A Nice Cuppa

It's just one of those mornings where I was going about doing stuff and something was missing and then it struck me: oooh, how about a nice cuppa! I gave up caffeine about a year ago, but this was not by choice. It seemed I had developed a very powerful addiction to caffeine. I wasn't in the habit of having tea or coffee first thing in the morning, but if I hadn't had any by mid-afternoon, I was in big trouble: splitting headaches, nausea - horrible! So I decided to give it up entirely and ended up in bed, when I wasn't being sick, for two days. That was rough, but I wasn't going back.

I love tea: its golden colour, its fine fragrance, the ritual around making and sipping it and how it makes me feel good. I had to investigate a caffeine-free alternative. I had been very lucky a couple of years ago to have had a tea-tasting given to me for Christmas by Dave and Mario. At their home that spring, with James and Laura, we learned about tea from Catherine Lashko of The Tea Leaf in the Beaches. She showed us several types of tea. The one that captivated me the most was rooibos. Rooibos is Afrikaans for "red bush", and is not from the tea family, but from a legume plant. It's high in antioxidants, low in tannins (you can leave it to brew endlessly and it never gets bitter) and is lovely hot, warm and even cold. Its mild, tobacco-ey, herbal taste is slightly sweet, so it became my drink of choice last summer when I would brew a lot the night before and leave a large jug of it in the fridge to chill for the next day.

When I want regular tea, I have found that Stash's decaffeinated Earl Grey really flavourful despite being caffeine-free. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I'm not a collector of anything and I don't like accumulating too much stuff. Well, okay, I have too many books, double-stacked, etc. and have a lot of mugs and quite a few tea cups and saucers (not in a set, I just buy them when I find ones I like, usually in antique stores). A cup or mug might be dark on the outside, but I only drink tea out of it if the inside is white or at least very pale. Seeing the lovely colour is reassuring that the tea is brewed well and from good leaves. The flaring of a wide cup is ideal as the aroma is carried up to the nose easily.

Regarding the photograph above:

1. My favourite mug. It says "I care this much" under the image. I used to hold it up in front of my face during meetings at work, but then had to explain the joke (as usual, as I'm not good with jokes), so it lost some impact! Hee hee.

2. My favourite cup and saucer. The porcelain is very thin and tea tastes wonderful out of it.

3. This mug was given to me by Dave and Mario, the saucepots! I don't drink tea out of it as it's black, but will have soup from it.

4. A Chinese teapot with a mesh basket just under the lid. This is where I brew my rooibos. It's a delightful pot and the little matching cups are very sweet. I bought it in Montreal's Chinatown last year.