Tea Time

(Sontu tea cup and saucer by eva designs)

I haven't had coffee for 3 1/2 days.  (But who's counting??)  I think Starbucks sent out a search team, but I can't be quite sure.  It's quite a shock to the system, but I'm actually doing just fine.  I reached a breaking point Monday when I felt absolutely awful and exhausted, so I came home and drank my weight in water, then decided to stick with that and tea for the rest of the week.   I've done this "cold turkey coffee intervention" twice before.  It takes about two weeks of headaches and hot flashes, and then it's not too bad.  To get me through,  I simply move on to tea.  Which, as made obvious by my previous post, I'm a big fan of.  An added bonus - it's much cheaper than coffee.  Well, my idea of coffee, which is a lovely, lovely latte.  But any old tea just won't do.  First of all, you have to know what you're going for.  Black tea has the most caffeine, green tea is filled with antioxidants, and white tea is light as well as a great anti-bacterial for the body.

(loose leaf teapot from Gabriel Teas)

(picture from Nashville Tea Bar)

I think the flavor of loose tea is the best, but for a great tasting, inexpensive tea I love the "Stash" brand at the grocery store.  My basic yardstick for measuring the quality of tea is by whether or not you feel like you have to put anything in it!  The following are my favorite flavors.  (Who knew Chai came in so many different varieties!)

I will say that when I'm trying to lose weight, several cups of straight green tea a day have helped a lot.  (Kinda might be why I'm getting back into it?!  Some people have baby weight...I have the "first year teacher 10"!)  Plain green tea can be a little earthy, which is why I like it in one of these flavors, because it seems a little sweeter.  And Starbucks has a great green tea you can get on ice.  Again, not nearly as rich and luxurious, but much cheaper than my beloved Caramel Machiatto!  Also, you can get a minty hot tea there called "Refresh," and it's so "happy" tasting that it kind of makes me want to laugh when I drink it.  Crazy, but true.

When Kevin and I visited Asheville, NC in the Fall, (loved it by the way!), we stopped at a cute and wonderful shop called "The Spice and Tea Exchange."  They sell all kinds of wonderful and unique, well, spices and tea!  It looks like they have one in several different places, so definitely check it out if you live close.  Unfortunately we don't, but we do have the cutest little place called Sisters Tea Parlor that I was blessed to attend last year for the 13 yr. old birthday party of a sweet little friend of mine.  It was absolutely adorable.  We all put on these big, fun hats, and ordered personal little pots of teas with flavors like "Almond Cookie" and "Belgian Chocolate," which came wrapped in cute little tea covers.  And the food was delicious.  So much fun!  I so wish I had pictures of that sweet tea party.  I'm normally not a frilly girl, but these kind of frills are too fabulous!  The younger girls at the party were loving it too.  This is a great idea for any kind of girly get together!  Oh the lovely lost art of tea.  Here's to bringing back "tea time!"