“There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea.”
~ Bernard-Paul Heroux

For millennia, tea has been a global ritual. From the sanctity of a Japanese tea ceremony to the legendary refinement of English high tea, it’s a universal cup of comfort, bonding and health.

If it weren’t for endless cups of tea, I would accomplish very little: heartbreaks would never have been mended, big decisions left undecided, and worst of all, I’d still be nursing my $4 latte habit.

Coming over from the dark (roast) side wasn’t something I consciously tried to do – it just happened. About six week’s in to my sugar-free life, I suddenly couldn’t drink coffee. I never took sugar in my coffee so I couldn’t understand the connection. But it was at this time that a friend served me some Cream Earl Grey. I’d never had anything like it. In a most undignified manner, I rammed my nose into the bag and inhaled the essence of far away Ceylon: fresh orange bergamot embellished with vanilla beans. Heaven in a cup.

I was thrilled. This was not just the “sweepings-up in a bag” type of tea, but the pure stuff. I had found the Mercedes-Benz S-Class of tea (for a significantly better price tag). While it has made me a Tea Snob, I’ve also never felt better! This led me to research some of tea’s myriad health benefits. I now worship the leaf.

What will it do for your health?

Apparently everything. Tea has antioxidant polyphenols. While that sounds like a disease in and of itself, APs supposedly prevent the formation of all kinds of cancers. (Herbal and Rooibos tea are not said to contain the same polyphenols as black and green tea. But they won’t kill you either. According to one news story, tea can save your life. But I wouldn’t rely on it, necessarily. )

How do you make the perfect cup of tea?

Very simple. The longer it steeps, the heavier it tastes. The tea elves at Granville Tea say that, “It is virtually impossible to make a light body tea into a full body tea by brewing longer. It only gets sharper not fuller.” If you’re making Green tea, use water well off the boil.  Boiling water on Green tea has the nasty affect of making the tea bitter. And why would you do that when you know it’s so good for you?

What strange things can you do with tea that don’t involve drinking it?

So glad you asked!

If you know of any other great things about tea, please indulge me!