Good Morning, Tea!

Tea!! Such a necessary beverage during morning times and….other times! I mean you may ask any decent (or indecent) tea lover and they would sing praises about the several magical traits of tea. As soon as you wake, after you take care of all your other (ahem) needs, you drag yourself to the kitchen, and put a pan/kettle of water to boil, add some tea leaves, a splash of milk and watch with bleary eyes as the heavenly potion brews. From the first sip, the thick fog of sleepiness lifts from around your brain and by the last sip, you find nirvana.

Now my coffee loving friends would pick up their pitch forks and torches and come after me, but I ask you fine gentle ladies/men, does coffee come in over 3,000 varieties? Does coffee help you wake up on cold mornings AND help you sleep on insomniatic nights? I know! I know! Coffee is so much more fashionable! But why is tea not preferred until it comes in the form of the abomination called “Chai Latte”? It is a herb grown in the hills of Asia and Africa that helps you reduce risks of heart disease and cancer, it even helps in losing weight!

As a new mother to an extremely cantankerous little munchkin, I have first hand experience with the benefits of tea. When my son was born, it turns out, I was ready for everything except him. So, when he kept me up at night, I’d make myself a cup of tea and soothe my racing mind that would be thinking of the most ludicrous reasons for his burps (I once thought he was choking!) and blaming my husband for everything going wrong in my life (one of the reasons was the fact that my husband is a coffee drinker, so obviously he was a deviant!). And so, a cuppa tea became my companion of long not-so-silent nights of feeding-burping-pooping-changing my baby and of course, it made me some really amazing friends (no.. not the imaginary ones). Its safe to say that my kinda tea was pretty famous amongst the ladies of Johannesburg. (And no it wasn’t because we lived in a gated community guarded by armed men and the said ladies could’t escape the onslaught of my kinda tea.)

In short, tea is the most essential part of our day (and nights in some cases). It is your companion on cold and dreary mornings, it lifts your spirits, it helps you find calm and peace and it even makes you friends! It does give you acidity when taken in copious amounts but then name one comfort food or beverage that doesn’t. Ok! Now I am craving me some tea. Toodles!