Desperate measures

I'd been going great guns with this challenge, until today. The challenge has been fun, but it is time consuming. First one has to decide which food to try, then it needs to be sourced (unless it's in one of my food collection piles). And it may even need to be prepared. Then photographed and consumed.

Work and other commitments got in the way and, before I knew it, it was 9.30 pm and I hadn't tried anything new for the day.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

I rummaged through the fridge and pantries, but couldn't find anything I hadn't tried, or that didn't require any preparation, until I discovered a six-year-old box of herbal tea bags pushed to the back of a shelf.

I don't like herbal tea. I like coffee. If I'm feeling righteous, I sometimes drink green tea, and may even drink English breakfast tea at a push.

The only reason I have herbal tea is for visitors. Given that only about five of the 10 "Lipton Herbal Infusions caffeine free cranberry, raspberry and strawberry flavoured" tea bags (ugh) had been consumed during the past six years, it looks like I've had few herbal tea fans over. Either that or they'd taken a look at what was on offer and opted for water.

There was nothing else on offer, so an ancient herbal tea it would be for me. Sigh.

The signs weren't good, the packaging had stuck to the tea bag and, once I finally peeled most of it off, I noticed the tea bag's contents were clumped together. Thankful for small mercies, I reminded myself that at least it was only a herbal horror and unlikely to involve any animal parts.

The tea looked lovely - like raspberry cordial - and smelled ok. It tasted foul. No taste really, just and ancient cardboardy flavour. Two sips later, it was down the drain.