New Favorites!

Two new favorites, in fact. One is secret Belgian binding, which I tried for the very first time last night and absolutely fell in love. I bound it a bit differently than the instructions, which was much more tedious, but nevertheless I just adore it. 

The second new favorite is Darjeeling tea - I was perusing the shelves of the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf the other day, since I was out of loose leaf Chai (theirs is by far the best mix anywhere, with whole spices and whole leaf black tea - yummmm). They had Estate Darjeeling in those lovely triangle bags, so I thought I would give it a try. I've only had that horrible commercial powdered Darjeeling before. 

When I first tried Chai, I wasn't so hot about it but after going to the CB&TL headquarters right over the hill in Camarillo and drinking some with their tea master, David, I couldn't get enough of it. I was shooting photos for an Acorn article and to this day I am so glad that I was the one my editor chose to shoot that assignment. David is a real tea connoisseur and his passion for good tea really impressed me. The samples of loose leaf tea that he gave me hooked me forever. 

Anyway, so after my rather transformative experience with CB&TL Chai, I figured their Darjeeling would likely be something remarkable as well. And I was right! It's the sort of tea that seems to curl up around your tongue - spicy and full, with that golden flavor characteristic of black teas. 

Ah tea. What would I do without you?

Another neat thing - I bought a nice big one pound block of beeswax on Etsy and it arrived, so I'm going to try another secret Belgian book tonight with waxed thread. :)