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Blend Your Own Russian Caravan Tea

If you like smoky flavors in your food, I bet you like Russian Caravan tea! I absolutely love it! It’s black tea with a smoky twist, thanks to the addition of Lapsang Souchong — black tea that’s been smoked over smoldering pine or spruce wood. Legend has it that the tea absorbed the smoky aroma of nighttime campfires during its journey from China to the Russian Czar. Others say the tea was smoked as a way of preserving it for the 6,000-mile trip. Either way, the name is enchanting and the flavor is an unusual treat!

I used to buy Russian Caravan in teabags at our local health food store, but when they stopped selling it, I decided to blend my own using the ratios below. I like to measure the tea by weight rather than volume, because I happen to have a food scale and because equal weights don’t always have equal volumes (oolong seems to have more volume), but either way it’ll work.

Once blended, I use 1 tsp of tea per mug of hot water (about 12 oz) and I love to add milk or cream. If you prefer decaf tea like I do, take a look at my post on How to Decaffeinate Your Tea.

Russian Caravan Tea

1 part Lapsang Souchong

1 part black tea (English Breakfast, Assam, Ceylon are all good, but don’t use anything flavored like Earl Grey)

2 parts Oolong tea

Where to source these ingredients? I like Mountain Rose Herbs. Although I think their shipping is a little pricey, I always get my stuff from them because it still comes out cheaper in the end, and I like the company and their products.

Equal weights don't quite have equal volumes...

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Check Out ‘Mystic Orb’ for Holiday Gifts!

A few months ago I discovered Mystic Orb, an Etsy store run by two wonderful people, Jeff and Taryn out in Oregon. Jeff is an incredible woodcarver; if you’re looking for a gift, definitely check them out. They do custom stuff, too.

I bought two gifts for myself and absolutely love them!

The necklace I got is a woodcarving of a tree silhouetted against a rising moon. Normally I like to wear small jewelery, so I was hoping this wouldn’t look “too big” on me, but it doesn’t. I totally love it! And it’s very lightweight; I don’t even notice it’s on.

The other thing I got was a set of 7 buttons made from deer antlers they found in the forest. I was so excited to see those buttons, because I had just the perfect thing to put them on! I have this beautiful vintage wool coat that I found for $15 at an estate sale. It was the last day of the sale and people had been oohing and ahhing over that coat, but nobody could fit into it. It had been custom-made for whoever had lived at the house — made probably in the 1940s. I loved it and tried it on, and it fit perfectly! Everyone insisted that the coat should be mine, except I didn’t have money with me, and they were closing down soon. A nice gentleman overheard the situation and wanted so much for me to have the coat that he handed me a $20 bill along with a business card with his mailing address, saying “just repay me when you can.” Since two of the coat’s original buttons were missing, I replaced them all with the closest match I could find — plastic imitations from the fabric store. The plastic ones weren’t too bad, but I’d been hoping to upgrade them…and I’m so happy to now have these antler buttons! I think they add a really cool look to the coat.

Here are the plastic buttons before I replaced them:

Old plastic buttons...

And here are the new antler buttons! Much better!

New antler buttons!

Free Shipping Today Only (Nov 8) at Tropical Traditions!

Hello! Life has been a little crazy the past couple weeks and I’ll be back to blogging soon, but just wanted to let you know that Tropical Traditions has free ground shipping today only, Monday, November 8th, through Midnight EST. A good time to stock up on Christmas gifts! To get free shipping, be sure to choose ‘ground shipping’ and enter code 81110 at the checkout page.

If you’ve been hanging around here for a while, you know that I love Tropical Traditions! You can check out my favorite products here and as always, if you buy anything and you’re a new customer, you can also get this Virgin Coconut Oil book for free (any time, not just today) by entering my User ID, which is 6032410. When you’re going through the checkout process and you’ve added your shipping address and phone number, you will see the question “How did you hear of us?” Just choose “Referred by a friend” and then a new “User ID” field will appear below that where you can enter my User ID. (screen shot below)

Free Shipping Today Only (Sept 20) at Tropical Traditions!

It’s another Free Shipping day at Tropical Traditions which saves about $10-15 off your order, so it’s a good day to stock up, or try them out if you haven’t before. I love this company’s products and use them daily! Today only, Monday September 20th through Midnight EDT, they’re offering free ground-only shipping when you enter coupon code 10910 at checkout.

They have lots of high-quality products; here are my favorites:

Moisturizing lotion – I use this every day on my face and hands. It’s the most luxurious stuff, and very gentle since it has only a few wholesome ingredients. Definitely my all-time favorite lotion.

Virgin organic coconut oil – Great for cooking, and also for skin!

Organic raw honey – This is the best-tasting honey I’ve ever had. I like to buy and taste lots of different honeys, and this one always wins, hands down. When I first tried it, my eyes got big and my mouth dropped open; it just has the most amazing taste! Quintessential, flowery honey taste.

Coconut cream concentrate – I love this stuff. LOVE it. The “format” is a little strange, because when you receive it,  it will have settled out into a hardened layer of coconut oil and a layer of dried/finely ground coconut meat. You’ll wonder what to do with it at first; what I do is put the jar into a pan of simmering water and let it sit there until the contents have softened and liquefied, and then I can easily stir it up. Then, I put it in the fridge until it’s hardened again. Once hardened, you can then store it in the fridge or at room temperature (it won’t separate again unless it gets really hot in your house). I usually just eat this stuff plain, it’s so good; I break it into chunks with a knife, and eat it as a snack. Sometimes I’ll eat it dipped in the raw honey, which is a very decadent and extremely delicious snack!!!

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Now, I’ve also tried their organic bar soap, and though it was really nice soap, Hubby and I have never seen a bar of soap get used up so fast! It was weird. It just seemed like it was gone in record time. So, that’s the only product I wouldn’t get again. I haven’t tried every single product that they sell…but the ones I listed above, I make sure to never run out of!

And I bought the Atchara once out of curiosity, and it was extremely strong (even for this vinegar lover!), and a little weird. Not quite a favorite. 🙂

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Anyway, if you buy anything and you’re a new customer, you can also get this Virgin Coconut Oil book for free (any time, not just today) by entering my User ID, which is 6032410. When you’re going through the checkout process and you’ve added your shipping address and phone number, you will see the question “How did you hear of us?” Just choose “Referred by a friend” and then a new “User ID” field will appear below that where you can enter my User ID. (screen shot below)

Free Shipping Today Only (July 26) at Tropical Traditions!

As you know, Tropical Traditions is one of my favorite companies because of the high quality products they carry. Today only, Monday July 26th through Midnight EDT, they’re offering free ground shipping when you enter coupon code 260710FS at checkout, so it would be a good time to check them out if you’ve been wanting to try some of their stuff. You can click here to see my favorite Tropical Traditions products.

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