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Tea for Me - Part One
Posted by CTH Blog 08/15/2011 16:00:00 Tea Journey | Tea Trips 0 Comments
Will I miss coffee? And why am I drinking tea these days?
As a new blogger 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 requirement. 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 roommate to awaken, but the day came, unexpectedly when I couldn't drink any more.
Part Two to follow...
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