Tea

I have been terribly sick for the past 1+ week or so... (it's because I stopped taking my Vitamin C supplement- I'm sure of it!) And man oh man have I been guzzling down tea like it is going out of style! Copious amounts of it. Everyday. I'm hoping it makes me better like it usually does... I've just had the worst cough, sinus pains, etc. Luckily I don't have the feverish symptoms anymore though!

Anyhow, the point of this post is to rave about tea. I went to a free tea class at the local co-op a while back and I learned SO MUCH about tea that I never knew! The guy presenting the class owns his own tea shop here, Mandala Tea, and he was extremely passionate about each and every type of tea, its origins, the temperature you're supposed to heat it at, everything. It was amazing and so fascinating! Who would've thought tea could be such an intricate delicacy?

Well one thing I learned from the class is that bagged tea is basically the "hot dog version" of teas. (Hot dogs are the leftovers of all other meat, grossest, most processed, you get  it ;P) The plants and flowers are the best quality of tea, and then of course tea leaves are up there as well. Now, because I used to be such a typical, lazy American- I had always bought bagged tea. Mostly because I didn't know of anything else! Heck, you grab the bag and go, and you're set. But after that class I decided I wanted to start trying to buy only bulk tea, not only because it has better quality, but it's cheaper and has less packaging! (Which I've said in my other posts how much I LOVE buying things in bulk!!) I bought a couple tea balls from the co-op for really cheap, and also (luckily!) found an awesome tea infuser from Goodwill for $2.00! (Kind of like this, but not really... It has the filter part and a pouring pot). So now I try to get only bulk tea from the co-op. I have white, green, black, mint, raspberry, and earl grey currently. Unfortunately this co-op doesn't have too many options for bulk tea, but the one in the cities is SO awesome. They have tons of options there!

It feels good to use less packaging and just reuse my tea balls and infuser! I do have some bagged tea still, but I only use it if I absolutely can't find the flavor I want in bulk or if I have to bring it to campus or something. I've already saved lots of money, I'm sure, just from buying bulk tea. Plus, it's so good for you! I used to hate tea. Immensely. But then one time I was deathly ill and since I don't take drugs, I forced myself to like tea. Good thing I did, because now it's basically a staple to my diet ;) haha. Sooo tasty with local honey too (which I also buy in bulk, so much cheaper....and less packaging of course!).

So go out there and try some loose leaf tea today! :D

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