tea review: peach

3 Feb 2026 15:52
spiralicious: heart shaped tea cup (<3 tea)
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Tea Month 2026: Tea 9

Tea Review
Name: Peach
Brand: Stash
Type: black
Tea bag

Notes:
This was a gift. Thank you. It's a really nice blend of black tea. While the peach smell is really strong (and pleasant), the peach flavor is very subtle. I really enjoyed it.

Rate
Appearance: 9
Aroma: 9
Flavor: 9

Overall Rating: 4 stars
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Challenge #6

Top 10 Challenge.

The category(ies) you choose are up to you. You can give top 10 Fics you read last year, the top 10 songs to create to, the to 10 guest stars on your favorite show, top 10 characters in your favorite book series, top 10... well, you get the idea.


I love lists and decided to be a bit extra, so here are my top 10, top 10 lists (in no particular order):

1. My 2025 Top Fandoms
2. Songs of 2025
3. Glimmers of the Last 90ish days
4. Fall Out Boy Songs I Listen to on a Near Daily Basis
5. Favorite Library Programs
6. Foods of 2025
7. Movies of 2025
8. TV Series Rewatches of 2025
9. Favorite Nonfiction Books
10. Hobbies to Try

Read more... )

Snowflake Challenge: A close up shot of an owl ornament hanging amidst pine boughs..

2025 Books

2 Feb 2026 16:46
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In 2024, I overwhelmed myself with the number of reading challenges I was doing, was in 5 book clubs at one point, and was trying to keep up with tracking things on Beanstack and Good Reads. And while I met my reading goals, I could not keep up with tracking things all the places and I didn't claim a lot of challenges I actually finished.

Because of all that, in 2025, I stepped back and only tracked my reading on physical book tracking booksmarks (just title, date finished, & number of stars), was only in one book club, and didn't join any year long challenges. (I did do the summer bookopoly reading challenge for July only, the library card bingo challenge for September only, and the Unwrap A Great Read challenge for December only hosted by my local library.)

I managed to read more than I have in years.

Here is what I read in 2025. A couple books might be missing from the list.


graphic novels
Lumberjanes Vol. 18: Horticultural Horizons by Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh, Kanesha C. Bryant, & Julia Madrigal
The Umbrella Academy Volume 1: Apocalypse Suite by Gerard Way & Gabriel Bá (Pub Grub Book Club)
Lumberjanes Vol. 19: A Summer to Remember by Shannon Watters and Kat Leyh
Graceling (graphic novel adaptation) by Kristin Cashore, adapted and illustrated by Gareth Hinds (Pub Grub Book Club)
Lighter Than My Shadow by Katie Green (Pub Grub Book Club)
Bea Wolf by Zach Weinersmith & Boulet (Pub Grub Book Club)
Lumberjanes Vol. 20: End of Summer by Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh, Gus Allen, Alexa Bosy, & Kanesha C. Bryant
The Dark Matter of Mona Starr by Laura Lee Gulledge (Pub Grub Book Club)
My Favorite Thing is Monsters Book 2 by Emil Ferris
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic vol. 16 by Paul Allor, Toni Kuusiste, Heather Breckel, Jeremy Whitley, Ted Anderson, Andy Price, Tom Zahler, & Agnes Garbowska
Paper Girls #1 by Brian K. Vaughan & Cliff Chiang (Pub Grub Book Club)
Check Please! Book 1: #Hockey by Ngozi Ukazu
Escape From St. Hell by Lewis Hancox
Heartstopper vol. 4 by Alice Oseman
Mamo by Sas Milledge
Brooms by Jasmine Walls (Pub Grub Book Club)
Suitor Armor volume 1 by Purpan
I am Not Starfire by Mariko Tamaki & art by Yoshi Yoshitani
Slaughterhouse-Five; or, the Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death (graphic novel adaptation) by Kurt Vonnegut, adaptation by Ryan North & illustrated by Albert Monteys
Rainbow vol. 1 by Sunny & Gloomy
Navigating With You by Jeremy Whitley, art by Cassio Ribeiro, & lettering by Nikki Foxrobot
Pulp by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips
Space Boy vol. 1 by Stephen McCranie
We are not Strangers by Josh Tuininga
Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees by Patrick Horvath (Pub Grub Book Club)
Delicious in Dungeon vol 1 by Ryoko Kui
Check Please! Book 2: Sticks & Scones by Ngozi Ukazu
Backflash by Mat Johnson & art by Steve Lieber (Pub Grub Book Club)
Suitor Armor vol 2 by Purpah
Fall Through by Nate Powell (Pub Grub Book Club)
The Mushroom Knight vol. 1 by Oliver Bly
Heavy Vinyl vol. 1 by Carly Usdin & Vakueva & Flores & Nalty
Monstress Book One by Marjorie Liu (Pub Grub Book Club)
Leap by Simina Popescu
Mall Goth by Kate Leth
Eight Billion Genies (complete collection) by Charles Soule & Ryan Browne (Pub Grub Book Club)
Lumberjanes: The Infernal Compass by Lilah Sturges
Lumberjanes: The Shape of Friendship by Lilah Sturges
Garbage Night: The Complete Edition by Benji Lee
Final Cut by Charles Burns
The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All vol. 1 by Sumiko Arai
The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All vol. 2 by Sumiko Arai

non-fiction
This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson (updated edition 2021)
The T in LGBT by Jamie Raines
The Art of Drag by Jake Hall & art by Sofie Birkin, Helen Li, Jasiyot Singh Hans, & more
GuRu by Rupaul

fiction
The Black Girl Survives This One edited by Desiree S. Evans & Saraciea J. Fennell
Number One Chinese Restaurant by Lillian Li
Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente
The Magnolia Sword: A Ballad of Mulan by Sherry Thomas
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera
We Contain Multitudes by Sarah Henstra
What If It's Us by Becky Albertalli & Adam Silvera
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
Where Wolves Don't Die by Anton Treuer
The Restaurant of Lost Recipes by Hisashi Kashiwai
The Kingdom of Sweets by Erika Johansen (Unwrap A Great Read)
Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher (Unwrap A Great Read)
Stuck With You by Nathan Burgoine
Bad Dreams in the Night by Adam Ellis
Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy by Faith Erin Hicks

children's
Monstrous: The Lore, Gore, and Science Behind Your Favorite Monsters by Carlyn Beccia
Death & Sparkles Book 1 by Rob Justus
Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean's Most Fearless Scientist by Jess Keating & illustrations by Marta Álvarez Miguéns
Halloween and Day of the Dead Traditions from Around the World by Joan Axelrod-Contrada & illustrated by Elisa Chavarri
The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons
Digestion the Musical by Adam Rex & illustrated by Laura Park
Spooky Lakes: 25 Strange and Mysterious Lakes That Dot Our Planet by Geo Rutherford
Shark Week: Everything You Need to Know (Discovery) by Martha Brockenbrough
The Constitution Explained! The Bill of Rights: Guaranteeing Liberty by Janey Levy
You Rule! Create Your Own Country (Lonely Planet Kids) by Scott Forbes & Emma Laura Jones
Cool Sleeping by Alex Kushowski
How to Build Your Own Country by Valerie Wyatt
Moomin The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip Volume 1 by Tove Jansson
New Year Traditions Around the World by Ann Malaspina
Moomin The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip Volume 2 by Tove Jansson

comics
The Batman Chronicles no. 7 winter 97
spiralicious: heart shaped tea cup (<3 tea)
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Tea Month 2026: Tea 8

Tea Review
Name: Nighty Night Extra
Brand: Traditional Medicinals
Type: herbal
Tea bag

Notes:
This one surprised me in a good way. One, it actually tasted good. This brand and Yogi both have vague proprietary blends listed in the ingredients of all their medicinal teas and I obviously don't know what is in either of those blends, but they tend to add a flavor that I find very off-putting that is similar between the two brands. It was not noticeable in this one. Two, I was not expecting it to help. It's primary ingredient is valerian root, which typically doesn't do anything for me. I don't know if it was this particular blend of things or if I was actually tired enough that any warm cup of tea while reading before bed might have put me out, but it was the most restful night of sleep I've had in over two years.

Rate
Appearance: 7
Aroma: 7
Flavor: 7

Overall Rating: 4 stars (bonus star for sleep)
spiralicious: Cereal Killer Mask (Default)
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Challenge #4: Rec The Contents Of Your Last Page

Any website that you like, be it fanfiction, art, social media, or something a bit more eccentric!


My online footprint is not nearly as fun as it used to be. Basically, I visit here on DW, my library website, Subeta, YouTube, Buzzfeed & mental floss for quizzes, and canihazcheeseburger for memes (mostly cats and Tolkien Tuesday). Outside of researching and trying to see if dead crafting sites from the 2010s are still functional, that's it.

Subeta is a 21 year old browser based pet adoption game. Think neopets, but snarkier, you have a human avatar you can dress, and they know their core user base are adults. I am coming up on my 11th (12th?) Anniversary of playing there. I have 12 pets. The game can be as social as you want it to be and enough activities, you could spend hours each day playing outside of events. My favorite things are wizard questing, curating my pets' treasures, creating outfits and scenes for my human avatar, and gentech experiments.

As for events, the site just had it's new year's event from the 1st until the 18th. You earn new years tokens by questing or from random events. There is a shop that while open year round, only takes new years tokens as currency. The Snowtapult is open. This normally happens from December 21st until whenever Survival starts in February. Basically, there are something like 80 different kinds of snowballs you can buy with in game money and fling at other users, each with unique effects that temporarily show up on their human avatar. I have slowly been working for the maximum achievement for this for years. Coming up is one of my favorite events, which is Survival. It's a 2 part event. One part is "kissing" other users to earn candy hearts, which are one of the many in game currencies. The other part is "biting" and being bitten by other users to get infected with zombie virus' to collect the different wearable zombie skins. There are more details, but those are the broad strokes.

Dungleon is a Wordle mechanics dungeon crawl based game. You can play once a day. You have to figure out what creatures occupy the dungeon before you run out of guesses. It's a lot of fun.

YouTube Recs I spend possibly too much time on YouTube, mostly watching reddit reaction videos or long form video essays and podcasts. I also have several unfinished youtuber recs post in progress, so what thought I would do was make a list of YouTube channel recs that I feel should be be recommended, but I don't think I have recced anywhere. (I did include if they were primarily short or long content video creators, but most do both.)

Read more... )

Snowflake Challenge: A pair of ice skates hanging on a wood paneled wall. Pine boughs with a few ornaments are stuffed into the skates.

tea review: earl grey

26 Jan 2026 01:07
spiralicious: heart shaped tea cup (<3 tea)
[personal profile] spiralicious
Tea Month 2026: Tea 7

Tea Review
Name: Earl Grey
Brand: Stash
Type: black
Tea bag

Notes:
For me, it was too "perfumey." I have that issue with a lot of Earl Grey teas. It was still very drinkable. After I got used to the smell, it was a decent tea to help me make it through the afternoon while I tackled my to do list.

Rate
Appearance: 7
Aroma: 1
Flavor: 6

Overall Rating: 2.5 stars

tea review: cozy chamomile

26 Jan 2026 00:58
spiralicious: heart shaped tea cup (<3 tea)
[personal profile] spiralicious
Tea Month 2026: Tea 6

Tea Review
Name: Cozy Chamomile
Brand: Bigelow
Type: herbal
Tea bag

Notes:
My review for this might be a little unfair as it came from the jar of random tea and by the art on the packaging, it might have been a little past it's prime. That being said, it was okay. I thought it might be a blend, given it's nearly non-existent chamomile flavor, but it's not. That could be it's age. My bar for chamomile is low and this particular bag of tea limboed under it.

Rate
Appearance: 7
Aroma: 3
Flavor: 1

Overall Rating: 2 stars

tea review: turmeric bliss

26 Jan 2026 00:47
spiralicious: heart shaped tea cup (<3 tea)
[personal profile] spiralicious
Tea Month 2026: Tea 5

Tea Review
Name: Tumeric Bliss
Brand: Tazo
Type: herbal blend
Tea bag

Notes:
So, when I know there is going to be a gap between when I drink a tea I'm planning on reviewing and when I actually post a review for it, I try to take notes. My notes on this tea just say, "No." Literally nothing else, not even a rating. I do know I also did not finish drinking it. One plus I remember is that it didn't have the bitter dirt taste some turmeric teas have.

Rate
Appearance: 5
Aroma: 3
Flavor: 2

Overall Rating: 1 star

tea review: anela

22 Jan 2026 02:29
spiralicious: heart shaped tea cup (<3 tea)
[personal profile] spiralicious
Tea Month 2026: Tea 4

Tea Review
Name: Anela Hawaiian Flavored
Brand: Lupicia
Type: unknown blend
Tea bag

Notes:
This tea and I went on a journey. To start with, I have no idea where I got this tea originally. It was in my jar of random packaged bags of tea. The packaging just has the brand name and "ANELA Hawaiian Flavored" on the front and the back just has brewing instructions in Japanese & English. I tried googling it. I found out anela means angel, maybe, and I found the USA version of the Lupicia website. The tea is not listed anywhere, even when I tried to search their catalog of over 400 teas, which includes the discontinued ones. It just kept saying it doesn't exist. Also, they seem to exclusively sell loose tea in tins and this is a bag in a packet. It does look like something you might get at a hotel, so maybe it wasn't a regular retail product.

Anyway, I finally found mention of the flavor in two places; a blog post and a reddit comment. In a blog post from 2018, someone had bought the Lupicia Hawaiian tea sampler, which included the Anela tea. At that time, it was described as "a sweet aromatic strawberry lychee black tea." The reddit comment was complaining that their favorite Lupicia tea used to be Anela, which used to be a jasmine lychee green tea, but it had changed to a strawberry lychee black tea.

Neither of these descriptions fit what I drank.

I did enjoy it. It was fun to drink. I couldn't pick out any particular flavors, but it hit my taste buds as "tropical flavor" without any notes of coconut or pineapple. Honestly the first thing I pictured in my head was the tropical trail mix they used to have in the bulk bins at the grocery store. Though it didn't taste like that either. It was dark enough, it was most likely a black tea blend, so probably the strawberry lychee.

I'd drink it again, if I had more. I don't see that happening.

Rate
Appearance: 7
Aroma: 9
Flavor: 8

Overall Rating: 3.5 stars

tea review: mint medley

22 Jan 2026 02:05
spiralicious: heart shaped tea cup (<3 tea)
[personal profile] spiralicious
Tea Month 2026: Tea 3

Tea Review
Name: Mint Medley
Brand: Bigelow
Type: herbal
Tea bag

Notes:
Yes, it's another mint medley. And I did triple check that I haven't reviewed this one before. I had this one at a library event. It made for a nice afternoon pick-me-up. It's an interesting mix in that it's not just peppermint and spearmint, it also has rose hips, lemon peel, and hibiscus in it.

Rate
Appearance: 7
Aroma: 8
Flavor: 7

Overall Rating: 3 stars

tea review: black tea

22 Jan 2026 01:57
spiralicious: heart shaped tea cup (<3 tea)
[personal profile] spiralicious
Tea Month 2026: Tea 2

Tea Review
Name: Black Tea
Brand: Kroger
Type: black
Tea bag

Notes:
This is your most basic, no frills black tea. I don't have anything negative to say about it. It's a little weaker than some black teas. It smells good. Pleasant to have in the morning when it takes all of your brain function to put the water on to boil. It's also good for making sun tea.

Rate
Appearance: 8
Aroma: 8
Flavor: 7

Overall Rating: 3 stars

tea review: gingerbread

22 Jan 2026 01:40
spiralicious: heart shaped tea cup (<3 tea)
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Welcome to the first tea review of 2026!

Tea Month 2026: Tea 1

Tea Review
Name: Gingerbread
Brand: Teeccino
Type: herbal
Tea bag

Notes:
This was a gift. (Thank you, Okapi!) I'm also pretty sure it was also my first roasted herbal tea. I was definitely excited for this one. The first thing that hit me was how amazing it smelled. The taste was a little weaker than I was expecting, but it was quite good. It is definitely a dessert tea, like it begs you to drink it with a little sweet nibble on the side. I had been sort of waiting to drink it until my mother made her gingerbread (think the cake, not cookies), but that was not meant to be. It would definitely pair nicely with something chocolate.

Rate
Appearance: 9
Aroma: 10
Flavor: 8

Overall Rating: 4 stars

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