About the zen of tea

[And since I'm totally American, this is a totally pragmatic interpretation. (And I use tea bags, you tea snobs. I suppose brewing loose-leaf will be my next step, but not there yet.)]

I didn't grow up drinking tea. My parents were coffee drinkers. Instant, at that.

I met my future mother-in-law when I was about 16, and it was then I became a convert, for she enjoyed a cup of good ole Lipton of an afternoon.

Over the years, I discovered the many flavors and kinds of teas, and if that was limited to a little Constant Comment in the '80s, my choices exploded in the '90s, and have positively gone nuclear in the 21st century.

And this would be thanks to the research that shows: tea is practically a wonder food. An antitoxident feast! Suddenly, everyone wants to drink tea!

I was just reading, I think in O Magazine, yet another article about how good tea is for you and just what kind and how much to drink. Although often the advice is that green tea is best, this particular article stated that any tea is good, and that 4 cups or so is a good amount for health.

I'm good with that. I usually drink four cups (sometimes less, seldom more) in the morning and sometimes a cup or two in the evening, especially in cold weather. So my tea health is right up there.

I have gravitated to green teas, way before everyone else did, just because I liked the taste. with a Bigelow Green Tea with Peach being a current fav. And if you've never tried a white tea, Stash has some good ones, White Christmas (with peppermint) currently first on my list. There's also a fusion honey white/green that I can feel detoxifying my body with ever sip. Not really. I just love the lightness of the taste. At least, it's warming me up.

One time at Trader Joe's I got all healthy standing there looking at the teas so I bought some organic super-charged extra-healthy green tea.

Whoa. I might was well as gone out and grabbed some grass from the yard and brewed it. Couldn't drink it.

It's that time of year when of an evening, I brew up some warmness--oh, Celestial Seasonings has some wonderful seasonal teas, an herbal called Sugar Cookie that is Christmas in a cup--and count the calendar days 'til spring. But the tea mug feels good in my hands, and the winter not quite so harsh as I hold it.

How about you? What's warmin' you up?