My Mom's New Old Home

Well over a year ago, I reviewed My Mom's Temporary Home. My mom has since moved back into her old home, now rebuilt, so I'd like to officially give it my OK. (Official = on the internet.)

If you remember the review (it's OK if you don't, I didn't even remember most of if), I gave the old house a 9 out of 10 - granted, I may have been feeling nostalgic because it had just burned down, but even so it was a good house. And an extremely well-insured house.

Over the course of the past year and a half, my mom's boyfriend Tom, who owns the house, has been working diligently to make sure the contractors rebuild it properly, while my mom has been steadily building a collection of decor for the new set-up.

It was a long, long time coming, but the new and improved old house was finally ready for moving into a few weeks ago, and I came by for waffles one Sunday morning to see it.

It's fabulous. The new kitchen is humongous. My mom's a petite woman, but this kitchen almost makes her look like a hobbit. Except that it's so perfectly made for her that you would never guess she had ever had a different kitchen. Marble counter tops, beautiful hardwood cabinets, a fridge that would fit at least three of my moms inside, (well, that was creepy, Thea,) and one absolutely unnecessary Wolf stove with at least six burners.

It's a far cry from the kitchen we had when I lived with her in high school. We shared a one-room studio at 58th and Shattuck in Oakland. We could hear gunshots at least once a week. Tiny bugs were constantly infesting the kitchen - ants, moths, moth larvae, spiders... of course it didn't help that my lazy 17-year-old ass refused to wash dishes. But most noticeably, our kitchen was tiny. Like 3' x 6' tiny. And there were other places we lived where we had no kitchen at all.

So when my mom excitedly picked up a small remote control, pointed it at a (previously nonexistent) skylight, and said, "Watch this," it was little bit like watching her win the lottery. The skylight slowly opened up to the fresh morning air of the Berkeley hills, no giant-pole-with-a-hook-on-the-end required.

Also their new eco-friendly toilet has 2 flush options. Two.

Revamped old house: 10.5 out of 10. It's more house than I or my mom ever - realistically - expected her to live in.

Mighty Leaf Tea

In an impulsive move at a local Walgreens, while searching for a compass (long story), I hastily grabbed a variety pack of Mighty Leaf Tea. Pretty packaging, high price tag - how could I resist?

Kudos to them on the clever, if mostly obsolete, phone number: 1877 MY T LEAF. Very clever.

So they've got some clever marketing people, but beyond that, how good is the product? This is what I set out to find, trying each tea in the variety pack one by one.

First: African Nectar. Gross. Red tea has always been a little weird to me, and this one smelled like cough syrup and tasted... kinda funny. I don't recommend it unless you love red tea.
Rating: 0. I didn't even finish it. I couldn't even pawn it off on the tea-lover across the aisle.

Second: Organic Spring Jasmine. Deeee-licious! A rich, complexly floral blend of green tea goodness and exotic, summery jasmine. I'm absolutely buying a pack if I ever make it over to that Walgreens again.
Rating: 10. Best Jasmine Green Tea I can remember.

Third: American Breakfast. The name says it all: boring, and not particularly healthy. I added half and half (half milk, half cream, how can you go wrong?) but kept wishing I was drinking something else anyway.
Rating: 3. Might as well be drinking Nestea.

Fourth: Green Tea Tropical. Good. Pretty much what you would expect.
Rating: 5. Good. But not for $8.99 a box.

Fifth: Orange Dulce. The moment I plopped it my cup, my cubical neighbor asked, "Do you smell Fruit Loops?" I didn't. She has a freakishly sensitive sense of smell. But after a couple dunkings the scent finally made it all the way to my mostly-useless olfactory glands and there it was - an unmistakable hint of Fruit Loops. Here's a secret Fruit Loops doesn't want you to know: all of their fruit flavors are actually orange. For the most part. So it's not really that surprising that Orange Dulce smells like toucan-peddled cereal. The taste is surprisingly delicate, if slightly too sweet.
Rating: 6. Different, unexpected - a solid afternoon tea.

There are two left in the box that I haven't tried yet: Organic Earl Grey, and Chamomile Citrus. I'm not a fan of chamomile, but I love Earl Grey, so I'll let you know if either of these changes my overall rating of Mighty Leaf Tea.
Which so far is an 8.5.


Update:

Chamomile Citrus: Expectedly soothing, yet also surprisingly refreshing. It was a pleasant drinking experience and a nice wind-down between a long work day and an astronomy midterm.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10. If I was really into chamomile it probably would have been awesome.

Organic Earl Grey: As a cautionary note, I was too lazy to rinse out a few drops of half-and-halfy coffee at the bottom of my cup before pouring in some hot water and plunking a silky biodegradable bag of Organic Earl Grey in there. But as soon as my hyper-powered office air conditioner cools it down enough to take a sip, I'll tell you what I think anyway.
Should be any minute now.
It smells nice.
Aaaaaaand... it's a little light on the bergamot. I suppose that would be a plus to some people, and it's probably healthier that way considering large amounts of bergamot have been known to cause nerve damage... um... but it's my favorite thing about Earl Grey so I'm a little disappointed.
Rating: 6 out of 10. I've had some really good Earl Greys and this one was just good. Not Really good.

My new overall rating of Mighty Leaf Tea: 7.9 out of 10.