In Defence Of: Tea
In anxious and uncertain times, a chillaxing cuppa may be just what you need afterall.
I’ve gotten back on to tea lately. And I’ve always been a big coffee man, 2 cups a day being standard, so this is a pretty big deal.
Tea is chilled, tea is mellow. I like tea. I reckon chai is the go. But all the flavours have a place when you know how to work them.
Peppermint, Lemon, Earl Grey, English Breakfast.
For a long time I pondered the difference between EngBrek and Earl Grey. The nearest I can deduce is the former, being marketed as for breakfast, is more of a get-up and go tea. Earl Grey is for the idle sloth in the arvo. I really can’t tell the difference.
Simple black tea is good. I have a brand called Nerada at home. They are from outta Queensland. Cheap and cheerful. I just stick it in a cup with hot water and that’s that. You can also make DIY home kombucha with tea. Look it up, it’s a blast, And can save you a bunch of money if you can get the home-manufacturing process right.
To make Kombucha you need to find a thing called a scoby. It’s literally a bacteria, a culture if you will. It looks like a gelatinous frisbee that looks gross and alien but is harmless if managed properly. Over time, during the process that scoby will breed a new scoby on the top surface layer of the kombucha tea. Eventually you might end up with more scoby than you can deal with. I’ve experimented with cutting them up to make into fertiliser. I’ve also heard of people frying them up and eating them. Consult the internet, your trusted source in dietary health and safety. Done right though, it’s good gut bacteria. And exceeds the performance of store-bought kombucha.
Other teas…, they’re out there. You see big brands like Twinings go all out with eg: rasberry, ginger, variations thereof etc etc.
I’m pretty ignorant of the validity of tea brands on a moral values basis. No doubt there’s the good and evil brands out there and I take an interest in knowing them, as with any industry. But cbf looking into that now.
Coffee is still #1 on my shelf of hot-water based brews. It does however seem out of place in a crashing economy. Coffee is more for a full throttle economy. When you need to get cracking at high speed. Seems an odd fit when you don’t need that. I’ll talk more about coffee another time. But I’m not betraying coffee!
I am here merely to speak in defence of tea. It’s alright, it’s not that bad. Give it a try if you haven’t. It might just have a place in your life,