Looking for Saturday’s Strands hints, spangram and answers? You can find them here:
Sunday, lazy Sunday. The perfect day to either get a bunch of chores and errands done or, alternatively, kick back and relax.
If you’re doing the latter, take a look at my weekend streaming guide for inspiration. Lots of great new shows and movies out, including the premiere of HBO’s House Of The Dragon Season 2, which I’ll be reviewing here on this blog.
Naturally, before you settle down with a good TV show, movie or book (yes, as much as I love TV and movies I’m a firm believer that reading is still the best) we must solve today’s Strands! The game is still in beta, but it’s a ton of fun and I keep hoping it will find its way to the New York Times Games app.
Let’s solve today’s grid!
How To Play Strands
The New York Times’ Strands puzzle is a play on the classic word search. It’s in beta for now, which means it’ll only stick around if enough people play it every day. Keep playing, in other words. It’s our collective mission to keep this game alive and get it on the app!
There’s a new game of Strands to play every day. The game will present you with a six by eight grid of letters. The aim is to find a group of words that have something in common, and you’ll get a clue as to what that theme is. When you find a theme word, it will remain highlighted in blue.
You’ll also need to find a special word called a spangram. This tells you what the words have in common. The spangram links two opposite sides of the board. While the theme words will not be a proper name, the spangram can be a proper name. When you find the spangram, it will remain highlighted in yellow.
Strands still isn’t on the New York Times games app, but you can play it right here.
What Is Today’s Strands Hint?
Scroll slowly! Just after the hint for today’s Strands puzzle, I’ll reveal what the answer words are.
The official theme hint for today’s Strand puzzle is: It’s in the bag
Here’s an extra hint to help guide you to the solution: Big in the UK, though Ted Lasso isn’t a fan.
What Are Today’s Strands Answers?
Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Strands answers.
Today’s Spangram
I’ll first tell you the spangram and show you where that is on the grid. I’ll then tell you the other words and show you how they fit in.
This is your final warning!
Today’s Strands spangram is . . .
TEATIME
Here’s where the Spangram is on the grid:
All Today’s Strands Answers
A lot of these are pretty obvious types of tea, so once you start finding them it should be fairly easy. Just one confused me. I’ll give you a special hint: Don’t think about tea, think about muskets.
If you need extra help, spoilers below!
Here’s the full list of words:
- Matcha
- Chai
- Oolong
- Chamomile
- Jasmine
- Gunpowder
Today’s Strands Breakdown
Like I said, this was pretty easy once I found the first tea—MATCHA—and very quickly found CHAI right after that. I spotted the word TEA and since that’s too short (only 4-letter words or longer in Strands) I figured it had to be the first half of the SPANGRAM, and sure enough. From here, CHAMOMILE, OOLONG and JASMINE fell in short succession. It was only GUNPOWDER that really stumped me. Once I finally figured it out, I admit to some confusion. I’d never heard of gunpowder tea before. You learn something new every day.
Apparently it’s a Chinese green tea whose leaves are rolled into small, round pellets resembling grains of gunpowder, which is where the tea gets its name. The rolling process helps preserve the tea’s freshness and flavor, making it more robust and longer-lasting compared to other green teas.
How did you do on your Strands today? Let me know on Twitter and Facebook.
Be sure to check out my blog for my daily Wordle guides as well as all my other writing about TV shows, streaming guides, movie reviews, video game coverage and much more. Thanks for stopping by!
