Hooray, tea!

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I love tea. I enjoy coffee too but there is usually a lot of sugar involved. Tea is wonderful all on it's own. Or, if you're feeling feisty, it's great with a dash of cream and sugar. In my case it's usually hemp milk and honey. For a person with food allergies and such tea is generally a one size fits all deal. There are a few exceptions but from what I've learned tea rarely has gluten involved and if the label says "cream flavoring" it's not coming from any animal. And most tea merchants proudly display whether their teas are gluten free, vegan, nut free, etc. But we'll get to that later. What I want to talk about is how great tea is.

Mint Chocolate Rooibos - David's Tea

Tea is great when you come home from work and it's been a particularly busy day. Like a non-stop "why-don't-you-have-tax-forms-I-need-this-book-for-a-school-project-due-tomorrow" kind of day. (What up, librarians!)

It's chilly out side and yet you feel a bit guilty for turning up the thermostat, so you don't. So instead you turn on the kettle and fill a tea strainer with your favorite guilty pleasure tea. Mine is Mint Chocolate Rooibos from David's Tea. You have all the fabulous antioxidants plus yummy chocolate plus refreshing mint.

Tea magic begins as soon as you put the spoonful in your strainer and pour the hot water over. Finally, after the requisite 4-7 minutes of steeping, you sit in the most comfy worn in part of the couch, mug in hand, and take a sip. Even if the first sip scalds your tongue and throat on the way down it's so worth it. All that matters is that Andes mint hot goodness-- and the dog nudging you to go out. Really, you should have taken him out first but oh well.

For five minutes you sit there sipping, and eventually you stop internally nagging the high school kid that waited until the day before to get To Kill a Mockingbird.

Tea can have a calming, restorative affect when taken at the end of a busy day. And that's one of the reasons I love tea.

Mint Chocolate Rooibos is a naturally caffeine-free tea with the added bonus of mini chocolate chips, peppermint, vanilla and chocolate mint flavoring. Rooibos (say it with me, ROY-boss) comes from the Aspalathus Linearis shrub that grows in South Africa. It's got more antioxidants than green tea, high in Vitamin C and low in tannins which apparently are the little buggers that can upset a person's stomach. Ultimately, it's a super tea. I just had a vision of a canister of tea with a big red "R" on it, wearing a red cape. Yes.

Thanks for hanging out with me in this first post. I hope you'll come back because I have loads more tea goodness in store-- recipes, tea reviews, window shopping tea related stuff, and random geekery that may or may not have to do with tea. If you can do it while drinking a cuppa it's probably fair game.

I leave you with today's tea drinking soundtrack: Pitch Perfect. The movie, the soundtrack, or both. Nothing like collegiate style a cappella.