Been a long time, been a long time...

...been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time. Both for this blog and also for the neglected tea collection in my snack drawer at work.

Looks good, right?

Lemon honey sticks and tropical tea on a cold snowy day. What could be bad about that?

In case you can't read the small print, the tea expired in Oct 2007 and the honey expired in Nov 2005. Now, the tea, I can believe. Tea leaves get old and lose flavor, but HONEY? Please... archaeologists have discovered tea in ancient tombs in Egypt--thousands of years old--that hadn't gone bad. Really.  It's scientifically impossible.

So, in my very scientific mug, I poured myself a cuppa.

And it was... not bad. While no longer especialmente delicioso, as the box claimed, it still tasted like chamomile and banana.

An interesting combination.

I polished off one honey stick while giving the tea some extra time to steep and it was completely fine. The second one had crystallized a bit, so I had to heat it up in the tea for a few minutes. Still yummy, though.

Magnet wisdom

Just make sure to photograph first, it so it can be blogged about :).

Thanks to Mel for this magnetic gem. 

Not Exactly Meat....

....but hilariously vintage.  Not only the awesome clip art, but the fact that, in computer years, this is about 50 years old.

It reminds me of this Harvey Birdman episode where the Jetsons go back to the future (which they think is the past).  I could only find it in Spanish, but if you can find it in English watch it, it brings tears to my eyes every time.

Expired dairy product and no one is the wiser

Come on--it tasted ok. It hadn't even been expired for four years (Best By date is 12/07/08). I don't know what you're complaining about.

It made delicious blueberry ice cream.

Found a peanut, found a peanut

After the macadamia nut experience, I shouldn't have even tried these. They expired in July of 2009. But, not surprisingly, I couldn't help myself.

They had been purchased for making peanut brittle, and these were the left-overs.

They tasted just like furniture polish. And, now I have this song stuck in my head!

Not so gingery ginger

This was one of the most disappointing vintage finds, ever. I was craving--and I mean craving--pickled ginger. And yes, I was planning on eating it right out of the jar with my finest pair of chopsticks.

It looked a bit pale (beige, instead of pink), and was a bit out-dated (Best By 8/28/2003), but it hadn't been opened yet, so I figured it would probably be fine.

Instead of being spicy and a bit crunchy, it turned to mush in my mouth. I can't describe how it tasted, but "gingery" would not be the first word that comes to mind.

Such a let down.

Auf Wiedersehen, Sauerkraut

I have absolutely no recollection of buying this, and couldn't find a "Best By" date anywhere, so I can't even begin to guess its age. Years, at least, though. Ok, that was sort of a guess...

It didn't seem like the right color. It felt weirdly rubbery in my mouth when I attempted to chew it. It didn't taste like sauerkraut, either. Blech.