@catscraftsandcommentary I bought peppermint tea today for the first time and OH MY FUCKING SHIT

amazing

gorgeous

transcendent

like a Chick-Fil-A peppermint milkshake but you don’t have to wait for Christmas season or feel guilt about the homophobia

Hell yeah, y’all get you some of this bad boy:

You won’t regret it!

Peppermint tea is rhe only kind I drink

@everything-but-the-not-natural I know this probably just means your family was Mormon or something, but I am cackling at the idea that tea was simply Forbidden at your house because Tea, like, wronged your great-grandfather or something.

Unfortunately I was just raised mormon. But now feel like I should be making up a story about how The TeaMan (aka Mister Zeroni) was wronged by my great great grandfather.

...I have a sudden urge to send you every type of tea that could loosely be called "herbal" (but would probably be called something else) as well as a selection of things that DEFINITELY would be banned.

Also, @thequeeninyellowlace, HOW HAVE YOU NEVER HAD PEPPERMINT TEA?!?

You know what, forget that. Instead, go get a pack of plain CHAMOMILE tea, then boil some water, stick one bag each of peppermint and chamomile in a mug, add the water, add a bunch of honey, (wait for it to cool enough to NOT BURN YOU), and then CHUG IT.

And then enjoy the sweet, sweet sensation of snot melting out your nose.

I am totally open to trying other teas as long as they come with detailed instructions. And as long as I can put sugar in them, like a you'll probably yell at me amount.

Gonna have to check out the chamomile/peppermint nasal clean out. My allergies have been so bad I'm downing Sudafed several times a day to deal with the headache. And have gonna through 2 box of kleenex in 3 days.

Okay, in THAT case, go take a hot shower - as hot as you can stand it - hold one side of you nose closed with your thumb, and use your fingers to gently restrict the OTHER side of your nose while BLOWING OUT YOUR NOSE EXTRA HARD.

There will be snot. There will be SOOOO much snot.

Repeat, swapping sides.

You can also do this over a sink with hot water running, though it doesn't work quite as well. The key is hot steamy water (to melt the snot) and pressurizing your sinuses by pressing down (so when you blow, the air FORCES the snot out).

...and then wash your hands REALLY thoroughly, because you just caught a palmful of snot.

I feel like this tea post contains more snot than I had initially expected, but I appreciate the suggestions! And I will probably try the peppermint and chamomile tonight! I almost did that last night, but I was still a bit afraid of mixing teas.

Tonight, I will gird my loins, and screw my courage to the sticking point, and sally forth into the jaws of Death, into the mouth of hell, and put two tea bags in one cup! 🤣

Okay look, all those fancy new flavors of tea are just people trying to guess what flavor combinations will be popular with the largest customer base. They're just premixing your tea and calling it fancy names.

You can skip the marketing and make YOUR OWN BLEND just by THROWING BAGS IN A CUP!

IT'S MAGIC!

IT'S CUSTOMIZABLE!

IT'S YOUR OWN SECRET RECIPE!

(At least until you tell someone "hey, these two flavors work REALLY WELL together!")

Be free! Create your own teas! No one can stop you!

@catscraftsandcommentary I bought peppermint tea today for the first time and OH MY FUCKING SHIT

amazing

gorgeous

transcendent

like a Chick-Fil-A peppermint milkshake but you don’t have to wait for Christmas season or feel guilt about the homophobia

Hell yeah, y’all get you some of this bad boy:

You won’t regret it!

Peppermint tea is rhe only kind I drink

@everything-but-the-not-natural I know this probably just means your family was Mormon or something, but I am cackling at the idea that tea was simply Forbidden at your house because Tea, like, wronged your great-grandfather or something.

Unfortunately I was just raised mormon. But now feel like I should be making up a story about how The TeaMan (aka Mister Zeroni) was wronged by my great great grandfather.

...I have a sudden urge to send you every type of tea that could loosely be called "herbal" (but would probably be called something else) as well as a selection of things that DEFINITELY would be banned.

Also, @thequeeninyellowlace, HOW HAVE YOU NEVER HAD PEPPERMINT TEA?!?

You know what, forget that. Instead, go get a pack of plain CHAMOMILE tea, then boil some water, stick one bag each of peppermint and chamomile in a mug, add the water, add a bunch of honey, (wait for it to cool enough to NOT BURN YOU), and then CHUG IT.

And then enjoy the sweet, sweet sensation of snot melting out your nose.

I am totally open to trying other teas as long as they come with detailed instructions. And as long as I can put sugar in them, like a you'll probably yell at me amount.

Gonna have to check out the chamomile/peppermint nasal clean out. My allergies have been so bad I'm downing Sudafed several times a day to deal with the headache. And have gonna through 2 box of kleenex in 3 days.

Okay, in THAT case, go take a hot shower - as hot as you can stand it - hold one side of you nose closed with your thumb, and use your fingers to gently restrict the OTHER side of your nose while BLOWING OUT YOUR NOSE EXTRA HARD.

There will be snot. There will be SOOOO much snot.

Repeat, swapping sides.

You can also do this over a sink with hot water running, though it doesn't work quite as well. The key is hot steamy water (to melt the snot) and pressurizing your sinuses by pressing down (so when you blow, the air FORCES the snot out).

...and then wash your hands REALLY thoroughly, because you just caught a palmful of snot.

@everything-but-the-not-natural

Okay, so basic tea primer (I'm basically summarizing the Wikipedia articles on tea and tea processing, okay):

Tea usually means a drink made from the leaves of the camellia sinensis plant. The leaves are harvested, dried and/or oxidized to varying degrees, and possibly flavored with additional things like herbs or fruit.

Going from most delicate (and probably least caffeinated) to least delicate (and probably most caffeinated), the six most common varieties of tea (as made from camellia sinensis) are: white, yellow, oolong, green, black, and post-fermented (green with extra processing).

I'm not very familiar with yellow, and I don't like most green teas, but white and oolong tea are both lovely and have a light flavor. You use a lower temperature to brew them - most teas will tell you what temp you need, or you can get a fancy electric kettle that has buttons for the different types (I LOVE MY FANCY KETTLE).

Black tea has a stronger flavor and a LOT of caffeine - think "cup of coffee" - and can be boiled.

Fair warning: if you brew your tea in water that's too hot, you'll burn your tea leaves and then your tea will TASTE LIKE DEATH. Don't burn your leaves.

Also, it IS possible to burn black tea. Look up superheated water.

For tea-like drinks that are still called tea, there's herbal tea (herbs and other dried plants, brewed in boiling water just like black tea), tisanes (dried fruit pretending it's herbal tea), and rooibos (an AMAZING type of African "tea" also called African red bush). None of these have caffeine, btw.

Chai is basically spiced tea which may or may not include actual camellia sinensis. So you could see herbal chai, rooibos chai, oolong chai, chai green tea, etc. The flavor can vary *WIDELY* based on the base tea and which flavors amd spices they've added. Some chai teas I like, some I hate, a few I love.

Tea - any kind - usually comes in premeasured bags or "loose leaf." Generally, one teabag or one teaspoon of tea leaves per 6-8 oz of water, plus sugar/milk/lemon/etc to taste. For stronger tea, use more tea (leaves or bags) or less water.

I have a 12 oz travel mug I use at work, and I always put 2 tea bags in it, because just one makes it taste weak.

Don't worry about how much sugar you use - a little sugar brings out the flavors and makes them easier to taste, *especially* if you're not used to drinking tea all the time. I used to drink my teas with a lot of sugar, and I've slowly backed down on that over time.

Also, if you're like "I want to try new teas, but I don't know where to start!" Look up tea samplers! Amazon has tons of options - I really like the ones where you get 1-2 tea bags of AS MANY FLAVORS AS POSSIBLE because then you can try lots of new things with very little loss if you find out "ew, this one's super gross." (On the other hand, if you find out "OMG PERFECT TEA WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE" then you can buy more.)

...and this ended up way longer than I meant. Oops.

@catscraftsandcommentary I bought peppermint tea today for the first time and OH MY FUCKING SHIT

amazing

gorgeous

transcendent

like a Chick-Fil-A peppermint milkshake but you don’t have to wait for Christmas season or feel guilt about the homophobia

Hell yeah, y’all get you some of this bad boy:

You won’t regret it!

Peppermint tea is rhe only kind I drink

@everything-but-the-not-natural I know this probably just means your family was Mormon or something, but I am cackling at the idea that tea was simply Forbidden at your house because Tea, like, wronged your great-grandfather or something.

Unfortunately I was just raised mormon. But now feel like I should be making up a story about how The TeaMan (aka Mister Zeroni) was wronged by my great great grandfather.

...I have a sudden urge to send you every type of tea that could loosely be called "herbal" (but would probably be called something else) as well as a selection of things that DEFINITELY would be banned.

Also, @thequeeninyellowlace, HOW HAVE YOU NEVER HAD PEPPERMINT TEA?!?

You know what, forget that. Instead, go get a pack of plain CHAMOMILE tea, then boil some water, stick one bag each of peppermint and chamomile in a mug, add the water, add a bunch of honey, (wait for it to cool enough to NOT BURN YOU), and then CHUG IT.

And then enjoy the sweet, sweet sensation of snot melting out your nose.

I am totally open to trying other teas as long as they come with detailed instructions. And as long as I can put sugar in them, like a you'll probably yell at me amount.

Gonna have to check out the chamomile/peppermint nasal clean out. My allergies have been so bad I'm downing Sudafed several times a day to deal with the headache. And have gonna through 2 box of kleenex in 3 days.

Okay, in THAT case, go take a hot shower - as hot as you can stand it - hold one side of you nose closed with your thumb, and use your fingers to gently restrict the OTHER side of your nose while BLOWING OUT YOUR NOSE EXTRA HARD.

There will be snot. There will be SOOOO much snot.

Repeat, swapping sides.

You can also do this over a sink with hot water running, though it doesn't work quite as well. The key is hot steamy water (to melt the snot) and pressurizing your sinuses by pressing down (so when you blow, the air FORCES the snot out).

...and then wash your hands REALLY thoroughly, because you just caught a palmful of snot.

@catscraftsandcommentary I bought peppermint tea today for the first time and OH MY FUCKING SHIT

amazing

gorgeous

transcendent

like a Chick-Fil-A peppermint milkshake but you don’t have to wait for Christmas season or feel guilt about the homophobia

Hell yeah, y’all get you some of this bad boy:

You won’t regret it!

Peppermint tea is rhe only kind I drink

@everything-but-the-not-natural I know this probably just means your family was Mormon or something, but I am cackling at the idea that tea was simply Forbidden at your house because Tea, like, wronged your great-grandfather or something.

Unfortunately I was just raised mormon. But now feel like I should be making up a story about how The TeaMan (aka Mister Zeroni) was wronged by my great great grandfather.

...I have a sudden urge to send you every type of tea that could loosely be called "herbal" (but would probably be called something else) as well as a selection of things that DEFINITELY would be banned.

Also, @thequeeninyellowlace, HOW HAVE YOU NEVER HAD PEPPERMINT TEA?!?

You know what, forget that. Instead, go get a pack of plain CHAMOMILE tea, then boil some water, stick one bag each of peppermint and chamomile in a mug, add the water, add a bunch of honey, (wait for it to cool enough to NOT BURN YOU), and then CHUG IT.

And then enjoy the sweet, sweet sensation of snot melting out your nose.

Let's irresponsibly breed a dog together!

Share as much as possible that dog gotta be atrocious by the end of the week

Made a chart for sorting fantheories

the point of art is not to be great but to make it transparently obvious that there is something wrong with you

The point of art is to let other people know that the thing wrong with them is also wrong with you

This is in fact how you make friends

"who radicalized you" ever since i was a child i wanted other people to be treated nicely and fairly because i didnt understand why theyd deserve otherwise and it fills me with disgust seeing how people treat their fellow human beings sometimes

I've seen discussions sometimes about how fanfiction-based fandom culture is heavily influenced and dominated by people who are not cis men.

One thing I haven't seen discussed as much though is how much of fandom in general is shaped by neurodivergent people.

I mean, you have autistic and ADHD people with special interests or hyperfixations collecting information and writing detailed meta, connecting very strongly with characters and fandoms. I would not be surprised if the percentage of autistics in fandom communities was significantly higher than in the general public.

And that's not even getting into other types of neurodivergencies and how they influence fandom culture.

I sometimes see people try to divorce fandom culture from the idea of being a "geek", and I understand that this is sometimes because of the association with the sexist geek stereotype, but I also know that there is a connection between the two concepts, and it's probably us neurodivergent people.

I also think this is why at first I was like "my fandoms can't be special interests, that's just how fandom is"

Yeah, because a lot of people in fandom have special interests

I’ll go slightly further here, and say this (well. this plus ableism) is the root of a lot of current issues in fandom.

Back when I started being in fandom, a couple decades ago, I’d argue that damn near every single person in fandom was autistic or ADHD.  You’d only join fandom if you were obsessive and were chill with doing things that weren’t socially acceptable.  (Because being a fan absolutely was not socially acceptable at the time!  We went to ridiculous amounts of effort to hide that we were fans!)

And fandom culture was absolutely shaped by this.  The standard behaviors in fandom were those of happy autistics.  That’s how you were expected to act.  You remember “squeeing”?  The visual image of it is generally someone so happy and excited they can’t physically contain it so they make a high-pitched noise and flap their hands and - a squee is literally just a happy stim. And so many fans at the time did happy stims that we gave it a special fandom name!  So even if a neurotypical person happened to stumble in, they’d learn that the “social norm” in a fandom space is basically just “act autistic/ADHD” and assimilate.

But then... fandom got mainstreamed.  It became socially acceptable.  And then the neurotypicals started showing up in large numbers.  And instead of assimilating like they did before, when they were the minority, now that there were a lot of them they started going “what the heck is this! why are people here acting so weird!  this is embarrassing!”

...and then we got cringe culture within fandom.

No one says “squee” anymore not because fans don’t squee anymore - happy stims don’t just go away - but because the neurotypicals showed up and told us “squee” is a cringy word and concept.  Which they had ALWAYS told us out in public, but we used to have fandom as an insular autistic/ADHD-dominated space where we were safe and free to be ourselves.

You know how everybody talks about how cringy and embarrassing 2012 tumblr was?  Dude.  We were literally just acting like happy autistics, because that’s what we were.  It’s just that - like you always have - you think autistic/ADHD behavior is cringy and embarrassing.

This isn’t new.  “Cringe culture” isn’t new.  It’s just a new euphemism for the exact same ableism that’s always existed, with the only difference that now it’s coming from inside fandom.

All those posts saying “if these people were bullied more they wouldn’t act like this”?  They’re not just bizarrely tasteless jokes.  They’re because the people making those posts were bullies.  Are bullies.  Fandom used to be where the sort of people who were victims of peer abuse went - where we went to be safe from bullies and be openly ourselves - but now the bullies are in here with us.

On the happier side, while mainstreaming has resulted in a lot of neurotypicals showing up, autistic/ADHD people are absolutely still the backbone of fandom.  We’re the ones collecting tiny bits of info and connecting the dots to write galaxy brain meta.  We’re the ones churning out new content every single day, rain or shine.  We’re the hyper-verbal ones writing 250k fics and the ones who hyper-relate with the characters and make incorrect quote posts so spot-on they sound canon. They may think we’re embarrassing - but they still need us.

The hard truth about autism acceptance that a lot of people don't want to hear is that autism acceptance also inherently requires acceptance of people who are just weird.

And yes, I mean Those TM people. Middle schoolers who growl and bark and naruto run in the halls. Thirtysomethings who live with their parents. Furries. Fourteen-year-olds who identify as stargender and use neopronouns. Picky eaters. Adults in fandoms. People who talk weird. People who dress weird.

Because autistic people shouldn't have to disclose a medical diagnosis to you to avoid being mocked and ostracized for stuff that, at absolute worst, is annoying. Ruthlessly deriding people for this stuff then tacking on a "oh, but it's okay if they're autistic" does absolutely nothing to help autistic people! Especially when undiagnosed autistic people exist.

Like it or not, if you want to be an ally to autistic people, you're going to have to take the L and leave eccentric, weird people alone. Even if you don't know them to be autistic. You shouldn't be looking for Acceptable Reasons to be mean to people in the first place. Being respectful should be the default.

This reminds me of that global warming comic, like

Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure. ~Coelho, "The Alchemist"

Have I mentioned how much I adore Lambert's nerdy, experimentation-loving, explosion-prone, alchemist self? The geeky side of his character is such a wonderful juxtaposition with his grouchy gremlin self who begrudgingly fights monsters for a living!

Also, I totally subscribe to the idea that Lam makes potions and bombs for both Aiden and himself, 'cause Aiden is a little bit shit at alchemy. Meanwhile, Aiden takes care of the cooking for them, because he's marvelous at making really tasty meals out of thin pickings (and Lambert has been known to not bother with salt or even cooking his catch all through if left to his own feral devices).

Aiden only travels with Lambert for about two days before he makes a rule:

NO alchemy in his cooking gear. Zero. Nihil. NONE, Lam. Not even storing raw ingredients in it! Not even once! That shit will take the finish off and leave a nasty aftertaste that won't scrub out, and with THEIR senses -

NO ALCHEMY IN HIS COOKING GEAR.

Of course Lambert tries it anyway, eventually. He does *try* to avoid using Aiden's equipment and manages quite well for several months, but eventually he needs something that he doesn't have but Aiden does, so he borrows.

He washes it five times! With soap, even! It'll be fine!

It is NOT. FINE.

Aiden sexiles him from their shared bedroll and refuses to exchange so much as a quick handjob until Lambert replaces his favorite casserole dish with one of equal or better quality, I'm not fucking new, wolf.

Lambert starts looking for an acceptable replacement VERY QUICKLY.

This is part of my ongoing Discworld jacket embroidery project. Of course Great A'Tuin has to be on there. And of course it has to be the biggest one of them all.

I'm going to put the finished product in my masterpost, but I'm so proud of the thing that I have to put it in an extra post beforehand. Enjoy!

Update!!!

Behold: the elephants! 😁

The turtle moves! Now it's just the "cargo" left. And the universe. Well.

Update 3: Why did I have to try single thread for the disc. Why. How did I ever think that was a good idea. This is taking aaaages.

I'd say never again, but I know myself too well...

Still trying to decide whether to outline the landmass with darker thread or not. It would make the lands more distinct - but it might also make it look more like a comic. If you have any thoughts on it, let me know. I'll only decide once I've finished the rest of the disc and that'll be at least a week, if I had to guess.

I finally had some time to continue and the disc is done! Now just some stars, planets, etc...

My estimate is that this took about 150 hours. About half of that went into the disc because I discovered single thread embroidery.

And because I always think it's really interesting to see the back of the embroidery - bonus:

On to the next one! Maybe I'll do the luggage now.

Wow..!

Fuckin HELL, bud. You're an embroidery 🪡 HERO. SPECTACULAR!!!

@thequeeninyellowlace

TEA

A quick-and-dirty collection of my tea collection. Does not include strainers, tea balls, mugs, tea pots, kettles, etc. Probably doesn't include any iced tea or any tea bought by or for other people in the house. And this is RIGHT AFTER I'd just sorted several boxes of tea bags into the little organizers. (I *LOVE* my little organizers! My brother found the open sided one, and my dad found the two clear ones with the hinged lid!)

That is…a little overwhelming. But amazing. Gorgeous. Spectacular.

I just found a further three boxes of tea bags and a sampler bag of mixed tea bags in my room. OOPS.

I keep trying to tell myself "YOU HAVE ENOUGH TEA. STOP BUYING MORE. FINISH WHAT YOU HAVE" and then I do things like go to Walmart to buy bagels, realize that bread and tea are on the same aisle, and go home with 2 more boxes (one restock, one a new flavor - peach orange! It's yummy!) Or order a whole box of one of the flavors I liked from the sampler bag I bought (which I did buy partly to help find new flavors, so I can't be too mad at myself, just my own past decisions).

But yeah. This is how I end up with an entire stovetop filled with tea.

What I REALLY need to do is finish all the flavors I'm "meh" about (and won't want to replace). Unfortunately, drinking (and replacing) all my favorite flavors is much more fun.

WAIT

Those are ON YOUR STOVETOP?!!

Put down your phone and do not return to the internet until you have moved them!

I AM SERIOUS

Are they moved?

You should not be reading this if they are still there.

Do you want to find out what burning down your house feels like?

This is how you find out what burning down your house feels Iike.

Go fix it.

Signed,

Your Mom in the Phone (who is also a nurse)

SIIIIIIIIIIIIIGH

They were only on the stove long enough for a picture. Normally they stay on a table, sort of decentralized, where it's not easy to see how much I have. I was curious, so I pulled them out, got a picture, and put them all back.

(Also I found a tin of rooibos strawberry chocolate that's been there forever but somehow isn't stale and is still AMAZING, so WIN!)

A week or so ago I bought myself an insulated wineglass TEA MUG which is very pretty and lavender and has a lid to keep kitty noses out and while I don't *need* another cup in this house (we have waaaaaaay too much junk already), I LOVE IT SO MUCH.

@thequeeninyellowlace

TEA

A quick-and-dirty collection of my tea collection. Does not include strainers, tea balls, mugs, tea pots, kettles, etc. Probably doesn't include any iced tea or any tea bought by or for other people in the house. And this is RIGHT AFTER I'd just sorted several boxes of tea bags into the little organizers. (I *LOVE* my little organizers! My brother found the open sided one, and my dad found the two clear ones with the hinged lid!)

That is…a little overwhelming. But amazing. Gorgeous. Spectacular.

I just found a further three boxes of tea bags and a sampler bag of mixed tea bags in my room. OOPS.

I keep trying to tell myself "YOU HAVE ENOUGH TEA. STOP BUYING MORE. FINISH WHAT YOU HAVE" and then I do things like go to Walmart to buy bagels, realize that bread and tea are on the same aisle, and go home with 2 more boxes (one restock, one a new flavor - peach orange! It's yummy!) Or order a whole box of one of the flavors I liked from the sampler bag I bought (which I did buy partly to help find new flavors, so I can't be too mad at myself, just my own past decisions).

But yeah. This is how I end up with an entire stovetop filled with tea.

What I REALLY need to do is finish all the flavors I'm "meh" about (and won't want to replace). Unfortunately, drinking (and replacing) all my favorite flavors is much more fun.

It blends in pretty well if you don't know what you're looking at - I probably should have circled it earlier. I plucked it out, and it turned out that the paper was just sitting there, not wedged in like I expected it to be, which was a pleasant surprise.

In an amusing turn of events, we were scheduled to run #2, but my supervisor went "abso-fucking-lutely NOT" and threw a brand new roll of paper on #4 so we could make the same product, just on a much more cooperative machine. (Literally, I asked him if we were supposed to run #2 and he said "I don't fuck with #2.") 🤣 🤣 🤣

if you told diogenes the cynic about being trans he'd be like "lol that's a sick troll you're epic" and you'd be like "diogenes no i'm serious" and he'd be like "lol that's even better lmao those guys are so mad about it" and then he'd start going by new original neopronouns every single day specifically to piss off the whole symposium

I just had an idea for a really dumb comedy sketch where a transphobe starts ranting about what really makes a women a woman, and diogenes returns each time with a different cis woman or outwardly femme intersex person that doesn't meet the criteria saying "behold, a man!"

"a woman has XX chromosomes"

*Diogenes with an androgen insensitive XY cis woman*: behold, a man!

"Nono, a woman can bear children!"

*Diogenes with someone who has medical complications associated with pregnancy*: "behold, a man!"

"nono, a woman produces the large gamete"

*Diogenes with a postmenopausal cis woman* "behold, a man!"

Trans Rights With Diogenes! coming to PBS

reading this deposition that just got dropped where someone sued musk and ohhhh my god it is this funniest thing ever . i can see why his lawyer tried to keep this confidential . they’re both maybe the biggest idiots . this is like ace attorney

PLEASE read this

bankston is my HERO he’s tearing these people apart

damn

HE LEFT

????

oh my god

KILL HIM

he is DONE.

HELP ME .

wow. ok.

genuinely first two pages he says that he thinks ben’s lawyer is the one who is actually suing him and admits he has no clue what the lawsuit is about .

doing a reread now this is so cunty

goddamn .

fun fact: the Mr. Bankston here is Mark Bankston, the same lawyer who absolutely ruined Alex Jones during the Sandy Hook trial.

BWA HA HA HA I AM THE CHAOS GREMLIN I DO WHAT I WANT

But seriously, I have a 12 oz mug in my work bag, so I usually use 2 teabags in it, and I will ABSOLUTELY mix different types of tea just to see how it tastes. Or when I don't have 2 matching teabags with me. *shrugs* I MAKE DO (and avoid weak-ass tea)

- Chamomile tea & peppermint tea (with honey if you have it, sugar if you don't) is pretty nice, but it'll make your nose run...which can actually HELP if you're stopped up

- I've mixed a whole bunch of different things with Irish breakfast, actually: various chais, Stash's entire autumn mix (the maple apple cider is SO GOOD by itself, and anything cinnamon or vanilla goes well in IBT)

- Generally, 1-2 mild flavored teas (fruit, oolong, green if you muuust) can mix well with each other or with a stronger flavored tea (black, cinnamon, chai). If you put 2 strongly flavored teas together, you want to be extra careful that the flavors complement each other or it's gonna be AWFUL. I think I once put orange spice in IBT which was interesting and kind of good, kind of weird.

(Don't ask how much tea I have. *I* don't even know how much tea I have - it's colonizing the end of a table in the kitchen and I've never dug it all out to see how big the entire mess has grown. But I'm sure it's A Lot.)