Tea!

Tonight I had CLIO class (which is really a bunch of history nerds from the district chatting about history) at Smokey Row and a colleague asked me about my tea--why I liked it, how I started drinking it-you get the idea. I have tea nearly every morning and students can find me slinking in the hallway filling up my tea pot; they shoot me sly smiles.

How did I start drinking tea? My mother in law always served tea and I thought it tasted funny, almost like dirt. But then I tried various flavors at her house and started warming up to it. When I visited Australia, I drank tea quite a bit. I LOVED tea break at 10am (it didn't hurt they had sweets to go along)! Then, when I went to China, I learned the purposes of tea (at least in China anyways): to make the water suitable for drinking and to help it taste better! I drank a ton of tea in China, but they don't fuss with tea infusers or the exact temp of the water. They just heat it up and dump tea leaves in the pot. When the tea leaves settle to the bottom, it's ready.

I've also become a "tea pusher." Green tea satiates appetite and others are known to help with heart disease and actually reduce cancer. Other benefits include reducing the risk of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and cholesterol levels. My friends are avid coffee drinkers, but I don't own a coffee pot so they have to drink tea at my house. Some have even converted!

But, we tea drinkers are "rare" in the states; thankfully places like Gong Fu tea and Teavana help us along! So, here's to tea and all the comfiness (and health benefits) it provides! ...and feel free to stop by any time; I'll put a pot on for you!