First, please excuse the pun, but I couldn’t help myself!! Tea is one of the most highly adaptable drinks in the world, and tea puns are too deliciously tempting to resist!
So I woke up in a total funk this morning. One of those the-last-thing-I-feel-like-doing-is-getting-up-and-doing-anything kind of moods. Generally I am a pretty positive person who cannot wait to get to work, but being that this is my first day back after a two-week holiday, I could not be positive about anything.
I got up, collected my thoughts, and after checking my emails I asked myself the same question I do every day: “What tea am I going to drink?” Usually, I pick either a tea I have never tried before (good mornings) or a an old standard (mornings where I need more help than usual). This morning however, my funk left me stumped and confused. With each new tea considered, my grumpiness increased. Nothing seemed to peak my interest and with each tea rejected, my foul mood deepened.
So, I did what I always do in this situation. I pulled out an Earl Grey from my vast selection, brewed it with no particular attention or care and dumped the contents into a randomly selected cup. After the first sip, the effects were instantaneous: the grass was slightly greener and the world seemed a little brighter.
And that, fellow tea lovers, is what got me thinking: Is there any other beverage as highly adaptable as tea? Is there any other beverage that can be not only be tailored to suit any taste, but can also lift any mood without the jarring effects of other caffeinated drinks? I feel that if I had taken a sip of coffee, my mood would not have been lifted, but exacerbated by the striking effects of (coffee based) caffeine. My cup of tea had the double effect of refreshing me and calming my mind. I can think of no other drink that could have done the trick.
Of course, by this point, you are thinking:” duh, being the tea drinking gal that you are, of course a cup of tea did you some good this morning.” A valid and correct statement that is undeniable. Maybe coffee has a refreshing effect on you, and makes your day easier to face. However, I doubt that any regular coffee drinker, soda drinker, or maté drinker has the same variety of flavors open to them as tea drinkers do. With 5000 varieties of tea on the planet, countless methods of preparations and hundreds of additives available, tea drinkers have a plethora of flavors to discover and appreciate. So there! ha ha!!
Lipton tea has a new slogan for their black tea bags, and although it breaks my heart to give them any more publicity, I have to admit that it is catchy, if not “kitchy” : Drink Positive. Apt, to the point and more annoyingly, correct. Tea is an uplifting drink, a refreshing drink, a positive drink. I dare any drink to do the same.
So that’s it! I have dared you dear readers! What drinks bring you out of a funk, and more importantly, what convenient drinks or foods are more highly adaptable than tea? Subjects ripe for discussion:)
In the meantime, here’s hoping that this post has found you well in the New Year and that your moods are better than mine:)
Drink on Tea Lovers, drink on!
Tea Gal in China 