New Beginnings & New Tea

I restarted this blog about two months ago. Maybe more than that. But like my persistent procrastination of homework and replying to friends' emails, I had yet to write my first entry. But at long last here it is.

I don't like to be overly personal, so I won't share much from my life on this blog. I usually prefer to share what others can take something from. 

Thus, on the inspiration taken from my friend's fantastic tumblr blog (here and here) and my own experience today, we will talk of tea.

Image Courtesy of Google Images

A little over a year ago, I would not have called myself a tea drinker. Nowadays, however, I usually have at least a cup a day. So far today I've consumed three (going on four).

  

I like lists, so let's make a list of why I now drink tea:

• I work at a health foods store and we have a wide assortment of tea that I see every day I work.
• My friends! My friend who wrote the tumblr post has an impressive collection, and my lovely coworkers drink quite a bit, too, so the habit has rubbed off on me.
• I am in love with almost all things British (& Irish, & Scottish, & Welsh…). A lot of my favorite television is BBC, and at least on TV Brits seem to drink a lot of tea. 
• My grandmother gave me her electronic tea kettle which allows for more water to be boiled at once than can be in a microwave. Which is handy. It is also much more fun to use than a microwave. 
• Brewing my own tea generally keeps me from buying a $5 espresso drink from somewhere on campus. 
• I believe certain teas are wonderful for basic ailments as well as disease prevention, so I drink those and keep quite a few on hand. The Creator God didn't give us herbs just to look pretty & cook with on occasion; those little beauties can kick some serious ass if need be.

Let's step back a moment and briefly summarize tea. First, there is White, Green, and Black tea. All of these come from the same plant, Camellia sinensis, but are handled differently after being picked and thus there are three different kinds. White tea doesn't have as much caffeine as green. Green tea is known for it's antioxidant punch. Black tea is what we usually make iced tea from and what you'll get when you order tea at a restaurant. Note: If you're from the South like me, it'll be swimming in sugar unless you say something quick. Herbal teas come from, well, herbs (bet'cha didn't see that coming) and sometimes a few other things thrown in, too, like spices. There are many, many other kinds of tea, kinds that involve fermentation, etc. But let's KISS today, shall we? (Keep It Simple, Stupid. Get your mind out of the gutter.)

Yesterday I bought two new kinds of tea. I was checking out the little health foods store in my college town, and they had some kinds I hadn't seen before.

The first was NOW Foods' Kick Back:

Again, via Google Images

Containing: "Chamomile Flowers, Spearmint Leaves, Linden Leaves, Oat Straw, Natural Flavors, Lavender Flowers, L-Theanine, Cinnamon Bark (Cinnamomum burmannii), Eleuthero Root, BetterStevia™ organic stevia extract (leaf)"

I adore Chamomile, it's my favorite. I like Lavender. I like Cinnamon. (I also like presents, tea can be a present. Now you know.) Also, NOW Foods is probably my favorite health foods + supplement company on Earth. What's not to love here?! So I got the tea.

The other tea I purchased was Yogi brand's Green Tea Kombucha.

Good ol' Google Images

Containing: Organic Green Tea, Organic Spearmint, Organic Lemongrass, Organic Kombucha. 

Other ingredients: Natural Passion fruit flavor, Natural Plum flavor.

I'm always on the lookout for a new green tea, mostly because I need caffeine and plain green tea is nasty.  Kombucha is "a food supplement prepared from a symbiotic colony of yeast and bacteria that is added to tea for its alleged health benefits" (thank you, Google definitions). The "alleged health benefit" is immune support, and as a college student I need all the help I can get. I added a few drops of NOW brand liquid Stevia, and it got pretty dang tasty.

I had two cups of the Green Tea Kombucha this morning during a 3 hour class, then the Kick Back after lunch while watching an episode of Doctor Who (them Brits have it going on, I'm telling ya), and I'm working on my third cup of the green tea right now. All three servings of the green tea came from the same tea bag. Be thrifty & economical, people, it's not always hard.

All in all, I highly recommend both! 

And for goodness sakes, buy them at your local health foods store, not Kroger. Let's support our neighbors, yes?

So there you go. Tea is good stuff.

"Brew it natural. Sip it real."

Unrelated: I love music--watch Kye Kye.