#strawberry and english tea go well together btw LOL | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

akkivee · 3 months

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i tried out the hypmic teas!!!!!! i’m not a reputable tea drinker, since my preferred method of making tea is to pour boiling water on my tea bag and let it stew in liquid flames for minutes i’m sure feels like hours for the bag (i like my tea strong, scalded leaves be damned lmao) but i prepared it according to the directions and tasted it for there so it should be true to flavour lol

so the instructions for brewing the tea were as follows: 1️⃣ prepare a cup of 150ml (~2/3c) hot water 2️⃣ let it cool a bit and add the tea bag 3️⃣ let it steep for 3-4 minutes!!! so what i did was boil water and after adding the amount to my tea cup, i let it cool for 4 minutes and then steeped the bag for 4 minutes (…..and some change for the photos LOL)

❤️☕️: bb had a strawberry rooibos tea!!!! the tea had a very overpowering scent the moment i took it out and that was basically my warning LOL i wound up sipping that tea first and almost immediately sipped mtc’s, except that strawberry flavour lingers fr, so i almost did mtc a disservice. what was really neat about the tea tho is that for every moment the tea lingered on the tongue, the flavour changed and became bolder!!!!! i assume that was the strawberry notes changing to the rooibos notes but it was sick to experience lol!!!!

💙☕️: mtc’s flavour was yokohama afternoon tea!!!! it was an english black tea blend essentially lol but the downside of this is that, since it’s a tea i drink regularly and therefore over brew for my preferred tastes, it tasted weak to me lol, but that’s not the tea’s fault. i think it needed the boiling water personally!!!!! other than that tho, it was a lovely blend 😃

💛☕️: posse had a caramel and chestnut tea!!!!! it was a black tea blend tho, so again, it felt a little weak to me in the beginning. i wound up taking multiple sips to try and discern where the caramel and chestnut was coming from but when i could, i found it was similar to the bb tea where the flavours shifted over time. i wasn’t nearly as powerful as bb’s but i think that was again bc it was a black tea and needed hotter water to brew in. i added about 1/2tbs of sugar to each of these cups after my initial sips (i also like sugar in my tea lol i think it enhances flavour) and felt the flavours jumped more after that addition!!

🩶☕️: mtr had a jasmine tea and i’m not gonna lie lmao!!!!! after drinking this tea, it made me realise i had never had a jasmine tea that wasn’t over brewed LOL and i presume it’s bc cafes over brew for additives, but the astringency in those jasmine teas has always been off putting, even as someone who prefers astringency in black tea. now tho lol!!!!! it’s such a pleasantly flavourful tea i’m sorry we do your tea dirty lol!!!!!! thank you mtr for always guiding us to the light and showing me the error of my ways LOL

🧡☕️: dh had an apricot black tea!!!! and similar to all the other black teas before it, it needed a longer brew time or initial hotter water lol. like it came out of the bag smelling very strong so i had high expectations but was let down initially. but i was sipping on this tea as i typed this out lol with the bag still in the cup and MAN it’s such a nice flavour, especially with that added sugar!!! hotter water and a 7 minute steeping would absolutely do this tea justice 👌

💜☕️: bat’s flavour was kyouhou grape iirc???? and it’s the tea i’ve had the most trepidation about trying lol since jp grape tastes like medicine to me. i did have the bat grape candy tho and it tasted closer to grape jolly rancher that the medicinal taste i remember so i came in with a bit more hope lol!!!!! the bag had a very strong scent (it overpowered dh’s actually and dh’s was strong lol) but it’s a black tea so the flavour wasn’t as strong as it could have been. maybe that was in its favour tho bc the grape taste still shone thru even tho it probably could’ve used better brewing conditions!!!! and sugar definitely complimented that!!!! i also sipped this tea as i typed this out and tbh, that medicinal flavour became more pronounced as time went on, and it lingers lol, so i’d actually brew this as intended lol, maybe a bit longer to hit a stronger grape sweet spot

my favourite of the bunch just might be bb!!!!!

#this is vee speaking #like after bb blew my mind and stayed on the tongue for over five minutes LOL #i wound up using some bread as a palette cleanser since i really did do mtc a disservice sipping it immediately after lol #strawberry and english tea go well together btw LOL #mtr changed my entire life btw lmao like green tea is something i also hate the astringency in #but i drink it all the time so i know what to do to get it the way i like #i can’t believe i never thought to buy my own jasmine and make it right LOL 😭😭😭😭😭#fck commercially stewed jasmine tea all the homies hate commercially stewed jasmine tea LOL

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greennct · 5 years

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mark in a library

i'm a sucker for blushy mark lee what can i say lol. here’s 1.8k of pure fluff!

(there’s like two swear words in here btw) 💞💖💘

song rec: crush by tessa violet

Every single day, when Mark woke up at the ass-crack of dawn to haul himself to the library, he feebly tried to convince himself that he was actually going to study that day. And every single day, he spent the entirety of his ‘working’ hours staring at you. And then pretending he wasn’t. And then staring back at you again.

After the whole ‘studying’ ruse became too fictitious to not discard, Mark attempted to reason that his interest was only because he was so bored that he found you cute. But it was only after an excruciating Sunday morning where it seemed you had opted for a lie-in rather than your books, and Mark found himself practically alone in the deserted bookshelves, that he was forced to admit the truth to himself.

Mark had a big, fat crush.

He wasn’t exactly sure what it was about you that had flipped the switch, possibly an accumulation of all your little habits. Sure, at the beginning, Mark stared because you were, well, stunning, but after a while he began to pick up on the small, endearing traits that drew him to you even more. The way you would catch yourself chewing your pencils, and frown slightly, obviously disproving of your bad habit. How you would run your hands through your hair when re-reading essays, lips moving ever so slightly, as you mouthed the words you were scrutinising. The tea you brought in a flask every day, the stickers on your laptop, heck, even the gum you used, an off-brand strawberry flavour that had Mark blushing to himself as he wondered if you would taste anything like the sweet.

Mark worried, especially in the first few weeks of his infatuation, that he was being creepy. After all, it felt almost as if his trips were a secret. Though the rest of his members knew he was going to the library to study, they always sent him off with sympathetic looks on their faces, as they knew he was being dispatched there by the company, in order to complete his schooling. (Little did they know, his 3-hour-per-week quota was constantly overachieved, as he spent practically the entirety of his weekends in the building). Nobody, not even Donghyuk had been told about his feelings for you.

However, it wasn’t as if he spent the whole day spying on you without your knowledge. The study room you both went to was large and light, and though you two were rarely alone during the day, Mark often woke up a little earlier in order to snag the table he knew you would sit opposite every day. That way, he could return your amical smile as you sat down with an awkward grin and spend the next half an hour ducked behind his textbooks, ears even redder than the previous day.

That was another thing that had surprised Mark. He had expected that, over time, he would become less affected by your presence, but as you two became more familiar with each other, your interactions became increasingly common. Each time you pouted at Mark when you caught him yawning, moving your eyes towards the door to encourage him to go home, or rolled your eyes at him surreptitiously when the librarian shouted at the students in order to get them to be quiet, the butterflies in his stomach almost combusted. No matter how many times he saw your face, he never seemed to get rid of them.

In other words, Mark was fucked.

Despite the fact that practically 90% of his existence was taken up by thoughts of you, the first time you two actually spoke, was after at least five months of Mark gazing at you in the library. It was a cold evening, and Mark blushed as you discarded your many layers of coats and scarves on to the back of your chair. He attempted to focus on the homework his tutor had given him as his ears stopped burning, when a sound made his head shoot up. A loud grumble interrupted the silence of the basically abandoned hall, and now it was your turn to blush. Mark tried not to smile too obviously at how clearly mortified you were at your stomach rumbling, even though he was the only other person there. “Sorry!” you mouthed at him, and he shook his head vigorously to signify that he didn’t mind at all.

To your absolute horror, your stomach kept groaning sporadically for the next 20 minutes. Both you and Mark knew that the library’s café had long closed by now, so the chances of somehow obtaining food were slim to none. Eventually, you decided you couldn’t take the humiliation anymore, and tried not to rush too obviously to the toilets, in order to phone your friends and beg someone to bring you food.

After exhausting your call list, and deciding you needed to serious upgrade your friendship circle, you returned to the library, cheeks still flushed from your previous ordeal, and stopped in your tracks when you saw a neatly packaged lunchbox sitting innocently on top of your class reading list.

Mark had known it was a gamble to give you his dinner. He had been debating it furiously with himself for the past ten minutes but couldn’t seem to get the courage to just outright ask you if you wanted to take it. When you left for the bathroom, he realised now was the perfect time to make sure you had eaten, without actually having to open his mouth and embarrass himself. He wasn’t particularly hungry and didn’t really care for the ratio of vegetables to actual carbs that Doyoung had packed for him (He wondered nervously if you would), so it seemed natural to him to give you the little box hidden in his backpack.

Scanning the practically empty room, you realised there was only one obvious culprit behind this act of kindness. The boy sitting opposite you was intently focused on his biology sheet, seemingly nonchalant, but upon closer inspection, it looked as if he hadn’t written anything since you had left (not that you were looking).

“Hey,” his head perked up immediately. “Is this your dinner?”

“Well…” the boy seemed at a loss for words “I guess, but I’m not really that hungry, and I figured, y’know, cause of your stomach and all…”

He trailed off as he saw you put your head in your hands, already having sunk into your seat. “Oh my god, that’s so embarrassing. I’m so sorry you had to hear that!”

You were surprised to hear what could’ve been a chuckle coming from him, though it was reminiscent of a small squeak. “H-” He cleared his throat. “Happens to the best of us. I’m sure you would’ve done the same and all that.”

Looking up at him, you could see he was just as red as you were, and just that small observation made you feel an odd sense of comfort in this more or less stranger. “At least let me share it with you,” you implored, gesturing to the chair opposite you. After all, you had sat opposite him for a few months already. If he had wanted to murder you, he’d have done so by now.

You tried not to giggle as he almost tripped over his feet walking the short distance over to your table. Pushing your books aside, you subconsciously decided that your studies were over for the evening – dinner with cute stranger was a much more appetising prospect.

Glancing down at the box again, you saw a small blue post-it note stuck to the top of the plastic box, with your name on it. You met his eyes, quizzically.

“It was written on the inside of one of your textbooks,” he immediately clarified. “It was open, and I saw it, I swear I haven’t been stalking you or-”

This time you really did giggle. “Don’t panic, I didn’t think you were. You’re Mark, right?”

It was his turn to look startled. “How did you-“

“You are aware that your face is plastered on half the billboards in the city, right? It would be pretty hard to not know who you were.”

He grinned bashfully, a hand coming up to scratch the back of his head. “I guess…”

Despite your gentle teasing, you found Mark was extremely kind and open, especially since it was your first real conversation with the boy you had spent the last few months trying not to be distracted by. As the evening drew on, slowly stretching into night, you two kept talking, lunchbox long finished. He was hilarious, sweet, a little teasing and charming in a subtle, yet endearing way, and as he opened up more and more, you felt comfortable enough to bring up your difficulties with him, since you two were bantering so much back and forth.

“Seriously, you’re so annoyingly good-looking! I’m literally just sitting here, minding my own business, trying to scrape a pass in my English class, and you make it so freaking hard to concentrate!” Though you were laughing, you realised the mood had shifted slightly with that statement, as Mark was suddenly as shy as he had been at the beginning of the evening.

Attempting to fill the awkward silence, you kept babbling on, packing up your books at lightning speed, suddenly aware of how late it was. “Well, I mean, of course you’re- it’s your job to be cute, you know, it’s not like-”

“You think I’m cute?” He interrupted suddenly, voice soft, eyes focused firmly on the floor.

“I- Well- Um… Yeah?” you admitted, deciding it was already too late to attempt to salvage any semblance of dignity from the conversation.

You were standing up now, backpack on your shoulders. There was a short pause in which you considered all the different ways in which you would like to die in order to avoid this moment. After what seemed like an eternity and a half, he stood up too.

“Let me walk you to the door.”

Unable to vocalise any kind of comprehensible thought in that moment, you just nodded, and waited for him to put his things together, as you texted your groupchat to find a ride home.

The walk out of the library was quiet and nervous. You felt you had somehow overstepped a line. There were two cars waiting our front, one you recognised as belonging to your friend, and a blacked-out SUV, which you assumed contained some kind of staff member who was there to pick Mark up.

“So, um, thanks for dinner.” You murmured, already practically legging it across the parking lot to your ride, ready to rant to her all about how royally you had fucked up this evening.

Halfway to the car, you heard a small scuffle behind you, and you turned to see Mark, half-running towards you. Confused, you waited, figuring you had just forgotten something.

“Err… hi?” you smiled awkwardly.

“I, um, just wanted to say… I think you’re pretty cute too.”

Something warm bloomed in your chest, and you couldn’t help but to place a chaste kiss on his cheek.

“Goodnight, Mark.”

If you thought you had seen Mark Lee blush before, there was no comparison to the look on his face directly after your lips lost contact with his cheek.

“G-good- um, bye!” He spluttered, sprinting back to his own car where he was met with whoops and hollers.

Smirking slightly to yourself, you opened your friend’s car door, met with a similar sentiment. Something told you studying wasn’t going to be so boring anymore.

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