
8. froth
9. poor hot chocolate back into mug
10. reheat the now tempid hot choccolate
11. enjoy!!!! ;)

One would think that the hot chocolate maker would take care of the choco-nugget problem but it doesn't. It just makes them dizzy.

The reason I'm concerned with the hot chocolate and maker is because the whole salt obsession started with a salt cellar and the tea had started with a new teapot. A new hot chocolate maker means that we'll be getting 3 new varieties of top shelf hot chocolate every 4 days for the next month when the obsession finally subsides. We currently are housing enough warm beverages to serve 300+ people. We don't have room for any more unless we do something drastic.