What’s in Your (Tea) Cup?
What’s better than the Cheshire cat laughing to you over the rim of your tea cup?
What’s more divine than a hot cup of tea on a cool fall day? Ok maybe I’m getting a little ahead of the seasons here and wishing the last little bit of summer away but I find myself dreaming of a beautiful, crisp fall instead of a sweltering humid summer. I’m an avid tea drinker (so is Maddie!) and we go for the stuff year round for both its medicinal as well as culinary properties. (And yes, I am indeed sipping on a cooled cup of Traditional Medicinals Lavender Chamomile as I write…)
My special tea cup (a gift from Maddie’s mom, a fellow avid tea lover) resting on my kitchen windowsill. I used some old tea tins she gave us to hold my little aloe plant and my mother’s day cactus that the kitties got me!
I also love the visuality of tea time–from teacups and pots, to cozies, towels, and even the leaves themselves. Maybe this is all just another iteration of my Alice in Wonderland obsession, or maybe it’s another fancy all of its own. Whatever the case drinking tea has long been something I’ve loved. My grandparents on my dad’s side have tea every afternoon, and I have fond memories of the tea party style tea times they’d make for me when I was a wee one.
Recently, Maddie and I have been expanding our repertoire of medicinal teas and slowly acquiring a stash of them in our little “tea shelves” in the kitchen. Drinking medicinal teas is one of the best ways to reap the benefits of herbs and other plants as you ingest them in a very pleasant and palatable form. Also, the doses in herbal teas are not as concentrated as the ones you find in capsules or other forms of herbal supplements. So this can be easier to digest and easier on the stomach.
The two tea brands we buy most frequently are Yogi tea and Traditional Medicinals, both of which are organic and from sustainable sources. (We also buy peppermint and green teas, both in bulk as we drink them the most often, usually with another tea added in) As you can see from the photo, we drink a lot of teas that are geared toward women to support healthy cycles and relieve potential issues surrounding women’s cycles like painful cramps, headaches, and mood swings. We like the Traditional Medicinal Raspberry Leaf tea the best for these!
Maddie’s favorite morning tea is green tea and peppermint together. (Like I said, we like to double tea bag it a lot) And I’m totally into my most recent purchase…
This tea has such a delicate flavor, it even tastes soothing!
There are even a ton of teas that we love for digestion and upset stomach such as ginger tea or what I call my “Tummy Tonic.” Ginger does wonders for digestion, so if you have a rumbly in your tumbly, this tea will do the trick!
Tummy Tonic Tea
1 teabag/Tablespoon of tea leaves in your tea strainer peppermint tea
3-4 slices fresh ginger
1 lemon wedge
Place the tea and ginger into your favorite tea cup and immerse in boiling water straight off the stove. Squeeze the juice from the lemon wedge then toss the juiced wedge right on into the tea. Sweeten with coconut nectar or agave if needed, but it’s so divine as is you’ll be drinking it even when your tummy isn’t upset!
What’s your favorite tea, medicinal or not?
Bisous!
Rachel
Tea time is wonderful – taking a little time out of the day. It’s a lovely ritual.
This might sound weird at first, but a combo I got hooked on was peppermint and some sort of berry zinger tea (Celestial Seasons – but I’m sure you could find an organic version of something similar). In college, tea was a nightly relaxing ritual. When I was student teaching I had tea all day – it would end up being really weak because I’d just keep adding water but it was a way I could avoid losing my voice while projecting all day.
It sounds like a wonderful combination! I recently got a lovely cup of iced berry tea mixed with green tea which was marvelous! I’ll be sure to try your combo!