Tea Talk

I was considering what to write about today and was kind of stuck. So how to get unstuck? I wandered into my kitchen and over to my tea stash. Yes, I have quite a stash, as I never know exactly what I’ll feel like drinking and wouldn’t want to be out of options ...wink, wink. Looking at the sea of green bags and canisters, I contemplated my options. I opened a few bags and smelled their lovely contents, but none hit me just right until I opened my canister of Jasmine Pearls. Oh, the divine aroma of Jasmine. Not overpowering,...

Do your kids drink tea? They’re never too young to start drinking the world’s second-most-consumed beverage. Water is number one, tea is number two, and coffee comes in at number three. My Grandma started me on my tea journey when I was a very young girl. I can remember sitting at her table and drinking tea out of one of her pretty china cups when I was probably around 4. It’s been a love affair ever since. My three kids grew up drinking tea from a very early age too. In the winter, hot tea got us through the cold...

The easy answer for me as to why I drink tea is that I don't drink coffee. And believe me, I tried to enjoy coffee but gave up trying years and years ago as I'm not too fond of the taste, no matter what I added to it. I also don't drink pop or soda. I don't want the extra sugar from the original versions or the chemicals from the sugar-free. Now tea. That's a totally different story. I LOVE tea! I love the taste, the health benefits, and how I feel when I drink tea! I can honestly say...

One of the favorite parts of my job is looking for new teas and the tea tasting that goes along with finding those teas. I'm so fortunate to work with some wonderful master tea blenders. They combine flavors that I would never dream of and their teas are delicious. In the natural ebb and flow, some teas stay for a long time, like forever, and others only for a season. Some teas we fall in love with only last for a short time because of an unforeseen shortage of ingredients when suitable replacements cannot be found. Unfortunately, this was a...

If you have not given rooibos tea a try, here is a primer for you. If you already are a regular rooibos tea lover, even better. I hope, though, that my article contains some new and useful information for you. But first things first. How do you pronounce rooibos? Just ignore the extra o, and you pronounce it as you see it: "ROY-boss". What is rooibos tea? Rooibos, meaning "red bush", is a plant indigenous to South Africa's mountainous region of Cederberg, around 80 miles north of Cape Town. Rooibos tea has been popular in Southern Africa for over 300...