Saya terbiasa minum teh sedari kecil karena nenek saya dulu setiap hari selalu minum teh dan selalu bikin satu teko besar teh di meja makan. Pake teko jadul yang warna hijau muda itu loh.. :)

Dan berhubung saya memang orangnya senang coba-coba hal baru jadi saya juga senang mencoba berbagai macam rasa dan varian teh. Saya bukan tea expert sih jadi informasi berikut ini hanya berdasarkan pengetahuan saya semata saja hehe Untuk yang belum tau, teh itu terdiri dari beberapa jenis berdasarkan proses oksidasi nya, misalnya green tea, black tea, white tea, dan red tea. Selain itu juga ada beberapa macam varian teh yang merupakan campuran teh dengan flavour lain; seperti misalnya jasmine tea, earl grey tea, english breakfast tea, dll.

Contoh : 

- Earl Grey Tea -> merupakan tea blend yang terbuat dari black tea yang dicampur / ditambahkan bergamot oil.

- Jasmine Tea -> merupakan tea blend yang terbuat dari black tea yang ditambahkan aroma / ekstrak bunga melati yang segar.

Ini hasilnya waktu saya kemarin ngerapiin lemari penyimpanan di dapur. Isinya banyak banget teh dan kopi-kopian berbagai macam varian dan rasa hehehe Ternyata saya menyimpan stok teh sebanyak ini, jadi bingung kapan habisnya nih? (^o^). Belum lagi stok varian kopi yang nggak kalah banyaknya (nanti dibahas di lain post kalau sempat yah).

Maklum, seperti saya bilang tadi, saya hobby nya coba-cobain sesuatu yang baru, termasuk dalam hal makanan dan minuman. Lagipula saya termasuk yang bosenan orangnya (;p) Jadi saya senang kalau punya pilihan: misal sore ini mau minum Mango Tea, trus kalau lagi flu minum Lemon Tea, kalau malam nggak bisa tidur minum camomile tea.

Nah ini berhubung lagi dikeluarin semua saya mau bikin list aja ah sekalian review singkat nya :

1. Mango Tea - A favorite of mine ! I found this at the supermarket at Citos. I think it's segmented for imported goods but I found this very lovely indeed.
2. Mustika Ratu Sleepwell Tea - Sadly this didn't work for me. Nggak tau kenapa saya kurang cocok sama teh yang khusus untuk masalah sulit tidur. Belom pernah nemu yang cocok.
3. Kepala Djenggot Lemon Tea - I like lemon tea but this one is not the best I've tried (although this one is pretty good too).
4. Marks & Spencer Calming Infusion Tea - This is meant for calming and relaxing before sleep and as usual I don't get along well with teas that are meant for easy sleeping. Maybe it's the camomile in it?
5. Marks & Spencer Cranberry Elderflower Infusion Tea - This is the first M&S tea that I've tried and it smells wonderful, tastes lovely, and has smooth texture too.
   
6. Kepala Djenggot Blackcurrant Tea - Blackcurrant is one of my favorite tea blend, and this one is good and smooth with a sweet aroma.
7. Lipton English Breakfast Tea - I'm not particularly fond of Lipton Teas, and I'm more of an "earl grey" tea-person than "english breakfast". This one is okay I guess, although I've tasted better ones.
8. Kepala Djenggot Green Tea (Teh Hijau) - A very nice green tea. Great for stomach ache!
9. Twinings Green Teas Collection - A lovely set of green tea variants from Twinings. Will do a separate review on this pack a.s.a.p.
10. Lipton Caramel Tea - Not bad but not so good either.
11. Kepala Djenggot Jasmine Tea (Teh Melati) - A smooth and very nice black tea.
12. Dilmah Fruit Variety Pack - Includes assorted fruit infusion teas. Lovely and will do a separate review on this too.
13. Lipton Camomile Infusion Tea - I have a 'love n hate' relationship with Camomile Tea. Most of the time I don't get along well with them. It's hard to find a camomile tea that suits my taste buds - and they all seems to make my stomach angry (>_<).
14. Teh Cap Naga - My mom always buy packs of these teas from Malang. This is the only loose tea I have right now. It is a favorite in my parents house and it has become my favorite too (if only it's not too fussy to make because it's loose tea).
15. Sosro Green Tea - I love Sosro teas, I found them suits my preference. Including this green tea version of Sosro tea.
16. Sosro Jasmine Tea - Another favorite of mine, this reminds me of teh botol sosro (maybe because it is ;p).
17. Sosro Black Tea - Actually this one is really nice. Reminds me of the classic Javanese tea that my grandma used to drink.

I know I will keep adding new teas to my collection in the future so I will update my collection in this blog seiring berjalannya waktu hehe Dan pengennya sih di review kalau ada waktu yah huhuhu In the mean time, please let me know kalau kalian ada suggestion teh enak yang harus saya coba yah :)

Happy Weekend!

Home-Living: Hand Soap Collection

For those of you who didn't know, I have a knack for fancy hand soaps :)

You might call me a snob but I just love hand soaps. The reason behind that is maybe because I'm kinda weird with my hands. I don't like my hands to feel dirty or dusty, or greasy or dry, etc. I like my hands to be clean and moist, ALL DAY LONG. 

So every time I do something like applying moisturizer to my face or after I pet my cats even for just a stroke, I would wash my hands afterwards. Even when I'm cooking I would do 3-4 times of hand washing during the cooking process (wash hands after slicing onions, wash hands after preparing eggs, wash hands before making rice, etc until I finished cooking). I would also wash my hands after I went outside, before making tea/coffee, after applying body lotion, etc - That's why I always wash my hands up to 5-10 times a day. And THAT's why I need a good hand soap. 

I need a good hand soap that would make my hands smells good and would not dry my hands with all those frequent washing that I did during the day. So that's when I started collecting fancy hand soaps. It's not for show-off, but it's because they doesn't dry my hands like the regular hand soaps do. So please don't judge me (*_^)

So anyway, I just recently purchased two new soaps from Bath & Body Works when they were having a sale last week ( 2 hand soaps for IDR 160k ), and I purchased their Aqua Blossom Deep Cleansing Hand Soap and Peach Bellini Gentle Foaming Hand Soap. 

Below are the whole collection of my hand soaps (PS: my stash is not that much, but it's probably too much for someone who doesn't collect handsoaps ;p) :

They are mostly from Bath & Body Works because I used to buy them when they were having huge sales on their website and then I have them shipped to my brother in law's address who was residing in the US at that time. I also bought a couple of them when I went to Singapore a few months ago when BBW were not available here yet in Jakarta.

But now Bath & Body Works has opened it's stores here in Jakarta and I am so excited because it is one of my favorite store! Me and hubby K also love BBW hand soaps especially the foamy hand soaps because they last longer than the regular hand soap (which means it saves us money on the long run), so most of my stash includes those foaming hand soaps from BBW.

 BBW Citrus Garland (my current kitchen sink handsoap)

BBW Cranberry Tangerine Foaming Hand Soap

BBW Fresh Sparkling Snow Foaming Hand Soap

 BBW Iced Ginger Bread (my current guest handsoap)

BBW Kitchen Lemon Foaming Hand Soap

BBW Peach Bellini Foaming Hand Soap

 BBW Aqua Blossom Deep Cleansing Hand Soap

BBW Twilight Woods Deep Cleansing Hand Soap

Marks & Spencer Lily of The Valley Moisture Rich Hand Wash (my current bathroom handsoap)

From all my BBW hand soaps collection, only two of them are the Deep Cleansing variant which I think would be perfect for my bathroom sinks. The rest of them are the Gentle Foaming variant which is our favorite type of BBW hand soaps - which I like to use in the kitchen or when I have guests.

Before I tried BBW hand soaps I used to buy Marks & Spencer hand soaps because they have pretty packaging, they doesn't dry my hands even after repeated washing, and they smells great too. I also found a new hand soap brand that I found in Ace Hardware called Astonish that also smells great and surprisingly the scent lasts on my hands for a lot longer than any other hand soaps! So that's a score for me :)

 The last two of my Marks & Spencer hand soaps:

Lily of The Valley (which I'm currently using)

China Blue (which we finished recently)

 Astonish Milk & Honey Anti-Bacterial Handwash 

(which I'm currently using for my bedroom sink at my parents in law's house)

I think I would buy the Astonish hand soap again from Ace Hardware (in another variant, of course) because I love it so much. Every time I use this soap I can still smell the soft scent that lingers in my hand long after I washed my hands :) - This soap makes me want to always wash my hands!

One thing to note: it is a bit pricey for a hand soap (around IDR 40k when I bought it), but the bottle is huge (!) so I think it has the most higher value for money compared to BBW or Marks & Spencer hand soaps above (^_^). Totally worth trying out if you like fancy handsoaps like I do ;p

Do you love hand soaps too? 

Do you have a favorite brand of hand soaps?

Lemme know!

Adios Chicas!

My Working Table Necessities

I basically work from home. I do freelance jobs from my computer at home, and I also blogged a lot because blogging is part of my job ;p So I literally spent my days in front of the computer for at least 8 hours a day!

I have a small working space in my bedroom, that's where I put on my computer and all of the essentials right beside it. When I looked at a corner in my work table, I realized that I have such random essentials for work-must-haves, LOL.

Okay, let me tell you about my work table. 

It's not really a table but a single drawer with short legs. I used the top surface for putting on my laptop and knick knacks (notebooks, stationary, etc). Aside from all those notes and journals that I kept on my desk for writing important tasks, I filled the drawer with all my files, past work thingies, calculator, bank's remote key, as well as brochures / press release and work sheets for my recent jobs or recent blogging necessities.

Right beside my laptop is a small corner with random essential things such as these:

Those are all my necessities which I need when I'm working in front of my laptop. You can see that there's a calendar on the right, and then in front of it is a pretty box that I just bought and haven't opened yet because I'm afraid it would get dirty, LOL. So it's just standing there for my inspiration ;)

You can also see that there's a kitty cat phone holder and then at the back is a Goofy glass which I used to store my pens and pencils (and a ruler). You can also see that there is a set of cow print pencils + eraser at the front. I forgot why it's there when I photographed it, it's usually stands inside the goofy jar with all the pens and pencils.

So here is the normal look of the corner without the cow-print pencils set:

I moved the cow-print pencils set into the glass jar where they belong. You can also see my current favorite pen there inside the glass, the one where I talked about here.

On the other side of the table I put on another desk calendar (just because I don't know where else to put it ;p). It's a very pretty calendar that I got from the L'Occitane event several months ago:
 

As I mentioned above, I spent my days in front of my laptop for at least 8 hours a day non-stop. I only stopped for meals. I also mostly worked at night and my air con is always on at night time, and that's why I always need a hand cream and a lip balm near me. I have quite a few of hand creams and lip balms all around the house and car because I can't stand dry hands and dry lips. So I gotta have them close ;)

I also like to snack in front of my laptop and I'm always make sure that my hands are clean before snacking. So that's why I got a hand sanitizer in this corner too ;p

I know those three items are not your usual work essentials but they are to me ^o^

Here's a close up of my essentials: Hand Sanitizer Gel, Hand Cream, Lip Balm, Mobile Phone in standing position so I can see who's calling or texting me while I'm in front of my laptop ;p

Note:  

I'm using The Body Shop Satsuma Hand Cleanse Gel, Garden of Love White Rose Hand Cream, Made From Earth Citrus Fresh Organic Lip Balm.