TV-series I must. keep. watching.

Everybody has their favorite TV-series. Even my parents do. (Helloooo Midsomer Murders & Downton Abbey!) But I am the kind of person who simply can't stop watching once I've found a good show. I really can't. It has a lot to do with my ADD and the hyperfocuses I tend to get when I enjoy something tremendously, which often means I don't sleep for 4 days and forget to eat while doing whatever I am obsessed with at that time. It's not very healthy and it takes me a week or so to recover, but a big part of me actually likes to submerge itself in the world a series creates, forgoing all other bodily needs. The best ones make me forget about anything else, and I'm currently watching a few that have that special quality. Here they are, for your pleasure. But beware, they are highly addictive!

Oh, and they are randomly ordered. I simply can't pick favorites.

Reid: my secret crush! 

Penelope Garcia is my hero! 

• Long-time favorite is Criminal Minds. I watched it a lot starting college, but forgot about it for a couple of seasons. I tend to watch everything up until the latest episode of a series. And then, I am too impatient to wait for the next episodes, so I search for another show to keep me busy. I got hold of the last seasons of Criminal Minds and watched it in a couple of days. The plot of every episode is mostly the same: the team is sent to solve a murder and catch a serial killer. In general they catch him and all is well. Every season has an extra storyline, involving one or multiple members of the team. How enticing or gruesome the regular storylines about the serial killers are, the one that gets personal is awesome. I cried a couple of times during several disclosures. The characters are well-developed and feature true gems, like the technical voluptuous hottie Penelope Garcia and the slightly awkward genius Spencer Reid. Those two make it more than worth your while to watch this show, but the others are also great. 

The main cast from Revenge.
mily is on the far left, Daniel the first guy on the right. 

• A more recent obsession is Revenge. I'm halfway through the first season, and boy, the drama and scandals are abound! Emily vanCamp is perfect in the leading role of Emily Thorne, who sets out to take revenge on the people that got her father convicted for treason (and ultimately killed in prison). It is set in the Hamptons, so the visuals in this show are awesome. Pretty much all the outfits the women wear are enviously gorgeous and the homes are flabbergasting. The male eye candy is not far off: Leading man Joshua Bowman portrays Daniel Grayson, a very good looking harvard student, who happens to be a pawn in Emily's plan. That plan is elaborate and will hopefully last a couple of seasons :) As said, the drama is everywhere and it is addictive!  

Monroe is the most left, Nick is in the middle. Monroe <3

• I also have a couple of shows I watch with my boyfriend. Grimm is one of them. I love me a show with a supernatural twist to it, and Grimm has plenty. David Giuntoli plays the role of Nick Burkhardt, detective who finds out he descends from the line of Grimms. He can see supernatural creatures and has to stop them from doing all sorts of evil. Early in the first season, episodes tend to have an easy plot, with Nick finding out more and more about his ancestors and his ability. But of course, drama ensues. I really can't explain without spoilers... My favorite character is Monroe, played by Silas Weir Mitchell. Monroe is a supernatural creature, and he is awesome. Like totally. He gets all the funny lines and moments and is quite the charmer, by being his quirky self. My boyfriend and I root for him all the time. The second season is full of romantic developments and stopped halfway, with the irritating line "To be continued... Sorry!" I like that kind of humor from the creators, but grrrr! I want to watch the rest of the season! 

• Once Upon A Time is another show we watch together. We've only watched the first season, we're waiting for the second season to finish so we can watch it in one big run. On my own, I wouldn't have had the patience to wait, but the boyfriend brings out the best in me :) The first seasons centers around Emma Swan, played by Jennifer Morrison, who has to lift an entire town from a curse. Everybody in that town is a character from a fairy tale, put there by an evil queen. And that's about all I can tell without spoilers. This series takes a couple of episodes to get used to, because of the very elaborate backstory and the large amount of characters, the twists and turns, etc. I was intrigued from the start, but it took the boyfriend a couple more episodes. Once you get into it, it is down the rabbit hole with you. That's what kept me intrigued the entire season, besides of course the good actors. I loved Jennifer Morrison in House M.D. and Ginnifer Goodwin plays her part of Snow White extremely well.

So, those are my favorite shows of the moment. Of course, I love How I Met Your Mother, Downton Abbey, Sherlock, NCIS, and plenty of other shows, but these four I am seriously addicted to! These are the kind of shows that make me want to scream at my computer screen (I don't own a TV) for not being able to watch just ONE more episode, because there simply isn't one. While that being said, I'm off to watch Revenge. Just one more episode, I promise. Then I'll start cooking, I swear! 

Tea Forté Review

I was fortunate enough to win a contest at Beautylab.nl! To enter, you had to make up your own Winter Holiday tea. I chose a herbal tea, with cranberry, rose hip, echinacea and thyme. The first three have immune system-improving properties, and thyme is supposed to reduce coughing. I called it A very Berry Christmas. About a week later I was informed I won, together with two other girls! The prize? A very deluxe box of tea of Tea Forté, more specifically 3 products from their Winter Collection!

 Along with the tea, there was a cute note from Serena, Tara and Larissa. Serena's from Beautylab.nl and her sisters Tara and Larissa host Kittehscupcakes.com. Both two excellent beauty and lifestyle blogs, I highly recommend them! They hosted the give-away together.

I received (from left to right): The winter spice pyramid grande, the Winter spice petite ribbon box and The winter spice pyramid duo.




First off: this tea is heavily scented! I could smell it through the cardboard box they came in. When I opened that cardboard box and took the three boxes out, my whole room started to smell like spices. While the individual teabags were still in plastic inside the boxes. So if you don't want tea that acts as potpourri as well, this is not for you. The packaging is festive and classy, I love the warm red color! The labels are from a thick paper and the ribbon gives it a very deluxe finish. Tea Forté is a bit on the expensive side, or at least in my poor-broke-student-eyes it is. The packaging certainly shows that, I like!

How expensive, you ask? Of course, Tea Forté has a sale right now, already calculated in the shown prices, so I can't tell you for sure. My calculating skills are pretty much gone, so you'll have to do with what I remember. The total net. worth of these three boxes is € 29,75, according to beautylab.nl.

Winter spice pyramid Grande

The Winter Spice pyramid grande is about € 9,85. For that, you get six silken infusers, two of each listed flavour. Harvest apple spice smells like autumn. Apple and cinnamon, very nice! I found the smell to be a bit overwhelming at first. I had that with all five flavours, but I did get used to it. This flavour was mild, not as heavy as some apple-cinnamon based on black tea I tasted before.
Sweet ginger plum tasted sweet, the ginger was rather present, with a hint of the plum. Very warming, perfect if you're really cold or starting to get sick. Hazelnut truffle smells like warm chocolate milk, and tasted like nutella in a tea. Being a black tea, this was my least favorite, I've outgrown black teas the past year.

List of teas inside

The Winter spice Pyramid Duo contained two silken infusers and costs about € 4,95. Harvest Apple Spice and Sweet ginger plum. But look at the infusers! They are packaged individually and are tiny pyramids. (Well duh, the "pyramid" in the name suggests as such). Every infuser looks the same btw. Look at the cute leaf as a "tag"! Awesomely cute, makes your cup of tea look wonderful! 

Look how cute that is!
I couldn't get it to stand up straight, but that's just clumsy me ^^

What's inside? :)

  

The two other flavors were wonderful as well. They were in the third box, the Winter spice petite ribbon box. There is an even bigger Ribbon box. This one was about € 14,95. For that, you get ten infusers, two of each flavor. 

Sweet orange spice is my favorite! Normally, I'm not to big a fan of orange-y teas, especially when they're black teas. But this one, definitely different! It opened up my clogged sinuses, which is always a plus. The taste was very rich, but not heavy like with other black teas. I could taste the citrus and the cinnamon gave it a little kick. Again, heavily fragranced, but very good quality tea. 

Winter Chai was my next favorite. Normally, I detest rooibos tea. I dislike the taste, the smell, the aftertaste in my mouth, everything. The same for the cheap chai teas you can buy at Xenos. Expensive Chai is very nice, but again, being broke, I don't drink that too often. But this tea tastes much more light and yet warm. To me, it did not taste like rooibos at all, but maybe I've just tasted the wrong rooibos tea all my life. It's not an overwhelming taste, it just filled my mouth in a pleasant subtle way. 

As you can see, a list of the five teas and their ingredients. Some are organic, some are not. Having tasted the teas, I can say all five are high quality and rich in taste and smell. Maybe not every flavor is my personal favorite, but I'm tea-lover enough to conclude they are very very good. I can recommend this limited edition, now on sale, and the brand in general. I've looked at their other teas and I got a bit (okay, A LOT) greedy. I'm eager to try some of their loose teas, but the budget and my endless heap of teas already in possession bid me to wait. But it's definitely something I'd put on my (birthday)wish list. This tea (and the other teas Tea Forté offers) make great gifts. The packaging is classy, welldesigned and it just makes you smile. I mean, look at the little leaf! It's those little details that really distinguish regular from special brands and teas. And I consider Tea Forté to be very special!

So, in a nutshell: 

This tea is for you when: 

• You like high quality tea with a strong smell and flavor. 
• You like real "winter teas". These are definitely that. 
• You don't mind paying a bit more for your tea. An infuser lasts you two cups, so a cup costs you between € 1,25 and € 1,50. 

This tea is not for you when: 

• You don't like winter teas. 
• You don't like spices in your tea.
• You find strong-smelling teas appalling.
• You find the price tag a bit too hefty. 

So, what's your favorite holiday tea? Would you like to try these or other teas of Tea Forté?