ShuYao Teamaker

Today I’ve got something different. I feel the need to write about my ShuYao Teamaker to Go. Normally I’m a coffee person. As I know that coffee,  as much as I drink it, is not really healthy I started to look for additional options for something warm to drink. Tea was a obvious option, but I don’t like the stuff they put into teabags and I can’t always carry a set for proper tea making around so there had to be another possibility. I stumbled upon Shu Yao. They offer a tea maker to go and a incredible variety of tea sorts that do not bitter when left in the water for longer than 5 minutes. Those tea sorts they created for the Tea-To-Go cup can all be brewed over again for 4 times, so that one teaspoon of tea can fill this cup 5 times and all I need is hot water.

I didn’t need to think about it twice and ordered my ShuYao cup with a lot of different test sizes of tea. Those are quite expensive as they offer exactly the portion you need for the cup and are single packed (in recyclable packaging). They cost around 1 to 2 Euros per portion and if this would be the only option to get this tea it would clearly be too expensive. But as soon as you have found the sorts you like you can order those in 50 or 100 g portions for 4 to 9 Euros (depending on the sort of tea and it’s ingredients). So what I do now is I have my three or four sorts that I already love and I order those in 50 to 100 gram portions and every time I place an order I’m going to add 4 or 5 test portions that just sound interesting.

My favorites so far are:

  • Goji Lemon
  • Fruit Delight
  • Ginger freshness
  • Cranberry mix

Those sorts are all without caffein, but I’ve as well tried some with and I have never tried a sort that tasted awful so far.

The shop in Germany can be found under : www.shuyao.de

As you can see on the pictures below the cap does include a filter that takes care that none of the loose tea gets into one’s mouth while drinking. If the cap is on closed position it even keeps the tea hot and the additionally, depending from the sort chosen, it looks quite fascinating when the tea is floating around in the water.

So…still looking for a Christmas present? Go…..

 

 

 

 

 

Lost Place – Kurhotel Stromberg

The last sunny weekend I used for a short visit of the „Kurhotel Stromberg“ originally built in around 1930 and now empty since the hotel owner filled for insolvency around 2001. It’s really sad how much vandalism can be seen there. Actually it seems there is no whole window left in the whole building. I didn’t go inside yesterday, as I always think it’s better not to be alone in such a case, but stayed outside. Pretty soon clouds were coming up and the few light was fading away .. so I had to leave..but I’ll be back!

 

30th June Drummin to Westport

Our last walk was Drummin to Westport with a distance of 19km and an approx. time of 5 – 7 hours. The tour started and ended in rain. So that when we reached Altamount B & B we were totally wet and weary and quite happy that Mary offered such a warm welcome with homemade sandwiches and coffee.

When I look back on our tour I can only say that it was perfectly organized by Hillwalk Ireland. The B & Bs were without any exception nice, cosy and we always had a warm and homely welcome there. The routes were perfectly described so that there was no chance to fail in finding the right way. I can absolutely recommend doing a walk with Hillwalk Tours!

 

29th June Leenane to Drummin

The next day started with rain again and so we asked our driver to bring us 3 km further as drop of point to cut down the distance. The original distance would have been 17 km with a walking time of 4 -6 hours.

After we were walking a while the rain stopped and we had to get out the sun blocker again. That route was definitely my favorite and I finally regret leaving the camera in the luggage (due to the rain) and only working with pictures from the iphone.

We finally ended up in Moher House where we were welcomed with fresh baked scones and homemade strawberry jam. We directly felt at home. Lovely room, nice hosts and as we were quite early they offered to drive us to Westport for the evening. A driver service brought us home for 10 Euro in the evening. Whoever is near that spot should definitely try to spend the night in Moher House!

28th June 2013, Lough Inagh to Leenane

Today’s trip would have been more relaxed. The distance was 15 km with only an ascent of 100m. But as it was raining all day, and we got seriously sunburnt yesterday so we  joined our bags and drove to Leenaun. Time for some shopping in the wool mill and an incredible dinner at Portfinn Lodge.

Our B & B for tonight is Portfinn Lodge B & B

isn’t that beautiful ?

 

 

27th June 2013, Maam Valley – Lough Inagh

Day 2 of walking…from Maam Valley to Lough Inagh. Distance 15 km , ascent 310 m , approximate walking time 4 – 6 hours. We needed nearly 8 in sunny weather. Got really sunburnt in the mountains.

 

We’ll spend the night in Lough Inagh Lodge Hotel, which was a possible upgrade from the normal B & B. We had an excellent bar dinner, followed by a incredible „Middleton Very Rare“ in the lounge.

Lough Inagh Lodge Hotel

 

 

26th June, Oughterard – Maam Cross

Today we had our first walk from Oughterard to Maam Cross. The distance was 21 km and an ascent of 120 m. The walk was said to be 5 – 7 hours. It took us a little more to get to our collection point, but we had perfect weather and no need to hurry. The description told us that at the end we had a 3 km boardwalk. At that moment we had no idea what this was going to be. We learned it was walking through bogland on wooden boards and actually I would have been glad if the hint was given to go pee before you go on this 3 km 🙂

At the collection point Marion from Tiernakill Farmhouse picked us up and took us to the B & B.  She made us wonderfull dinner….time to rest…

Our bed and breakfast for tonight is Tiernakill Farmhouse B & B

beautifull Tiernakill Farmhouse

25th June 2013, Arrival in Oughterard

We took a City link Bus from Dublin Airport to Galway where we had two hours time until our Bus to Oughterard left. The price for the CityLink service was 28 Euros and we had nearly 2 hours time in Galway and left our luggage in a little shop and went into the city which is a short walk from the coach station.

When the bus dropped us in Oughterard we had a walk of about 15 min to the B & B. We could have called for pick up, but thought that a short walk would be good after the sitting in the bus.

Night at Woodlands B & B

Cosy Woodlands B & B