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Review: Adagio Tea’s Christmas Tea (Makes a Christmas Latte That’ll Rock You Right Around the Christmas Tree)

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Adagio Teas Christmas Tea (Pyramid Teabags)
Adagio’s Christmas Tea
As they say, “It’s the most won-der-ful time of the year!”  Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons have always been nothing short of magical for me. Although it seems impossible, I actually enjoy them even more now than I did when I was a little girl. For one thing, as an adult, I fully understand the meaning behind these holidays. For another – I not only get to enjoy the season through my own eyes, I enjoy it through the eyes of my husband, our three beautiful daughters, and our three wonderful sons-in-law (it may sound corny, but they are the sons we never had).

As you can tell, I am in full Christmas season swing and am flying high!

This time of year, I embrace (fully) everything about the holidays. I want to see, smell, and taste everything that reflects the season. As a “Crazy Tea Chick,” this most definitely means I expect my tea to march right along.

I recently ordered and tried Adagio’s Christmas Tea for the first time and I’m kind of wondering how I’ve gotten along without it all these years. The aroma and flavor are “Pure Christmas” and that is, as you know, an uncommonly beautiful thing.

Adagio Teas Christmas Tea (Pyramid Teabags)
Adagio’s Christmas Tea (Pyramid Teabags)

From Adagio: The tea to get you into the holiday spirit! This blend of bright, tangy Ceylon black tea flavored with warm cinnamon, pungent cloves, and orange peels is a Christmas delight. Spicy and fresh aroma, outdoorsy and cozy, with a balanced tangy flavor and slightly sweet finish. Perfect to sip while decking the halls, being jolly, or dreaming of a white Christmas.

Adagio Teas Christmas Tea (Pyramid Teabags)

Adagio’s Christmas Tea

The Christmas Tea has an unmistakable Ceylon black tea flavor that I love to distraction. It also has hints of one of my favorite flavors in the entire world – Chai tea. It’s like a beautifully delicious Chai Tea meets Christmas kind of experience and I can’t get enough of it.

The cinnamon and orange flavors bring the Christmas and the cardamom and cloves bring the Chai Tea. However, unlike Chai Tea, I love this tea without the accompaniment of milk.  I’m not sure why, but when it comes to Chai tea, I don’t exactly love it black. But add some steamed milk and… HEAVEN in a cup.

Crazy Tea Chick's Christmas Tea Latte
Crazy Tea Chick’s Christmas Tea Latte
The Christmas tea is the best of both worlds. It’s amazing without milk and it’s amazing as a “Christmas Latte” with steamed milk (truth be told, it’ll rock your world… right around the Christmas tree and back).

To make a Crazy Tea Chick’s Christmas Tea Latte (or any tea latte, as far as that goes), brew your tea doubly strong. If using loose leaf tea, use twice the amount. If using teabags, go with two (or even three if you can handle it stout!). I then pour 1 cup of milk per cup of tea into my Breville Milk Frother and push a button. However, you can also combine the tea and warm milk in a blender and process.

If you happen to have a hand-held milk frother (love these!), you can simply heat your milk, then froth it before adding it to your tea.

I almost always add whipped topping to the top of my tea lattes and usually a little fresh nutmeg and/or cinnamon. In this case, I go with whipped topping, cinnamon and a little orange zest.

Out. Of. This. World. Delicious. Trust me, this is a tea latte you’ll want year-round. Maybe in the summer we can simply call it the “Thinking About Christmas Latte?”

I ordered the Pyramid Teabags and they’re every bit as wonderful as loose leaf tea. You get 15 teabags for $7, which is an unheard of bargain.  Adagio also has a lot of fun incentives for their customers and, as much as any company I’ve ever seen, think of their customers first and foremost. Each step of the ordering (and even post-ordering) process makes you feel that it’s all about you… which, in truth, it is!

Adagio Teas Christmas Tea (Pyramid Teabags)
Adagio’s Christmas Tea
I’ve honestly been just blown away by how they treat each order as though it were the first one they ever received. If you have ANY dealings with ANY businesses, you know how rare this is. The fact that it stands out to me says alot about Adagio, its people, how they choose to go about business, and who they choose to be.

I wholeheartedly recommend Adagio teas and gift ideas. In fact, I don’t guess I could be recommending them more if my tea kettle collection depended on it!

Adagio Teas Christmas Tea (Pyramid Teabags)

 Also See:

Crazy Tea Chick's Christmas Tea Latte

Kent & Sussex Tea Review: Spring Tea (A China Black Tea with Berries and Peppermint Leaves)

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Spring Tea from Kent & Sussex - Iced and Hot
Remember the last cup of tea that just left you speechless? That’s exactly the experience I had with Spring Tea from Kent & Sussex Tea & Coffee Company.  Needless to say, don’t let the name fool you – this “Spring Tea” is uncommonly delicious year-round and will leave you speechless whether you’re enjoying it in early June or late December.

I normally can say whether I prefer a tea iced or hot but this one is absolutely impossible to choose. Just when I think the winner is iced, I try it hot and think, “Well…” It’s simply beautiful either way.

Loose Leaf Spring Tea from Kent & Sussex
As soon as I cut the bag open, I was hit by the beautiful scent of berries and mint. The aroma was Heavenly and let me know, straight away, that this was going to be some exceptional tea.

The tea was even better than the aroma advertised. You can taste the raspberries (one of my two favorite berries – tying with the infamous strawberry) and the delicate mint flavor as well. With each sip, you get a new berry flavor and it’s just out of this world wonderful.

Loose Leaf Spring Tea from Kent & Sussex
Spring Tea Brewed in my Beloved Hario Tea Pot
 

From the Spring Tea Bag: This China Black Tea is scented with the warm notes of Raspberries – Blackcurrants and Elderberries – blended with Juniper Berries – Nettle and Heather Leaves – Blackberries and Peppermint leaves. A fresh tasting flavored Spring Time Black Tea.

Brewing Time: Using boiling water, brew for 3-5 minutes.

A lot of people stick with tea bags instead of loose tea because they think it’s difficult, complicated, or time-consuming to brew loose-leaf tea. Nothing could be further from the truth.  My favorite way to brew loose leaf tea is with my Hario Tea Pot.

It’s Simple – while bringing the water to a boil (or a specified temperature for non-black teas), you put some of the loose leaf tea into the basket that fits into the Hario Tea Pot. When the water is ready, pour it over the leaves (and into the pot) and allow it to brew for the specified amount of time (generally just a few minutes). Simple!

A lot of loose leaf tea can even be re-brewed. I dare anyone to try that with a bag of tea!

Spring Tea from Kent & Sussex - Iced and Hot

About The Kent & Sussex Tea & Coffee Company

The Kent Tea and Trading Company and The Sussex Tea Company were founded in 1982 when the Smith Family returned to England after two generations of Tea Planting in North East India.  Their extensive range of award winning teas and coffees are packed at their factory in the village of Pluckley, in the Garden of England.

Read more about this beautiful and unspeakably delicious Spring Tea by clicking the link. This is, undoubtedly, one of my favorite teas of all time.  Ironically, another tea that has become one of my all time favorites is coming up in a tea review I’ll post tomorrow morning and it is also from Kent & Sussex Tea & Coffee Company.

These people know their teas! See Kent & Sussex Teas for more information.

Loose Leaf Spring Tea from Kent & Sussex

Spring Tea

Golden Tips Assam Exotic Tea – Excellent!

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Golden Tips Tea Review

 

A while back, I wrote a Golden Tips Tea Review – I hope you’ve checked them out between then and now.  Their Darjeeling is as good as it gets. In fact, it’s one of the first Darjeeling teas I’d recommend.

I just wanted to take an opportunity to tell you a little more about their Assam Exotic Tea.  This black tea makes me think of a tea that’s somewhere between “Darjeeling” and “Chai,”  While it doesn’t have the spiciness of Chai, it has an unmistakable exotic attitude that’s exceptional and delicious.

This particular tea is PERFECT for using in making Royal Tea (click the link for a quick reminder).  It also makes a fantastic quick latte simply by adding steamed milk to the cup – a little sugar for extra points.

Golden Tips Tea has 15 different Assam Black Teas and I assure you each one is very much worth checking out. Just be sure to make a couple of Royal Teas right away. Trust the Crazy Tea Chick… this is an experience you don’t want to miss.

Tea Lattes

Plum Deluxe: Oregon Breakfast Black Tea (Review)

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Plum Deluxe Oregon Breakfast Black Tea

As promised in my last Plum Deluxe Tea Review, here’s my caffeinated, wide-eyed, awake-and-then-some review of their bold Oregon Breakfast Black Tea.  As I’ve said many times on the tea blog, I’m as crazy about coffee as I am tea – I just don’t drink it as often.

A lot of people can’t drink coffee – and frankly, I’ve often wondered how they wake up each morning. Maybe it’d be more appropriate to say, I wonder how they function each morning. In my world, I begin the day with coffee, then he taps out and tea takes over for the remainder of the day. It’s as though coffee grabs me by the lapels and screams, “Up! Up,Up, Up, Up UP!”- then tea calmly ( in a British voice, natch) says, “So, you’re awake, then?”

For anyone who cannot drink coffee, Plum Deluxe has a beautiful alternative – Oregon Breakfast Black Tea. This tea is every bit as delicious and effective at Reveille as coffee. In fact, even if you CAN drink coffee, you’d enjoy mixing things up a couple mornings each week with this very unique tea.

Here’s what Oregon Breakfast Black Tea has to say for Itself:

This breakfast tea is how Plum Deluxe folk like to start their day. The earthy base helps center you; the ping of orange helps wake you and get you excited about today’s possibilities. It’s a simple tea & yet it is rich with subtle flavors.

Hazelnut – in its oil essence form – has tons of great anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant benefits, as well as vitamin E. Paired with some orange, you’re getting a true boost from this tea in every cup.  Read more…

Plum Deluxe Oregon Breakfast Black Tea
What Sets this Black Tea Apart from Other Black Teas?

Glad you asked.  What makes this tea unlike any you’ve ever had are…

  • Hazelnut
  • Orange peels

The flavor combination is one that I was not, previously, at all familiar with.  I’ve had Hazelnut coffee before and loved it – but I’d have never in a million and one years thought of pairing it with tea. And, yet, the flavor is so fascinating and mind-blowing that I’m now obsessed with it.  Truly, it’s downright addictive.

In addition to my passion for coffee, I’m sure I’ve also confessed before that I don’t have a sweet tooth… I have sweet teeth. I sweeten everything that comes within my reach if it isn’t already sweetened.

Please try not to judge me.

I opted for honey to sweeten my mug of hot Oregon Breakfast Black Tea. Phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal. The unexpected, exciting flavor of hazelnut really makes your taste buds dance. It’s like they’re at the taste bud prom and hazelnut is the DJ.

When reviewing teas, I like to try them iced as well as hot, because as far as I’m concerned a tea should be as “year round” as your favorite pair of jeans.

This tea was equally delicious hot as it was iced – and, to be honest, I didn’t expect it to be. When I finished off my wonderful mug of hot tea, I thought, “Welllll, I’ll try it iced but I’m pretty sure this is a hot tea only type of tea.”

Shows what I know.

Oregon Breakfast Black Tea is just as wonderful on ice as it is off ice.

If you can’t tell from my words, I’ll just go ahead and say it – this tea has me flabbergasted.  When your world is so completely filled with tea, it takes a lot to catch you off guard – especially with black tea,which is generally a pretty laced up kind of fella.

And yet… here I am at a loss for words to tell you just how special and unexpected this tea is.

I’m afraid I’m going to have to resort to this: Click over to Plum Deluxe and order some for yourself. As in right now. It’s just $7.00 per oz and it will blow your mind. Try it hot, try it iced – and be sure to have a little honey on hand. It really… *cough cough*… sweetens the deal.

Plum Deluxe Oregon Breakfast Black Tea
Other Plum Deluxe Tea Reviews on Crazy Tea Chick:

Learn more about Plum Deluxe teas, gift sets, newsletter, and tea club by visiting their website: Plum Deluxe. You can also find them on Pinterest and Facebook.

Plum Deluxe Loose Leaf Teas
 

Firepot Breakfast Black Tea Review

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Firepot Nomadic Teas
Firepot Nomadic Teas: Breakfast Tea
 

I’m currently trying to break a lifelong addiction and it’s been about as easy as pulling teeth from a silverback gorilla. Sweet Tea and I have been together a long time and saying goodbye is anything but easy.  Ever since I discovered that my “innocent” glass of sweet tea has as many calories as a glass of Coke, I’ve tried to drink all of my tea unsweetened.

Fortunately, I’ve figured something out. If you brew and drink really good tea, you don’t miss the sugar.

At all.

As you may know, I’m not just a “crazy tea chick,” I’m also a “crazy coffee chick” – I just don’t have the website to prove it. Kaldi’s Coffee is, I guess,what you’d have to call my “go to” coffee.  You know, the brand you grab when you want your coffee to be on its very best behavior.  In fact, my favorite coffee in the world is Kaldi’s Birds and Bees Blend.  Sorry, Starbucks, but that’s just the facts of life.

When I read that Kaldi’s now sells Firepot Nomadic Teas, I knew I needed to try them immediately. If Kaldi’s believes Firepot Teas are wonderful enough to sell on their website and in their shops,  that tells me all I need to know.

Firepot Nomadic Teas

Firepot Loose Leaf Teas

Firepot Nomadic Teas

Firepot Teas include a couple of wonderful Chai Teas (Chai tea lattes are one of the reasons I get out of bed each morning) as well as a beautiful line of loose leaf teas.

Over the coming weeks, I’ll be reviewing each of these beautiful teas on Crazy Tea Chick. But first, I’d like to introduce you to Firepot Nomadic Teas.

Remember the first time you ever had a really good cup of coffee? The first time you tasted artisan bread or a great bottle of estate grown wine? You instinctively knew that you were experiencing something more wholesome and real.

This is the experience of Firepot Nomadic Teas. We offer teas so extraordinary that they change the way you think about tea! We delight in sharing the discovery of unforgettable teas with our customers, our tribe. – Firepot Nomadic Teas (Click the link to read more of their story)

The first Firepot tea I chose to brew was Firepot Breakfast Tea.  I loved it so much it’s also the one I brewed second.

And third.

Black tea is a beautiful thing, and when the blend is as beautiful and delicious as the Breakfast Black Tea blend from Firepot, you actually find that “beautiful thing” is an understatement.  Simply put, it’s what a cup of tea should taste like.

Firepot Breakfast Tea will make you fall in love with Black Tea all over again.

 

Firepot Breakfast Tea

Firepot Breakfast Tea

 

From the Back of the Box:

Some say that it was just one cup of a uniquely bold and brisk tea served to Queen Victoria at Scotland’s Balmoral Castle that spurred her love affair with this style of tea. Our classic English Breakfast blend combines a rich, malty SFTGFOP (Super Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe) tea from Assam with golden Ceylon Pekoe from Sri Lanka’s famed Uva region. This noble tea can stand alone, but also pairs well with milk and sugar.

I’ve enjoyed this Breakfast blend hot as well as iced and honestly can’t decide which I prefer. They’re both exceptional.  Served hot or cold, the tea doesn’t need one single grain of sugar. Served hot, I love a little honey to sweeten the deal and, because I’m all about presentation, I often float a little slice of lemon or orange in my cup.

I’m fancy like that.

Steeping Directions:

Steep 2 teaspoons of Firepot Breakfast in 1 cup (8oz) of 205° F water for 4 minutes and strain. Makes 1-2 infusions. For 205° F water, boil then let cool 1 minute.

I’ve gotten 2 perfect infusions each time I’ve made Firepot Breakfast.

Order your own Firepot Breakfast Tea by visiting Firepot’s beautiful website. Tell them the Crazy Tea Chick sent you.

Firepot Breakfast Tea

Firepot Breakfast Tea is Delicious Hot or Iced

Also See:  My Firepot Masala Chai Review

Live Longer by Drinking Green Tea and Black Tea

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Live longer by drinking tea.

I do a great deal of reading about nutrition, heart health, mental health, and living longer (and better!).  While I do a great deal of research on these subjects for my self help blog and mental fitness blog, the main reason I do so much “healthy reading” is to keep my loved ones, and myself, as healthy as possible.

This morning, I read a great article on Prevention.com called “How Long Will I Live: Surprising Signs You’ll Live to Be 100?”  The gist of the article was for the reader to learn what things he/she was doing right and what things they might want to consider doing. If, that is, they want to live as long and as healthy as possible.

As I was reading along, I’d think things like, “Good, I do that…” or “Ooops, I’m dropping the ball there.”  When I came to the tip below, I thought, “I’m all over this one!”

Surprising Signs You’ll Live to be 100: You’re a Tea Lover

Both green and black teas contain a concentrated dose of catechins, substances that help blood vessels relax and protect your heart. In a study of more than 40,500 Japanese men and women, those who drank 5 or more cups of green tea every day had the lowest risk of dying from heart disease and stroke. Other studies involving black tea showed similar results.

You really need only 1 or 2 cups of tea daily to start doing your heart some good—just make sure it’s a fresh brew. Ready-to-drink teas (the kind you find in the supermarket beverage section) don’t offer the same health benefits. “Once water is added to tea leaves, their catechins degrade within a few days,” says Jeffrey Blumberg, PhD, a professor of nutrition science and policy at Tufts University. Also, some studies show that adding milk may eliminate tea’s protective effects on the cardiovascular system, so stick to just lemon or honey.

I’ve always loved tea and tend to drink, not only my own share, but a family of eight’s share as well.  I started drinking EVEN more tea when I reluctantly kicked my diet soft drink habit a short while back. Giving up drinks that were filled with things that were BAD for me and replacing them with drinks filled with things that were GREAT for me was one of the smartest things I ever did.

If you’re trying to give up soft drinks or diet soft drinks, stick with it.  It’s tough, I know that as well as anyone.  However, tea is a fantastic replacement. It’s delicious, healthy, refreshing, and has no downside.   I found that, for some reason, while trying to kick the soft drink habit, it helped if my black tea was extra strong. You may also find that adding lemon and/or honey will make it even more enjoyable as well.

Read the great article in its entirety: How Long Will I Live: Surprising Signs You’ll Live to Be 100

Lipton’s Bavarian Wild Berry Black Tea: Strong, Fruity, Rich

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I’ve been drinking a lot of “berry” teas lately…I think subconsciously I’m getting myself ready for the fruity tastes and smells of late spring and summer. 🙂 Most of the berry teas I’ve ever had have been herbal teas, without an actual “tea” basis, just brewed herbs and leaves with fruit flavoring. However, if you’re more into actual tea leaves, and a stronger taste, I’ve found the right berry tea for you: Lipton’s Bavarian Wild Berry Black Tea.

This is a flavored black tea made with pieces of real berries, packaged nicely in Lipton’s awesome little pyramid bags. (I love the pyramid bags – you can actually see the fruit pieces basically open up after steeping, and the smell and taste are much stronger.) Here’s the tea’s official ingredient list: Black tea, dried apple pieces, rose hip peel, chicory root, cinnamon bark, licorice root, modified corn starch, natural flavor, dried blackberry pieces, dried black currant pieces, ginger root, orange peel, dried blueberry pieces, dried raspberry pieces. That’s a lot of fruit pieces, people. The fruit never overwhelms the black tea though – the strong black tea is just as easy to taste as all of the wonderful fruit.

I haven’t tried the tea iced yet, but I’m guessing that like most teas, it tastes even better hot. I let my bag steep for 3-4 minutes in boiling water. Each bag has 80 mg of Flavonoids per serving (that’s a good thing), and 20 mg of caffeine per serving.

Final say: The tea smells fantastic, and tastes just as good – this one’s a must-try.

Prevent Alzheimer’s and Age-Related Memory Loss by Drinking Tea

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Bella Luna Blue Tea from Adagio Teas

 

While doing research for my mental fitness blog, I read the outstanding book 100 Simple Things You Can Do to Prevent Alzheimer’s and Age-Related Memory Loss.  If you’re the least bit invested in the health of your brain, I strongly urge you to buy and read this great book.

As I read along the 100 things we can do to keep our brains healthy, I made mental notes of things I need to start doing, things I normally do, and things I’m ALL OVER.  A few things I”m ALL OVER are:

  • Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables
  • Walking each day
  • Drinking coffee
  • Drinking tea

Truth be told, with the amount of coffee and tea I drink, I did a little happy dance when I saw that each of these personal obsessions made the coveted list.  Since this is a tea blog, I’ll focus on the brain health benefits of tea.

Researchers at UCLA round that if you drink at least three cups of green or black tea a day, your likelihood of having a stroke drops by 21 percent.  If you double this (6 cups or more daily), your stroke probability falls 42 percent.   Who wouldn’t drink all the tea they possibly could with findings like these?!

But there’s more.

Evidence suggests that tea stalls the cognitive loss that precedes Alzheimer’s dementia and that the more tea you drink, the sharper your aging memory is.  As you probably already know, tea’s superpowers lie in the leaves.  Tea leaves are packed with compounds that penetrate the blood-brain barrier and block neuronal damage.

From 100 Simple Things You Can Do to Prevent Alzheimer’s and Age-Related Memory Loss: Lab rats raised on green tea, for example, have less damage in the hippocampus, or memory processing region of the brain, and consequently have vastly superior memories and learning abilities in old age.

One particularly powerful green tea antioxidant, EGCG, can block the toxicity of beta-amyloid, which kills brain cells, and remove, or “chelate,” destructive iron from the brain. In ground-breaking experiments, Israeli scientists found that EGCG can even revive sick and dying neurons thought lost to degenerative brain disease. Bringing back withered brain cells from the brink of death to robust life is a big-time help for anybody’s brain. – Page 256

The book also recommends readers either drink soft drinks and diet soft drinks once a month or not at all.  Basically, we have a choice:

  1. Drink soft drinks and diet soft drinks which not only give us ZERO nutritional value but put things into our bodies that experts say are harmful
  2. Drink tea instead of soft drinks and diet soft drinks and receive the health benefits to our bodies and minds.

The choice is as clear as filtered water, and now I’m going to celebrate tea’s goodness with a fresh pot of green tea.

My 5 favorite hot teas this month…

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As you may know (scratch that, you better know), January is National Hot Tea Month. I’m not sure how that works in other countries – I would recommend that they celebrate hot tea this month as well, but no one’s asked my opinion. Yet.

Anyway, as a way of celebrating hot tea, I’ve listed my current favorite hot teas below…obviously I’m pretty much crazy about most hot teas, but these are the ones that I just…can’t…stop….DRINKING. 🙂

White Coconut Creme by Tea Gallerie (official website): I cannot, with my great talent at words and description, even begin to describe how good this tea is. It seriously is amazing, and decadent, and reminiscent of a moist coconut cake that my mom makes that is out of this world. Make 2012 the year that you do nice things for yourself, and start by buying some of this tea.

 

Mint Chocolate Delight by Boston Tea Company (official website): Another tea that is delicious beyond words. Reminds me of those tasty after-dinner chocolates you get at Olive Garden when you’re ready to pay. Seriously one of the best teas I’ve ever had the pleasure of drinking.

 

Chocolate Hazelnut Decaf Tea by Stash Premium Teas (official website): This tea is so, so decadent. It’s like you’re drinking a fancy chocolate Starbucks latte, but without the calories or caffeine. There have been times when I’ve wanted something sweet to eat, but I’ve just brewed some of this tea instead. Less calories, and all of the taste.

 

Wild Sweet Orange Herbal Infusion by Tazo Teas (official website): This is one of my 5 favorite teas of ALL TIME, not just for the month. It’s also the only tea that I’ve been able to convince Dill (my soda-guzzling spouse) to drink, and he loves it. As in, drinks about 2 cups of it each night. Success!

 

Mint Medley Herb Tea by Bigelow Tea (official website): I’m a hussy for anything with mint in it, and this tea is no exception to my rule. It’s delicious and tastes wonderful hot. We all know how good the herb mint is for us, and it goes without saying that tea does a body good, so do the math, people…drink this tea. 🙂

Long Overdue High Praise for Black Tea!

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Three cheers for black tea! I’d give more cheers but I’m too busy enjoying a tall glass of the beautiful drink right now. Pure, old school tea.  That’s right, it is your momma’s tea: Black tea.

It isn’t like it’s something I’ve never done before. To tell you the truth, I drink black tea every single day and have for as long as I can remember.  Let’s put it this way, when I started drinking black tea:

  • calories were things other people worried about
  • Justin Bieber wasn’t even born.. heck, his parents might not have even met
  • none of my 3 daughters (which, of course, includes the Crazy Tea Chick, Emily, herself) were born – in fact, I was younger than my youngest daughter

Wow. Do I feel old.

Changing the subject with speed a gazelle would envy.   The reason for this ode to black tea is because:

  1. It’s long overdue.
  2. I was served iced tea so weak at lunch today that I ran home crying to my own pitcher.

We all spend so much time concentrating on green tea, white tea, herbal teas, fruity teas, Chai Tea, and so on (for crying out loud, not that there’s anything wrong with these beautiful reasons to live). We talk about their antioxidants, how they’re conducive to a healthy lifestyle, how they’re versatile and delicious.  The whole while, black tea’s standing nearby thinking, “I’ve been doing that for years.” And years, and year, and years…

Did you know that you should never, ever, ever squeeze your tea bag into your tea? Doing so releases bitter tannins which,  in turn, negatively affect the tea’s flavor.

Yes, green tea is so good  for you that it should be required drinking. But let’s not forget that good old black tea is also great for us – and it’s as delicious as any drink you can name.  If you don’t believe me, grab a glass of impossibly weak tea – you know, the kind that causes your taste buds to debate whether it’s water or tea that just splashed by – then grab a glass of delectable black tea and leave no room for debate.

I guess we tend to take some great things for granted, like black tea. Doing so is downright criminal and I’m going to have a talk with God about making it sinful.

If you’ll forgive me, I have another pot to brew.  I may be at this all night.