This has been the oddest and most stressful 12 months I've ever experienced. There has been loss, stress, anxiety, furlough, cancer scares and a complete change of daily routines. The people I love have experienced loss of income, loss of a parent, months with no access to their own child, months with no break from their children, struggles with mental health, struggles with working from home, redundancy, actual cancer and major operations. It has also been full of love and adjustments and finding ways to appreciate the important things in life.... mainly meaning the people I value. I've been finding ways to do that and as odd as it may sound, drinking tea has turned out to be a rather valuable coping mechanism.
I’ve been saying for years that I don’t like tea. As it turns out what I really don’t like is traditional British tea. I don’t like a cuppa.... a teabag, boiling water and a splash of milk. Not my jam. I'm a coffee person. Or at least I WAS a coffee person. Nowadays I'm a coffee and loose leaf tea person!
(Some images stolen from the internet!)
When I was younger my father and I used to drink jasmine tea. My dad went through a phase of really liking to make Chinese cuisine from scratch (he still to this day makes a fabulous home-made sweet-and-sour chicken!), but as part of that he bought some pretty blue bowls and plates and a lovely Chinese teapot. It wasn’t necessarily the best quality and I remember how tiny the little pieces were but I enjoyed the perfume and fragrant nature of it. And the fact that it didn’t have milk in. This is odd considering that I love milk as much as I do and would happily neck a latte, or in fact just drink milk on its own hot or cold. Not in tea, for some reason.
This stuff is delicious. It’s a bit of a bugger to make if you want it without lumps, but we don’t really care too much about lumps so I haven’t gone down the route of getting the whisk, the bowl, and all the other bits and pieces to do it properly. The ceremony is in the drinking and chilling out with each other rather than the actual preparation for us. Do it your own way!
This spawned a new ceremony for us during lockdown. We decided that every day we would have half an hour or so just spent together with no electronics, no TV, no music, no phones (sometimes a woodwick candle) and just have a lovely cup of tea. Our own joint mindful moment! It started with matcha but quite quickly I decided I needed to get jasmine tea back in my life. I did a fair bit of investigation to find the right jasmine tea. I didn’t want to get one of the cheaper ones, I wanted something a bit fancy, something that wouldn’t taste bitter or Jasmine "flavoured"!.
The brand that I chose was The Tea Makers of London. I ordered a tin from Amazon and hey presto we had some delicious loose leaf jasmine tea. I didn’t even realise that it was green tea with Jasmine added..... that’s how little I know about tea!
This tea is sensational. Truly it has changed my life. I now love Tea!
Obviously this new routine required a teapot for looseleaf tea and I like transparent stuff (my coffee cups are glass too!), so onto Amazon I went and found this really cute teapot, perfect for two small cups of tea. I also wanted some of the double walled glasses which I have loved for ages. They always look so cute and you know, might as well get something fancy if we’re having a little ceremonial tea.
We have tried a few different teas now, some of which are fruity, some of which are herbal and some of which are just green or black tea. I’m quite sure that some of them will be brilliant for other people but personally I’m not as into herbal teas as green and black. There are a few exceptions though, however.
I’ll tell you about my favourites now!
Cream of the crop, top of the heap, a vision from afar (props to my fellow oldies who know that's a French and Saunders reference!), is jasmine green tea. It really is just so incredibly delicious. It does feel good for you, but it also tastes good, looks good and just generally IS good. The aroma is particularly wonderful. Funnily enough the actual fragrance of Jasmine can be a bit overpowering for me in perfume but in food and drink it's fabulous and I love it! My previous experiences of tea had been that they were sometimes a little bitter, made my mouth feel dry and really dried out my throat. I guess that is to do with the cheapness of some of the tea that I've had before, and also how it has been brewed. I had no idea that green tea was best brewed with water of around 70°. Who knew?! This tea was clear and thirst quenching and fragrant but subtle. There was no dry mouth or dry throat. It was a joy to drink.
I did some more Tea investigation after falling hard for Jasmine. I was hunting for Hibiscus tea and wanted to find a Local-ish tea company that were fair trade and had a wide but affordable range of quality tea. I came across Tea People and I fell in love! I've got lots of their teas now. They’re great for all the classics (now have some Jasmine and hopefully it will match up to the Tea Makers of London!) but they also have flowering tea and some excellent herbal potions! I ordered some for the reasons you’re supposed to drink them, i.e. sleep (to help with sleep.... obviously!) and hibiscus (which is good for lowering blood pressure). I won't list all the teas I've tried from them (so far!) but I'll give you my favourites.
My (new in at number 2!) favourite on the list after Jasmine, is currently Tea People Cherry Black. Black tea with cherry and rose - this one feels really fancy, it feels like a treat, a bit special! My partner says it tastes like liquid Cherry Bakewells and I have to agree with him. I think the black tea is not quite as good for you as green tea, however it's still beneficial and is delicious to boot. This one is SCRUMPTIOUS! So much so that the man of the house said it felt too tasty to be an everyday tea as surely the ones that are really good for you aren't that delicious! I mean I feel like that about Jasmine, but I guess he thinks of that as more medicinal?! I think I might have to do a bit more investigation into other black teas now.
Hibiscus is not a tea I like hot. It's a bit like drinking hot cranberry juice with no sweetener. I like it as an iced tea! I add sugar and the tea leaves to a big bowl and add boiling water. let it brew for 5 minutes or so and then pour it through a sieve, into a jug that goes into the fridge. It's great!
Most excellent iced tea.
The Sleep tea is a fragrant herbal and lovely tea. It does seem to work for helping you sleep and just generally relaxing. Happily it’s caffeine free (again...... obviously right?!) and it contains Hemp, St John's wort, Passion flower, Hops, Valerian, Rose petals and Rose oil which makes you feel less anxious, therefore helping you nod off. I really like this one because I love the rose flavour. I had some the other afternoon when I was feeling tense and it really did seem to calm me down. I HIGHLY recommend this tea, particularly for anxious folk or stressful times (you know... like a global pandemic!).
We got a sample pack of the Tea People Detox tea in our last order and we were both instant fans of this one! It's green tea based but the apple is subtle and natural and the cinnamon really shines through. This was calming, warming and genuinely tasty so we are certainly going to order a tin of this!
The daily tea has become of very nice ceremony during lockdown. It’s like creating a little oasis of calm in our own home. I can’t tell you how often this has lead to really interesting, funny or deep conversations and occasionally, epic snuggle times (and... errr.... epic naked times!). Sometimes it's just silent enjoyment of sharing a space. We both really value this new tradition, but I've also enjoyed having a tea break alone if my partner is out or busy. Some quiet time to relax and reflect. I just wanted to share in case it inspires someone else to try it alone or with a loved one!
Can't believe I like tea. Covid times have changed me!
