Thanks to my good fortune in landing my first magazine job, I received an opportunity to review a truly unique and wonderful piece of tea equipment last week: California Tea House's Sleek Steep Teapot.
Sleek certainly is the word for it: It's a beautiful, elegant piece that matches any dining room or kitchen set. And how about ease of use, you wonder? It's incredibly simple: Add your loose leaf tea, add your water, let it steep for the recommended amount of time, and then the magic happens. Lift the two-cup teapot, place it over your mug or cup, and just lightly press a spot on the underside of the teapot: the tea strains itself right into your mug!
Clean-up has never been easier, either. This teapot is dishwasher safe, but it's remarkably easy to clean by hand, too, if you want to re-use it immediately, like I did!
The California Tea House Sleek Steep Teapot would be a wonderful gift for a tea aficionado, or even for a tea newbie who has never tried loose leaf tea before! Christmas is coming, so be sure to put this item on your wishlist!
Check out this video on how to use the Sleek Steep tea infuser:
Will I miss coffee? And why am I drinking tea these days?
As a new blooger for California Tea House, I have to admit I am a Tea Novice. But as the saying goes, "Great journeys all begin with the first step." and this is my first step. About the only thing I can really say at this point is that I've been drinking ordinary, grocery store variety, green tea daily for the last eight months. After many years of being a solid coffee drinker, sometimes even 3-4 cups a day, this has been an unexpected run. I've surprised myself that after three months of tea drinking I wasn't wandering the small appliance aisle of Target contemplating the purchase of the latest espresso or single-serve specialty super-dooper robot coffee machines. I just didn't want it. I wasn't interested.
My conversion to a tea drinker has been a slow bloom, but looking back I see it now as a definite permanent conversion. I'll still have the occasional cuppajoe I'm sure, but no longer will it be a daily requirment. I suppose I could attribute it to my changing middle-age female hormones (since everything that changes in a woman's life from laundry detergent brand to a preference of dogs over cats is always attributed to that) but in all honesty, I don't think that's the case. I stopped drinking coffee because I became bored with drinking coffee. Once I was bored with coffee, I became even more bored with coffee and then - I was really bored with coffee - ad infinitum. The day finally came after the millionth time of dumping wet grounds into the office trash can, a tiny dot inside went "poof" like a little disappearing genie. No more coffee.
I drank coffee just about every way and every flavor that I could think to drink it - at least through the mouth. Coffee enemas - not going there. I started with cream and sugar, via my mother who always left her half cup sitting on the breakfast table while she fried eggs for my dad. Then went to my own signature style of cream (creamer)only as a youthful sign of my individual taste. That became the mainstay for many years. Coffee with cream, half-n-half, Coffeemate, soy milk (yuck) milk, evaporated milk, powdered milk, whipped cream and ice cream.. And then came the flavored creamers, powdered and liquid: Tiramisu, hazelnut, Irish cream, chocolate, French vanilla, ad nauseum. When there wasn't any cream, it was black, black with sugar, coffee with chckory, camp coffee, cowboy coffee, instant coffee, Starbuck's concoctions: lattes, cappuchinos, espressos, frappechinos, mochachinos, Bailey's and coffee, Kalula and coffee, and the classic: cigarettes and coffee. Coffee was acidic on an empty stomach, comfort on a snowy morning. Looser coffee, lukewarm and bitter after sitting on the warmer tray all day. Coffee was strong and rich from a favorite cafe, and after driving all night, watery and scalding hot from Micky D. Too much made me chatter like a monkey, withdraws gave me throbbing thought-blocking headaches. I think I've drank hundreds of cups with Coffeemate in styrofoam cups at job seminars, waiting for an oil change or tire rotation, in the reception room with cookies after church. Sipping In dark hotel room in TV light waiting for my roomate to awaken, but the day came, unexpectedly when I couldn't drink any more.
Coffee used to be part of my morning ritual. For more than 20 years, I would wake each day, drag myself to the coffee maker and put it on to brew. Before rushing out the door, I'd mix it with a big splash of cream and a couple of spoonfuls of sugar and off I'd go to face the day. Sure, coffee gave me enough of a jolt that I could launch myself off to my job as a teacher, but the crash and jitters inevitably followed a few hours later. Soon after, I would find myself becoming impatient and cranky with my students and colleagues, and anyone else who had the misfortune to be around me. Not to mention, I'd feel lousy and tired for the rest of the day.
There had to be a better way.
From a young age, I had been an occassional tea drinker, mostly when I was sick or wanted to relax. When I think back to the times when I drank tea, I immediately feel the tension that I'm carrying melt away. Tea time for me conjures images of my mother bringing me a hot cup in bed when I stayed home from school with the flu, or drinking a cold glass on a steamy summer afternoon on my front porch. In my memory, tea is comfort, tea is relief, tea is love.
So a few years ago, I made the switch. I decided that the person I wanted to present to my family and the outside world was a calmer, more in control me - not the tense, on-edge version that had been showing up each day. The person I wanted to be was more patient, more understanding and less stressed than the person whom I had become.
I decided that the transformation into my better self would need to start from the moment I got out of bed. So, one day, instead of turning on the coffee pot, I brewed myself a cup of tea. I poured it into a delicate ceramic mug, sat down on the sofa in my sunroom, and watched the sun rise as I sipped my tea. Not gulped, by simply sipped. Rather than the bittersweet thickness of coffee going down my throat, the tea felt gentle and smooth. My cup of tea, and the serenity it gave, helped me calmly transition into my day. It didn't take long for me to notice a change in my temperment, and soon, others noticed, as well.
From then on, I decided to start each morning with tea, most often black. Sure it has caffeine - I still need it to get focused on my day ahead. But the kick that black tea gives me is much more mellow that that of coffee. I know, I know - science says that caffeine is caffeine no matter how you take it. But to me, it's the difference between the ocean waves caressing your body or slamming down on your head! Later in the day, I'll move on to a few cups of green tea and maybe an herbal blend at night.
For me, switching from coffee to tea has been one of the easiest and most effective ways of improving my sense of well-being. So for a few days, trade in your mug of coffee for a cup of tea and see if you feel the difference.
